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Post by Zone Fighter on Oct 10, 2004 6:30:56 GMT -8
Zorro's Black Whip (1944)
George Lewis - federal agent Vic Gordon Linda Stirling - newspaper publisher Barbara Meredith/The Black Whip Lucien Littlefield - newspaper typesetter Tenpoint Jackson Francis McDonald - chief bandit Dan Hammond
Zorro does not appear in this serial. Putting Zorro in the title was obviously a ploy to attrack audiences already familar with the character.
In 1880 the people of Idaho want statheood, but their desire to join the union is threatened by a group of bandits who terrorize those who are for statheood. Newspaper publisher Randolph Meredith (Jay Kirby) fights the bandits as Zorro look alike The Black Whip. When a federal inspector is attacked by the gang the Black Whip drives them off but receives a mortal wound in the process. He makes it to his secret lair undereath the ranchhouse shared with his sister Barbara. She finds him there, dead. She prints a story in the newspaper describing how an unidentified assailant entered their home and murdered him. She does not mention that he was the Black Whip, as she takes on that role herself.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the city council their president, Dan Hammond, owner of the stagecoach line, is the leader of the bandits. He publicly speak for statheood while secretly working agains it.
Typesetter Tenpoint Jackson knows that Barbara Meredith is the Black Whip, so presumambly he knew that her brother was the original. He keeps telling her that a woman "oughten to be doin'" the things she does.
For the first 3 episodes most of the fist fighting was done by government agent Vic Gordon, who pretends to be a railraod surveyor. The Black Whip true to the name uses the whip in every situtation. She uses a six gun to a lesser degree. Like the Lone Ranger she rides away when her job is finished.
Chapter 1 The Masked Avenger
The federal investigator the Black Whip was trying to protect is killed, but before he dies he deputises Vic Gordon and Barbara Meredith.
The gang targets the newspaper. Typesetter Tenpoint Jackson is tied up and gaged but before the gang members gang destroy any of the equipment Vic Gordon shows up, wanting to place an ad. He ends up in a fight with the bandits. When he chases them out of town on horseback he's lassoed out of the sadle. The bandits kill the man who was deliveing a new printing press. They take Vic Gordon with them in the wagon. When hewakes up he fights with one of the bandits. The Black Whip shows ups. She tries to stop the wagon but all she gets is the horses, as the wagon snaps free. The runaway wagon heads for a cliff. A literal cliffhanger.
Chapter 2 Tomb of Terror
Vic Gordon jumps clear of the wagon before it goes over the cliff. The Black Whip waves at him (trumpet fanfare) and rides off.
Vic Gordon collects $10,000 cash, from ranchers, businessmen and other townfolks, to offer as a reward for the identity of the bandit's leader. Because the bank's timelocked vault cannot be opened until morning the money it stored in the stagecoach office vault.
When Vic receives a phone call from someone offering him the name of the bandit leader he agress to meeting the man alone. Of course its a trap, to put him out of the way. The Black Whip shows up in time to save him.
Vic makes it back town in time to catch two men "robbing" the coach office. They even tited up their boss to make it look good. One problem though, they put the bomb that was supposed to "open" the vault inside the already opened vault. And Vic saw the vault already open and the men carrying the money so how anybody could believe this robbery was real is beyond me. Anyhow, the two bandits knock Vic out. The Black Whip shows up. She disarms the bandits but one is able to rearm himself. The Black Whip takes cover behind the vault door. Big mistake. The bandits slam the door trapping her inside the vault with the bomb. There's an explosion.
Chapter 3 Mob Murder
The Black Whip survives the explosion by hiding behind a metal cabinet. She checks that Vic Gordon is breathing then leaves. Vic comes around and runs after the bandits but is stopped by the town council members who heared the explosion and saw him coming out of the bank. They think he stole the money. Dan Hammond claims he was hit on the head and knocked out, not true, without seeing anyone but he thought he heard Vic Gordon's voice. Vic is arressted. He won't tell the sheriff he's a government agent because that would blow his cover. Barbara Meredith promises to publish Vic's story, so the Black Whip will come and testify in his behalf. Dan Hammond afraid of what may come out in a trial plans to have Vic sprung from jail and lynched.
The Black Whip finds the two bandits who have the money and after a short fight in which one bandit accidently hits the other with a shovel knocking him out, she escapes with the money.
