The Trail of the Octopus
Hallmark
1919; 15 Chapters
Starring
Ben Wilson
as Carter Holmes
Neva
Gerber
William Dyer
Howard Crampton
William Carroll
Marie Pavis
and ? as
Monsieur X
The
Trail of the Octopus
reviewed by Doctor Daka
"The production standards of the sets and the camerawork in
this serial were top notch. There were a number of scenes
that I'd say were filmed with the best use of light and
shadow I have ever seen. Visually, Octopus
was fantastic, but they seemed to make the story up as they
went along, with the plot and locations often changing
suddenly in a completely different direction. This is the
"trail" that is the subject of the
title.
The producers [at first can't] seem to decide on whom they
wanted the main villain to be. First it's a group of devil
worshipers and their female leader, then we find out she
works for this other guy, then we find out he is an agent
for this other Arabic bad guy who lives in "the orient."
Well that guy in the orient actually works for yet another
guy over in the orient, who is a Fu Manchu knockoff.
Perhaps he really is the final leader of all the bad guys?
There is also a mysterious masked man known as Monsieur X
who pops up in the story every so often, but he's someone
else completely. Whew!
Octopus
is different than what fans of the talkie cliffhangers may
be used to, but those differences may make it a better
serial in some ways. Even hardcore fans will admit that
most serials are thin on plot and heavy on rather
repetitious chases, fistfights, and escapes.
Octopus
has all that, but the twists and turns in the storyline and
the round the world changes in location, make it come off
more like a 280 minute feature film than a typical serial.
It would have been 20 minutes longer if chapter 9 had been
shown.
I will try to summarize the storyline, which was
rather complicated compared to the serials made by Republic
or Columbia in the 1930's through 1950's. The location of
the action changes from an unnamed city, to San Francisco,
to "the orient," to Paris France, back to the original city
and then to San Francisco again. This serial revolves
around a group who are trying to obtain an ancient talisman
for some nefarious reason and the various murders, fights,
chases, and cliffhangers that ensue. There are some really
fantastic scenes where ghost like hands come out of walls
and other creepy stuff - better than the best horror movies
you've seen. There is a fight on a balcony in a rainstorm
that is just amazing - some of the best camera and lighting
work ever. There is another fight that starts in a room and
then the lights go out. The combatants begin shooting at
each other in the darkened room - and as each gunshot goes
off we see where everyone is for an instant before it goes
back to black. This is an effect much like a strobe light -
but the flashing light from each gunshot only flickers on
when triggers are pulled, with the actors seen in different
places as they scramble about the room between gunshots.
I've never seen anything like it before and thought that a
scene like this has probably never been topped
yet."
14
of 15 chapters of this serial exist complete in silent
form.
Chapter 9 will be re-created from the original script for
the Serial Squadron DVD.
The pledge drive for DVD edition of this serial will begin
in September 2008.