King of the Kongo

From original inventory: King of the Kongo Serial Chapters 4 (Gorilla Warfare) and 5 (Danger in the Dark), A Secret Service agent searches the jungle for his missing brother, also an agent. He encounters a young woman there who is also searching, but for her missing father. They encounter a gang of ivory smugglers who hold a prisoner who knows the secrets of the missing people and a lost treasure. The pair are also menaced by a giant gorilla which guards the temple which is the smugglers' lair.Takes place in Cambodia (but filmed on a Hollywood lot)._A silent and a "part talking" version of this serial were released.A complete 10-chapter copy of the silent version of this serial is held by the UCLA Film and Television Archives. As each chapter of the "part talking" version began, it looked like a typical silent film with title cards. It was accompanied by synchronized sound effects and music recorded on large discs similar to record albums. In the middle of each chapter there are several segments where the title cards stop and a full dialog sequence commences. After a few minutes the dialog on the audio stopped and the title cards resumed - again accompanied by just music and effects. This was one of several techniques used in the late 1920's for making films that were not fully a talkie and not fully a silent either. The "sound on disc" system quickly fell out of favor for "sound on film" which provided better synchronization of the dialog with the video. The version which survives on home video is in fact the "part talking" version, but it is missing the original audio. A private collector is known to own a number of the original sound discs of King of the Kongo, but they have not yet (as of mid 2005) been played back, recorded, and synchronized with the video. Chapter Titles: - 1. Into the Unknown - 2. Terrors of the Jungle - 3. Temple of Beasts - 4. Gorilla Warfare - 5. Danger in the Dark - 6. Man of Mystery - 7. The Fatal Moment - 8. Sentenced to Death - 9. Desperate Choices - 10.Jungle Justice^-- TJL 10/30/2013