A brick through the jailhouse window knocks out the sheriff as the mob breaks down the door and takes Vic out. Hammond tries to pursuade the mob not do do this, but of course he's ignored (his men having been previously told what he'd say and how to react to it).
One of the bandits catches up with the Black Whip. She falls off her horse and laying on the ground appears to be shot.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Oct 10, 2004 8:46:52 GMT -8
i had this on tape at a time, i think Viking put them out (the precursor to Alpha, for sure!). it's interesting to have a female lead, that was pretty rare for those days.
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Post by Zone Fighter on Oct 10, 2004 10:21:37 GMT -8
In the Many Faces of Zorro documentary, the actress says the second world war forced Hollywood to put women in more lead roles.
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Post by Zone Fighter on Oct 10, 2004 15:15:17 GMT -8
Chapter 4 Detour of Death
The bandit missed. The Black Whip gets up and uses her whip to knock the bandit out of the saddle. She arrives back in town with the bandit and the money, in time to save Vic. Now the town's people want to lynch the bandit, but they're talked out of it.
The marshal plans to take the bandit to the territorial captital in the morning, for trial but since those plans were announced in the newspaper Vic Gordon sugggest that the marshal deputise him and let him take the bandit that night. The marshal agrees. Outside Barbara Meredith comments that it must be step down to have a federal agent deputised as a small town marshall.
The prisoner talks the marshall into sending the prisoner's watch to the prisoner's wife by express. The express takes the package to Dan Hammond, bandit leader. The bandit does not have a wife so he knows its an attempt to communicate with him. He opens the package and the watch, discovering a note about the marshal's change in plans.
Barbara Meredith sees 3 bandits take off in the direction Vic Gordon went, so after phoning Tenpoint Jackson to let him know he'll be going to press alone, she puts on the Black Whip's costume and heads after the bandits.
When the three bandits start firing at the stage coach carrying Vic Gordon and his prisoner, the prisoner tries to stop Vic from returning fire but Vic knocks him out. Vic kills one of the bandits but one of the remaing two kills the stagecoach driver. Vic climbs out out and takes control of the horses. The Black Whip kills one of the two bandits. The prisoner wakes up, slugs Vic and is about to shoot him with the dead driver's gun, but the Black Whip shoots the gun out of his hand. The prisoner jumps on the back of the remaining bandits horse and they ride off together. As the still running horses make a sharp turn the stagecoach breaks free and heads for a broken bridge.
Chapter 5 Take Off That Mask!
The stagecoah lands in the river below. The water wakes Vic Gordon. Seeing that he's not hurt the Black Whip rides off.
The two bandits stop long enough for the escaped prisoner to claim his dead partner's horse and gun. The see the Black Whip and follower her. She vanishes into the secret cave behind a waterfall. The bandits ride passed the waterfall and find themselves on the Meredith ranch. They decided that maybe Barbara Meredith knows who the Black Whip is and intended to question her.
Vic Gordon makes it back to town and stops in at the newpaper office to see Barbara. Tenpoint calls her home for Vic. Barbara has returned to her normal clothes but before she can answer the phone the bandits purst in. They tie her up then force her to phone the paper and give Tenpoint instrustructions to print an appeal for the Black Whip to surrender himself for her sake. Tenpoint almosts gives the Black Whip's indentity away when he tells Vic that her instructions make no sense because "She is....I mean no one knows who he is." The bandits let slip where there secret hideout is and Barbara is able to slip a coded message in her instructions to Tenpoint, giving its location.
The bandits made another mistake, there's a sewing basket with a pair of scissors on the table near the chair they tied Barbara in and she's able to get free. She opens a window so the bandits will think she got out that way then uses a secret door to enter the hidden room the Black Whip's costume, equipment and horse are kept in.
The bandits realise their mistake and head for their hideout to warn the others. Vic enters the old mine which serves as the bandits meeting place. He manages to capture two bandits. The two from the ranch enter behind him and he has them prisoner as well, temporarily. One on the bandits pushes another bandit into Vic. Vic fires killing the pushed man but now he's in a fist fight with 4 others. One bandit attempts to club Vic but only manages to knockout his own man. Now its 3 to 1. One of the bandits is buried under falling rocks. Two to one. Vic is knocked unconscious and is about to be shot when the Black Whip shows up and uses her whip to disarm the bandit. However, she concentrates too much on one bandit giving the other time to rearm himself. He threatens to shoot Vic so the Black Whip drops her weapons. Then he threatens to shoot Vic if the Black Whip doesn't remove the mask. The Black Whip raises her hands towards the mask.
