Cheap Daredevils of the Red Circle / Movie (Video) (William Witney, John English) Price

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Customer Reviews of Daredevils of the Red Circle / Movie

One of the Very Best
This serial is particularly known for its terrific cliffhangers. The end of Chapter One is probably the best-loved cliffhanger in serial history. <
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>Charles Middleton was most famous for the character Emperor Ming in "Flash Gordon," and it's interesting to see him in the flesh, so to speak. He's probably the greatest all-time serial bad guy. <
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>Dave Sharpe usually appeared as the stunt double in dozens of Republic serials. Ironically, as one of the three leads in this one he was doubled for (probably by the equally great Tom Steele) because Republic didn't want to take a chance on his being injured during the six-week shooting schedule. <
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>Herman Brix, who played Tarzan in "The New Adventures of Tarzan" serial, became known later as Bruce Bennett. <
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>Charles Quigley ("The Crimson Ghost," "Superman") started in movies in 1933, and was signed by Columbia in 1937 to be groomed as a leading man. He appeared apposite another young hopeful named Rita Hayworth, but in the end it was Hayworth who clicked with a the public and Quigley's option was dropped after only one year. By 1950 he was out of films, and died of cirrhosis at the age of 55. <
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>Poor Carole Landis. The Wisconsin-born beauty had a fairly successful though very brief career in Hollywood, but her personal life was a flop. Her first marriage was annulled because she was only 15. Her second and third marriages lasted only a few months. She married Horace Shmidlapp in 1945 and filed for divorce, which never went through because her death interceded. On the Fourth of July in 1948 she had dinner with Rex Harrison, a married man with whom she reportedly was having an affair. The next day Harrison found her dead body in her home, caused by an overdose of Seconal. She was 29 years old.

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The Best of the Best
1939Daredevils of the Red Circle, Republic, 12 Chapters <
>The first chapter of Daredevils of the Red Circle features explosive acts of sabotage; physical acts of sideshow derring-do; a pier carnival fire that kills the main hero's kid brother; a villain 39-0-13 played by Charles [Ming the Merciless] Middleton when he is not masquerading as the scientist he has locked in the basement; the scientist's niece played by Carol Landis who unknowingly joins a motorcade inaugurating an underwater tunnel to the Channel Islands just as the minions of 39-0-13 shatter its ceiling; and a motorcycle race against the tunnel-filling onrush of water to warn the motorcade. <
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>Unlike lesser serials, especially those not made at Republic, all but one of the following 11 chapters has a logical solution for the survival of our heroes hinted at in the surely lethal dilemmas they face. Charles Quigley is our main hero. He is backed up by Dave Sharpe [one of Republic's best stuntmen] and Herman Brix [who was the choice of Edgar Rice Burroughs to play his character Tarzan]. High falls from oil refineries, fixing power lines as the bad guys hijack the power station, trapped under water the surface of which is aflame with burning chemicals, trapped by a collapsing derrick in an exploding oil field, and locked in a secret chamber filling with poison gas are just some of the dilemmas faced by the heroic Daredevils. <
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>This is one of the best of the Republic serials. Get it on VHS since it is not available on DVD as yet [I cannot understand why not] and see what kept your grandparents speculating while awaiting the next chapter the following week when they were young. Watch Daredevils of the Red Circle and see the sort of thing Spielberg and Lucas were recapturing with the Indiana Jones movies. This was pre-digital so actual people are physically performing these finely-choreographed,set-destroying stunts. The miniatures and special effects by the Lydecker brothers were state-of-the-art for the era.

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Consistent excitement!
"Daredevils of the Red Circle" is exciting from start to finish. The action and general entertainment never flag. People often mention the cliffhanger at the end of chapter one, when Gene is desperately trying to outrace the surging water, but there are many other moments in the movie which are equally good: try, for instance, the ending where Gene is chasing some crook up a very tall ladder at the side of a factory building, and the crook, having reached the top, pushes the ladder away from the wall. The ladder, with Gene on it, swings out into space, and your heart (and stomach) go with it! But it's not just the action: one of the main reasons this serial is so entertaining is that the three "daredevils", Gene, Tiny and Burt (Charles Quigley, Herman Brix and David Sharpe) are so incredibly nice and likable. You really care what happens to them. I just can't understand why Republic didn't make a sequel to this (I wish they had done!). All in all, five-star entertainment!