Gang Busters

Having listened to the radio show in reruns I had an appreciation for "Gang Busters." Lots of shoot-outs, fist-fights and car chases and the cliffhangers were good to the end.A mad scientist (Professor Mortis) runs a ring of re-animated criminals bent on looting the city and seeking revenge for Mortis. Police Detective Bill Bannister has his sights set on Mortis after one on Mortis' gang murders his brother. But Mortis is elusive and so is his gang.Bannister is aided in his quest by journalist Vicky Morgan and her photographer "Happy" Haskins.Although black and white the picture quality is good and this cliffhanger is action-packed.

This is a prime example of how ordinary Americans saw the fight against organised crime. A crime drama that is full of suspense, action, car chases, shoot-outs and fist fights that feature cops and reporters joining forces to fight the good fight, despite a bumbling idiot of a mayor doing everything in his power to screw things up. Clever cliffhangers, unexpected betrayals, this one has it all. The beauty of the work done to restore this film to its original state should be applauded.

Gang Busters is a 1942 Universal Serial based loosely on the radio program by Phillips Lord. Screenplay is by Morgan Cox, Al Martin, Victor McLeod and George H. Plympton, and it was directed by Ray Taylor and Noel Smith. Two DVD editions are currently available, from The Serial Squadron (Hermitage Hill not mentioned on the package) and Alpha Video.The plot involves a crime wave by the "League of Murdered Men" -- members of which are listed as dead in police records. They haven't actually been murdered, but the gang's boss, Professor Mortis (Ralph Morgan) employs a drug that simulates death, supplied mostly to captured criminals who "commit suicide" in prison, who are then brought back to life, but are obliged to obey Mortis so they can get a pill from him to stay alive. Bill Bannister (Kent Taylor) is investigating the crime wave, and his brother, framed and imprisoned, then released due to new evidence, has learned of the "suicide" scheme, but he is killed before he can tell very much. Mortis, in a radio broadcast on the Police wavelength, says he will end the crime wave if the entire city government is replaced. Police Chief Martin O'Brien (Joseph Crehan) also has to spar with windbag Mayor Hansen (George Watts) to keep Bannister on the case. Getting involved in the investigation is a newspaper photographer, Vicki Logan (Irene Hervey) and reporter, Happy Haskins (Richard Davies).This is one of the better Universal serials of the 1940's, with the atmosphere kept dark and serious by directors Ray Taylor and Noel Smith. Ralph Morgan in fine form as Dr. Mortis, and his hideout, under the subway tunnels is a nice touch. Acting by serial movie standards is also good from the rest of the cast with only a small amount of "comic relief," mostly from gang member Mike Taboni (William Haade). As usual with Universal, the special effects are not up to the quality seen in Republic serials; cars become a dozen years older as they go over cliffs, and crashing airplanes turn into rather unconvincing models. The fist fights are not the well-choreographed acrobatic events seen in Republic serials, perhaps enhancing the realism and the tendency is more toward gun-battles anyway. A lot of stock footage is used; many of the cliffhangers will be old friends to those familiar with other Universal serials. But the plot moves along well, maintaining interest with little of the usual "sag" after the first three chapters. Many familiar faces are seen in smaller roles including George J. Lewis, Stanley Price, Edmund Cobb, Jack Mulhall and even a "cameo" by Grace Cunard from the silent serials as Mike Taboni's landlady.The Serial Squadron's edition is on two recordable (DVD-R) discs. The "special features" are the original trailer and some "bio's" of the actors playing the main characters. The disc format causes minor annoyances; some CD players may forget where they were stopped if the power is turned off, and the disc won't play "straight through," going back to the menu after each chapter. Serials should be watched one chapter at a time so this isn't a big problem. The image is sharp and clear, with reasonable contrast, from a good if not pristine print having only a little "white dirt" and minor scratches. The opening titles contain the usual "cheat" of restoration in that all are from one chapter, having the same MPPDA certificate number, though the original titles were otherwise identical. The print has a copyright from Serials Incorporated, a reissue, with the letters of "Gang Busters" in the main title outlined, and even some of the enclosed spaces filled in. This may have been done to enhance apparent sharpness in the early days of television, which still works but now looks a little crude. Authentic enough, but for The Serial Squadron's edition fake opening chapter titles have been added, a willful "improvement" covering the end of the time used for the "dedication" title. These might work better than an FBI warning to prevent pirating of the video, with less customer ire than adding a pop-up company logo, but the only such title in the original is on Chapter One. While the editing is generally good, six minutes into Chapter Nine there is an error, a repeated section lasting about a minute and a quarter.Unfortunately The Serial Squadron's sound processing is a source of annoyance; while noise is at a low level there are some odd frequency components, an "echoy" effect most obvious in the "footsteps" in the titles and high frequency loss, noticeably greater at low amplitudes, in many of the chapters. It is possible the filters used to remove specific noise frequencies result in "ringing." The sound processing makes some of the dialogue a little hard to understand when not shouted in the manner of the Mayor. Not much of a problem when associated with on-screen action, but it causes troble in the opening "recap" dialogue in a few of the chapters and the sonic fog is usually present, like a descending cloud as the volume level goes down, dropping both noise and high frequencies.The competition from Alpha is in two volumes, numbers 4406D and 4407D, or shrink-wrapped as # 9536D. It has better sound, the opening footsteps crisp and distinct as is the dialogue, within limits of the somewhat-distorted original, though there are occasional short pieces missing due to splices in the film. The titles are from a print with copyright by "Universal Pictures Company, Inc." instead of "Serials Incorporated" and the main title does not have the outlined letters. Further, the image behind the "Gang Busters" title has motion, while the one on the Serials Incorporated print is a still frame. But while not too bad for an Alpha release, the image quality is worse than the one from The Serial Squadron, only mildly unsharp but rather muddy and with unstable contrast and brightness. Sometimes the highlights are washed out, especially in the newspaper headlines, and at other times it is hard to tell what's going on in the "night" scenes. The image has been reduced in size slightly and a letter or two more of the headlines are present but the advantage is slight. It was transferred from videotape, as can be seen from the head-switching point seen near the bottom of the frame, though the transfer seems to have been properly done. In the titles the MPPDA certificate numbers, which should go from 7931 to 7943 are not all the same, but some are from the wrong chapters, and others are so indistinct that they cannot be read. Alpha's edition is also on two discs so there is no great cost advantage, though it comes on non-burned DVD's, the menu is not needed to move on to the next chapter and no problems were noted with the CD player forgetting where it was stopped. The only "extra feature" is advertising for other Alpha releases.So a fine serial, in two flawed DVD editions, though both are reasonably priced and neither especially bad. Using two players to have the sound from the Alpha release with the video from The Serial Squadron is possible, but they don't stay in sync very well. The better image quality of the one from The Serial Squadron will outweigh its other faults for most viewers.

