Soldiers of Fortune - The Complete Television Series 52 Episodes!

Well ,this is one series I never expected to turn up on DVD so all credit to Timeless Media for resurrecting it.Back in the 50's,television was awash with various 30 min.action/adventure series.Tough cops,private eyes & cowboys in abundance & 'Soldiers of Fortune' sits right alongside these.John Russell (before his stint on the long running 'Lawman') stars as Tim Kelly & Chick Chandler as his curiously named partner'Toubo' Smith.If you fancied hacking through the jungle in search of lost tribes,building a pipeline across the desert,infiltrating gangs of smugglers or searching for buried treasure then Tim & Toubo were your men.This occupation took them to all the remote corners of the world, represented here by armloads of stock footage which also included earthquakes & erupting volcanos.If you are looking for deep,meaningful plots & state of the art graphics then this series is not for you.On the other hand if you enjoy old 'B' movies & are prepared to suspend your disbelief for half an hour then I am sure you will be entertained by 'Soldiers of Fortune'.All 52 episodes are presented here on 5 discs housed in 3 slimline cases. I don't know where Timeless sourced the prints (probably old 16mm) & no remastering appears to have been done. There is evidence of print damage & 'wobble' at times & Timeless have noted this in announcements prior to some segments.Sound is generally OK. Possibly best viewed on smaller screens. They are however, superior to the few 'gray' copies which have been circulating amongst collectors for a while.I found the series a lot of fun & if you like early TV you probably will as well.

Surprisingly fun half-hour episodes of a 1955 TV series plainly inspired by 'Jungle Jim' and 'Terry and the Pirates.' Uncomplicated, atmospheric, and innocently politically incorrect.

A young boy in the mid-fifties, there were only two "can't miss" tv shows on the airwaves- one was "Dragnet" and the other was "Soldiers of Fortune". My favorite episodes were "Aloha Means Goodbye" and "The General". To this day, I don't not know why I remember these particular episodes or why I loved the series so much. I ordered this DVD for nostalgia reasons and although it is very juvenile and just plain silly at times, I have watched all 52 episodes and enjoyed each one almost as much as I did 55 years ago. I guess some of us ol' boys never truly grow up. John Russell was always one of my favorite supporting character actors. He is light and affable in this series, unlike his heavier portrayal of Dan Troop on the "Lawman" series and his numerous "bad guy" roles (recall Nathan Burdett, brother of Joe- played by the great Claude Akins) on the big screen. I don't remember Chick Chandler being in any other series but he does a good job as the comical sidekick. The episodes last between 24 and 25 minutes giving an indication of how few 7-UP commercials we had to endure back in the fifties. A 30 minute show these days contains about 15 minutes of actual program. I doubt you'd care for this DVD unless you were a kid between 8 and 18 in 1955.

This was my childhood's all time favorite tv series and, although it had a short run, I waited excitedly for each new episode of the "Soldiers of Fortune" which ran during 1955-56. There are some technical problems with images and sounds at times but the reconstructed episodes seem to impact me as they did when I was but a small boy. So here I am, a lifetime away connecting to my childhood spent growing up on the beaches of Panama City and Tyndall Field AFB, Florida. I am back there, my parents, now long gone, are youthful and full of life, again. Life is good when you are a child if family is important; it was. While some of the dialog is perhaps silly and the action amateurish, it is the era before today's extensive special effects. I find myself engrossed as before. It's sad to think that co-star John Russell, athletic and handsome then, died of emphasema, some years ago. I watch his character lite up a cigarrette and feel the urge to warm him not to do that, knowing that that is what took the lives of both of my parents when they were too young. Does this review help a prospective buyer make "Soldiers of Fortune" a purchase? I suspect not for one needed to be a boy in the mid50s to appreciate this series. In my experience, it was a meeting of the child within reaching out to the innocent boy I was so long ago. How many experiences allow one to do that? For me, "Soldiers of Fortune" is so much more than just a short lived tv series, I was allowed to be the boy who loved this series so long ago and that made everything worth well.

Great old forgotten Universal series at a great price. Low budget and fun to watch little stories done before John Russell did Warner Brothers' Lawman, which had a bigger budget and better stories with better lessons to be learned. Russell is a little more fun loving, and cheerful in this than he was as Marshal Dan Troop. Good to see Chick Chandler again. He makes a great sidekick. Mercifully short shows without the commercials padding them out to 30 minutes. Some of them feel like the endings were a bit rushed to fit the time slot. Tim and Toubo apparently charge large fees but always seem broke. Not much of a fortune is in evidence. You don't see them living high and blowing their money. Their jobs must be far between. The DVD package and discs don't pull any punches about saying "from best possible sources..." but it is probably better quality than most tv owners could have seen back then anyway. There are some surprises guest-star wise with actors that are better known now. (Frances "Aunt Bea" Bavier, Aaron Spelling, Andy Clyde, John Doucette, Jean Byron, Beverly Garland, Claude Akins, etc.) Good direction moves the plots right along. This series travels the world but never leaves the back lot and the usual locations such as Iverson Ranch, Republic cave and other familiar Los Angeles spots that pass for many different countries and continents.

Excellent item and first rate seller.Recommended.