Thursday, November 8, 2018

The Flying Serpent (1946)

The Flying Serpent is a typical low-budget monster thriller, with some of the best acting by the ridiculous looking "beast". George Zucco is mad archaeologist Dr Forbes who has discovered the secret Aztec treasure and what's more has also discovered the flying serpent god Quetzalcoatl who was guarding the treasure and now does Forbes' bidding.

Forbes sets Quetzalcoatl off to kill his "friend" Dr Lambert (James Metcalf) when he angers him. Richard Thorpe (Ralph Lewis) is a mystery writer working as a radio investigator who arrives in town to investigate the murder of Lambert. Forbes decides to set his flying serpent god to kill Thorpe too... He survives that attack but is joined by Forbes' step-daughter Mary (Hope Kramer) to try and find out exactly what is going on.

So far so good (if not that original a story). Naturally the Quetzalcoatl looks ridiculous, in the start of the film it is kept in the shadows and to be honest the film would have been better off if the monster had been kept that way. However the attacks of the Quetzalcoatl are genuinely scary. Zucco also plays a good role.