Overland Mail

"Overland Mail" is a 15-chapter Universal serial released in 1942, directed by Ford Beebe and John Rawlins, with story by Johnston McCulley and screenplay by Paul Huston. While not especially inspired, it has an interesting cast including Lon Chaney, Jr., both Noah Beery Sr. and Jr., and Don Terry, better known for his "Don Winslow" serials.Jim Lane (Lon Chaney, Jr.) has been commissioned by the Government to investigate attacks on the mail carried by Overland Stage Lines. He is helped by his friends Sierra Pete (Noah Beery, Jr.) and "Buckskin" Bill Burke (Don Terry). Unknown to Tom Gilbert (Tom Chatterton), Overland's owner, his supposed friend and rival Stage line owner, Frank Chadwick (Noah Beery, Sr.) is trying to take over the Government mail contract.The plot is not remarkable, but Lon Chaney, Jr. is believable in the action scenes, and his pal Sierra lets "Buckskin" and the audience know when the "romantic" parts are supposed to be happening. While Tom Gilbert's daughter Barbara (Helen Parrish) occasionally needs rescue, she usually not only avoids being in the way, but even gets into some of the battles, shooting at Indians or bad guys. And there is a good supply of bad guys, including Chadwick's assistant, Charles Darson (Robert Barron), henchmen Sam Gregg (Harry Cording), Mack (Roy Harris, a.k.a. Riley Hill), Jake (Ethan Laidlaw) and Lem (Carleton Young), with half-breed The Puma (Charles Stevens) in a familiar role, stirring up the Indians and their chief, Black Cloud (Chief Many Treaties). The standard formula is varied a bit with lack of coordination among the bad guys, who occasionally imperil their boss with the timing of their schemes, and "The Puma" certainly has his own agenda, though this helps Chadwick avoid detection as the brains behind the attacks. But while Universal serials are known for recycling cliffhangers, in the later chapters this one borrows a lot of the plot associated with them from the 1939 serial "The Oregon Trail." Originality must not have been a primary concern, but things move along fairly well and the bad guys are protrayed more convincingly than they were in the earlier serial.VCI's edition, #8449, is on two discs, the first double-layer. The image is quite sharp, apparently from a 16mm print, since "United World Pictures" whose logo appears on the first chapter was Universal's non-theatrical division, established in 1947 and later that year purchasing Castle Films. There is a slight softness in the titles toward the edges of the screen, but for normal television viewing this is hardly a problem. The gray scale is good, though the white letters of the scrolling text of the chapter "Forewords" against the bright sky tend to wash out, as do some parts of the "next week" titles. There is little dirt, and only a few minor scratches, but some chapters have a couple interruptions of the dialogue due to splices, possibly common to all 16mm prints since Alpha's edition is no different. The sound is a little "dry" but reasonably free of distortion and noise, with adequate high-frequency response. A good, if not outstanding print, but well above-average for releases of Universal serials from the 1940's. The usual "restoration cheat" is present, with most chapters having the MPPDA certificate number for Chapter Two, but by 1942 the titles were otherwise the same. Extras are "bios" for Ford Beebe, John Rawlins, Lon Chaney Jr., Noah Beery Sr., and Noah Beery Jr. Disc 2 has four trailers, for "Tim Tyler's Luck," "Riders of Death Valley," "Jesse James Rides Again" and "Blazing the Overland Trail." Some added proofreading might have helped; the menu had "Jessie James Rides Again" for the trailer, and the titles for Chapters 12 and 14 also contain errors. But the chapter selection menu still works properly.Alpha's edition, # ALP 4732D has all 15 chapters crammed onto one double-layer disc. The image is not as sharp as VCI's, but adequate, better than many Alpha releases, good enough that most of the small MPPDA certificate numbers can be read and they are all correct. Only Chapter Four fails to have the original "next week" title present. The print wasn't in especially good shape, some parts have a number of scratches, and the gray scale is a little lacking. The "next week" chapter titles often wash out against the background sky, worse than with VCI's edition, and the dark scenes are a little murky. Vertical jitter is seen especially in the first chapter, and there's a major videotape sync glitch near the suspension-bridge cliffhanger of Chapter Five. This chapter also has shrunken titles with a "Serials Incorporated" copyright, the rest are the same as VCI's, only without mention of "United World Films" and they start abruptly, often spliced up due to damage. The sound has plenty of high frequencies, but is noisier than VCI's, with the background hiss pumping up due to an "auto-level" type of dynamic compression. But for a change, Alpha only puts their logo in the corner of the screen at the end of the last chapter. A fairly good release for Alpha, though decidedly lower quality than the VCI edition.While far from the best of Universal's western serials, it is interesting for Noah Beery Sr., in his last serial-movie role, and those familiar with other Universal western serials shouldn't find it to be too redundant if watched with a day or more between chapters. Alpha's edition is cheaper than VCI's, but while the image isn't too bad, VCI's is cleaner, has better sound and also includes a few extra features.

fIRST OF ALL I AM A LOVER OF THE EARLY SERIALS, THERE IS A LOT OF ACTION, AND SUPRISINGLY SOME HISTORICAL FACTS ADDED TO THE MOVIE. THE ADDITION OF "BILL CODY" WHO REALLY WAS AT ONE TIME A PONY EXPRESS RIDER. THE ACTING WAS VERY GOOD, IT WAS GREAT TO SEE LON CHANEY JR., NOT PLAYING THE HEAVY BUT THE HERO. I ALWAYS ENJOY WATCHING "NOAH BERRY JR" AND SENIOR PLAY TOGETHER. WHILE SOME OF THE CLIFFHANGER SCENES WERE A LITTLE HARD TO BELIEVE. IT WAS STILL A VERY GOOD SERIAL, WITH GREAT ACTORS, WITH A BELIEVEABLE STORY LINE. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.

OK, I only watched 4 of the 15 chapters, so this review is probably not the final answer. You will like this serial if you enjoy watching indians attack white people in wagons. Endless scenes of indians chasing wagons, horses running and guns shooting. Wagons crashing and burning, over and over and over. Sorry, but I had to turn it off. Here we have the standard story line of white men posing as indians, making the indians look bad. I really wanted to like this serial, but the truth prevailed--not all serials are good (or worth watching).

A great old serial. One of Lon Chaney Jr's best performances. We started out to watch just a few episodes instead we watched all of them in one night. I would highly recommend this for a true Lon Chaney, Jr. fan.

Great item!!!! I've been looking for these serials everywhere... best price I've found! - thanks for carrying them!

FULL of action! Quite entertaining!

A first for me to actually see him not as the other character which he is highly noted for !

Junk video first one would not play sent it back second one would not play sent it back for refund