The Fighting Devil Dogs

The Fighting Devil Dogs 1938 is a 12chapter Republic movie serial starring Lee Powell and Herman Brix, the latter better known by his later stage name, Bruce Bennett. It was directed by William Witney and John English. While not often considered one of the best serials ever made, as it contains a lot of stock footage and two recap chapters, it is famous for its main villain, The Lightningthe very first costumed supervillain. There is some speculation that George Lucas used The Lightning as a template for Darth Vader.

The Fighting Devil Dogs was budgeted at 94,656 although the final negative cost was 92,569 a 2,087, or 2.2, under spend making it one of only three prewar Republic serials to be produced under budget. It was the cheapest Republic serial of 1938 and the second cheapest of all Republic serials. It has two recap chapters rather than the usual one or sometimes none, in which the entire plot of the serial so far is repeated, and makes extensive use of stock footage. The cheapest Republic serial was The Vigilantes Are Coming 1936 at 87,655, while the next cheapest after The Fighting Devil Dogs is Undersea Kingdom also 1936 at 99,222.One of the directors, William Witney, believed this to be one of the worst of the serials he ever made. ........

Source: Wikipedia