VCI Entertainment, with exclusive rights to the venerable Universal Pictures classic serial library, has a new 4K film restoration (from the original fine grain elements) of the directing team of Ray Taylor and Noel M. Smith’s 1942, 13-chapter crime thriller, Gang Busters. The cliffhangers unfold on both DVD and Blu-ray on Jan. 19.
Based on the popular radio show of the period (which began airing on CBS in 1936), we are introduced to detective Bill Bannister (Kent Taylor — Tombstone: The Town Too Tough to Die, The Daltons Ride Again, The Crimson Key … and as Boston Blackie in the 1951-1953 Boston Blackie television series) and his partner, detective Tim Nolan (played by none other than Robert Armstrong, known to the world of cinema forever as Carl Denham of King Kong and Son of Kong fame, plus such films as Man of Conquest, The Falcon in San Francisco, Mighty Joe Young), who are facing an organized crime wave.
Evidence leads them to the notorious Professor Mortis (Ralph Morgan — Night Monster, The Monster and the Ape, Weird Woman, The Monster Maker, etc.), who has a gang of dead criminals that he has brought back to life through the magic of chemistry.
Also on hand are ace reporter Vicki Logan (Irene Hervey — Play Misty for Me, Cactus Flower, Crash Landing), who Bannister has his eye on, and her sidekick Happy Haskins (Richard Davies — The Mad Doctor of Market Street, The Falcon in Danger, Private Buckaroo).
Gang Busters is an action-packed crime mystery, with a twist … blessed with some elaborate sets and a little sci-fi mixed in to keep it interesting.
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