In 1946, Universal Studios abandoned making cliffhanger serials with a production called The Mysterious Mr. M. The official word was that they were trying to upgrade their image, but it seems just as likely that they realized that the format couldn't go on for much longer. Indeed, shrinking budgets, competition from television and a total refusal to evolve seemed to doom serials and within 10 years, the last serials were released. Republic Studios, the studio that put out the most popular if not the best serials of the sound era, jumped ship in 1955 with the ultra-lackluster King of the Carnival. This left Columbia Pictures, the last of the big three of the sound era, releasing serials and they finally ended in 1956.
Perils of the Wilderness is the next to last of the Columbia serials and it's a complete mess. While it's true that all four of Columbia's final four serials show an appalling lack of effort on the part of the studio, this one may well be the most lackluster of the four. That took some doing on the studio's part, too, considering the existence of The Adventures of Captain Africa.
The serial's first major problem is that there is no discernible storyline to it. The villain (frequent 3 Stooges baddie Kenneth MacDonald) is riling up the local Indians, but we're never actually sure why. It may be because he's smuggling something, but what that something is we're not told. It may be because he wants to stop the railroad, but that's not clear, either. About the only thing we know for certain is that he appears to be a fugitive hiding out in Canada and being hunted by a U.S. Marshal. A Marshal that happens to be way out of his jurisdiction, but that's beside the point. The Marshal is sort of working with the Mounties, but not entirely. The Marshal, for his part, keeps trying to be undercover and joining the gang, but then he openly fights them, so his plans to join them don't work out.
To make matters even more confusing, we have no idea when exactly this is all supposed to be taking place. In one scene we see people flying hydroplanes, an invention of which not only are the Mounties aware of, they have a couple of their own. But then in the next scene, the Indians are attacking covered wagons taking supplies to the railroad camp. Wait, what?!
If all of that isn't convincing enough, then consider the fact that most of every chapter is stock footage from earlier serials, most notably Perils of the Royal Mounted. How much stock footage is there? Well, let me put it this way: know those 3 Stooges shorts made with Shemp after his death? The ones that have 3 or 4 new shots per short and the rest of the short is stock? That's a pretty close description. Mind you, that can describe most new serials released in the 1950s, but at least most of them almost made sense. Even The Adventures of Captain Africa, bad as it was, almost made a modicum amount of sense. This one, the footage is so haphazard, one just keeps watching hoping to figure it all out in the end. It's like watching an Ed Wood movie without the loony fun. Pretty sad.
Actually, I find the whole end of the serial era to be fairly depressing. Never mind the sheer amount of stock footage cobbled together whether or not it makes any sense. Nobody puts any effort into any of these. The actors look either bored or like they'd really rather be anywhere else but here. Even the ones like this that managed to get a couple of veteran characters actors couldn't muster anything approaching entertainment value. It's not that Kenneth MacDonald or Dennis Moore (this serial's hero) could give Cary Grant a run for the money in the acting department. But these guys were dependable character actors who, in days past, gave the audience their money's worth. They showed enthusiasm and were fun to watch. Neither actor is even remotely fun to watch in this. I'd say they were going through the motions, but they don't even do that. The only thing that keeps Perils of the Wilderness from being the worst serial ever made is the existence of couple of Independent serials from the 1930s that somehow manage to be even worse. Now that's a scary thought.
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