I only started watching serials 3 or 4 years ago starting with 'Spy Smasher' and was over-joyed when I recently unearthed a copy of this 1945 cliff-hanger.Produced by Sam Katzman, the man behind the majority of Columbia's entire serial output, this one is yet another lacklustre, low-budget effort that I have seen so many times before from this studio.Serial veteran Kane Richmond stars as the son of a doctor who's discovered the miracle drug of the century, but who's vanished in the jungle and may be a prisoner in a lost city!! And that's where my problems with this serial start, there is NO jungle, only the usual familiar rock and boulder strewn background used in so many of Katzman's movies,(there's not even one fake palm tree) and secondly the lost city seems to be just a short car ride from a trading post, run by the black hearted but stupid Jake Raynes.Carol Hughes plays Zara, the evil high priestess, who with just a few exotic waves of her hands can manipulate people & volcanoes, who along with the witchdoctor has ideas above her station.The actual cliff hangers are you basic kind, pits filled with daggers, crocodile infested rivers, molten lava and the like but you never feel that our hero is ever in any real danger, with even the fist-fights lack vitality and punch!!Recommended for serial enthusiasts only.

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD** I obtained "Jungle Raiders" knowing little about it, other than it starred Kane Richmond who appeared in other pretty good ones. Richmond was his usual stalwart, almost stoic self, though he also had the opportunity to portray a caring son.The plot involves a couple of scientists seeking a "magic" powder that will cure many ills--the secret of which is known only by the shaman of a mysterious hidden tribe in a mysterious country. The father of Ann Reed preceded Dr. Moore, and has disappeared by the time Moore arrives. Ann comes to Jake Rayne's trading post seeking her father, and the wily Jake (played by Charles King in one of his best performances) tells her that her dad disappeared months ago. (I won't reveal here where Dr. Reed truly is.) Ann is in the company of Cora Bell (the beautiful Veda Ann Borg), who at first seems like a fine companion to the newcomer.Ann is subsequently followed by Bob Moore and Joe Riley, fresh out of the army, planning to join Bob's father. From then on it's a wild chase of double-crosses, triple-crosses, and even quadruple crosses among the bad guys and gals, while the good guys and gal hold their own against them, only by the hardest. There are actually two villainesses, several fine villains, and heroes aplenty to battle them. The heroine, Ann Reed (Janet Shaw) is not one of those gals who stands aside and screams, though she does faint a couple of times.Along with the fabulous healing powder that the scientists seeks, jewels are the quarry of the baddies, which the native baddies are willing to help them obtain in exchange for help gaining power in the tribe. Add in a couple of warring tribes,fire pits, avalanches... all the requisite perilous situations that we expect in a serial, a couple more imaginative than most, makes for a fun ride.I was very impressed with Charles King's portrayal of the trading post owner. He was smart and dumb, sadistic at times, and entirely grubby, comical as well as deadly. Of course the hero has a comic sidekick in Joe Riley, but Joe, while having his moments, also holds his own. He's not the usual dummy we see fouling up the efforts of his pal to the point where you wonder why in the world they are friends in the first place. He's an ex-G.I. after all.Another thing--people got dirty and often stayed dirty until they had an appropriate opportunity to change clothes. And the hats... well, we know how important hats are in movies of this genre. The pith helmets mostly stay glued to the heads of combatants, though they didn't stay on as well as fedoras in other serials. But the first thing that's grabbed when the fight ends...I would recommend that if you have a chance to see Jungle Raiders, go for it. I rated it a 10 out of 10, and plan to watch it again soon.