One of Republic's grandest serials, with suboptimal treatmen
jrc | Jonesboro, AR USA | 12/31/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON (1943) was one of the Republic serials of the 40s. These chapter plays had some of the best fight scenes and cliffhanger endings compared to any of the other studios that made them.
Ok, big 15 chapter serial. Rightly spread out over 2 platters.
The problem is the transfer. It looks like it has been transferred from VHS over to DVD. Contrast is weak, there is a lot of flicker, etc.
Having this Cheezy edition is better than nothing. The sad fact is that Paramount/Viacom owns these great serials and used beautiful source prints for their laserdisk releases several years ago. I collected all of these Republic serials on laserdisc, including G-MEN VS. BLACK DRAGON--which looked pristine on laser.
So far, Lionsgate has thrown us only one bone, with the DVD release of THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL. Lionsgate still has a distribution deal with Paramount for release of Republic catalogue titles.
There are still many great titles from the Republic catalogue that these guys are just sitting on! Wish they would license them out to someone who cares! Legend films??"