Queen of the Jungle (1935)

A 12-chapter serial built around stock footage from a 1922 silent serial, "The Jungle Goddess",young David Worth and Joan Lawrence are children with a group of explorers that are seeking African radium deposits. They are playing in the basket of the party's air balloon when the bag takes off with Joan aboard, last seen sailing over the back-lot jungle. This puts a chill on the expedition and all hands return to whence they came. The end of chapter 1, "Lost in the Clouds", finds Marilyn's balloon being shot down by the flaming arrows of a native tribe. Chapter 2,"Radium Rays", reveals that Joan survived her descent and the tribe named "the child from the sky" as their queen and priestess.A flash forward of about 18 years finds that the now-adult David has returned to Africa to search for his long-lost childhood friend.He hits the trail and is quickly captured by the tribesmen and is brought to their sadistic ruler,who turns out to be a now-grown Joan. Unaware of his or her own true identity, she orders the stranger sacrificed to the tribal god. David is tied before a huge idol whose eyes shine as a concealed radium cylinder is uncovered. Chapter two ends with David's clothes smoking and burning and the beams intensifying. Dire straits indeed for David, but there is hope since there are ten chapters to go.