Chapter 6 Fatal Gold
The Black Whip's whip is attached to her wrist by a leather strap so when she raises her hands she is able to grab the handle of the whip and knock gun out of the bandit's hand. They run away as she fires her six gun in their direction. She stops to give Vic some water from a canteen before riding off herself.
Vic heads to Meredith ranch, where he is surprised to find Barbara save and sound. She claims that the Black Whip rescued her. She has to go into town to let Tenpoint know that she's okay and to arrange for someone to repair her phone, damaged by the bandits. Vic says ride along, to pull guard duty. Hah. He needs her to guard him. On the way they meet up with an old prospector who says he's struck it rich. Vic suggest that a gold strike is a news story so Barbara agrees that a gold strike would bring in settlers which would help Idaho to become a state, but to protect the prospector and his claim she'll leave his name out of the story. The prospector gives Vic and Barbara his bag of gold to take into town and ship, by stage (uh oh) to capital city to be checked and registered.
Unfortunantly the bag of gold has to have the owners name on it so Dan Hammond, stagecoah line owner, knows who found the gold. He sends his men to get the location of the mine and then "silence" the prospector.
Barbara invites Vic over for a home cooked meal. He accepts. She decicdes to stop at Zeke's camp first to give him a copy of the paper. Tenpoint says that she should sell him the paper.
The bandits plan to torture Zeke into talking. One removes his right boot, so they can brand his foot, a map falls out. Zeke breaks away, grabs his rifle and starts shooting. The bandits hide behind boulders and shoot back. Barbara hears the shooting and speeds up her buckboard. One of the bandits is able to wound Zeke, but Vic kills him. The other two bandits scatter. Vic tends to Zeke while Barbara heads for a doctor. Barbara goes to the ranch and phones Tenpoint, instructing him to send the doctor.
The two bandits sneak back to the rocks above Zeke's camp with a barrel of dynamite, to drop it on Zeke and Vic. However, Vic decides to climb the same cliff as a look out point and ends up in another fist fight which ends again with him knocked out. The Black Whip enters Zeke's tent. The bandits light the fuse and toss the barrel onto the tent. KABOOOM!
Next: Wolf Pack
I think I know how the Black Whip survives this one.
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Post by Zone Fighter on Oct 12, 2004 16:09:19 GMT -8
Chapter 7 Wolf Pack
The Black Whip enters one end of the tent, and exits the other, into the mine, so she's protected from the explosion. (That close to what I figured).
A posse is formed to protect a wagon train of settlers that is on the way. The posse is misled into believe the wago train is already under attack and sets off to rescue it, not knowing that they are headed in the wrong direction. When the marshal learns the informs Vic Gordon who heads for the wagon train and Tenpoint Jackson who phones Barbara Meredith to let her know what's happening before he sets out after the posse to turn them around.
The bandits attack the (very short) wagon train, intending to drive it into a canyon two other bandits will dynamite. Vic Gordon manages to place himself between the wagon train and the bandits and kills all but two of the bandits. The Black Whip attacks the two men with the dynamite. She whips one off the cliff before the other hurls a barrel at her, knocking her down the same cliff.
Chapter 8 Invisible Victim
The Black Whip's fall is broken by a covered wagon.
Vic Gordon runs out of bullets and is captured by the two bandits. After discussing with their boss who the Black Whip could be (they correctly eliminate Vic and the marshall) its decided that Barbara Meredith probably knows who the Black Whip is. So two of the bandits take a tied up Vic to the Meredith ranch and give Barbara just one hour to produce the Black Whip. She rides off on a Vic's horse, going straight to her secret hideout.
The Black Whip enters the Meredith house through the secret door. She starts to untie Vic but is spotted through the window. She sees the bandits reflection in the mirror, so she's gone when the bandits enter. The bandits see a pair of boots sticking out a curtin so they open fire.
Chapter 9 Avalanche
After the bandits empty their guns into nothing the Black Whip appears from behind a couch, bootless. As she silently unties Vic one of the bandits tosses one of the boots into a lamp breaking it. In the dark(?) the bandits escape.
Back at his office Dan Hammond finally realises that Barbara is the Black Whip. He plans to kill her then have one of his men become the Black Whip in her place, fighting against statheood. First of course he has to find out where the Black Whip's costume and horse are hidden.
