Cheap Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island (DVD) (Mack V. Wright, Ray Taylor) Price

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Customer Reviews of Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island

NOT REGIONALLY ENCODED
This latest Hal Roach Studios restoration of the classic Republic Serials is NOT regionally encoded as it states in the Amazon notes. This and ALL releases in this Hal Roach Studios series are "Region Zero" and are playable anywhere in the world. And the quality is stunning--almost as good as their releases of original Laurel and Hardy material or their other Serials (ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION, RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON, ZORRO RIDES AGAIN, ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP, etc.)

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I love this serial...
I took a chance after reading reviews of others which were pretty much all negative and bought this serial anyway. It is goofy, corny, off the hook silly. Get it, it's ...totally worth it....

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The "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" of the Chapterplay Genre
I love the old Republic serials, saw many of them on Saturday morning as a youth in the pre TV era. & have a decent VHS collection. So my cutiosity was aroused when I saw that Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island had never been reviewed and was usually available at a bargain price. I bought a copy and here'c my opinion.
In Summary, this is easily the worst chapterplay I have ever watched. A more detailed report follows:
RC of CI has a fairly standard plot. First of all, it has nothing to do with the classic novel "Robinson Crusoe". An espionage ring is causing trouble for a large Corporation who calls in an intrepid government agent ( Ray Mala) to investigate. The head of the ring is not unmasked until the last segment , but it's made clear early on that the head "bad guy" is one of the key executives of the Corporation. Mala is assisted by the princess of a native island culture. Her people are being framed for the troubles by the nefarious spies. The chapterplay is 14 chapters and takes place in San Francisco and the South Pacific.
The lead actor is Ray Mala, who gives new meaning to the word inept. I suspect that English was his second language and he does not have the physical skills to pull of the action scenes. The second lead, Rex (a horse) and the third lead, Buck (a dog) were clearly superior actors as compared to Mr. Mala - although the Dog probably didn't do it's best work being a St. Bernard stuck with a gig in the South Pacific. The remainder of the cast were the usual stable of Republic character actors who turned in an honest few weeks work.
The production values were about what you would expect for a low budget 1936 chapterplay. I gave read that this was the only the 4th chapterplay made by Republic. Obviously, they got a lot better. Unfortunately, the cliffhangers were quite bad. The cliffhanger at the end of chapter 7 is very possibly the worst cliffhanger I have ever seen. Also, Cliffhanger cheating was rampant.
Finally, there were two instances where about 2-3 minutes of fight action was cut into a new chapter. This was not a review chapter, just frugality.
In closing, It's always been accepted by chapterplay fans that one chapterplay had to be the best - so it makes sense that one has to be the worst as well. THIS IS IT.