The Tiger Woman (Roan)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C Chapters: C+
As we take in each Saturday Morning Cliffhanger Movie
Serial from the past, something interesting and different surfaces. Though many of them are formulaic, you can
still have interesting moments in the most mixed of them, which is exactly the
case with Tiger Woman. Released
in 1944, Linda Stirling is pretty good as the title character and we had seen
her in a few editions of Zorro’s Black Whip on this site, so we like
her.
Again, she is the force between greedy men, good men and a
native tribe where she is with the natives.
A cross between Catwoman, Tarzan and the usual Republic Pictures style
of fights, visual effects, unintended camp and cliffhanger ending. This one is not always great in the
cliffhangers, but Stirling is very pre-Julie Newmar feline in a role that shows
her off to better effect. She seems
like a cold amazon who rarely speaks, but she moves well. Overall, this free-for-all also titled The
Perils Of Darkest Jungle is worth a look and a must for chapterplay
completists.
The 1.33 X 1 image has some solid Video Black, but the
lack of detail and damage that could not be fixed on these prints are still an
issue. At least they had actual
Republic prints to work from, versus later reissue prints from another
company. The sound is in MPEG 2.0 Mono,
which is better than either the Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono Roan used to use or the
Dolby 2.0 Mono they use now. Extras
include a few trailers for other Roan/Troma product, introduction to this
serial by film critic Lou Lembeck and the first chapter of The New
Adventures Of Tarzan serial featured on the Roan Serial Box reviewed
elsewhere on this site.
- Nicholas Sheffo
