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| Does Ethan Hunt get in these situations? Yes! |
At the border of Canada and Alaska, Mort Fowler (Anthony Warde), who reports to an unseen "chief," is out to do anything he can to stop the completion of a highway. He is afraid homesteaders will rush in en masse and prevent him from finding a treasure somehow left behind by Genghis Kahn! Kahn's ship is hidden in the forest, but the treasure itself is secreted in the Cave of a Thousand Tunnels. Out to stop Fowler and his associates from their nefarious schemes are Sgt. Chris Royal (Jim Bannon) of the Mounties, his partner Corporal George Hale (Phil Warren), pilot Bobbie Page (Virginia Belmont), and others.
Dangers of the Canadian Mounted is another thrilling, fast-paced Republic serial with lots of action and exciting cliffhangers. Royal clings to a plane in pursuit of Fowler at one point before said plane goes into a dive, deals with an out-of-control forest fire, is nearly fried by an electrical trap in a doorway in an abandoned hotel, and rescues Bobbi from a runaway station wagon careening towards a cliff. In the climax in the caves, Royal nearly succumbs to a flood of poison gas coming from a smiling buddha. Anthony Warde gives the best performance as the persistent bad guy, the identity of the chief comes as a minor surprise, there's a great final sequence in a saloon, and the whole enterprise is lots of fun. One can't help but think of Tom Cruise decades later getting involved in the same outlandish kind of derring do. (At one point Royal throws himself on top of a speeding train, but manages not to break his legs or neck.)
Anthony Warde faces the smiling Buddha
Verdict: Another highly entertaining Republic serial. ***1/4.
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