Perils of Nyoka

Perils of Nyoka is a 1942 Republic serial directed by William Witney. It stars Kay Aldridge as Nyoka the Jungle Girl, a character who first appeared in the Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired serial Jungle Girl.

Plot
Nyoka, with help from Larry Grayson, attempts to discover the golden tablets of Hippocrates. The tablets contain the medical knowledge of the ancients and are being buried along with gold and other treasure. Also hunting for the tablets are Queen Vultura (Ruler of the Arabs) and Cassib.

Main cast

 * Kay Aldridge as Nyoka Gordon. Aldridge replaced Frances Gifford. The success and popularity that Aldridge gained from the role made her the star of several other Republic serials. In his autobiography, director William Witney stated that the studio used a different actress to ensure that there would be no actionable copyright infringement. However, Ray Stedman writes that Gifford was not cast in Perils of Nyoka because she was on loan from another studio for Jungle Girl and was not available. William Cline partially backs this point of view, saying that Gifford was unavailable to reprise her role because she had moved on to feature films.
 * Clayton Moore as Dr. Larry Grayson
 * Lorna Gray as Vultura, Ruler of the Arabs
 * Charles Middleton as Cassib
 * William Benedict as Red Davis
 * Forbes Murray as Prof Douglas Campbell
 * George Pembroke as John Spencer
 * Tristram Coffin as Benito Torrini
 * Forrest Taylor as Translator

Supporting cast

 * Forbes Murray as Professor Douglas Campbell
 * Robert Strange as Professor Henry Gordon
 * George Pembroke as John Spencer
 * Georges Renavent as Maghreb, Vultura's high priest
 * John Davidson as Lhoba, Tuareg high priest
 * George J. Lewis as Batan, Arab henchman
 * Ken Terrell as Ahmed, Arab henchman
 * John Bagni as Ben Ali
 * Kenne Duncan as Abou, expedition headman
 * Emil Van Horn as Satan the gorilla (Van Horn also played the gorilla in Jungle Girl).

Production
Perils of Nyoka was budgeted at $169,296 although the final negative cost was $175,010 (a $5,714, or 3.4%, overspend), making it the most expensive Republic serial of 1942. It was filmed between March 20 and May 2, 1942, with the outdoor action sequences shot primarily at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California.

The success of the original serial Jungle Girl prompted the sequel, but the studio did not want to pay licensing fees to Burroughs again, so it avoided any repetition of the term Jungle Girl, for which he owned the rights. Nyoka, the name of the main character in the first film, was instead placed in the title of the sequel, as that name was an original creation of Republic's writers, not of Burroughs. The word "jungle" was avoided in the film, with the setting described as an African "desert", though the area shown was not nearly as arid as is the Sahara.

Theatrical
Perils of Nyoka's official release date was June 27, 1942, but that is actually the date upon which the seventh chapter was made available to film exchanges. The serial was re-released on April 2, 1952 under the new title Nyoka and the Tigermen, between the first runs of Radar Men from the Moon and Zombies of the Stratosphere.

Television
Perils of Nyoka was one of 26 Republic serials rereleased for television in 1966 under the Century 66 label. The title of the film was changed to Nyoka and the Lost Secrets of Hippocrates. This version was trimmed to 100 minutes in length.

Reception
Jim Harmon and Donald F. Glut have written that Perils of Nyoka was probably the best jungle-type serial ever made and that it "lavished in increased production values". Cline noted that Perils of Nyoka stood out in the memories of the original serial audiences, despite the strong competition of 1942.

Chapter titles
Source:
 * 1) Desert Intrigue (26:50)
 * 2) Death's Chariot (17:09)
 * 3) Devil's Crucible (16:52)
 * 4) Ascending Doom (16:48)
 * 5) Fatal Second (16:49)
 * 6) Human Sacrifice (16:41)
 * 7) Monster's Clutch (16:47)
 * 8) Tuareg Vengeance (16:44)
 * 9) Buried Alive (16:41)
 * 10) Treacherous Trail (16:51)
 * 11) Unknown Peril (16:40)
 * 12) Underground Tornado (16:39)
 * 13) Thundering Death (16:43)
 * 14) Blazing Barrier (16:38)
 * 15) Satan's Fury (16:33)