Truly Dreadful Film

Excellent, a Must See

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

. . . of the 3 hour, 46 minute, 59 second 12-chapter "Mascot Serial" version of THE HURRICANE EXPRESS would technically be qualified to rate or comment about this flick. (That's 13,559 seconds, for the mathematically challenged, like my sister.) For ease of reference, your twelve chapters (with their time splits) are: 1)The Wrecker (28:43), 2)Flying Pirates (16:35), 3)The Masked Menace (17:15), 4)Buried Alive (19:26), 5)Danger Lights (16:48), 6)The Airport Mystery (19:47), 7)Sealed Lips (18:19), 8)Outside the Law (19:00), 9)The Invisible Army (18:29), 10)The Wrecker's Secret (16:26), 11)Wings of Death (17:26), and Unmasked (17:45). As he doddered toward Oblivion, John Wayne campaigned desperately to eclipse the 259 feature film credits of his late henchman, Ward Bond. In order to inflate his work record from the 166 features on his filmography for this site (and all other credible listings) by another 94, Wayne counted each of the serials he appeared in (such as HURRICANE) as TWELVE feature film roles, rather than one (even though 11 of the chapters in each serial ran for LESS than 20 minutes!). Wayne also awarded himself a theatrically-released feature film credit for each of his TV situation comedy cameo guest bows, as well as counting coup every time he made the annual Oscar Awards broadcast as either a losing nominee or a seat filler.

"The Hurricane Express" is a very low budget movie serial from tiny Mascot Studios. And, because of this, there isn't a whole lot to distinguish it other than one big thing--it stars a very young John Wayne. If it weren't for this, I doubt if many people would ever want to see the film. It just isn't very good.The film begins by introducing Larry (John Wayne) and his father. Larry is a pilot and his dad has been an engineer for the railroad for many years. However, soon the father is killed--the result of someone sabotaging the rails. Who would do this and why would they do it? Larry was determined to figure this out for himself--and thus goes the rest of this 12-part serial. At the end of each part, there is, of course, some cliffhanger that makes it APPEAR that he is killed--but naturally, Larry has found some ridiculous way to somehow survive. It turns out that the sabotage is NOT the work of some nut, but a guy called 'The Wrecker'--but who the wrecker is you need to wait until part 12 to learn. In the meantime, he and his gang try again and again to sabotage the rails.When you watch the film you'll probably notice a few things. First, the film is very quiet. The usual incidental music is gone--partly because early sound films sometimes missed this and partly because the production was so cheap that they couldn't afford it. Also, the condition of the print is not particularly great--but much of this is because of the degradation of the film and has nothing to do with the original quality of the serial. As for the writing, it's pretty poor--with lots of action but not a whole lot in depth or believability. It's quite a step below the quality of a serial from a decade later. Not terrible...just not all that good.

"The Hurricane Express" was one of three serials that John Wayne made for Nat Levine and Mascot Pictures after leaving Columbia Pictures following a run-in with mogul Harry Cohn over the affections of a young starlet.The Mascot serials were always fast paced and full of action and this one is no exception. The story revolves around a mysterious character named "The Wrecker" who is bent on destroying the L & R Railroad. He causes the wreck of the Hurricane Express in which engineer Jim Baker (J. Farrell MacDonald) is killed. His son Larry (Wayne), an airline pilot vows to avenge his father's death. And that's basically it.Wayne goes through the rest of the serial trying to identify "The Wrecker" and bring him to justice. Is the villain Edwards (Tully Marshall), the General Manager of the railroad; Stevens (Conway Tearle) the railroad attorney; Walter Grey (Lloyd Whitlock) the head of the airline; Stratton (Edmund Breese) an escaped convict who claims to have been set up by the railroad; Jordan (Matthew Betz) an engineer who was fired and has vowed revenge or is it Carlson (Alan Bridge) a station agent?Aiding Baker is the lovely Gloria Martin (Shirley Grey) who turns out to be Stratton's daughter. Appearing as "The Wrecker's" henchmen are Ernie Adams, Charlie King, Glenn Strange and Al Ferguson. Complicating matters is the fact that "The Wrecker" can impersonate anybody by donning a life like mask of that person. Never mind that he can also apparently assume their physical characteristics and clothing as well.After 12 chapters, a number of false leads and red herrings "The Wrecker" turns out to be.......wait, no, no...Bam! Bam!..aaaargh!John Wayne was quite young and very athletic at the time this serial was made and can be seen clearly performing many of his own stunts. The winsome Grey was also at Columbia at the same time as Wayne and even appeared in a picture or two with him. I wonder..hmmmm.These old serials also provide a snapshot of the times. I particularly enjoyed seeing the old cars, trains and planes. A bit dated but a nevertheless enjoyable piece of nostalgia.

Despite a great title, "The Hurricane Express" (referring to a crack passenger train which we hardly even see at all) is very slow and talky. Most of the film time is spent in static conversation about who might be wrecking the railroad company's trains. This serial came from the bargain-basement Mascot studio, and seems as if it were done by a high-school film class. There is John Wayne, of course, and some worthwhile vintage train, airplane and outdoor footage, but if that's all you want, keep poised onto the fast-forward button. The editing (or lack thereof) is the worst thing about "The Hurricane Express"; scenes are allowed to run on interminably, and it's as though Mascot didn't want to throw any precious film away. Shy away from the full-length film and look instead for any condensed version .... which still might be too long. So, who wrecked "The Hurricane Express"? Mascot Pictures did. Recommended only for curiosity-seekers.