TRADER TOM OF THE CHINA SEAS

Harry Lauter and Aline Towne

TRADER TOM OF THE CHINA SEAS (12 chapter Republic serial/1954). Produced and directed by Franklin Adreon. Colorized.  

Tom Rogers (Harry Lauter of The Louisiana Hussy) is a trader in Asian territories who is willingly signed up by Major Conroy (Robert Shayne of The Neanderthal Man) to help ferret out a gang that is smuggling out weapons, including light bulbs containing a poison gas, to foreign agents who are arming rebel natives so as to turn their country into a satellite. Vivian Wells (Aline Towne of Radar Men from the Moon) is the feisty daughter of a doctor who was targeted by evil forces, and Mr. Barent (Lyle Talbot), is the representative of his country's forces and the chief architect behind Trader Tom's troubles. Victor Sen Yung is Wang, a friendly associate of Rogers. 

Lauter and Towne with Lyle Talbot

Barent's helpmates include the nasty Kurt Daley (Fred Graham of The Giant Gila Monster), the mute Gursan (an unrecognizable Tom Steele), the psychotic Gorth (Richard Alexander), the rebel leader (Richard Reeves), and others. Tom gets some help from Kahn (Jan Arvan), who is fighting off the rebel forces in his country. Tom and Vivian have to deal with landslides, being trapped on a sinking freighter, being trapped underwater with a cut air hose, a train collision, angry rebels with big knives, and so on. Tom thinks nothing of burning these would-be killers to death, and nearly falls off a cliff into the fire in chapter seven. In chapter six a killer is placed inside a mailbag so he can take care of the engineer. 

Vivian and Tom escape from one doom only to face another

A nice aspect of the serial is that Vivian is depicted as being just as brave, plucky, and competent as Tom. She is no mere decoration, but an important player in the story. Lyle Talbot gives his usual professional but utterly bland portrayal, as he usually did in these serials. Fred Graham, on the other hand, emerges as a very credible and distinctly unpleasant bad guy. Trader Tom of the China Seas is a late Republic serial, one that is much more down to earth than the studio's sci-fi and superhero cliffhangers. For many, that may be the serial's weakness, but it has to be said that Trader Tom is fast-paced and full of action, with plenty of interesting death-traps, and a charismatic lead performance by Lauter. 

Verdict: Decent, often exciting serial if perhaps not as much fun as others. **3/4. 

PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO

Phyllis Coates vs Gorilla

PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO (12 chapter Republic serial/1955. Director: Franklin Adreon. 

Dr. Morgan (Arthur Space of The Crimson Key) and his cohorts Cass (John Daheim) and Rand (Mike Ragan) have discovered diamonds in an abandoned gold mine and want to scare the natives out of the territory so they can work it without interference. To that end Morgan uses a formula to enlarge crawfish to giant size, creating "Devil Monsters" that terrify the tribesmen. Wildlife photographer Jean Evans (Phyllis Coates), who is known as the Panther Girl due to her heroic actions regarding a rogue panther, and who frequently rides around on an elephant, wants to film and possibly capture one of these monsters with the assistance of Larry Sanders (Myron Healey). This is something Cass and Rand try to stop on a regular basis. 

Claw Monsters go at it

The "claw monsters" are the most interesting feature of this entertaining serial, which frequently uses stock footage from Republic's previous jungle cliffhangers. Amazingly, the natives are portrayed by actual black actors! I believe the monsters are photographed in slow motion which almost makes them seem to be products of stop-motion animation at times, although the time factor would make that unlikely. Trying to prove the existence of these creatures for the authorities with her home movies, Jean photographs them separately so that there's nothing to show their actual size in relation to everything else. In reality everyone would just assume she was taking pictures of ordinary craw fish! 

Myron Healey and Phyllis Coates

Dr. Morgan also drugs the natives to make them compliant and to work against Jean and Larry along with his two nasty hirelings. In the cliffhangers, Jean's arm is grabbed and nearly torn off by a giant claw; Larry is almost run over by a jeep rushing toward his prone form on the road; a maddened gorilla goes after Jean for heaven knows what purpose; and Larry gets caught in deadly quicksand even as the natives lob arrows at him and his would-be rescuers. The entertaining serial moves at a swift pace and boasts excellent theme music by composer R. Dale Butts. The serial was shown on television in an abbreviated form as The Claw Monsters.  

Verdict: Thrills, fistfights, gun battles, and yucky giant monsters! ***.