The Flying Serpent
           
Director: Sam Newfield
Year: 1946
Rating: 3.0
Quetzalcoatl! God of the Aztecs! Protecting the treasure of Montezuma for hundreds of years! What excitement. If only PRC had had a budget larger than a breadbox. All they could do for Quetzalcoatl is make him the size of a large turkey as he swoops through the skies looking for his prey. I was hoping and expecting something bigger. I mean how much more could it have cost them to triple the size of the hamper of dirty clothes? I wanted to check this out before I watched the 1982 film Q: The Winged Serpent. I recall he is much bigger in that one. Good old PRC. They had some good ideas over the year but never had the money to do much with them. The director here is Sam Newfield the brother of Sigmund Neufeld, the founder of PRC - and Newfield was to direct a ton of films for the company. I doubt if he was too proud of this one.



Not just for the sad sap Quetzalcoatl but for a dreary plot and poor acting. It does have George Zucco though and as is often the case, he plays a version of a mad scientist. His heart doesn't really seem to be in it though as he goes through the motions. He plays a Professor of archeology who has discovered the treasure of Montezuma in Arizona and on top of that Quetzalcoatl! Montezuma decided to hide his treasure far up north where the dastardly Spanish could not find it. He placed Q to protect it. Q is half bird and half serpent with a taste for blood. Somehow, Zucco has been able to imprison the monster and he has taught it a neat trick to fetch. If he secretly places one of its feathers with a person who is getting too close to his secret, the bird once released will go get it and kill the person. A friend is first. A radio show hires a detective (Ralph Lewis) to track down the killer and he immediately falls in love with the Professor's stepdaughter (Hope Kramer). Really, quite awful even for PRC.