OK, one of the lesser of the lesser known serials of the 1930s but I bring your attention to the opening credits.

Electrical Devices by Kenneth Strickfaden.

You may recognise the name from the Frankenstein movies. Mel Brooks reused the original machines for Young Frankenstein. He was semi-retired during the The Munsters TV series but he may have helped out there also.

Thank you, for uploading.
While someone complained about the long pauses in the actors dialogue, I thought responses were mostly quick and snappy.

As for the large files, and the dropping out while downloading, it dropped out on me, too, but only when I was elsewhere on the internet and very active on the computer. Otherwise, the large file still downloaded fairly quick... approximately 1-2 hours. Just stay away from other internet activities, and you probably won't drop out while downloading. A little patience is all you need.

Hello, fedupwithgarbage,
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

fedupwithgarbage's review is SPOT ON!!! fedupwithgarbage has somehow read my mind..... and said 'it' way better than I could have.

double-THEY ARE OLD OLD MOVIES, GET OVER IT!


double-Geesh

William "Stage" Boyd was a "below B" movie actor of the Thirties. While none of his screen roles would ever bring him fame, he is remembered for the fact that he was indirectly responsible for William "Hoppy" Boyd's career setback. "Stage" Boyd was involved in a bootleg liquor orgy in the Thirties, however the other Boyd's picture appeared in the paper. The studio was concerned that the public would confuse the two and dropped Boyd from his contract. It took the role of Hopalong Cassidy to put William Boyd back in business. Kane Richmond, a regular in early serials, later became the Shadow in a Monogram series. A urban legend about the Lost City came in the early Fifties when it was released to television on a NYC station. Supposedly the sight of gigantic natives was so frightening to youngsters that the film was pulled after only a few chapters. This story later appeared in a issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Lots of history here and typical entertainment values of the period. Cheesy acting and limited dialogue. Great stuff! The quality of the MPEG2 is probably about as good as you're going to find anywhere.

There, I reviewed this without using the words "racist" or ..... "putrescent(?)"!

I'm sick and tired of people thinking they need to WARN me or comment about the RACIAL content of these old films. THEY'RE OLD FILMS, PEOPLE!!! The operative word there being OLD! GET OVER IT!!!

I also LIKE the MPEG2 files. If YOU don't, you can always download the little blurry, 320x240 MPEG4 or OGG files and watch them on your little, neutral colored, genderless, politically correct, civilized, "enlightened", 3" IPOD screen, but don't try to spoil it for the rest of us.

Geesh!

Its kind of like the difference between soap opera TV and evening TV. More dialogue and plot and less action, explosions, gunfire, the stuff you come to stereotype as a serial way of storytelling. And there are definite politically incorrect references. The minions of the supreme evil ruler are mind-enslaved giant men of color, white people are in control of everything, the giant minions can only make sounds of "ugh" as conversation, in one scene a woman screams, the comment made is its that of a "white" woman. So its a little let down in some ways, the gadgets and gizmos, and the cliffhanger feeling aren't there although they do draw to close each episode with a cliffhanger moment. Good sets. The audio could stand a bit of enhancement. Its pacing is less than a typical cliffhanger too, which I like because it isn't all action related dialogue, and the acting crew delivers lines in a sober, unstaged fashion, a bit ahead of its time that way. They do have interesting predicaments that everyone gets out of. The online copies could stand a bit more brightness as many of the twilight scenes go to black and you can't perceive what's going on. I'm on chapter 4 and wll make it a point to see the rest of the episodes.

I reviewed Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, Ace Drummand, Radar Men from the Moon and Undersea City before watching this serial, rating Undersea City the worst of the lot. However, Lost City far surpasses Undersea City as a klunker.

The script seems to have been written by someone who had great experience in silent movies, but little with sound films. The dialog has incredibly long pauses and the sophistication of an Our Gang comedy (example: "What are you going to do?" <5 second pause> "You'll see."). The actors constantly pose and provide long dramatic responses in a style that is common in silent films. The fight scenes show heros knocking down grown men with punches that travel 2-3 inches.

Given that the film was made in 1934, it isn't surprising that the portrayal of blacks is significantly racist. However, even for that period its extent is startling. White men communicate with the black tribal members with grunts (e.g., "huhya", "humma") and hand signals. (Confusingly, when it is necessary for the audience to understand these commands, they also speak to them in English). The scientist genius has perfected a way to turn black tribesmen into white ones, a process that all black tribesmen seem to covet. He also has invented a way to turn black tribesman into giants with the mannerisms of Frankenstein's monster.

I could go on and on, but perhaps this is enough to indicate how putrescent is this serial. One additional thought. Sometimes when movies are bad, they are good from a comedic point of view (e.g., Plan 9 from Outer Space). I don't think this is the case for Lost City. Rather, its flaws conspire to make it a boring and insipid waste of celluloid.

The files are large - and the dropouts are excessive. At times, it appears that the movie is in solid green with flashes of gray.

It is worthwhile to have this 'classic' available, but I don't feel ungrateful for asking that more compression be used when the source material is as faulty as this.

I've seen the first few chapters of this series and there are better cliffhangers to be sought out. These are rather large mpeg2 files for an average series, but the prints are very good and the series is enjoyable nevertheless. Interestingly, the dialogue and storyline dress up white/master black/slavery racism within an adventure/sci-fi backdrop, a fun detail in context of film history, though I doubt the hardcore Politically Correct would think so. I lost interest by the fifth chapter in favour of a gem called "The Hurricane Express" featuring a young John Wayne. Should it make its way into the Archive, the alternative is definitely a must download.

Don't get me wrong; I love the archives and think you're doing a great service. But who does the encoding? The mpg2 files are ridiculously large. 2.1 gig for an episode of a serial? It could easily be encoded at less than half that and still retain full quality, as the rest is just needless bit-padding. A little re-encoding by archive.org would save a LOT of bandwidth and downloading time for everyone. Just a thought.