The time has come round for us to wander down Memory Lane once more and see the quicksand perils of the silver screen in days gone by.
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The year is 1942 and Republic Pictures are cashing in the success of their 1941 serial, Jungle Girl with a new 12-episode adventure called Jungle Girl and the Swamp Monster. The evil queen Mara (played by a blacked-up Myrtle Edwards) has begun a reign of terror using a hideous monster to slay her enemies and cause mayhem. She exercises control over the creature using voodoo-like magic.
The usual run of jungle adventures (poisonous snakes and spiders, marauding lions and hungry cannibals) befalls Jungle girl and her brave companions before the climax in the final episode, Deadly Magic. Mara is defeated, tries to flee into the jungle and becomes enmired in dangerous quicksand. Before Jungle Girl can save her, she is seized by the Swamp Monster, which exacts its own revenge on her.
The monster holds her tight in its inescapable grip, taking Mara down with it into the oozing mud. Mara’s terrified screams are cut short as the Swamp Monster clamps its gruesome hand over her mouth, gagging her as it pulls her under. The last we see of this scene is a distressed Jungle Girl watching the bubbles of Mara’s last breath rising up to the muddy surface. The camera lingers on the mud as the dramatic end music plays.
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Lost City of Evil was filmed by Republic in 1946 but not screened until the following year. A ten-episode potboiler set in deepest, darkest Peru it revolves around a team of American archaeologists searching for the city of Makku Piku, the last retreat of the Incas in the face of pursuit by the Spanish conquistadors. They discover the city but also find that the surviving Incans have descended into madness and now worship the spider god Quachil.
In episode 5 Gail Porterson (Helene Dubois) is captured and becomes a sacrifice to the children of Quachil – four huge “baby” spiders, sinking in tight bondage into a quicksand pit while being menaced by the spiders. Porterson’s comrades drive off the attacking arachnids but it’s almost too late. We see the lady archaeologist’s terrified face disappearing into the quagmire. Her muffled, despairing scream is cut off when she goes under. Prof Rex Maitland (Ralph McTiernan) dives in to save her in the nick of time.
As an aside it should be noted that Dubois was not rated for her acting ability but made a number of low-budget films and short features mostly on the strength of her outstanding 48-inch HH cup bustline.
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Perhaps the first female superheroine to make it to the big screen was Diane Princeton, aka Dynamo Girl. Deriving her super strength from the dyno-galvanic apparatus of her mentor, Doctor Tezla (Vaughn Troughton) the role of Dynamo Girl is played by Jayne Rushbrook. Dynamo Girl versus the Robot Legion appeared on screens in 1949.
Episode 3 sees her temporarily robbed of her powers by the Master Robotoid’s Negative Energy Ray, leaving her as weak as any ordinary human being. Trapped in a locked steel cell, helplessly bound, gagged and blindfolded Dynamo Girl faces the twin perils of rising mud and the deadly attentions of two Type 7 Killer robots.
The episode ends with the robots remotely deactivated by Dr. Tezla but Dynamo Girl being overwhelmed and buried alive by the sticky, clinging mud. The screen fades to black just as the mud closes over her tape-covered face.
See next week’s exciting episode at your local cinema!
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In episode 10 of The Red Circle Returns (1946) the heroine Mae Clark (Lois Wednesbury) is captured by the Black Hood and subjected to a drawn out and terrifying form of execution. The poor girl is locked into a steel-lined chamber the walls of which are being forced together by hydraulic rams. Dense sticky mud is being pumped into the dwindling space Mae is trapped in.
So, will she be engulfed and suffocated by the rising mud before she is crushed or will the walls get her first? Helplessly bound, gagged and unable to save herself, do the Daredevils of the Red Circle even know that she’s been abducted? Do they even know the location of Black’s Hood’s secret lair? Can they get there in time to save her from certain death?
This scene is notable for the length of time devoted to showing Mae’s futile struggles and frantic, muffled screams as the tension mounts. The very end of the episode sees her terrified face being covered up by the mud and the walls closing in on her. How can she possibly survive and make it to episode 11?
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In 1947 Republic released Leopard Girl, trying emulate the success of RKO’s Tarzan and the Leopard Woman from the previous year. Veronica Layton is cast in the lead as Leopard Girl and with the assistance of American big game hunter Tad Rollinson (Ian Blackwood) she battles the chief of the evil Yenelo tribe and his warriors for the valuable store of ivory tusks in the Elephant’s Graveyard. Leopard Girl persuades Rollinson not to disturb this sacred site for monetary gain and together they fight to stop the Yenelo chief from desecrating it and stealing the ivory.
In episode 11 Leopard Girl is trapped in a stockade filled with deep mud and is menaced by a mud monster summoned up and controlled by the Yenelo witch doctor. The episode ends with the horrible monster forcing her head under the surface and holding her there until we see her breath come bubbling up to the oozing surface. The camera holds the shot of the monster holding her under for almost a minute before the credits roll, prompting the question,
'Did Veronica Layton really allow herself to be held under the mud for that long?'The answer remains unknown to this day.
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