A train carrying a large amount of gold bullion is boarded by robbers, who lay portable tracks leading to an abandoned mine, where the train is emptied of its shipment and driven down a mine, 300 feet deep. This leads to anger between Potter Hood (president of the Golconda mine, whose gold was aboard the train) and Horace Moore (owner of the Western Pacific Railroad). Both however do not realize that Slater, vice president of the mine, is the mastermind behind the robbery, working with nightclub owner Dirk. Hood's son, Tom arrives home from college with his football teammate, Bob Collins, and decides to investigate the mystery, and is eventually joined by Moore's niece Betty (a reporter for the paper) and friend Kate Bland. For twelve chapters, its up to our foursome of adventurers to find out the location of the gold, while keeping themselves safe from the attacks of Slater and his gang. Good serial, with nice characterizations of the four heroes. There is nothing special from Glendon's performance of Stanley, but he is behind the scenes too often for him to do dastardly tricks. The serial is very good with its railway action for the first three chapters, but the rest of the serial is just Stanley's gang staying one step ahead of Tom, Bob, Betty, and Kate. The fights come off as really weak (ironic that one of football's all time gutsiest players, Ernie Nevers, looks dull in his action scenes.) Still a very good serial. Rating, based on serials, 7.
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Mike-76410 October 2004
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JohnHowardReid17 August 2017Chapter titles: (1) The Lost Special; (2) Racing Death; (3) The Red Lantern; (4) Devouring Flames; (5) Lightning Strikes; (6) House of Mystery; (7) The Tank Room Terror; (8) The Fatal Race; (9) Into the Depths; (10) The Jaws of Death; (11) Flaming Forest; (12) Retribution.
SYNOPSIS: Two youths team up with two girls to solve the mystery of a gold train that has completely disappeared en route from the mine to the city terminal.
COMMENT: Being something of a railroad buff, "The Lost Special" was always on my list of must-see serials. True, there's not as much working on the railroad as I would have liked, but the action that is presented is certainly mighty spectacular. For most of the stunts, real trains, not models, are used. The director and film editor cleverly contrive to triple the suspense by rapidly inter- cutting rapid tracking shots of speeding cars and locomotives. Serial specialist MacRae is in his element here. No less than two heart-stopping rail-crossing "accidents" occur, plus a pounding speedboat chase, and numerous pursuits involving what are now "vintage" cars.
True, the dialogue is often silly, with the villain getting the worst lines. "Now get this, men. If there's a blunder, we're due for a long stretch at the Big House!" No wonder Frank Glendon emerges as a colorlessly conventional heavy. It's up to Tom London to lend most of the vigor to the gang, which he does most ably, assisted by Edmund Cobb who does his own stunt work and has a grand moment in Chapter Eleven when he suddenly comes to life at the mention of liquor.
Ernie Nevers also undertakes his own stunts, including a thrilling leap from one speeding auto to another.
Albertson is just okay as the hero, but the girls, Cecilia Parker and Caryl Lincoln are a joy to behold. Miss Parker has at least one nice change of costume too. Francis Ford, of course, plays in a straightforward manner, not in the grizzled characterization we're accustomed to seeing in his brother John Ford's movies.
MacRae saves his best direction for the action spots. There are plenty of them in every episode, and all are powerfully enough handled, given the contemporary use of speeded-up camera effects and the equally unconvincing flurries of flailing fist fights. But those edge-of-the-seat auto and train chases!
Production values are great, almost right to the end. A bit of stock footage is used from time to time, and there's an economy reprise of clips from the introductory episode in Chapter Twelve. More importantly, there's otherwise no decline in the end episodes and all the cliff-hangers are solidly thrilling. Not a weak or impoverished one in the whole eleven! -
docsuds22 January 2014Researching the origins of the TV serial "Lost", I bought a DVD transcript from a somewhat deteriorated print of this movie serial, now in the public domain. Fans of "Lost" will recognize several scenes and themes from this movie serial which were not in the original story or its other adaptations, which were recreated either literally or at some degree of abstraction in the TV serial. I laughed out loud at that. However, if you're not interested in how one screen production can cutely allude to others, or looking for clues to the mystery (if you even believe there was a mystery) of "Lost", then this adaptation, the loosest by that name that I've researched so far out of many in various media, of "The Lost Special", will probably not hold much interest for you. It does hold a bit of a mystery (albeit somewhat telegraphed for mystery fans) even for those familiar with the original story, and the plot overall is fairly decent, and some of the acting is excellent. However, it does stretch out the story and scenes as typical of a movie serial, and it has the worst stunt fights I could imagine. I've seen serials with excellent stunt fighting that stands up well even to slow-motion scrutiny, but in "The Lost Special" their blows miss by miles, the sound track represents punches by drumrolls, and they're drawn out to boot. There are also the usual far-fetched plot devices to produce silly cliffhangers.
The gimmick casting of Ernie Nevers as a Princeton U. football player works out about as well or badly as you'd expect. However, the other leads are good. The ending moved me to tears, and not only because of my recognizing its relationship to "Lost", so it's not a total loss from 6 hours of viewing.