Hot 888 Mama
. . . everyone seems to be wearing masks of everyone else's faces. It's like these 1930s people traveled in time to view FACE\OFF and POINT BREAK, and then returned with a Biotech 3D printer. One guy impersonates half a dozen short, medium, and tall dudes varying by at least a foot in height. (Evidently, folks were easily-fooled simpletons back then, which is why their Depression was so Great.) These 1930s dandies also were very Wishy-Washy, never sticking to their original choice of transportation. A guy with train tickets suddenly climbs up a rope ladder into a plane; three people already IN a plane decide to jump out and walk; another joker is out for a joy-ride in his car, before he just sends it careening along--driver-less, at full speed--in order to hop a train (leaving the empty Packard to fend for itself). A little later the same clown repeats this shenanigan with a motorcycle. With John Wayne in the cast here, I was waiting for him to hop out of a plane on horseback, but no such luck. Based on this 79-minute "feature condensation," I see no reason to plod along for three more hours on the HURRICANE EXPRESS.
bkoganbing
One caveat I have to give this particular review. I saw an abbreviated 80 minute version of this serial which was almost unintelligible to follow. Not that I think the full length version would have put The Hurricane Express right up in cinematic history with Gone With the Wind.John Wayne did three serials for Mascot and this particular one must have been edited down for a feature length movie to take advantage of his growing popularity in the Forties. The plot such as it is involves John Wayne as the son of engineer J. Farrell MacDonald who is killed in a planned train wreck. The mysterious guy doing all these wrecks is someone appropriately called The Wrecker. He's got one interesting gimmick, he wears incredibly life like masks of all the other folks that are suspected of being the Wrecker. Fools everybody of course until the Duke catches on.If this version of The Hurricane Express came out in the late Forties, what must John Wayne have thought when such things as Red River, Fort Apache, etc. were being released? The Duke must have shuddered.
dsbird
The full length version runs about 227 minutes. "Gone With the Wind",long known for its length, has a run time of about 222 minutes. To experience the full historic flavor of an old time serial, I suggest trying the full length version, but try it as it was originally viewed. (An episode at a time!) Lots of thrills, chills, and spills, and a mystery that can't be solved until the very last episode in which the murderer turns out to be XXXXX. Bit of trivia: The plane used in the movie is a Ford Tri-Motor. (Old Henry built about 200 of them, largely at the instigation of his son Edsel.)In some scenes, its identification has been painted over. In other scenes it can be read. The plane is model 5-AT-49 registration number NC-8411, built in 1929 and destroyed in a crash in the mountains of Columbia in 1939. The "TAT" (Transcontinental Air Transport) logo is visible on the plane. (The fore-runner of Howard Hughes' TWA.)All interior scenes were shot in a prop department mock up with increased height and width. Of especial note is the single throttle. The Ford Tri-Motor had three! Dean Jacksonville, FL (Where Shirley Gray died in obscurity.)
counterrevolutionary
The heroine turns out to have jumped out of the car before it went over the cliff? OK, that's pretty standard. But why can we still see her (actually, a dummy representing her) in the car as it careens down the hillside? Even more fun are those chapters where they simply substitute new footage showing something completely different than we saw in the previous chapter. My favorite is the one at the end of Chapter 8/beginning of Chapter 9. They simply filmed two completely different events, showed one at the end of 8 and the other at the beginning of 9.Also, I want one of those magic masks which not only perfectly simulate someone else's face, but also his voice, height, and build. I'll take the Young John Wayne model.It's always fun to watch stuff like this (even though it may be the worst thing the Duke ever did) and try to imagine what contemporary audiences would have been thinking. Did any of them realize that this big stiff young guy would one day become not just the biggest star in Hollywood, but a cultural icon? I doubt it.
AD
