Brick Bradford (serial)

Infobox Film
name = Brick Bradford


image_size =
caption =
director = Spencer Gordon Bennet
Thomas Carr
producer = Sam Katzman
writer = Lewis Clay
Arthur Hoerl
George H. Plympton
Clarence Gray
Screenplay, based on the comic strip created by
Clarence Gray
and
William Ritt
narrator =
starring = Kane Richmond
Rick Vallin
Linda Leighton
Pierre Watkin
music = Mischa Bakaleinikoff
cinematography = Ira H. Morgan
editing = Earl Turner
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = Flagicon|USA December 18, 1947
runtime = 15 chapters
257 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by = "The Sea Hound"
followed_by = "Tex Granger"
website =
amg_id = 1:148794
imdb_id = 0039218

"Brick Bradford" (1947) was the 35th serial released by Columbia Pictures. It was based on the comic strip "Brick Bradford", which was created by Clarence Gray and William Ritt.

Plot

Brick Bradford is assigned by the government to aid Doctor Gregor Tymak, scientist and inventor who is working on an "Interceptor Ray" that can destroy incoming rockets. Unfortunately, it can also be used as a death ray, bringing it to the attention of foreign spy agent Laydron. Tymak uses his door into the fifth dimension to escape criminals and it takes him to the far side of the Moon (which luckily has air and is a rocky terrain without craters). There he is captured and sentenced to die by freezing to absolute zero by the Queen Khana, despot of the Moon, because they do not believe he has come from the Earth. The men, women and city on the Moon look like something out of the Flash Gordon serials.

The action moves to the Moon as the ray requires a special element called "Lunarium" (with an atomic mass of 200) previously only found in a meteorite. Working with exiles in the lunar wasteland, the heroes overthrow Queen Khana and return with the "Lunarium".

However, the device still requires a formula hidden on an uncharted island 200 years in the past, so Brick and sidekick Sandy Sanderson travel in Tymak's time machine, the Time Top, to retrieve it. The final third of the serial is spent on modern day Earth with more trouble from the spy Laydron. In the comics, the Time Top could travel anywhere in time and space, and long predated Doctor Who's Tardis.

Cast

Production

Brick Bradford was the first of only three science fiction serials released by Columbia.cite book
last = Cline
first = William C.
title = In the Nick of Time
origyear = 1984
publisher = McFarland & Company, Inc.
isbn = 078640471X
pages = pp. 34
chapter = 3. The Six Faces of Adventure ]

The serial was broken into three sections, each of which was written by a different screenwriter. The first section, chapters one to five, was written by George Plympton. The middle section, chapters six to ten, was written by Hoerl. The end of the serial, chapters eleven to fifteen, was written by Clay.cite book
last = Harmon
first = Jim
coauthors= Donald F. Glut
authorlink = Jim Harmon
title = The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury
origyear = 1973
publisher = Routledge
isbn = 9780713000979
pages = pp. 45-47
chapter = 2. "We Come from 'Earth', Don't You Understand?" ]

Critical reception

Harmon and Glut describes the serial as a "rather shoddy, low budget space cliffhanger." Hoerl's middle segment is full of in-jokes at the serial's expense while the final section by Clay is boring with a constant repetition of capture and escape sequences.

Cline considers Brick Bradford to be a "mediocre serial that enjoyed a wide audience.".

Chapter titles

# Atomic Defense
# Flight to the Moon
# Prisoners to the Moon
# Into the Volcano
# Bradford at Bay
# Back to Earth
# Into Another Century
# Buried Treasure
# Trapped in the Time Top
# The Unseen Hand
# Poison Gas
# Door to Disaster
# Sinister Rendezvous
# River of Revenge
# For the Peace of the World_Source: [cite book
last = Cline
first = William C.
title = In the Nick of Time
origyear = 1984
publisher = McFarland & Company, Inc.
isbn = 078640471X
pages = pp. 246
chapter = Filmography ]

Alternative titles

*"Brick Bradford" (Latin America)
*"Adventures of Brick Bradford, Les" (France)
*"Zÿn Avonturen Brick Bradford, En" (Belgium)

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0039218|title=Brick Bradford
*amg title|id=1:148794|title=Brick Bradford
* [http://www.serialexperience.com/showarticle.php?fldRecNum=141 Brick Bradford at Todd Gault's Movie Serial Experience]

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Columbia Serial
before="The Sea Hound" (1947)
years="Brick Bradford" (1947)
after="Tex Granger" (1948)