Perils of Nyoka

Director: William Witney William Witney

Overview

Nyoka Gordon (Kay Aldridge) leads an expedition into the most remote part of the Libyan desert in search of her father, Professor Henry Gordon (Robert Strange), who disappeared while seeking out the long-lost golden tablets of Hippocrates. The tablets, among other attributes, are reputed to contain the cures for any number of deadly diseases that still plague mankind. Nyoka and her father are the only two people in the world who can translate the papyrus giving directions to the hiding place of the tablets. Her allies in her search include: Dr. Larry Grayson (Clayton Moore), a young physician; Torrini (Tristram Coffin), an Italian adventurer; Professor Campbell (Forbes Murray), a colleague of her father's; and Red Davis (Billy Benedict), their driver. Opposing them is Vultura (Lorna Gray), the leader of a deadly desert cult, who regard the tablets as sacred and will do anything -- including committing murder -- to prevent their discovery and removal. Aided by her ally, Cassib (Charles B. Middleton), and the Taureg tribesmen, Vultura and her cultists lay all manner of deadly traps, involving everything from burning pits of fire and tunnels filled with hurricane-like winds to just plain getting crushed by the embrace of Vultura's trained gorilla, Satan (Emil Van Horn). Meanwhile, Nyoka and her expedition also face the danger of treachery from within. Nyoka must first secure the papyrus and avenge the murder of Major Reynolds in the opening chapter, and then get past the opposing Taureg tribesmen -- and little does she realize that the leader of the Tauregs is far closer to her than she ever could have guessed.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/03/2018
UPC:	0660845449183
Original Release:	1942
Source:	Grapevine Mod
Language:	English
Sales rank:	30,596

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kay Aldridge	Nyoka Gordon
Clayton Moore	Dr. Larry Grayson
John Bagni	Ben Ali
Billy Benedict	Red Davis
Tris Coffin	Benito Torrini
John Davidson	Lhoba
Kenne Duncan	Abou
Adrian Booth	Vultura
Charles Middleton	Cassib
Forbes Murray	Prof. Campbell
George Pembroke	John Spencer
Georges Renavent	Maghreb
Robert Strange	Prof. Gordon
Ken Terrell	Ahmed
Mort Glickman	Composer

Technical Credits

Ronald Davidson

Joseph O'Donnell

Joseph Poland

Norman Hall

Ronald Davidson	Screenwriter
Joseph O'Donnell	Screenwriter
William Witney	Director
Joseph Poland	Screenwriter
Norman Hall	Screenwriter
Howard Lydecker	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

The action in Nyoka and the Tigermen moves at a breakneck pace across 15 chapters, most of which are as exciting as anything in Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels (each of which drew a lot of their inspiration from this and one other Republic serial, Secret Service in Darkest Africa). Beyond its genuinely exciting plot, which intersects with reality just enough to keep even adults interested (there really are a North African people called the Tauregs), Nyoka and the Tigermen contains some delightful twists in its casting, production, and writing. Nyoka Gordon, as played by Kay Aldridge, is no typical movie heroine. She's beautiful, athletic, and resourceful, enough so that in the first chapter, she rides down Arab horsemen. She's perfectly capable of fighting, climbing, or diving her way out of trouble, a kind of 1940s American precursor to Emma Peel. Additionally, Lorna Gray's Vultura was, if anything, even more beautiful, and they make an enchanting pair of antagonists, especially when they mix it up physically. Both put 100 percent effort into their work here, assisted by one of the best directors and some of the best stuntmen in the business. Clayton Moore looked, if anything, better here than he did as the Lone Ranger at the other end of the decade and he made a dashing hero in his own right. Watch him in action here and see if he doesn't look like he would've been the perfect Bruce Wayne/Batman of his era. Even Emil Van Horn, in the silliest role in the movie -- as the gorilla Satan -- has a kind of visceral impact as this constantly menacing beast. Working from one of the best scripts that the studio ever devised for one of its serials, director William Witney and a crew of top stuntmen (including David Sharpe and a young Jay Silverheels), made this one of the most exciting serials ever to come out of Hollywood. More than that, the resulting chapterplay has an appeal that cuts across the ages, as demonstrated by the debt owed to it by the Indiana Jones movies.

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder