Darkest Africa
| Darkest Africa | |
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| Directed by |
B. Reeves Eason Joseph Kane |
| Produced by |
Nat Levine Barney A. Sarecky |
| Written by |
Ted Parsons John Rathmell Barney A. Sarecky |
| Starring |
Clyde Beatty Manuel King Elaine Shepard Lucien Prival Ray "Crash" Corrigan Wheeler Oakman |
| Music by | Arthur Kay |
| Cinematography |
Edgar Lyons William Nobles |
| Edited by | Dick Fantl |
| Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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15 chapters / 269 minutes (serial) 73 minutes (feature) 100 minutes (TV) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $107,281 (negative cost: $119,343) |
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.
While on Safari in East Africa, Clyde Beatty runs into a loincloth wearing boy, Baru, and his pet ape Bonga. Baru reveals that he has escaped from the lost city of Joba, King Solomon's sacred city of the Golden Bat, but that his sister, Valerie, remains there. She was found by Dagna as a child and declared to be Joba's goddess as part of his quest for power. Her escape could cause a revolt among the city's citizens. Clyde agrees to help Baru rescue Valerie and they set out to Joba, through the Valley of Lost Souls.
Meanwhile, the unscrupulous Durkin and Craddock notice the green diamond Baru is wearing and follow them to plunder the city for similar jewels. Dagna receives word of the heroes approach from his Bat-men and makes plans to stop them.
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).
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