Product Details

• Actors: Lon Chaney Jr., Helen Parrish, Noah Beery Jr., Don Terry, Bob Baker
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: United Home
• DVD Release Date: July 10, 2006
• Run Time: 279 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000G0O56O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #186,063 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Overland Mail" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

OVERLAND MAIL - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Mail Must Go Through, January 18, 2006

By 

S. D. Lothrop "Great Scott" (Hendersonville, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Overland Mail (DVD)

Lon Chaney, Jr. appeared as a minor character in several serials, but he turns up here as the lead in a Western serial. He's as good an actor as most serial leading men, but somehow he doesn't quite fit the part. Although he rides well and has a nice horse (that looks like Trigger), romantic he's not. He's best known, of course, for his classic "The Wolf Man"--in fact, he's the only person ever to have played all four classic movie monsters--the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, and the Mummy. I give him an A for effort here, but the movie would have been better served with a more traditional leading man.

Ford Beebe was Universal's best serial director, and he did a lot of them. He was a real workhorse, directing in every film genre. He even supervised live-action sequences in Disney's "Fantasia" (1940). Most of the good Universal serials were directed by Beebe.

One interesting thing he did in this one is pairing the Beerys, Sr. and Jr., as characters on opposite sides of the law. Noah Jr. plays the hero's sidekick, Sierra Pete, while his dad plays the dirty rotten scoundrel who's trying to wreck the Overland Mail service. Noah Beery, Sr. made a wonderful heavy, my favorite in serials (see "Zorro Rides Again," "Red Ryder"). They first appear in the same scene in Chapter 4, and not too frequently thereafter, though at one point the father (real-life, that is) tries to get the son hanged by the mob. (That must have caused some guffaws on the set.) Noah Jr. was also a serial staple ("Ace Drummond," "Three Musketeers," "Riders of Death Valley").

Helen Parrish plays the love interest, and though I had never heard of her she does an excellent job. Apparently she had a strong career in the early 1940's, but retired in 1942 when she married. She died of cancer in 1959 at the age of 34.

BIG CHEAT: In Chapter Five Jim Lane and Sierra Pete are trapped on a flimsy suspension bridge which very clearly spans a rock-filled canyon. The phony Indians hurl gigantic rocks down at them, breaking the bridge and hurling the heroes down--into a rushing river! Who turned the rocks into water, I'll never know.

This is a rather typical Western, filled with lots of action. For all that action,however, it's not a very exciting serial. It's too long, the cliffhangers are not very inspired, and frankly the whole movie is rather forgettable.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wasn't what I was looking for, April 30, 2006

By 

Robert M. Matthews (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Overland Mail (DVD)

OK, I only watched 4 of the 15 chapters, so this review is probably not the final answer. You will like this serial if you enjoy watching indians attack white people in wagons. Endless scenes of indians chasing wagons, horses running and guns shooting. Wagons crashing and burning, over and over and over. Sorry, but I had to turn it off. Here we have the standard story line of white men posing as indians, making the indians look bad. I really wanted to like this serial, but the truth prevailed--not all serials are good (or worth watching).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The King of Serials...VCI Entertainment ~ The Overland Mail (1942)", November 26, 2005

By 

J. Lovins "Mr. Jim" (Missouri-USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Overland Mail (DVD)

VCI Entertainment and Universal Pictures present..."The Overland Mail" (1942) (Dolby digitally remastered), a 13 Chapter cliffhanger from an action packed Universal serial era featuring an outstanding cast with Ford Beebe and John Rawlins at the helm....our story begins as Jim Lane (Lon Chaney Jr) and his sidekick pal Sierra Pete (Noah Beery Jr) are sent to La Paz to investigate repeated attacks on "The Overland Mail" owned and operated by Tom Gilbert (Tom Chatterton), their friend "Buckskin" Bill Burke (Don Terry) (who we all know as Don Winslow of the Navy) aids them by hiring out as an Overland stage driver, Gilbert and his daughter Barbara Gilbert (Helen Parrish), start for silver Creek in a stage driven by "Buckskin":...Lane and Sierra learn a time bomb has been planted on the stage and riding furiously to overtake it....can two investigators for a stagecoach company who are assigned to find out why the company's stages keep being ambushed and discover the culprits all within these 15 chapters...could they be white men disguised as Indians...will Lane, Sierra and Buckskin figure out in the last episode, who is hero and villain in this great cast Universal Cliffhanger's... who is behind all of this plotting besides the Universal Writers Guild, how about Frank Chadwick (Noah Beery Sr) and Puma (Charles Stevens) who always seem to be up to no good in every Hollywood serial during the '30s and '40s...well don't leave the theater until the final chapter is over and done with "The Mail Goes Through"....just remember double thrills, chills, mystery and suspense...hitting the bull's eye with excitement...don't miss a single spine thrilling episode..return next week to this local theater for another episode of action and adventure that will keep you thrilled until the next chapter.

