Todd’s Serial Blog

Since I high lighted a serial that pitted a no nonsense detective against a cultured villain from Columbia last month, I thought it’s only fair that I should next take a look at a serial that pits a cultured, no nonsense detective against a cultured, sadistic villain from Republic.

FBI agent Jefferies (Kernan Cripps) is transporting Jim Belmont (George J. Lewis), famed racketeer to the prison where he will be executed. Belmont’s chief thug Matt Ferrell (Hal Taliaferro) gets aboard the train, kills Jeffries and frees Belmont. Before leaping off the train on the upgrade, Belmont pauses to hear a favorite section of the symphony playing on the radio.

News of his escape is quickly spread. Federal Agent Jerry Blake (Marten Lamont) also known as Operator 99, is just as quickly assigned to replace Jeffries and track down Belmont. When he arrives at the office he finds a woman (Lorna Gray) there with another man (Jack Ingram). She introduces herself as his secretary Joyce Kingston and the man as Mr. Riggs, her fiancée. They were just gong to go to lunch when Jerry arrived. Jerry says that’s fine, he just needs her to get a file for him before she leaves.

Riggs pulls out a gun and gets the drop on Jerry. He calls the woman Rita and tells her to get to Belmont, he’ll take care of the famous Operator 99. Riggs opens a closest to show Jerry his real secretary (Helen Talbot), who is tied up. Jerry jumps Riggs and in the scuffle, shoots him. After freeing Joyce, Jerry learns from her that they had intercepted a telegram just before he arrived. Jerry sends her to the telegram office to get a copy of the stolen telegram while he calls the police to report the dead body in his office.

When Joyce gets back, the body is gone, and she tells Jerry the telegram was about the Countess Delremy’s (Elaine Lange) arrival that day to retrieve her country’s crown jewels and return to Europe with them. Jerry rushes to the airport but finds he has just missed her. Spotting a news photographer buddy of his, he coerces the man to give him the picture he had snapped of the Countess getting into a limo.

Back at the office the picture shows that Rita and Farrell have kidnapped the Countess. Jerry recognizes the car as a Cordova, which is a rare foreign make that is only rented from one agency. Jerry learns from the agency the name and phone number of the man who rented the car. He still has it. Tracking the man down to a garage, Jerry has Joyce phone the garage and pretend to be Rita. She tells the man to get over to their hideout quickly as they have to move the Countess. When the man leaves, Jerry and Joyce follow him.

Meanwhile Belmont visits the Countess at the house where she is being held. Farrell has forced from her the key to the safe deposit box where the crown jewels are being stored but she refuses to divulge in which bank. Belmont says he has no stomach for the nastier side of things so he gives his cigarette lighter to Rita and turns away to a piano, where he plays Moonlight Sonata while Rita prepares to disfigure the Countess’ face. The foreign dignitary relents and tells which bank the jewels are at, but says they can only be turned over to her. Belmont smirks, saying he can get around that, then leaves with Rita and Farrell.

Jerry arrives and sneaks into the house, where he engages in a shoot out and fist fight with two henchmen (Dale Van Sickel and Tom Steele), killing them both. While freeing the Countess, she tells him of Belmont’s plan to steal the crown jewels. Jerry leaves the Countess in Joyce’s care and rushes to head off Belmont.

Belmont enters the bank, where he arranges to have a box full of his “family’s silver” stored in the vault. It is really a time bomb. A few minutes after he leaves the bank, the bomb goes off, starting a fire that is more smoke than flames in the vault. A fire alarm is spread and Farrell pulls up disguised as a fire chief who just happened to be passing by when the alarm went off. He kayos the bank guard trying to fight the fire and grabs the jewels.

Jerry pulls up just as Farrell jumps into a car. Spotting the criminals, Jerry peals out in hot pursuit. The henchman driver notices the car chasing them and tells Farrell, who fires several well placed shots at the car. Bullets hit the driver side windshield, almost perforating Jerry, who ducks aside from all the flying glass and lead. His car swerves off the road and careens into a gas station, shearing off the pumps, causing the entire place to erupt in an explosion, with Jerry’s car right in the middle of a huge fireball of burning gasoline….

