To finance a hunt for a pirate treasure he has a chart to, Dick
Moreland (Richard Talmadge) flies around the world in an aeroplane (then
a big thing) as a promotional stunt for airline-boss John Craig (Pat
O'Malley). When he, at the club, tells about his treasure hunt, though,
Staley Brassett (Walter Miller) is one of the listeners, & he is
desperate to lay hands on the pirate's gold himself. So he has his goons
break into Dick's house & steal the chart. The robbers actually
manage to get the chart, but do not manage to shake off Dick, who is in
hot pursuit together with Dorothy (Lucille Lund), airline boss John
Craig's daughter. This soon leads to an impressive fight on the roof of
a five storey building plus Dick jumping off the same breaking through a
series of sunblinds - but with the chart. Further chases ensue by car,
motorbike, train & boat, with the chart changing owners on a regular
level, until Brassett, whose involvement with the crooks is still not
found out, changes tactics & manages to have Dick persuade him to
join them (this being, besides Dick of course Dorothy & her father)
on the treasure hunt. On the ship that is to take them to the island the
treasure is hidden, Brassett has his men travelling as stowaways though,
& soon they organize a mutiny, but are overthrown by good captain
Carson (William Desmond), Dick & company, & incarcerated. &
while our gang, having arrived on the treasure island, goes
treasurehunting, Brassett finds an excuse to steal away from the others
& free his men, who, as soon as the treasurechest is found, attack
Dick & the gang, who are saved by the natives (who for some reason
speak easy to identify Spanish), though. But upon opening the
treasurechest, our heroes only find another chart, having the search
begin anew - & giving the crooks another chance to get to the gold
first. When good & evil engage in yet another fight, Dick &
Dorothy get caught up in a cave by an explosion while the others
are captured by the gangsters, who then manage to find the gold, too.
But it wouldn't be Dick wouldn't he find a way out of the cave &
manage to free his friends as well as at lastfigure out Brassett's one
of them, while the crooks get caught by the natives again. But to spare
them a fate as the natives' sacrifices, Dick now tries to save them, but
it seems that he is more likely to share their fate - until captain
Carson - the only one of the good guys who speaks Spanish - can in an
underwhelming finalestrike a deal with the natives to set Dick free
& transfer the crooks into his custody. Very enjoyable
& fast-moving serial, profiting greatly from a very linear
storyline, a series of very different settings (the city, the docks, the
ship, the jungle), & its male lead, Richard Talmadge, who might not
have made the luckiest transition from silent to sound & might not
look like your average action star, but ... he is the real deal, doing -
clearly visible on film -most of his rather breathtaking stunts himself
and showing great talent in choreographing rather unusual, even novel
action (some of his fighting on rooftops & jumpiong down a building
through a series of sunblinds found its way largely unchanged into
Jackie Chan action-movies some 50+ years later). |