Restored Serials’ Super Restoration Series brings you the Columbia Pictures’ 1940 serial The Green Archer, based on Edgar Wallace’s 1923 novel, fully restored on DVD!
The loose adaptation of the Edgar Wallace story starts out with Michael Bellamy (Kenne Duncan) inheriting Garr Castle only to be falsely accused and imprisoned by his brother, Abel Bellamy (James Craven), who wants Garr Castle for his own in order to run an jewel thieving operation. After a few suspicious events, like when Michael’s wife Elaine (Dorothy Fay) doesn’t return from a trip to the Castle, private detective Spike Holland (Victor Jory) moves into the neighborhood, determined to crack the case. Abel desperately tries to remove the threat of the troublesome detective, only to be thwarted by mysterious appearances of the legendary Green Archer. The forces of good and evil struggle against each other in battles of wits and brawn and the serial’s 15 chapters all lead up to a “breath-taking” climax. Was Michael innocent? Will Spike discover Abel’s secrets? Who is the mysterious Green Archer?
Their team has gone through the film frame by frame to create, despite the few minor flaws, one of the highest quality restorations available. The framing is a little off due to a mistake couple of print generations ago, but other than that everything is suburb. The black levels are very nice, the contrast is good, and all of the dirt and hairs have been removed, leaving you with a clean, digital copy of a great, if not silly and campy, black and white serial.
The DVD is also loaded with an assortment of bonus features for your viewing pleasure. You can see the original theatrical trailer, watch an extremely rare interview with Victor Jory himself, and it even comes with a PDF copy of the script for the “lost” serial “Terrible People!” which is 384 pages long!
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