The Adventures of Smilin' Jack (1943)

Directors:

Lewis D. Collins
Ray Taylor

Writers:

Zack Mosley (based on the comic strip by)
Morgan Cox (original screenplay)

Release Date:

5 January 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | War

Tagline:

From Newspaper and Radio to the SCREEN...comes the Greatest OF ALL ADVENTURE THRILLS!

Plot:

Just before World War II, the Chinese and American governments mount a joint operation to prevent the Germans and Japanese from taking over the strategic island of Mandon. |

Plot Keywords:

German | Chinese | Japanese | Island | American

Cast

Tom Brown	...	'Smilin' Jack' Martin
Rose Hobart	...	Gertrude Muller, aka Fraulein Von Teufel
Edgar Barrier	...	Tommy Thompson
Marjorie Lord	...	Janet Thompson
Keye Luke	...	Capt. Wing
Sidney Toler	...	Gen. Kai Ling
Cyril Delevanti	...	Mah Ling / Han Po
Philip Ahn	...	Wu Tan
Nigel De Brulier	...	Lo-Par
Turhan Bey	...	Kageyama
David Hoffman	...	John (Johann) O. Blenker [Chs. 9-11]
Rico De Montez	...	Hito
Jay Novello	...	Kushimi [Chs. 1-3, 12-13]

Runtime:

265 min (13 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

"Fraulein von Teufel" translates more or less as "Devil Woman". This is alluded to in the final (13th) episode, where Kageyama's last words before dying are "Teufel. Devil."

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Though Mandon is supposedly located on the border between China and India, the walls of the high priest's temple are decorated with Egyptian hieroglyphics. (Universal recycled the set from the 1940 film "The Mummy's Hand.")

World War II propaganda

All in all, I liked this for what it was: an un-subtle manipulation of theater patrons. The main enemy in this serial is Japan, and the Japanese are diminished to Japs and Nips (always said with a slight sneer), while the Chinese are simply Chinese. There's a German ubiquitous female agent who fancies herself to be in command of the Japanese, but she is just one dimensional: harsh, nasty, humorless.

The plot is a bit thin. A peace loving Chinese province bordering the Himalayas has a secret passage (the Stillwell Road?) of some sort to India, through which vital troops and supplies could be funneled to fight the Japanese. The spiritual leader of the province agrees to reveal the secret to the Chinese and British, with numerous conditions, and the Axis tries to kidnap or kill him before he can talk. There is delay upon delay for no reason but to string this out to 13 chapters.

There are the usual hairbreadth escapes after each cliffhanger episode, and some of them are pretty silly. As in all serials, the viewer is cheated, in that a bit of film is held back, film in which the hero escapes death in the nick of time. There are also the usual fistfights without a knuckle getting skinned, the usual chases, etc.

As serials go, this is fairly standard, directed toward the puerile audience that filled theaters on Saturday afternoons.