By the modest standards of Mascot Studios, this well-worn Alpha DVD offers a reasonably good cutdown of the original 12-chapter Mascot serial. In fact, after a none-too-promising and rather jumpy start, the so-called "feature version" settles down quite well. Indeed, I would give the cutdown a higher entertainment rating than the serial itself which is chock-full of cost-saving gimmicks including weak cliff-hangers and boring reprises of action we've already seen. True, hero Grant Withers puts second-ranked Adrian Morris right in the shade. I can hardly remember what Morris even looks like, although I saw the movie only a few hours ago. On the other hand, our lovely heroine Ann Rutherford doesn't figure in this cutdown movie all that much at all. Indeed, as a matter of fact, despite her third billing, I'm told that her role in the serial itself is rather meager. Yet on the other hand, our 84-minute feature packs in plenty but plenty of well-staged action set-ups, put across with reasonable efficiency by director B. Reeves Eason and his adept pupil, Joseph Kane. Kane also handled most of the dull dialogue scenes – but they do serve to cushion the many action line-ups. Our well-worn but watchable Alpha DVD runs 82 minutes.
Review of The Fighting Marines
