'Raiders of the Lost Ark' 39 Years Early?

SPOILERS for "Saboteur"

George Lucas famously and conclusively said that his "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was inspired by the "Saturday afternoon serials" of his youth -- shorts that came before the main feature and ended in cliffhangers which were resolved the next weekend, with the next show, whereupon the story would move forward again, and end in ANOTHER cliffhanger. Til next week

The Indiana Jones movies smack of such quickie-adventures, while also having a wide-spread international flavor, as Indy travels the world from Nepal to Morocco to India to Germany and elsewhere.

All of this would militate AGAINST "Saboteur" having much influence on "Raiders of the Lost Ark," but there is still, in a certain sense, a feeling that "Saboteur" may have at least haunted George Lucas a BIT in his preparation of "Raiders" with director Spielberg and scenarist Lawrence Kasdan:

-- The hero wears a dark leather aviator jacket and tan slacks.

-- The villains are Nazis (albeit home-grown American Nazi traitor saboteurs.)

-- The story (like "Raiders") moves at a rapid pace from one episodic set-piece (the air hanger fire) to another (the horseback chase on Tobin's ranch) to another (Barry's leap from a high bridge into a roaring river) to another (the blind man's cabin) to another (Soda Springs) to another (the circus train), to another (the society ball, auction, and villains' trap) to another (the fight and blowing up of the Navy ship in Brooklyn harbor) to another (the chase and shootout during a movie at Radio City Music Hall) to another (the final cliffhanger on "Statue of Liberty.")

There's a bit of that episodic "Raiders" pace to "Saboteur", don't you think?

-- The hero romances a sassy dame who's sometimes his foe and eventually his (romantic) friend, and faces an elegant, arrogant villain.

-- And, finally, both "Saboteur" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" are directed by men with fabulous visual sense and a taste for the continual rolling-out of cinematic ideas (a man who hangs by a thread from the Statue of Liberty; a traitorous monkey with a Nazi salute; a shooting in a movie theater that matches a shooting on the screen; a villain who burns the image of a vital medallian into his hand...)

Perhaps the more grandiose, star-studded Technicolor refinements of "North by Northwest" fed "Raiders" more than "Saboteur." "Raiders" stole one idea from "North by Northwest" directly: The cops trying to find Red Cap Cary Grant in a sea of men wearing Red Caps became Indy Jones trying to find Marion in a basket in a sea of baskets.

Bob Cummings' Barry Kane wasn't a brilliant archeologist with a bullwhip and a taste for adventure, but he WAS an all-American hero in bomber jacket and slacks, sent off on a fast-paced episodic adventure against Nazis which, at this great distance, looks more than a little like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for the 40's.