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18 reviews in total

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16 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Entertaining hokum for those with a taste for the outrageous., 24 October 2001
Author: jim riecken (youroldpaljim)

Of all the horror films cranked by the poverty row studio's in the 1940's, those made by PRC were the most outrageous. THE FLYING SERPENT is a case in point. George Zucco, who was always entertaining as the villain in these films, plays a mad archaeologist who discovers a hidden Aztec treasure and living Archaeopterx. Zucco is convinced the prehistoric bird he has found is the actual feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl of the Aztecs. Zucco discovers the bird is very jealous of its feathers and will kill anyone who possess one and uses the bird to knock off his enemies.

A lot of people have mercilessly trashed this minor little thriller. I must confess, I have a lot of affection for it. Its actually very entertaining if viewed in the right frame of mind. Scenes of the big bird flying stiffly through the air and landing on the people, border on the surreal. George Zucco was always entertaining in these pictures and he is very entertaining here. I don't think one could say Zucco ever walked through a part.

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Quetzalcoatl is coming to get you, 6 March 2006

Author: Chris Gaskin from Derby, England

I'd been after The Flying Serpent for some time and finally obtained it at the beginning of this year (2006) when a mate ordered it for me from Amazon. Despite reading some bad reviews, I quite enjoyed it.

A mad Professor, Andrew Forbes discovers a living example of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec flying reptile/bird god. He then gets feathers off it and gives them to people he doesn't like and sends the creature to these people and it kills them. Police are baffled by these deaths and towards the end, Forbes ends up with a feather himself...

A rather unconvincing model on strings was used for Quetzalcoatl and you can see these at times.

The cast is lead by B-horror regular George Zucco (Fog Island, Scared To Death) as Forbes. I've haven't heard of anybody else in this.

The Flying Serpent is a good way to spend an hour. Very enjoyable.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
For Zucco Completists Only, 23 October 2007

Author: ferbs54 from United States

George Zucco's archaeologist character has a major problem at the beginning of the 1946 cheapie "The Flying Serpent." He had recently discovered Montezuma's treasure horde in an Aztec cave in New Mexico, and now fears that the locals might start to get snoopy. Good thing he's also found Quetzalcoatl, the legendary Aztec serpent/bird god, and has learned that the creature will track down and kill whoever is in unwitting possession of one of its feathers. Thus, pretty soon, Zucco is planting Q plumage left and right, sitting back and enjoying the carnage... Anyway, this 57-minute film is minimally fun, and Zucco is always interesting to watch, but the picture is unfortunately done in by supercheap production values, a tediously talkative screenplay, occasional goofball humor, and the simple fact that we never get a solid, steady look at Quetzalcoatl itself. Worse, the film's resolution is asinine and inane, with Zucco behaving uncharacteristically stupid and contrary to common sense. Matters aren't helped by the badly damaged film print offered to us on the Image DVD that I just watched, with problematic sound, to boot. Many other viewers have noted the similarity between this picture and another PRC effort, "The Devil Bat," a Bela Lugosi vehicle released five years earlier. In that film, Bela had lured his flying killer to the intended victim by using a special shaving lotion; here, those darn feathers have been substituted. Bottom line: I would have to say that "The Flying Serpent" is a movie for George Zucco completists only, if such an animal exists. Other viewers who are interested in a film featuring the feathered serpent god alive and well in the 20th century would probably be better advised to seek out Larry Cohen's 1982 film "Q."

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Far-fetched but fairly enjoyable, 6 November 2006

Author: JohnHowardReid

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

If ever there was a far-fetched story, The Flying Serpent is it. The script-writer doesn't even bother to offer any logical explanations for the principal event, let alone gaping holes in the subsidiary story line. Even the size of the title serpent itself seems to vary considerably from that of a large parrot to a small orang-utang.

Admittedly, by the extremely humble standards of Producers Releasing Corp, production values are slightly above the usual level of extreme poverty. Director Sherman Scott (Newfield) does his best to whip up an occasional bit of interest in the lethargic proceedings and the players, led by the indomitable George Zucco, all struggle manfully to lend a bit of credibility to their roles (though often defeated by an over-talkative screenplay).