Tenpoint phones Barbara to warn her that Vic is on his way to the ranch, and that he think's she's the Black Whip. Before she can reply three bandits grab her. Two take her away, one stay behind to take care of anyone who comes looking for her.
Vic arrives at the ranch and captures the bandit, forces him to tell him where Miss Meredith is and then gets in a fight with him. Rolling around on the floor the men accidently knock open the secret door and roll down the stairs. The bandit lands on the scissors he tried to stab Vic with.
Meredith is tied to a wall. She tells the two bandits that even if she knew who the Black Whip was she wouldn't tell them, they say they know she is the Black Whip. The cabin door opens and a masked man, dressed in black says "You are mistaken, gentleman". That is the first time the Black Whip has spoken. During the fight one of the bandits makes it out of the cabin. He plans to blow up the cabin ut a third bandit arrives says he'd never get close enough to use it before he got shot. He takes the explosives and rides up the hill, to cause an avalanche to bury the cabin.
Chapter 10 Fangs Of Doom
Barbara and Vic climb out a side window. After the bandits flee Vic tries to talk Barbara into giving up the Black Whip. She refues, saying her brother made a legend of the Black Whip and she will keep it up until Idaho has achieved statheood. When he asks her to let him take over the role she convinses him that he has enough to do as an undercover agent for the government. He agrees to keep her "dark secret".
More wagon trains are coming in, protect by the "citizens patrol". Dan Hammond orders his men to drive away or steal every horse around so the citizens won't be able to go on patrol. Somehow they missed the horses in Barbara's corral, rented by a Mr. Slokam. As Vic and Barbara head for the ranch to ask Mr. Slokam to sell the horse to the citizens patrol Hammond sends his men to drive the horses away.
Two bandits, each on horseback, beat Barbara and Vic, riding a wagon, to the ranch. While one approaches Slokam openinly the other sneaks up behind him and kills him. Just then Vic and Barbara arrive. Vic shoots one of the bandits dead and the other appears to flee. Vic plans to release the bandit's horse then follow it to where the stolen horses are kept. The other bandit did not leave, but hid where he could over hear Vic. He enters Barbara's house and phones in a warning. Barbara enters her house and shoots him but only after he gave the warning.
The bandit who took the phone call heads for where the horses are kept, but Vic gets there first and pretends to be one of the gang. He just about has a bandit who doesn't know him convinced he should take him to see the big boss when the other bandit, who knows him shows up. While Vic is fighting with two bandits in a barn the Black Whip arrives to shot the third bandit outside the barn. She enters the barn and is knocked out. While Vic fights one bandit the second raises a pitchfork and seems to plunge it into the Black Whip.
Chapter 11 Flaming Juggernaut
[This is creative...] Vic finishes off his bandit and seeing the Black Whip in jeopardy, picks up a saddle and throw it. The saddle lands ontop of the Black Whip so the pitchfork just stick in the saddle. Vic takes care of the second bandit.
Convinced that some on the citizens committee is helping the gang Vic tells the committee that he had captured one of the gang but he escaped. He also claims he found a letter stating that the escaped man wanted the leader to meet him at the usual place so he could tell him who the Black Whip is.
Vic returns to Barbara's ranch, where he his prisoner is still locked up. A gun flies through the window. Baxter picks it and for a moment thinks the gang is helping him, but then he gets smart and checks the gun, which is loaded with blanks. When Vic enters the room Baxter grabs Vic's gun away from him, tosses the gun loaded with blanks, a tells Vic he wouldn't fall for such an old trick. Instead of riding off alone, with Vic following, Baxter takes Vic with him. Vic leaves a trail of bullets for the Black Whip to follow.
Dan Hammond and another bandit wait in an old mine for Baxter. When Baxter arrives with Vic the boss hides his face behind a bandana and lets his henchman do the talking. A fist fight begins. When the Black Whip arrives the fight escelates to gunfire. An oil barrel is hit, causing it to leak all over. [The oil looks suspsiciously clear, like water]. Vic and the Black Whip move deeper into the mind, intend to plug the bandits when they follow, but they don't. Instead Hammon pushes the oil barrel which is on rails, towards the pair, and sets the leaking oil on fire. Vic and the Black Whip are trapped in a dead end with a barrel of oil and flames coming there way.
Chapter 12 Trail Of Tyranny
Vic and the Black Whip escape this final cliffhanger by hiding in a second railcar, then the climb out of the mine through a hole in the cieling, caused by the explosion.
