Film #144 - S.O.S. Coast Guard (1937)
S.O.S. Coast Guard is a fairly standard action serial that is saved from total obscurity by a few high profile cast members. But it’s never able to really rise above its basic nature and become something truly memorable.
It tells of Lt. Terry Kent (Ralph Byrd - the same year he would debut as Dick Tracy), who along with his Coast Guard crew tries to stop the nefarious plans of the evil Boroff (Béla Lugosi), who has created a disintegrating gas and hopes to leverage that into world domination. (Or something like that. I said it wasn’t memorable.)
The setups and cliffhangers are all fairy standard issue. I can remember only a couple that were noteworthy and none that really thrilled. The characters are of the “one from column A, one from column B” variety.
Byrd is a fine leading man and it’s easy to see why he was so highly sought after in the serial field in those days. He knew how to sell even the silliest of contrived scenes. Lugosi is a bit subdued, but still gives a fine performance. He usually shone when he got a chance to play a character with a decent public face, but a darker, hidden side and he plays to that well here. Again, it’s the material that the let-down, not the performer. Love interest duties are filled by Maxine Doyle as Jean, but there’s no spark between her and Byrd. Comic relief comes in the form of Lee Ford as “Snapper” McGee, an accident prone photographer and the authority figure comes from Herbert Rawlinson, a stern leader as Commander Boyle.
There’s really nothing terribly wrong with S.O.S. Coast Guard. But there were hundreds and hundreds of similar serials made in those days and there’s nothing here to let it rise above the crowd except the cast. If the cast is enough to entice you, there’s no harm in it. Byrd and Lugosi are both good and there’s nothing to make you cringe. There just isn’t anything to make you cheer, either.