SOS Coast Guard (1937)

Starring Ralph Byrd, Bela Lugosi, Maxine Doyle, Richard Alexander, Lee Ford
Directed by William Witney & Alan James
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Lt. Terry Kent of the Coast Guard makes it his personal mission to track down Boroff, the murderer of his brother, who is selling and shipping a destructive disintegrating gas to foreign powers.

This entertaining serial from Republic Pictures brings together perhaps the foremost hero and villain of serialdom, Ralph Byrd (best known for playing Dick Tracy), and Bela Lugosi (the classic horror film star who also dabbled in serials).  Lugosi and his men are armed with the disintegrating gas, which causes damage via the familiar Republic "melting mountain" special effect, allowing them to keep Kent and the Coast Guard at bay as they try to smuggle the gas out of the country.  Lugosi, puffing away at cigars and arranging death traps for his nemesis, is unsurprisingly a quality villain, and some have called this the best of Lugosi's serials.  Lugosi's henchman Thorg (Richard Alexander), a burly mute giant with lengthy eyebrows, adds a physical obstacle for Kent, and has a weird relationship with Lugosi's Boroff, loyal to him but also carrying a simmering hatred of the man.  Kent's assisted by a couple of stock serial characters, gutsy reporter Jean Norman (Maxine Doyle), and comic relief photographer Snapper McGee (Lee Ford).  For me, one of the most entertaining things about the serial is Kent's unorthodox fighting style, flailing away punches at his opponent's midsection in numerous sequences.  I also enjoyed the fun and lively music, which IMDB credits to Alberto Colombo, also used in Republic's Lone Ranger serials.  Co-director William Witney is one of the great serial directors and coincidentally later married leading lady Maxine Doyle.

Condemned To Live (1935)

Starring Ralph Morgan, Pedro de Cordoba, Maxine Doyle, Russell Gleason, Mischa Auer
Directed by Frank R. Strayer
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A kindly professor, revered by his community, fails to realize that during nightly blackouts, he becomes a bloodthirsty vampire who preys on his friends and neighbors.

I think I probably like this film best among the many low-budget offerings directed by Frank Strayer. It has similarities to the other "vampire" film he directed, The Vampire Bat, although this entry has a much more substantive vampire than the other movie, and it moves along pretty well.  It doesn't compare to the more polished Dracula movies, but I still found it enjoyable.  Morgan doesn't offer much in his vampire persona other than twisting his limbs and expression, but gives a good performance as his decent other half, convincing us through sensitive line readings of his nobility and his love for the much younger Marguerite, played by Doyle.  Gleason is rather bland as Morgan's competition for Doyle, but Auer in an atypical role as a hunchback, is quite sympathetic and memorable.