A serial from the 30s!!!

CLUTCHING HAND, THE SERIAL(1936)

I disagree with the reviewer below! I
don't think this had any intention of
being a comedy! But I will say that
the fight scenes are pretty funny!
All-in-all, this is pretty entertaining
as most serials are! Just not one of
the best! One of the problems with this
one is that it's nigh on to impossible
to know who's the good guys and who's
the bad guys! B-

From IMDb.com:

This was made after a number of serials
had been produced and appears to me to
be an intentional comedy. As in 'The Stolen
Jools', non-sequiturs of established
cinematic formulas are produced in great
number. Also, Peter Sellers seems to have
copied Jack Mulhall's face & characterization
of Kennedy in his Pink Panther movies.
Sellers may have derived the idea for
his wayward hand in 'Dr Strangelove'
from the 'clutching hand' premise.

There is a scene where Mulhall as Kennedy
walks out of a building to see his car
being stolen. That scene seems to be an
great deal like a 'Pink Panther' joke
and to me was very funny. It is hard
for me to convey the spirit of the
movie with my description, but the
continual misdirections and cinematic
'mistakes' make each episode somewhat
like reading a Doonesbury comic strip
by Gary Trudeau.

For experienced directors the whole
series might be a blooper reel set
of examples of what you should not
do when putting together a movie. - TomSunhaus