Adventures of the Flying Cadets (1943)

The Black Hangman, a Nazi spy, is murdering members of an expedition that the Hangman (in his civilian identity of Arthur Galt- engineering consultant) undertook in Africa and uncovered a supply of helium in the caves of An-Ker-Ban. A group of four young Flying Cadets (Danny, Jinx, Scrapper, and Zombie) are the primary suspects for two of the Hangman's murders and they fly to Africa (with Galt) to clear themselves and break up the Nazi sabotage plan. Decent serial at the beginning with the Cadets going after the Black Hangman while he commits his sabotage acts, but after the he's revealed as Galt in chapter 3 and then heads towards Africa, the serial becomes mostly non stop talking scenes with the Hangman and all the Nazi agents just suspecting double crosses and shooting each other. Downs, Jordan, Wood & Benedict are very good as the young fliers (an improvement over the Dead End Kids in their 3 serials), while Ciannelli and Armstrong, make for good villains. I wish though the Black Hangman had more to do with the story later on in the serial. Holt is beautiful to look at, but she's not even seen until chapter 6, and she doesn't interact well with the story. A bunch of implausible cliffhangers, but decent dialogue. Rating, based on serials, 6.