The King of the Kongo

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For the 1952 Columbia serial see King of the Congo, and for other uses, please see Congo.
The King of the Kongo
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Produced by Nat Levine
Written by Harry Sinclair Drago
Wyndham Gittens
Starring Jacqueline Logan
Walter Miller
Richard Tucker
Boris Karloff
Cinematography Ernest Laszlo
Ray Ries
Distributed by Mascot Pictures
Release date(s) 9 August 1929
Running time 10 chapters
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The King of the Kongo (1929) is a Mascot movie serial. It was the first serial to have sound,[1] although only partial sound ("Part Talking") rather than the later (and obviously now standard) "All-Talking" productions with complete sound. The soundtrack is now considered to be lost. [2]

Contents

[edit] Plot

Independently, the two protagonists, Diana Martin and Secret Service agent Larry Trent are searching the jungle for missing relatives, her father and his brother. Tied up in this plot are ivory smugglers and a lost treasure hidden in the jungle.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Chapter titles

  1. Into the Unknown
  2. Terrors of the Jungle
  3. Temple of Beasts
  4. Gorilla Warfare
  5. Danger in the Dark
  6. Man of Mystery
  7. The Fatal Moment
  8. Sentenced to Death
  9. Desperate Choices
  10. Jungle Justice

[edit] Production

The King of the Kongo was the first film serial to have any sound element. Larger serial-producing studios (for example, Pathé and Universal Studios) were reluctant to change away from silent production (although Universal released their own Part-Talking serial, Tarzan the Tiger, later in the same year) while smaller studios could not afford to do so. Legend has it that producer and studio-owner Nat Levine carried the sound discs in his lap from Los Angeles to New York City, by train and aeroplane, for them to be safely developed. For financial reasons, these discs could not have been repaired or replaced if anything had gone wrong.[1] This was two years after the first Part-Talking film, The Jazz Singer (1927), had been released and a year after the first "All-Talking" film, Lights of New York (1928).

Two versions of this serial were released, a "Part Talking" version and a silent version intended for theatres not yet equipped for sound.

[edit] Stunts

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Preceded by
The Fatal Warning (1929) (Silent)
Mascot Serial
The King of the Kongo (1929)
Succeeded by
The Lone Defender (1930)