Todd’s Serial Blog

DOC SAVAGE: A COLUMBIA SERIAL IN 15 CHAPTERS

Producer: Larry Darmour
Director: James W. Horne
Photography: James S. Brown, Jr.
Script: Basil Dickey
George H. Plympton
Wyndham Gittens
Music: Lee Zahler

Cast:

Doc Savage: Larry “Buster” Crabbe
Pat Savage: Iris Meredith
Tarnack: James Craven
Natalia: Veda Ann Borg
Renny: Roy Barcroft
Ham: Tristram Coffin
Monk: Charles King
Long Tom: Guy Wilkerson
Johnny: William Bakewell
Brown: Ray Teal
Taylor: Al Ferguson
Butch: Jack Ingram
Karl: George Magrill
Wheeler: Dick Botiller
Meeks: Kit Guard
Lyle: Lester Dorr
DA Warwick: Forbes Murray
Inspector Nolan: Robert Fiske
Judge Watkins: Selmer Jackson
Tuka: Al Kikume
Narrator: Knox Manning

CHAPTER1: THE MAN OF BRONZE

“The City was rampant with crime! Banks robbed with impunity! Buildings burned! People attacked! No one was safe! Then came the arrival of Doc Savage! Trained since childhood to be the ultimate in physical and mental perfection, he is a renowned physician, scientist, and athlete who, with his five companions, all experts in their chosen fields, are ready to lay down their lives at any moment to fight against the forces of evil for the good of all!”

Tarnack, a master criminal calls his men together. He has a special job for them. They haven’t been able to pull any good jobs because of all the new security devices invented by Doc Savage. It only stands to reason that he would also have inventions that can beat them at his famed Fortress of Solitude. Tarnack has a plan to make Savage tell him where the Fortress is.

Later that day Monk, a noted chemist, and Ham, a well respected lawyer, are coming out of a restaurant having an argument. They come upon Natalia trying to load a cumbersome stack of boxes into a taxi cab. They immediately leap to her rescue, help her load the cab, try to make a date with her and end up arguing over who gets the first date. Laughing, Natalia says if they will go with her to her apartment building to help her unload, she will go out to dinner with both of them. The two men immediately scramble into the cab and are instantly gassed into unconsciousness.

While this is happening the other members of Doc’s team are grabbed. Engineer Rennie goes to answer the phone at a building site and is hit from behind by Brown. Archaeologist Johhny is coming out of a lecture and gets jabbed in the arm by Karl who pretends to be a passing blind man. Johnny collapses on the sidewalk and is loaded into a miraculously arriving ambulance. Electrical engineer Long Tom is accosted in his lab by Taylor, Butch and Wheeler. A fight breaks out, but the three men over power Long Tom and drag him away.

Doc Savage returns to his penthouse apartment from a sojourn to his Fortress of Solitude where he had been doing some research for a cure for cancer. He finds an oblong package waiting for him. After using special devices to determine that it doesn’t contain an explosive device, Doc opens it and finds Ham’s sword cane with a note attached. The note says that all of his friends have been kidnapped and if he wants them returned to be on the corner of Bleecher Street and River Avenue at midnight.

Doc examines the box and finds some trace amounts of plumeria. A quick search of his records shows that only one man breeds the tropical plant in the area, a Herman Banker. Doc heads for his garage and finds his cousin Pat there. She tells him that some men tried to kidnap her but that she got away. Doc tells her that Monk, Ham, Rennie, Johhny and Long Tom have all been captured. He wants Pat to go up to the penthouse to wait while he runs down a clue. Pat insists on coming with him and Doc, in a hurry, reluctantly agrees.

They arrive at Banker’s address and Doc studies the dark house from the car. It doesn’t seem to be occupied. Suspicious, Doc and Pat make their way around back. When they check the back door to see if it is locked, a trap door opens and they are dropped into a room where Doc is immediately jumped by Brown, Taylor, Karl, Butch and Wheeler. Doc puts up a good fight but is eventually knocked out. They grab Pat as Tarnack and Natalia enter the room.

Natalia looks at the prone form of Doc and blurts out “He’s gorgeous!” Everyone turns to look at her. Embarrassed, she gets all tough and starts wanting to know how he is gong to be made to talk. Tarnack looks at Pat for a few seconds and says he doesn’t need Doc anymore. He has Pat dragged away to another room.

Tarnack has everyone leave, then closes the door to the room as he leaves and opens a small window to see in. When Doc comes to, Tarnack taunts him, bragging about his own cleverness in tricking Doc with the planted plumaria clue. He then tells Doc that he had originally intended to force Doc to tell him where his Fortress of Solitude is but he thinks he can get the information easier from Pat. Since he doesn’t need Doc anymore, Tarnack just wanted to say goodbye. Tarnack closes the window and flips a switch next to it.

Doc hears a large motor start up and sees the wall at one end of the room start to move toward him, while the wall he is near starts moving toward the other wall. Realizing he is about to be crushed between them he looks around the room, but it is completely barren, there is nothing he can use to jam against the moving walls and stop them. He checks the door that Tarnack had exited through, but it opens outward, so Doc can’t pop the hinges off and pry the door open. Bracing his back against the far wall he faces the other wall as they creep closer and closer toward each other…

“Are the Fabulous Five left to carry on alone? Will Pat be made to reveal the secret location of Doc’s Fortress of Solitude? You can’t afford to miss INFERNO OF DOOM, the second thrilling chapter of DOC SAVAGE! At this theater next week!”

Tags: Fiction //