Customer Reviews

Sign of the Wolf (Serial)

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This early Independent 10 chapter serial leaves a lot to be desired. It is, in fact, not very good as far as acting and story go. But it is unintentionally hilarious, especially when Edmund Cobb shoots a warning message through the hero's window, breaking the glass--every chapter! Kinda makes you wonder why they didn't just leave the window open after a chapter or two?

The story concerns mystic chains that can turn sand into jewels. A crazy old guy has the chains and a crook wants them. The chains actually belong to Cobb, who keeps sending those messages wanting the chains back. Again, you might wonder why he doesn't just go knock on the old man's door and say "give me back those chains". There again, it's a serial so you have to be willing to suspend some disbelief.

The best thing about all this is the Serial Squadron/Hermitage Hill DVD of this film looks fantastic. There's an option to watch it with a music track--as all early serials the only music is in the opening credits--which helps make it seem more entertaining that it really is. The print is also as good a print of this as you'll ever see. The Serial Squadron has done a wonderful job restoring SIGN OF THE WOLF and made it much better than it previously has been. So if you're a diehard serial buff and want to see every one ever made, this release of this one is the one you'll definitely want to see.

VCI Entertainment and Metropolitan Pictures present..."Sign of the Wolf" (1931) (Dolby digitally remastered), with 10 Chapters of vintage serial episodes jam packed with thrilling action sequences and stunts that will keep you on the edge of your seat...story line has the local outlaws after two small chains that turn sand into jewels thus the "Secret of the Jewels" , as darts with messages fly through the air in every episode...will John Farnum (Harry Todd) twart the villains with the aid of Tom Lanning (Rex Lease), Bud (Joe Bonomo) and the wonder dog King (Muro-the dog)...what part does Ruth Farnum (Virginia Brown Faire), Pearl (Josephine Hull), Clyde Winslow (Al Ferguson) and Prince Kuva (Edmund Cobb) play in this 10 chapter thriller with each episode better than the first.....can this Metropolitan Serial keep the action, daring stunt-work and an exciting cliffhanger going the entire serial.....but don't leave the theater until the final chapter is over and done with "The Lost Secret"....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 Harry Webb and Forrest Sheldon, producer F.E. Douglas, original story by Carl Krusada...the cast includes Rex Lease (Tom Lanning), Virginia Brown Faire (Ruth Farnum), Muro, the dog (King-wonder dog), Harry Todd (John Farnum), Jack Mower (Butch Kohler), Joe Bonomo (Bud), Josephine Hull (Pearl-gang moll), Robert Walker (Joe-henchman), Al Ferguson (Clyde Winslow), Edmund Cobb (Prince Kuva), Bob Burns (Sheriff), Dick Dickinson (henchman), William McCall (Farnum Friend), Art Mix (Barfly), Artie Ortego (another Barfly), Edward Peil Sr (Winslow Confederate) and Jack Perrin (Jack-henchman)....special footnote, veteran actors who at one time had star power on the stage, radio and silent films were Virginia Brown Faire, Bob Burns, Al Ferguson, Rex Lease, Art Mix, Jack Perrin and Harry Todd, each still giving worthwhile performances in this classic cliffhanger collection.......meanwhile back to our Metropolitan Pictures 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.

CHAPTER TITLES:
1. Drums of Doom
2. The dog of Destiny
3. The Wolf's Fangs
4. The Fatal Shot
5. The Well of Terror
6. The Wolf Dogs
7. Trapped
8. The Secret Mark
9. Tongues of Flame
10.The Lost Secret

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)

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing "Sign of the Wolf" (1931), 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 still 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: 190 mins on 2 VHS ~ VCI Entertainment 1763 ~ (11/01/2000)

This DVD edition from The Serial Squadron / Hermitage Hill is quite good, though some of the processing left questions as to how close it was to the original. The film holds interest better than the description of the plot would suggest, probably due to the subtle humor with which it was made. It was compelling enough that I had to get a copy of VCI's edition on VHS for comparison purposes.

"The Sign of the Wolf" is an early sound film made in a style not assimilated as easily as the later ones by most serial movie fans, so this DVD edition added some features thought to be helpful. The transfer was made with great care, providing a good image and generally clear sound. The additions consist of added music to fill the many sections where none was provided in the original and to enhance the action scenes, and the film has been tinted which is supposed to assist with the atmosphere. Fortunately, for those who like their films as they were, these "improvements" can be bypassed.

The "Cliffhanger Music" is of a type that might have been used in a mid-1930's sound serial, but it is uncharacteristic for anything from 1931. Further, if the opening section is supposed to be in India, "Scheherazade" is an odd accompaniment. But if not desired the added music can be deselected through the main menu.

The tinting isn't likely to have been done on a serial of this era from Metropolitan, and the colors are a bit gaudy. I find them distracting, but they can be avoided by using the component-TV "Y" output of the DVD player or with the "color" level control on the TV, if it has enough range.