Under director's Ford Beebe and John Rawlins, associate producer Henry MacRae, screenplay by Paul Huston, original story Johnston McCulley, dialogue director Jacques Jaccard, musical score by Charles Previn, Hans J. Salter, Frank Skinner, Franz Waxman and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (from "Fingal's Cave Overture, Op. 26)...the cast includes Lon Chaney Jr (Jim Lane), Noah Beery Sr (Frank Chadwick), Noah Beery Jr (Sierra Pete), Don Terry (Buckskin Billy Burke), Helen Parrish (Barbara Gilbert), Tom Chatterton (Tom Gilbert), Charles Stevens (Puma), Robert Barron (Charles Darson), Harry Cording (Gregg/henchman), Chief Thundercloud (Chief Many Moons), Iron Eyes Cody (Indian), William Desmond (Banker Williams), Henry Hall (Mr. Crabtree), Jack Rockwell (Slade/hired gun), Jack Clifford (Sheriff Tyler), Chief Many Treaties (Chief Black Cloud), Al Taylor (Man in Cafe ), Forrest Taylor (Taylor), Ray Teal (Phony Indian)........special footnote, actor Lon Chaney Jr played a simple minded Lennie in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" (1939), his performance was memorable and touching, but his role for immortality shined when he played Lawrence Talbot, best known as the tortured soul in "The Wolf Man" (1941), the public couldn't get enough of this new excitement on the big screen, a series of horror films followed Chaney as he became a household name in the Universal Monster department, remember those were the Karloff, Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. years.........meanwhile back to our Universal Serial which is always good till the last drop and this serial is no exception...there is a great deal of entertainment here for the cliffhanger fans out there...all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and features.

BIOS:

1. Lon Chaney Jr (aka Creighton Tull Chaney)

Birth Date: 2/10/1906 - Oklahoma City, Okla.

Died: 7/12/1973 - San Clemente, California, USA. (beriberi, liver failure)

CHAPTER TITLES:

1. A Race with Disaster

2. Flaming Havoc

3. The Menacing Herd

4. The Bridge of Disaster

5. Hurled to the Depths

6. Death at the Stake

7. The Path of Peril

8. Imprisoned in Flames

9. Hidden Danger

10.Blazing Wagons

11.The Trail of Terror

12.In the Claws of the Cougar

13.The Frenzied Mob

14.The Toll of Treachery

15.The Mail Goes Through

If you're into vintage serials as I am, why not pick up a copy of the following titles from VCI Home Video:

VCI CLIFFHANGER TRAILERS:

1. Adventures of Red Ryder (Don "Red" Barry)

2. Adventures of the Flying Cadets (Bobby Jordan)

3. Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe)

4. Captain Midnight (Dave O'Brien)

5. Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere (Judd Holdren & I. Stanford Jolley)

6. Dick Tracy's G-Men (Ralph Byrd)

7. Don Winslow of the Navy (Don Terry)

8. Don Winslow of the Coast Guard (Don Terry)

9. Drums of Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon)

10.Fighting Kit Carson (Johnny Mack Brown)

11.Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Buster Crabbe)

12.The Green Archer (Victory Jory)

13.Jungle Girl (Frances Gifford)

14.Jungle Jim (Grant Withers & Raymond Hatton)

15.Lost City of the Jungle (Russell Hayden & Keye Luke)

16.Mandrake the Magician (Warren Hull & Dick Curtis)

17.Miracle Rider (Tom Mix & Tony Jr)

18.The Painted Stallion (Ray "Crash" Corrigan)

19.The Phantom (Tom Tyler)

20.The Return of Chandu (Bela Lugosi)

21.Riders of Death Valley (Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo & Buck Jones)

22.Secret Agent X-9 (1937) (Scott Kolk & Henry Brandon)

23.Secret Agent X-9 (1945) (Lloyd Bridges & Keye Luke)

24.Sky Raiders (Donald Woods & Billy Halop)

25.Undersea Kingdom (Ray "Crash" Corrigan)

26.Winners of the West (Dick Foran, Harry Woods, Roy Barcroft & Charles Stevens)

27.Zane Greys "King of the Royal Mounted" (Allan "Rocky" Lane)

28.Zorro's Cliffhanger Collection (Reed Hadley, John Carroll & Linda Stirling)

Coming soon January 2006 from VCI Home Video on DVD..."FLAMING FRONTIERS" (1938), Universal Serial with 15 chapters, featuring Johnny Mack Brown, Eleanor Hansen, John Archer, James Blaine and Ralph Bowman..."OREGON TRAIL" (1939), another Universal Serial with 15 exciting chapters featuring Johnny Mack Brown, Fuzzy Knight, Roy Barcoft and Charles King..."THE TALL TEXAN" (1953), full length feature starring Lloyd Bridges, Lee J Cobb, Luther Adler and Marie Windsor...watch for more details on VCI Entertainment and Amazon your two favorite sites for serials and B-Westerns.

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing "The Overland Mail" (1942), the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '30s, '40s & '50s...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure from the "King of Serials" VCI...just the way we like 'em

Total Time: 272 mins ~ VCI Entertainment 1783 ~ (11/01/2000)