You can't always judge a serial by its Columbia cover. In fact, in the years before director Derwin Abrahams and producer Sam Katzman introduced new eras of economy, Columbia's serials on the whole were well worth watching. The Green Archer is still one of the more entertaining efforts of these pre-Katzman years, made well before budgets were stripped to the bone, promising ideas unfulfilled, exciting scripts jettisoned and casts made up of fifth-raters and boring nonentities. Thanks to imaginative art direction and pleasing photography, plus splendid acting and an ingeniously thrilling script, The Green Archer retains its appeal in 2015.
On the other hand, the condensed version issued by Columbia and now available on an excellent Alpha DVD (the condensed version of 1935's Lost City is on the same disc), is a somewhat mixed bag. True, just about all the nonsensical and other marking-time filler rubbish has been jettisoned, but so have a lot of the great action episodes. It's also a fact that the plot still manages to be a bit repetitive, and, in my opinion, focuses too much attention on Kit Guard, but on the whole, it's still a worthy entertainment investment.
On the other hand, the condensed version issued by Columbia and now available on an excellent Alpha DVD (the condensed version of 1935's Lost City is on the same disc), is a somewhat mixed bag. True, just about all the nonsensical and other marking-time filler rubbish has been jettisoned, but so have a lot of the great action episodes. It's also a fact that the plot still manages to be a bit repetitive, and, in my opinion, focuses too much attention on Kit Guard, but on the whole, it's still a worthy entertainment investment.