Mystery Mountain (serial)

Plot

Ken Williams (Ken Maynard) is determined to discover the identity of a mysterious killer who preys upon railroads and transportation companies like the ones owned by Jane Corwin (Verna Hillie). Her railroad worker father (Lafe McKee) was the first victim of the murderous fiend known as The Rattler, who is especially difficult to catch because he makes himself appear as other people with a collection of masks, or he effects a strange disguise with eyeglasses, a fake nose, and a crepe-hair mustache. The Rattler — also known as "the Menace of the Mountain" — attempts to control the mountain and its hidden gold from his secret cave filled with strange electronic gadgets.

Cast

Filming and budget

Mystery Mountain was filmed in the fall of 1934. The film had an operating budget of $65,000 (equal to $1,163,694 today), and a negative cost of $80,000.

Filming locations

Stuntwork

According to the book The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury, Ken Maynard was doubled by Cliff Lyons in some scenes but performed many of his own stunts, especially riding, in others. However, the later book In the Nick of Time states that Ken Maynard was doubled by his brother Kermit Maynard. The physical similarities between the two makes it difficult to spot the difference on screen between actor and stuntman. Maynard's horse, Tarzan, had three doubles, one of which was blind.

Future serial director William Witney, working as an assistant director, performed one stunt during this serial when the stuntman failed to show up to the location shoot. He rode a horse at speed across a bridge over a ravine with a moving train behind him.

Special effects

Special effects were provided by J. Laurence Wickland.

Chapter titles

1. The Rattler
2. The Man Nobody Knows
3. The Eye That Never Sleeps
4. The Human Target
5. Phantom Outlaws
6. The Perfect Crime
7. Tarzan the Cunning
8. The Enemy's Stronghold
9. The Fatal Warning
10. The Secret of the Mountain
11. Behind the Mask
12. The Judgment of Tarzan