Darkest Africa

Darkest Africa (1936)

MANUEL KING - World's Youngest Wild Animal Trainer

A 15-episode serial in which Beatty goes to darkest Africa to rescue the Goddess of Joba, who is being held by the high priest.

Date of release
1936-02-15
TMDB
8.3 / 10 (5)
Runtime
4h 29m
Genres
Adventure
Director
B. Reeves Eason, Joseph Kane

Casting

Interesting facts

Darkest Africa (1936) is a Republic movie serial. This was the first serial produced by Republic Pictures and was a loose sequel to a Mascot Pictures serial called The Lost Jungle, also starring Clyde Beatty. Mascot, and other companies, had been taken over in 1935 by Consolidated Film Laboratories and merged to become Republic. Producer Nat Levine was formerly the owner of Mascot Pictures.

Production

Darkest Africa was budgeted at $107,281 although the final negative cost was $119,343 (a $12,062, or 11.2%, overspend). It was the most expensive Republic serial of 1936.

It was filmed between 29 November and 28 December 1935 under the working title Dark Continent. The serial's production number was 416. Over all sixty-six Republic serials, however, this was the third cheapest per chapter (it cost $7,956.20 on average to produce each of the 15 chapters in the serial).

The special effects are by John T. Coyle and the Lydecker brothers.

Darkest Africa contained the first use of the flying special effects that Republic would go on to use in future serials, such as the acclaimed Adventures of Captain Marvel. This serial also showcased examples of the studio's model work that would be one of the factors in its future reputation and success. The destruction of the lost city in the final chapter is particularly highlighted by Cline as a "picturesque example."

Yakima Canutt was the ramrod (stunt coordinator) on this serial.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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