Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

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RUSCHE
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by RUSCHE »

Ares wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 4:51 pm
RUSCHE wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 4:22 pm
I would love the link, I had no idea about the Yarzan,Doc savage Kong cross overs. The setting and tone just screams adventure for me, I just need a better understanding of the source material. I have a special place in my heart for heroes with strong aversion to killing.
Here's the links:

King Kong vs Tarzan - https://www.radioarchives.com/King_Kong ... /ap098.htm

King Kong vs Doc Savage - https://www.radioarchives.com/Doc_Savag ... /ap082.htm

Doc Savage meets the Shadow - https://www.radioarchives.com/Doc_Savag ... /ap090.htm

Doc Savage meets the Shadow again -
https://www.radioarchives.com/Doc_Savag ... /ap099.htm

Radio Archives in general is a great site for Pulp related material, including audiobooks, reprints of classic stuff and newer pulp stories. I recommend it to everyone here.
On a side note did you see they ate doing a Captain Marvel(real one) series again? It still looks like they are using the 52 costume still...
Unfortunately, it's a series about the Nu-52 "Shazam" rather than about Captain Marvel. John's is doing it to hype up the movie and refuses to let the classic Cap back into the DCU. Because whether it's a good idea or a bad idea, John's will run it into the frickin ground.
Thank you for the links, I have some reading to do Haha. It kills me on how our heroes are treated today, when did it become unfashionable to be good for the sake of being good??
RUSCHE
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by RUSCHE »

FuzzyBoots wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 5:11 pm
Ares wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 4:13 pm He was also notable as being a pulp hero who refused to kill, which along with the Phantom, the Shadow, the Spider and the Green Hornet, made Doc a very early proto-superhero.
^_^ Although his policy of giving criminals a "harmless lobotomy" instead hasn't aged well.
I was not aware of this....oh man that is bad..
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Ares
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by Ares »

FuzzyBoots wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 5:11 pm
Ares wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 4:13 pm He was also notable as being a pulp hero who refused to kill, which along with the Phantom, the Shadow, the Spider and the Green Hornet, made Doc a very early proto-superhero.
^_^ Although his policy of giving criminals a "harmless lobotomy" instead hasn't aged well.
RUSCHE wrote: Sat Sep 01, 2018 5:19 pm I was not aware of this....oh man that is bad..
Yeah, that's one unfortunate bit of the Doc Savage mythos modern writers have to work hard to incorporate. At the time of the 1920s, it was generally believed that being a career criminal was the result of mental disorder/chemical imbalance in the brain, and with that understanding, the original Doc Savage creative team had the hero develop a means of using surgery to correct that imbalance, after which they would receive training in a trade they enjoyed, a new identity, and then be returned into society as a healthy, productive member of it. Doc kept this "Crime College" a secret because he preferred this method to incarcerating criminals in prisons, where they would routinely just come back to commit crimes anew.

At the time it was seen as a much more efficient and humane method of dealing with criminals than prison or execution, and if it were actually possible, it'd be hard to argue with. Unfortunately for the creative team, we have a much more nuanced knowledge of crime, how it's as often just people who see it as their only solution to their problems, in addition to some people just being plain rotten and seeing it as an effective means to gain power and wealth. There is no simply performing surgery on someone and making them a good person.

The most modern takes on Doc have tweaked the process to where the Crime College is mostly criminals who would have been sentence to life in prison, executed, or been would have been killed during an adventure if not for Doc's interference. The new procedure effectively erases the criminal's past without any loss of basic skills and keeps the person's basic personality intact, but without the history or trauma that lead them to crime in the first place. They are given a new identity, therapy, training, education, and then placed in a job where they can resume life as a normal and law-abiding citizen.

It's still very much a grey-area thing, since in most cases it's removing the criminals ability to choose to reform, but at the time there was no real therapy or counseling for criminals in prison in any major degree (it only just really started in the mid 1920s). Doc's argument would be that the person who committed those crimes is gone, while the person is allowed the opportunity to become the kind of citizen they could have been without whatever circumstances that lead them to become a criminal. And it's always stressed that no one who graduates from Doc's Crime College ever returned to crime.

