![]() ![]() It tells the story, such as it is, of an American trading post owner and boat captain, Tom Rogers, who operates in the fictional Southeast Asian country of "Bumatra" and is recruited by Major Conroy (an American operative from an unidentified agency, most likely the United Nations) to help prevent a local arms dealer from supplying weapons to native rebels seeking to overthrow the ruler of a U.N protectorate in the interior. ![]() TRADER TOM looks much cheaper than the TV series that supplanted it and offered few of the thrills that had once made Republic serials so celebrated. Whatever inspiration and creative drive had motivated the production of so many great serials at Republic in the 1930s and '40s had, by this point, been used up. TRADER TOM OF THE CHINA SEAS (1954) was one of the last Republic Pictures serials (there were three more after it, the last one appearing in 1955) and it came out at a time when TV was making the kinds of action adventure series that replaced serials in the popular imagination and made weekly chapter plays in theaters obsolete. ![]()
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