Hawk of the Wilderness

Plot

Dr Lincoln Rand Sr, leading an expedition to an uncharted island in the Arctic circle that may be the ancestral home of all Native Americans, is shipwrecked. The only survivors are Lincoln Rand Jr, Dr Rand's son and his servant Mokuyi.

Years later, a message from the sinking ship is found and an expedition sets out to find the island again. Part of the crew, led by smuggler Solerno, mutinies when they reach the island, abandoning Dr Munro and his expedition. Fortunately, Dr Munro and company are rescued by Lincoln Rand Jr, alias Kioga, the adult son of Dr Rand, who has been raised on the island by Mokuyi.

Cast

Production

Hawk of the Wilderness was filmed between 18 September and 13 October 1938, with location filming in Mammoth Lakes, California. The serial was budgeted for $117,987 but the final negative cost rose slightly to $121,168.

Tuffie was cast when his trainer, during the interview, said "Tuffie, it's dark in here. Turn on the light." Tuffie did so by finding the switch, pulling a chair across to reach it and flipping the switch with his paw.

Silent parts of the serial were filmed with a one-inch lens. Cameraman Edgar Lyons had initially been filming more of the clouds in the sky than the actors, with the effect of partially cutting them out of the shot. The studio complained. Director William Witney compromised with the use of the wider lens, which would take in both cloudscape and actors. Only silent scenes were shot in this manner because the camera would be both closer to the actors and take in more of the surroundings, preventing the microphone from getting close enough to work properly.

Special Effects

The special effects in this serial were created by the Lydecker brothers.

Stunts

Theatrical

Hawk of the Wilderness' official release date is 3 December 1938, although this is actually the date the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges.

Television

In the early 1950s, Hawk of the Wilderness was one of fourteen Republic serials edited into a television series. It was broadcast in six 26½-minute episodes.

It was also one of twenty-six Republic serials re-released as a film on television in 1966. The title of the film was changed to Lost Island of Kioga. This version was cut down to 100 minutes in length.

Critical reception

The burial of Kias in the final chapter is regarded by Cline as one of the "very few successful attempts at drama in serials."

Chapter titles

1. Mysterious Island (28min 59s)
2. Flaming Death (16min 40s)
3. Tiger Trap (16min 46s)
4. Queen's Ransom (16min 50s)
5. Pendulum of Doom (16min 35s)
6. The Dead Fall (16min 40s)
7. White Man's Magic (16min 41s)
8. Ambushed (16min 41s)
9. Marooned (16min 41s) - a re-cap chapter
10. Camp of Horror/Caves of Horror (16min 39s)
11. Valley of Skulls (16min 41s)
12. Trail's End (16min 40s)

_Source:

This was one of the two 12-chapter serials released by Republic in 1938, the other was The Fighting Devil Dogs. This year began the studio's standard release pattern of two 12-chapter and two 15-chapter serials in every year. This pattern remained until 1944 with the exception of 1942, which had only one 15-chapter serial released instead of two.