Hop Harrigan (serial)


Hop Harrigan is a Columbia film serial, based on the Hop Harrigan comic books by DC Comics. The serial comprised 15 two-reel chapters with Derwin Abrahams as the director, and Sam Katzman, the producer. Columbia Pictures was one of the last Hollywood studios to continue in postwar years with the serial format. By 1947, Universal Pictures discontinued their serials, with only Republic Pictures and Columbia continuing with serials. The last serial was Columbia's Blazing the Overland Trail.

Plot

Hop Harrigan, a top Air Corps pilot, leaves the military and he and his mechanic, "Tank" Tinker, open up a small charter air service. They are hired by J. Westly Arnold to fly an inventor, Dr. Tabor, to his secret laboratory, where he is working on a new and powerful energy machine.
A mysterious villain named "The Chief Pilot", however, is also determined to have the new energy machine for his own purposes. He uses a destructive raygun to cripple Hop's aircraft and kidnaps Dr. Tabor. Hop and Tank, aided by Gail Nolan and her younger brother, Jackie, finally overcome the criminals only find a bigger threat to them all within their group.
Dr. Tabor is insane and has a hideous plan to destroy the earth. Only Hop can stop him.

Chapter titles

  1. A Mad Mission
  2. The Secret Ray
  3. The Mystery Plane
  4. Plunging Peril
  5. Betrayed by a Madman
  6. A Flaming Trap
  7. One Chance for Life
  8. White Fumes of Fate
  9. Dr. Tobor's Revenge
  10. Juggernaut of Fate
  11. Flying to Oblivion
  12. Lost in the Skies
  13. No Escape
  14. The Chute that Failed
  15. The Fate of the World

    Cast

Hop Harrigan was based on Jon l. Blummer's All-American Comics and associated radio series. The serial featured location shooting at an airport, but relied heavily on studio sets. The aircraft in Hop Harrigan included a Boeing-Stearman Kaydet, Bellanca Cruisair and a Stinson Junior.

Reception

Author and film critic, Andrew C. Cline wrote in In the Nick of Time that Hop Harrigan is "... a fairly action-filled cliffhanger... action was well paced, making this chapterplay as convincing and successful as it was meant to be."

Citations