So yeah, it's a messy thing, but by the standards of the 1930s it's pretty humane.
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RUSCHE
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by RUSCHE »

Ares, thank you for this links. They will be a great resource and read.
MacynSnow
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by MacynSnow »

Doc Savage-vs.The Shadow: i loved the interplay between both supporting cast's in this(especially the leading ladies.It was SO CATTY...)
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by Ares »

One thing I've heard recently is that they're working on a new Doc Savage movie . . . . with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson set to play Doc Savage.

Image

I love Dwayne Johnson, the guy is immensely likable, funny and charismatic . . . but I just can't see him playing Doc Savage. Doc is . . . well, stoic. Intelligent. Taciturn. He's basically a less abrasive Batman who is surrounded by more colorful characters because Doc himself doesn't have a real outgoing personality. There is no one you can cast as Doc's five aids who is going to be able to out-ham Dwayne Johnson.

Weirdly enough, if I was going to cast a wrestler for the part of Doc, I'd go with Dave Bautista. He's got the strong features and build, his voice has the kind of quiet strength I'd associate with Doc, he can do stoic but he also has some charm to him. I think playing Drax has actually helped him as an actor and he's use to being around a lot more colorful characters than himself.

Not sure Bautista would be my first choice, but he'd be preferable to Johnson.

Honestly, the casting for Doc's five aids would be more challenging, since they're where a lot of the fun and chemistry needs to come from.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
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RUSCHE
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by RUSCHE »

Ares wrote: Tue Sep 25, 2018 6:09 pm One thing I've heard recently is that they're working on a new Doc Savage movie . . . . with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson set to play Doc Savage.

Image

I love Dwayne Johnson, the guy is immensely likable, funny and charismatic . . . but I just can't see him playing Doc Savage. Doc is . . . well, stoic. Intelligent. Taciturn. He's basically a less abrasive Batman who is surrounded by more colorful characters because Doc himself doesn't have a real outgoing personality. There is no one you can cast as Doc's five aids who is going to be able to out-ham Dwayne Johnson.

Weirdly enough, if I was going to cast a wrestler for the part of Doc, I'd go with Dave Bautista. He's got the strong features and build, his voice has the kind of quiet strength I'd associate with Doc, he can do stoic but he also has some charm to him. I think playing Drax has actually helped him as an actor and he's use to being around a lot more colorful characters than himself.

Not sure Bautista would be my first choice, but he'd be preferable to Johnson.

Honestly, the casting for Doc's five aids would be more challenging, since they're where a lot of the fun and chemistry needs to come from.
Noooooo!!!! Ok , I have that out of my system .
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

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Yeah, Doc Savage should be some combination of Indiana Jones and James Bond, but set in the 1920-30s and starring a group reminiscent of the guys from Predator. You know, bunch of action heroes with distinct looks and personality quirks all working around this central badass who has the body of Capt. America, the Brains of Batman and the morality of Superman.

I have the uncomfortable suspicion that this film, if it gets made, is going to be another Lone Ranger or John Carter of Mars where the creators miss the actual important concepts of the characters.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
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RUSCHE
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

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Ares wrote: Thu Sep 27, 2018 5:00 pm Yeah, Doc Savage should be some combination of Indiana Jones and James Bond, but set in the 1920-30s and starring a group reminiscent of the guys from Predator. You know, bunch of action heroes with distinct looks and personality quirks all working around this central badass who has the body of Capt. America, the Brains of Batman and the morality of Superman.

I have the uncomfortable suspicion that this film, if it gets made, is going to be another Lone Ranger or John Carter of Mars where the creators miss the actual important concepts of the characters.
I took it personally with how The Lone Ranger movie was handled, He was always a hero of mine. I have a radio album framed on my living room wall. I hope they do Doc Savage justice. I fear they will not. I think the older Skarsgard brother( name is escaping me) would have been a better choice.
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

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In all honestly,and this is REALLY sad if you think about it,the best Pulp Movie they've made out from Tensile-town was either Alec Baldwin's The Shadow or Sky Captain and The World Of Tomorrow...
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

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RUSCHE wrote: Thu Sep 27, 2018 5:52 pm I took it personally with how The Lone Ranger movie was handled, He was always a hero of mine. I have a radio album framed on my living room wall. I hope they do Doc Savage justice. I fear they will not. I think the older Skarsgard brother( name is escaping me) would have been a better choice.
Alexander?