The picture is mostly quite decent, sharper and with better gray scale than VCI's edition, made from the same print. There is the same "sprocket damage" running the entire length of chapters 4 and 5 which couldn't reasonably be repaired, though on the DVD it was elminated in the repetitive chapter introductions. There are no problems with faces going blank or everything getting swallowed in darkness. Occasonally there is some flicker, mostly in what looks like stock footage that was probably old in 1931. The image size was reduced slightly so the many messages shot by blow-gun can be read, restricting them to the limits of the screen. This was a better solution than the one used by VCI, where they adjusted the framing down with the bottom of the previous frame showing at the very top of the screen, which did nothing for the excessive width of the picture.

The DVD has sound "enhancements" to reduce noise, but with the "cliffhanger music" turned off, some sections where there is "silence" are without any sound at all; the noise of the sound track has been shut off. Background noise isn't much of a problem if it isn't too loud and at a constant level, but to have it turn on and off is a little annoying. There is also an odd gurgling quality to the low-level sounds, doubtless part of the "noise reduction" processing. In the first chapter this causes the hoofbeats of galloping horses to sound like something has gone wrong with the plumbing. The voices come through clearly and the overall noise level is low, but I much prefer the less-processed sound on VCI's VHS edition.

I also prefer the titles from VCI since they are the 1931 originals, not from one of the re-releases, though they are unstable, show a lot of damage and are often badly focused. The titles on the DVD have been redone, substituting Eric Stedman's copyright for the original but retaining the layout and content, and even simulating the background. It's far too clean an image, and while an understandable solution, it would have been better to restore the original credits. I'd also rather hear the original intro music as the first chapter has it on the DVD, even if the more lively substitute on the other chapters, "My Sahara Rose" by Walter Donaldson is of a style that might have been used in 1931. The original music runs longer than the titles, and is not present in its entirety on the VHS edition.

The film itself is fairly typical for a low-budget production of its time; those who can stomach the early Mascot western serials such as "The Phantom of the West" should have little trouble with this one. The plot is lame, lacking even the usual serial-movie complications; about all that happens is the good guys and bad guys try to get possession of the magic chains that turn ordinary sand into priceless jewels, and there are a lot of fist fights. The dialogue is what one might expect from an early talkie and not always delivered well, the primary offender being Josephine Hill as Pearl, who fortunately only shows up in a couple chapters. Al Ferguson as the chief bad guy Winslow also displays discomfort with his lines. And with this cast there's a lot of acting of the type often blamed on silent movies, taken to extremes by Harry Todd, gloating over his jewels. Maybe this was supposed to be humorous. Rex Lease and Virginia Brown Faire do a lot better, as does gang leader Jack Mower. The best acting comes from King the Wonder Dog (other sources list "Muro, the Dog") who delivers his lines in a natural manner and doesn't chew the scenery, though a telephone and the hero's hat are not so lucky. While the many fight sequences look ridiculous, Joe Bonomo manages to throw a couple bad guys through the air. Edmund Cobb keeps sending the same message by blow-gun through the window, breaking the glass every time, and there are more blow-gun messages and broken glass in the chapter intros. Maybe that resonated with audiences when Herbert Hoover was President, or the sound engineers liked the breaking-glass noise they were able to produce.

The DVD is of the "double-sided" type, so they didn't have to use two discs and didn't need to create label graphics. Running the disc has some minor annoyances; there is no "play all" mode indicated, though as noted on The Serial Squadron's website it automatically starts that way from the first chapter on the side, with "cliffhanger music" as selected, after the menu has been on screen for about 90 seconds. But it won't continue to the next chapter if you start at a different spot, instead bringing up the menu, and then if you don't want the added music it has to be deselected again. Of course you wouldn't want to watch the whole serial straight through; more than one chapter without a break could have undesirable side effects such as brain damage, and it helps to forget some of the plot between chapters. It helps to forget a lot of the plot. But there is some intentional humor, such as the dance sequences in the bar, and the excesses of some of the cliffhangers. In small doses the film justifies the care lavished on it in The Serial Squadron's edition, and with the exceptions noted it is an improvement over the fairly good one that VCI released in 1995.

I haven't seen this particular video release, but I have seen the serial itself. Every time I think of it I start to shake my head and chuckle - it must be the stupidest thing I've ever seen!
The hats are enormous, and most guys have guns but only use them to shoot people off horses at long range (without hurting them!). I suppose they think their punches are more lethal, but not on this evidence - when they're not frantically riding back and forth between locations they are brawling, only to get on their horses and ride some more.

The plot itself is astonishingly stupid - the heroine's father steals a couple of little chains which, when thrown into a pot with some sand will change the sand into gems. That's not the stupid part. It becomes stupid when he decides to SELL the chains, and his daughter and her boyfriend approve his decision! As if that isn't stupid enough the would-be buyer tells his flunkies to steal the chains whilst they are being delivered to him! Why would you break the law to get them when they're about to become yours legally?

Then there is the mysterious stranger, sent by the robbed temple owners to recover the chains. He sends messages to the hero by wrapping a note around a blowdart and puffing it through the loungeroom window (breaking the glass every time), whilst the hero, heroine and sidekick are in the room. They don't think to go to the window until (I think) episode ten! They could at least learn to leave the window open! And why isn't the glass still broken from last time?

If this serial wasn't so stupid it would be deadly boring, but instead it is fun, at least in small doses.