The Fighting Devil Dogs
| The Fighting Devil Dogs | |
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| Directed by |
William Witney John English |
| Produced by | Robert M. Beche |
| Written by |
Franklin Adreon Ronald Davidson Barry Shipman Sol Shor |
| Starring |
Lee Powell Herman Brix Eleanor Stewart Montagu Love Hugh Sothern Sam Flint Perry Ivins Forrest Taylor John Picorri |
| Cinematography | William Nobles |
| Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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12 chapters / 204 minutes (serial) 69 minutes (feature) 6 26½-minute episodes (TV) 100 minutes (TV movie) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $94,656 (negative cost: $92,569) |
The Fighting Devil Dogs (1938) is a 12-chapter Republic movie serial starring Lee Powell and Herman Brix, the latter better known by his later stage name, Bruce Bennett. It was directed by William Witney and John English. While not often considered one of the best serials ever made, as it contains a lot of and two recap chapters, it is famous for its main villain, The Lightning—the very first costumed supervillain. There is some speculation that George Lucas used The Lightning as a template for Darth Vader.
In Singapore, two Marine Lieutenants, Tom Grayson and Frank Corby, uncover the threat of a masked terrorist called The Lightning, who uses an arsenal of powerful lightning based weaponry in his bid for world conquest. However, the battle becomes personal when The Lightning annihilates the officers' unit, and later kills Lt. Grayson's father as he was helping the investigation of the weapon. Now, the marines have dedicated themselves to stopping The Lightning and bringing him to justice...
The Fighting Devil Dogs was budgeted at $94,656 although the final negative cost was $92,569 (a $2,087, or 2.2%, under spend) making it one of only three pre-war Republic serials to be produced under budget. It was the cheapest Republic serial of 1938 and the second cheapest of all Republic serials. It has two recap chapters rather than the usual one (or sometimes none), in which the entire plot of the serial so far is repeated, and makes extensive use of . The cheapest Republic serial was The Vigilantes Are Coming (1936) at $87,655, while the next cheapest after The Fighting Devil Dogs is Undersea Kingdom (also 1936) at $99,222.
It was filmed between 10 March and 29 March 1938. The serial's production number was 793.
One of the directors, William Witney, believed this to be one of the worst of the serials he ever made.
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