From a welt on his, given by the Black Whip's whip Dan Hammond is finally identified as the leader of the anti-state hood bandits, however on the eve of the election he escapes. Ironically, the poling place for Crecent City is the Hammond Stage Line office.
Thanks to Hammonds men voting early and often the voting is 50-50 in most of the territory, but voting in Crecent City could make Idaho a state, so Hammond orders his men to ride into town and destroy those ballots. For once he goes with them.
Barbara phones the newspaper office, from her ranch, to warn that she saw Hammond's gang riding towards town. Vic asks her to go after 4 government agents waiting for him in another town.
The citizens committee is armed and return fire when Hammond and his gang arrive in town, but the bandits are better shots. Vic manages to kill some bandits but the citizens commitee is nearly wiped out. A bandit enters the stage coach office through the back door and gets in another fist fight with Vic, who just ran out of bullets. As the other bandits attemp to break in the main door the Black Whip and the federal officers arrive. As the officers arrest the surviving bandits the Black Whip waves at Vic then rides off. Hammond, having kept seperate from the rest of his men, escapes and follows the Black Whip to her secret lair. Having discovered that Barbara Meredith is the Black Whip after all he raises his gun to kill her, but, <sigh> he's trampled to death by her horse.
Idaho votes for statheood. The citizens comittee (or what's left of it) waits for Barbara's plans for the celebration. [To my surprise Vic and Barbara did not get engaged.]
THE END
I liked this better than Zorro Rides Again, better fights, more use of the whip.
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Post by Preston on Nov 9, 2004 10:42:50 GMT -8
Because the Whip as a weapon is paramount in both the title and the chapters, I was wondering if there is any background data on the TRAINING for the whip's use. The reason I ask is because on the TV-series ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, it was reported how actor ANTHONY HOPKINS underwent a great deal of training to develop his skill at the whip. After all, in MASK OF ZORRO, in the scenes he shares with ANTONIO BANDERAS, you can see HOPKINS using a Whip to snuff out candles, and it is a frontal view and medium camera shot so you can see it is definitely HOPKINS doing the whip-action, NOT a stunt-double.
Also reported was the fact that prior to appearing in the BANDERAS movie, that HOPKINS had to train in the use of the Whip for another movie entitled THE EDGE.
Consequently, I also wonder about the background for this thread on the BLACK WHIP serial. Were the Whip-action scenes done by stunt-expert YAKIMA CANUTT? Because I understand he did stunts for the OTHER Zorro serial ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION.
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Post by Zone Fighter on Nov 9, 2004 11:16:25 GMT -8
I don't know who did the whip scenes for Zorro's Black Whip.
The Faces of Zorro documentary DVD did have an interview with a whip expert and a video of him doing various whip moves. He was probably the trainer for Mask of Zorro.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Nov 9, 2004 11:50:41 GMT -8
i'll check my excellent Zorro book, they've used one man for a lot of the movies, i think.
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Post by Preston on May 22, 2005 11:19:19 GMT -8
Megs, did you find out the name of the whip-trainer? After all, You said You were checking your Zorro book, but that was in November of last year! So I'm sure that by now you would have an answer, after these Six Months!!
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Post by Xenorama ™ on May 22, 2005 12:23:11 GMT -8
i completely forgot about this. the whip trainer for MASK OF ZORRO was Alex Green. Snowy Baker did the whip training for DON Q, SON OF ZORRO. that's all i can find right now, but i'll (gladly) re-read the book. it's called "Zorro Unmasked" by Sandra Curtis and i highly recommend it. with THE LEGEND OF ZORRO being released sometime soon, it may hit the shelves again soon. David
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Post by Zone Fighter on May 23, 2005 15:57:32 GMT -8
Does this book have anything on Zorro tv theme songs? There was a Zorro tv series which had a theme song I really liked but I can't remember the name of the series or who was in it. I think Zorro used a whip more than the sword. The series probably didn't last very long.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Jun 21, 2005 23:08:07 GMT -8
just started watching this serial, for fun, since it's already been reviewed. picture looks nice, even with a "platinum" logo in the corner.
i'll check the book, but it seems like the only song is the disney one.
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Post by Shonokin on Jun 22, 2005 7:38:00 GMT -8
I have Zorro's Fighting Legion, which seems to be a Serial fan favorite. Haven't started it yet though, maybe in the next 6 months.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Jun 22, 2005 10:09:34 GMT -8
there's another one lost to ez board. that is a good serial, and actually has some proper history and everything.
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