Red Barry

Red Barry, a 13-chapter serial from Universal from 1938, featuring Larry “Buster” Crabb as detective Red Barry, and Francis Robinson as reporter, Mississippi (I loved her southern accent). Edna Sedgewick plays a Russian dancer, with a pretty good French accent. This serial was almost five hours long, but lots of fun. Many twist, as the good guys weren’t always good. Everyone was after two million dollars in bonds that Russia sent to Wing Fu to buy bombers for the war. Plenty of good fight scenes, as usual and Tom Steele is around for this. The best fight scene was when the Russian café erupts in a free-for-all, and everyone was fighting. While white men were playing a couple Asian bad guys, it was nice to see Philip Ahn around as a real Asian actor. Buster Crabb gets to show off his swimming abilities. The cliffhangers weren’t as good as those from Republic, but none of the studios beat Republic with cliffhangers. Still, another great serial.