The ending is especially ridiculous as all the villain needed to do to ward off the killer serpent… well, I won't spoil the plot by telling you what a dope this guy actually turns out to be! Mind you, he has done plenty of stupid and illogical things already, so I suppose you could say he runs true to form right through to the end.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Devil Bat remake, 10 November 2001
Author: scottmar from Los Angeles, CA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

All the elements from the Devil Bat are here. Madman using flying creature to knock people off. The reporter and his comic sidekick. I do think the flying creature is a step up from the flying bat of Devil Bat. Somebody said the strings were obvious in every shot. He must have been watching a different movie. SPOILER ALERT: One flaw I see in this movie is having a feather attract the serpent rather than the cologne of Devil Bat. Why wouldn't Zucco drop the feather while running away? Bela couldn't do anything about getting the cologne off, but Zucco could have just dropped that stupid feather.

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6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Zucco + Newfield + PRC = Dud, 28 January 2000
Author: BrianG from California

PRC Pictures, the cheapest of the B studios in the '30s and '40s, specialized in "horror" movies, few of which were "horrible" and most of which were barely movies. British actor George Zucco starred in many of them, and Sam Newfield--the brother of PRC president Sigmund Neufeld--directed many of them; neither Zucco nor Newfield had reason to be proud of any of them. The one thing they all had in common was shoddy production, technical ineptness and fifth-rate storytelling. This one is no different. The "story" concerns a mad doctor who has captured Quetzlcoatl, a mythical Mexican bird god of death, and uses it to kill his enemies. The bird model is laughable, with the strings used to move it clearly visible in almost every shot. Flubbed lines, pauses where actors forgot their lines for a second are all left in; in fact, there is one scene where the camera follows someone walking down a city street, and as the person walks by a plate glass store window, the reflection of the entire crew is clearly visible! Director Larry Cohen used the basic idea for his film "Q" in the 1980s, but with far better results. The fact that Cohen remade the film is astounding enough; the realization that he actually must have sat through to the end of this movie in order to do so is absolutely mind-boggling.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Fly right on by, 14 September 2011
Author: Justin Stokes from Cleburne, TX

This disposable cheapie stars George Zucco as an archaeologist who discovers Montezuma's treasure and uses the Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, to kill those he thinks might pose a threat to his secret fortune.

This is basically a remake of the 1940 Bela Lugosi picture, 'The Devil Bat'. In other words, there's nothing new here. Nothing particularly memorable either, though Zucco does well enough in his role. The special effects for Quetzalcoatl were better than I expected, but they're still not all that convincing. This is just your typical 40's flick with all the predictability and lousy attempts at humor you'd likely expect. We also get an unappealing hero played by Ralph Lewis. I was rooting for Zucco all the way.

It's not a long movie, so at least you won't waste too much time on it. Still, there are far better 40's films out there. I'd suggest seeing one of them and letting this serpent fly right on by.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Recommended thriller, 12 December 2008

Author: Cristi_Ciopron from CGSM, Soseaua Nationala 49

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

THE FLYING SERPENT is a mystery/ thriller, about the ancient feathered serpent, the Aztec God.

A shrewd archaeologist has found Montezuma's treasure—gold, diamonds and emeralds …. To protect it—from inopportune people, from treasure seekers, from whoever might disturb him—he uses a curious monster, an ancient beast, a ferocious reptile—bird. The murders begin—first an ornithologist, then a policeman, then others ….

The mean archaeologist has a fair stepdaughter; this girls uses to think, and she puts together a couple of things.

The mysterious, horrible murders are investigated by a young writer of radio—broadcasts.

We never find out whence the feathered serpent came.

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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Bloodthirsty ancient chicken-bird attacks!, 29 March 2001

Author: eegah-3 (eegah@hotmail.com) from Minneapolis, MN

What's the only reason to watch this besides George Zucco's scenery chewing? Why it's watching a pathetic feathery prop on a string cause fear and death in its search all of its feathers. Basically this is a loose remake of DEVIL BAT with Zucco replacing Bela Lugosi as the madman.

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5 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
A hoot (get it) of a horror, monster movie., 24 April 2003

Author: warlorde from OKC, OK

I remember this movie from when I was a kid, and enjoyed it immensely. George Zucco was superb as ever as the villain, and even though the monster was less then convincing it still creeped me out, because everytime I went outside I'd look up in the sky just in case it wanted to swoop down on me. So if your looking for simple entertainment check out this movie.

10 out of 10. Viva el monstro bird!

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