But yeah, I always liked the Lone Ranger as well, and it hurt to see what they did to the character in that movie, everything from turning him into this total joke to having the Silver Bullets being there to kill the villain who was a Wendigo, to Tonto being played by frickin Johnny Depp with that stupid bird on his head.

I just . . . the whole reason the Lone Ranger used Silver Bullets was two fold: to let everyone know who had fired said shot, and to be a constant reminder that, like silver, every human life is precious. The Longer Ranger went for disabling and disarm trickshots because he didn't believe that human lives should be taken needlessly. But instead of staying true to that, they turned it into a joke.

I felt the same way about the John Carter of Mars film, which captured the look and feel of Barsoom but none of the soul of any of the characters. The one bright spot was making Dejah Thoris less of a damsel in distress, but having her be some action scientist was a bit much. Still, the movie had so much potential that it completely squandered.

And it would have been dirt simple to make the general premise of the Lone Ranger film work. Have the LR come out west to help his brother out, but instead of a lawyer, it's because he was sort of a world traveler picking up different skills. His dad was a Texas Ranger and taught both boys how to shoot, but maybe the LR wanted to do other things. He used his gun skills to be a trick shooter, then worked on becoming an actor, but he felt a calling to do work as a lawman, but wanted to be smarter about it, so he traveled to France and studied under either Eugène François Vidocq (the father of modern detective/policeman, and a VERY interesting character), or under one of his men, learning the ins and outs of proper police work, how to blend in with criminal society, etc.

So when he comes back, he's got this eclectic collection of skills he can use to help his brother out, and he demonstrates it when he comes home, both in trick shooting and beating up some local toughs in a fist fight. But then the LR goes with his brother on the ambush that sees the brother dead and the LR saved by Tonto, who is in fact the LR's childhood friend and who his brother was often asking for advice on tracking down criminals.

From there, the LR recovers, finds his silver mine, and unironically makes his statement about the preciousness of life. He then employs his disguise skills around town to infiltrate the criminal elements, uses his detective skills to track them down, make it clear that Tonto is better at tracking, steal and close-in fighting, and once the round up the bad guys, make it clear he's going to keep fighting for actual justice in the west.

And don't get me started on what they did to the Lone Ranger's nephew with that damned Green Hornet film.
MacynSnow wrote: Thu Sep 27, 2018 5:59 pm In all honestly,and this is REALLY sad if you think about it,the best Pulp Movie they've made out from Tensile-town was either Alec Baldwin's The Shadow or Sky Captain and The World Of Tomorrow...
Well, the Indiana Jones movies (the first three, anyway) are probably the best Pulp films to come out of Hollywood in the last 30 years, though some of the Mummy films were entertaining enough on their own, the Rocketeer was good fun, etc. But yeah, it's amazing how bad they are at making a simple action/adventure period piece.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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RUSCHE
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by RUSCHE »

Yes to it being Alexander and your proposed origin would have been lightyears better than what we were shown. Like you said the movie industry as a whole just does not get the Pulp vibe, they either miss it entirely or happen upon it accidentally. I cannot share how it fell about the Green Hornet treatment. That was a absolute travesty.
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by L-Space »

After watching Altered Carbon, I could see Joel Kinnaman playing Doc Savage.
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by Chris Brady »

I liked Sky Captain and John Carter... :(
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Re: Pulse Pounding Adventures - Pulp and Film Serial Discussion

Post by Jabroniville »

Wow- lotta pulp fans in here! I'll admit it was never a genre that interested me, despite being a predecessor for the whole superhero genre.

It's interesting how many of the main heroes tend to be the ultimate "Power Fantasy"- big, stoic, strong, multi-talented renaissance men who were capable of just about anything, and usually had a best friend who was an noble ethnic buddy :).
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