Amazon tends to lump all of their DVD reviews together regardless of which edition you're buying. This is for the VCI release. Alpha released this years ago and the print looked like it was transferred to DVD through an aquarium. This is a beautiful crystal clear print and it makes you appreciate what a wonderful and exciting serial this is.Five stars!

Amateur fan club "restoration". Well, they started with nice materials. Not sure if it's a transfer of a dupe neg or dupe 16mm print (the white negative scratches are the giveaway). But where they went wrong was in "de-noising" the soundtrack. They sucked all the ambience out of the track just so they wouldn't have any extraneous noise. The bass was pumped up so that the splices (which should have been blooped) sound like mini-bombs. Then they added a phony reverb. Too bad, since this is the best print of this PD serial that's surfaced. Still recommend at least until an original print that isn't monkeyed with shows up on DVD.

I got this for my father. He loves the old chapters. He hadn't seen this one. He loved it.

I love to watch Movie Serials and this was a good one from back in the early 50's. Will watch it again.

I won’t spoil your suspense by revealing the plot, but if you can get beyond the gratuitous shoot-outs, Gang Busters displays the considerable talents of serial-star Kent Taylor (Rough Riders), Ralph Morgan, Eddie Dean, and Robert Armstrong (King Kong) in a tight plot. Armstrong seems tired —could it be because he filmed 25 serial episodes and 3 other films that year? Gang Busters gives a nod to crime labs, medicine, and surgery; and it is filled with chase scenes and cliffhangers with real live disasters (like cars falling onto a moving freeway), not staged miniatures or animations.Released as a 13-chapter, 251-minute serial in 1942, Gang Busters was inspired by a radio show of the same name which ran from 1935-1957 and was written by Gang Busters co-author Phillips Lord.If this sounds like your meat, the VCI Blu-ray edition has clear images with little snow, good sharpness, and clear audio with minimal distortion and few pops. Unfortunately, the short grey-scale makes greys white and shadows black, often obscuring faces and action in long shots. But at the pace of this film, you might not notice.I’m glad I obtained this serial. If you want to read more of my reviews or see other stuff, click my name.I hope this review has been really helpful. Enjoy!

I have seen various copies from other companies of this serial.VCI's new copy has the best sound and video of them all.A good serial that has a better plot and script than others, decent acting and effective action scenes and cliffhangers. Nice use of shadows and dark scenes to give this a fim noir look.Worth seeing!!