BRICK BRADFORD (1947)--Tinted

BRICK BRADFORD (1947) was the 35th serial released by Columbia Pictures. It was based on the comic strip Brick Bradford, which was created by Clarence Gray and William Ritt. My apologies for the condition of the print and video. It will hopefully be enhanced and colorized in the future.

PLOT:
Brick Bradford is assigned by the government to aid Doctor Gregor Tymak, scientist and inventor who is working on an "Interceptor Ray" that can destroy incoming rockets. Unfortunately, it can also be used as a death ray, bringing it to the attention of foreign spy agent Laydron. Tymak uses his door into the fifth dimension to escape criminals and it takes him to the far side of the Moon (which luckily has air and is a rocky terrain without craters). There he is captured and sentenced to die by freezing to absolute zero by the Queen Khana, despot of the Moon, because they do not believe he has come from the Earth.

The action moves to the Moon as the ray requires a special element called Lunarium (with an atomic mass of 200) previously only found in a meteorite. Working with exiles in the lunar wasteland, the heroes overthrow Queen Khana and return with the Lunarium.

However, the device still requires a formula hidden on an uncharted island 200 years in the past, so Brick and sidekick Sandy Sanderson travel in Tymak's time machine, the Time Top, to retrieve it. The final third of the serial is spent on modern day Earth with more trouble from the spy Laydron.

CAST:
Kane Richmond as Brick Bradford
Rick Vallin as Sandy Sanderson
Linda Leighton as June Salisbury (as Linda Johnson)
Pierre Watkin as Prof. Salisbury
Charles Quigley as Laydron
Jack Ingram as Albers
Fred Graham as Black
John Merton as Dr. Gregor Tymak
Leonard Penn as Eric Byrus
Wheeler Oakman as Louis Walthar
Carol Forman as Queen Khana
Charles King as Creed [Ch. 1-7, 9-15]
John Hart as Dent [Ch. 1-6, 9-15]
Helene Stanley as Carol Preston [Ch. 4-6]

PRODUCTION:
Brick Bradford was the first of only three science fiction serials released by Columbia. Even with its disperate and bombastic elements, it might be considered the first "Cold War" serial.

The serial was broken into three sections, each of which was written by a different screenwriter. The first section, chapters one to five, was written by George Plympton. The middle section, chapters six to ten, was written by Arthur Hoerl. The end of the serial, chapters eleven to fifteen, was written by Lewis Clay.

CHAPTERS:
Atomic Defense
Flight to the Moon
Prisoners of the Moon
Into the Volcano
Bradford at Bay
Back to Earth
Into Another Century
Buried Treasure
Trapped in the Time Top
The Unseen Hand
Poison Gas
Door to Disaster
Sinister Rendezvous
River of Revenge
For the Peace of the World