The Hurricane Express (1932)

Just perfect...

Great Film overall

Excellent but underrated film

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

"The Hurricane Express" is a very low budget movie serial from tiny Mascot Studios. And, because of this, there isn't a whole lot to distinguish it other than one big thing--it stars a very young John Wayne. If it weren't for this, I doubt if many people would ever want to see the film. It just isn't very good.The film begins by introducing Larry (John Wayne) and his father. Larry is a pilot and his dad has been an engineer for the railroad for many years. However, soon the father is killed--the result of someone sabotaging the rails. Who would do this and why would they do it? Larry was determined to figure this out for himself--and thus goes the rest of this 12-part serial. At the end of each part, there is, of course, some cliffhanger that makes it APPEAR that he is killed--but naturally, Larry has found some ridiculous way to somehow survive. It turns out that the sabotage is NOT the work of some nut, but a guy called 'The Wrecker'--but who the wrecker is you need to wait until part 12 to learn. In the meantime, he and his gang try again and again to sabotage the rails.When you watch the film you'll probably notice a few things. First, the film is very quiet. The usual incidental music is gone--partly because early sound films sometimes missed this and partly because the production was so cheap that they couldn't afford it. Also, the condition of the print is not particularly great--but much of this is because of the degradation of the film and has nothing to do with the original quality of the serial. As for the writing, it's pretty poor--with lots of action but not a whole lot in depth or believability. It's quite a step below the quality of a serial from a decade later. Not terrible...just not all that good.

I own and have watched the Alpha Video feature version of the serial. The problem with feature versions of serials is that they leave out so much; a lot of them jump too fast leaving out details behind certain dialog or sequences, which makes them hard to follow; or else the back and forth nature of the action seems pointless and tedious. There are many, many examples of this such as "Planet Outlaws" the feature version of "Buck Rogers" (1939) "The Phantom Empire," (1935) "Dick Tracy Vs. Crime Inc." (1941) among many.The exceptions are "Rocketship" (1936) the excellent shortened first "Flash Gordon" serial and "The Lost Jungle" (1934), which is actually a real improvement over and practically a different film from the serial it came from.This one, however, is in the category of something you watch while you're doing something else. Although John Wayne has a few good lines, and seems to do a lot of the action stunts himself, the feature version really points up the weak nature of the story. The bad guys (including the underutilized Charles King) seem to want to spend all their time trying to recover some gold stolen from a train, the Hurricane Express.Watching this you think, don't these evil villains have anything better (or since they are villains, worse) to do? Well, while watching it, you realize that you do, but you may not have anything else planned. So let me give you some tips for things you could be doing while playing this video: Organize all the clothes in your closet. Go thru the week's mail and throw away the junk. Delete unnecessary e-mails. Pay your bills. Organize your video collection-- I do mine chronologically, but maybe you do yours alphabetically. File important papers. Lie on your bed and read something while you listen to the movie. Good luck! I'm sure you'll be able to think of something worthwhile to do while watching this version of "The Hurricane Express."

The full length version runs about 227 minutes. "Gone With the Wind",long known for its length, has a run time of about 222 minutes. To experience the full historic flavor of an old time serial, I suggest trying the full length version, but try it as it was originally viewed. (An episode at a time!) Lots of thrills, chills, and spills, and a mystery that can't be solved until the very last episode in which the murderer turns out to be XXXXX. Bit of trivia: The plane used in the movie is a Ford Tri-Motor. (Old Henry built about 200 of them, largely at the instigation of his son Edsel.)In some scenes, its identification has been painted over. In other scenes it can be read. The plane is model 5-AT-49 registration number NC-8411, built in 1929 and destroyed in a crash in the mountains of Columbia in 1939. The "TAT" (Transcontinental Air Transport) logo is visible on the plane. (The fore-runner of Howard Hughes' TWA.)All interior scenes were shot in a prop department mock up with increased height and width. Of especial note is the single throttle. The Ford Tri-Motor had three! Dean Jacksonville, FL (Where Shirley Gray died in obscurity.)

The heroine turns out to have jumped out of the car before it went over the cliff? OK, that's pretty standard. But why can we still see her (actually, a dummy representing her) in the car as it careens down the hillside? Even more fun are those chapters where they simply substitute new footage showing something completely different than we saw in the previous chapter. My favorite is the one at the end of Chapter 8/beginning of Chapter 9. They simply filmed two completely different events, showed one at the end of 8 and the other at the beginning of 9.Also, I want one of those magic masks which not only perfectly simulate someone else's face, but also his voice, height, and build. I'll take the Young John Wayne model.It's always fun to watch stuff like this (even though it may be the worst thing the Duke ever did) and try to imagine what contemporary audiences would have been thinking. Did any of them realize that this big stiff young guy would one day become not just the biggest star in Hollywood, but a cultural icon? I doubt it.