Jack Armstrong Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Jack Armstrong Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 14, 2023

Jack Armstrong might be jokingly referred to as a cereal rather than a serial, since the character owes his genesis to none other than General Mills and/or Wheaties. While many characters headlining the serials of yore were culled from the likes of fantasy literature or comic books (a different kind of fantasy literature), Jack was the creation of a General Mills guru named Samuel Chester Gale, who wanted to develop an ad campaign based around a focal boy whom Gale hoped real boys would emulate by eating their daily bowl of goodness. Jack debuted in audio form in a radio series that kind of stunningly ran from 1933 to 1951. This sole cere --, oops, serial arrived from Columbia Pictures in 1947, a timeframe well past the heyday of this "weekly chapter" efforts which would soon be giving way to episodic television as the movies tended to focus more on "feature attractions".

Perhaps the fact that the Jack Armstrong serial came along in 1947 doomed it to feel like the vestige of a bygone, or soon to be bygone, era, which is kind of unintentionally humorous given that the story told in the serial attempts to inject all sorts of "super modern" devices, including a hilariously ill conceived supposedly jet powered car that looks like a production designer stuck a deco cardboard box over some existing chassis. There's also a spaceship element that is of course featured prominently in the serial's credit sequences, though again somewhat hilariously, and true to longstanding serial fashion, the vast bulk of the use of footage of this frankly pretty wobbly looking ship seems to be the same shot, used over and over (and over).

Jack is in fact more of a young man than a "boy" in this enterprise, and John Hart plays him as a stolid and athletic hero, though Hart is pretty bland a lot of the time. There's a drinking game to be had throughout the fifteen chapters of this piece where if you take a swig every time Hart smooths back his shock of flowing hair, you're going to be pickled by at least the third episode, if not before. Jack frequently has mussed hair because he so frequently has to prove who's boss in the fist fighting department, not to mention any number of other spectacular stunts he (ostensibly) performs.

Kind of interestingly, there's more than a whiff of some of the old Flash Gordon serials, not just with regard to the quasi-science fiction angle, replete with goofy spaceships, ray guns and outlandish sound effects, by at least subliminally by the fact that this serial offers (a surprisingly uncredited) Charles Middleton to get his Ming the Merciless vibe generating again as the serial's power hungry madman, Jason Grood. A "sub villain" named Pierce (John Merton, also weirdly uncredited) plays into things, including some unrepentant padding in the serial's middle chapters, but also in a kind of silly reveal towards the end of things.

Where Jack Armstrong arguably goes too gonzo for its own good is when the story gets to an "exotic" island from which weird cosmic rays have been emanting, and to which a scientist has been kidnapped, necessitating a rescue. If the production design of Jack's jet powered racecar is at best questionable, whoever "thunk" up the depictions of the island natives in this serial must have been on some mind altering drugs. While elements of the native characterizations are completely in line with midcentury norms, meaning halting English and the like, just take a look at some of the screenshots to fully appreciate the absolutely bizarre costuming choices someone made for these "natives".

The story here is inarguably ludicrous, and in true serial fashion there are absolutely mind boggling editing differences between end of chapter cliffhangers and resolutions at the opening of the next episode, but on the plus side there are some exciting action sequences, and it's kind of refreshing in a way to have so many of the conflicts solved in hand to hand combat rather than a lot of gunfire. Though she's little remembered today, erstwhile Miss America (and three time Miss California!) Rosemary LaPlanche is on hand as Jack's putative love interest Betty, and Joe Brown (not the one with E.) is on hand as her brother Billy in a really forced characterization that relies on a running gag about Billy always being hungry no matter what peril is being faced.

Jack Armstrong Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jack Armstrong is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Entertainment and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Per VCI's standard operating procedure, they don't provide a ton of technical information, but do offer a "digitally remasterd and restored in 4K" on the back cover. This is often a rather appealing looking transfer by VCI standards, though the label still doesn't seem to totally trust viewers to "wade" through thick grain, and this is another release where it looks like some high frequency filtering was applied. That said, against darker backgrounds in particular grain can be seen traversing the frame, and the fact that there are still quite a few nicks, scratches and other blemishes argues against a really aggressive scrubbing process. As with many serials, there are unavoidable variances in clarity, contrast and grain resolution courtesy of any number of uses of stock footage. There are frequent opticals in virtually every episode (including some fun old school transitions like wipes) where image quality can be affected. There's quite a bit of wobble during the credits sequence that start every episode, and occasional image instability often associated with some of that stock footage. All in all, this is a respectable effort from VCI, but if they'd just let a little bit more of that organic grain peek through their transfers, I think lovers of vintage items like this would probably be more generally pleased.

Jack Armstrong Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jack Armstrong features LPCM 2.0 Mono audio. The late forties soundtrack offers a glut of sound effects, many of which are "quaint" if not actually downright laughable, and there's some occasionally rousing music, but the bulk of this effort is comprised of dialogue scenes with occasional ambient environmental sounds entering the fray. There's not a ton of damage to report, but there is some noticeable background noise at times. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Jack Armstrong Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on either of the discs in this package.

Jack Armstrong Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There were probably some fatal casting decision made by featuring Hart and LaPlanche as teenagers when both of them look at least in their late twenties if not actually a bit older. But the most confounding thing about this enterprise is the completely wacko depiction of the "island natives". There are some fun moments here, but probably not quite enough, and it's easy to see why there weren't any follow up serials made. Technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.