Anyone who visited the serial message boards some years ago may well remember the heated discussions about this title. On one side were serial fans who felt it was a lackluster effort with a less than stellar hero and villain in a standard cops and robbers plot full of boring and repetitive action sequences. On the other side are fans who think it is an action packed thrill ride that doesn’t deserve the harsh criticism that has been heaped on it over the years. Most prominent among the serial’s champions is Jerry Blake, who not only took the hero’s name as his online moniker but created the fan site Files of Jerry Blake at www.filesofjerryblake.netfirms.com to highlight this and other great movie serials.

Sandwiched between Roy Barcroft’s two best serials, Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945) and The Purple Monster Strikes (1945), Federal Operator 99 (1945) would seem rather pedestrian. But I tend to side with Jerry on thinking the serial has a great many merits to recommend it. One of the most important aspects of the serial is the precedent it set for many future serials. Like The Purple Monster Strikes which set in stone all the plot and character set ups of the alien invasion serials Republic would make in the fifties, so too did 99 set the mold for all the G-Men serials that followed.

Some would argue that all of Republic’s serials from the mid-forties to the mid-fifties all had the same character set ups regardless of whether it was a western, jungle, or mystery serial. A valid point, but only superficially true. A quick look at the serials that followed in the wake of 99, shows that Federal Agents vs. Underworld Inc. (1948), Radar Patrol vs. Spy King (1949), and Government Agents vs. Phantom Legion (1951) all have a G-Man partnered with a sidekick (his character is introduced in the second chapter of 99) and a heroine united to fight a major villain while stationed out a government office, with the hero trading off between sidekick and heroine on who he takes along on each individual case to be put in danger and either be rescued or rescue the hero. Other non G-Man serials like Daughter of Don Q (1946) and The Black Widow (1947) have only a hero and heroine, the sidekick being replaced by a person of authority they discuss things with periodically. It is the, to paraphrase Jon Tuska, triad hero format that 99 perfected and was utilized through the rest of Republic’s output.

The serial itself is a well made fast paced action extravaganza. The fact that Yakima Canutt was one of the directors is all you need to know to about this serial. It is full of knock down drag out fights, with a high set destruction level we have all come to love from Spencer Bennet’s tenure at Republic. Some highlights are Chapter Four where the combatants literally come flying at the screen such as when a henchman is knocked over a table in front of the camera and the hero dives headfirst over it to continue the fight. Chapter Seven has the hero engaging in an energetic, slashing sword fight (in serials everyone is an expert fencer, just like everyone can fly a plane). But the best was saved for last. Chapter Twelve has the G-Man and master criminal engage in a running fight through an abandoned theater that includes throwing knives, swung furniture, and a chase among the scaffolding over the stage that involves Tarzan style rope swinging and perilous falls toward the stage floor below. To quote Roger Ebert in his review of the new Indiana Jones movie “lord, I love this stuff”.

While the basic plot of the serial is rather pedestrian, just a gangster trying various schemes to acquire vast wealth through criminal means who is opposed by a government agent who always seems one step ahead, it is the little things that add a lot of spice to the proceedings. Both the hero and villain are shown to be both highly educated and cultured, certainly a rarity among serials. The most prominent image in the serial is the villain sitting at the piano playing while giving orders, he even does this while having a victim tortured in Chapter One, the jarring contrast between the beautiful rendering of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and the knuckle biting suspense of seeing the flickering flame of the cigarette lighter get closer and closer to Elaine Lange’s sweaty face is a true highlight of the genre. My only complaint is that the villain always plays Moonlight Sonata. I know that Republic had to keep budgets tight but you would think they could have sprung for a recording of more than one piano piece, after all it’s not like they have to pay royalties on classical music. A Bach or Mozart snippet would have reduced the monotony of hearing the same piece played every chapter.

The acting is all fine. Helen Talbot does well with an underwritten part adding a lot of gumption to the character. I especially like in Chapter Three where the hero is threatened with having her emolliated in a blast furnace unless he comes across with money from the US Treasury. Talbot snaps out, “Don’t do it, Jerry! He wouldn’t dare!” Which sounds great at the moment but it does have the down side of daring the villain to carry out his threat, which he attempts to do.

Hal Taliferro plays a most unique henchman. His Southern twang contrasting nicely with Lewis’ more upper crust accent, he is the perfect strong arm artist to his more sedentary boss. Always quick to take the more direct route he is constantly being pulled back by Lewis who wants to do things with a bit more finesse. I especially like his exchange with Talbot in Chapter Two when she delivers to him a ransom for the stolen jewels. After handing over the money, she asks for the jewels, Taliferro practically crows when he spits out, “Well, you ain’t getting ‘em! That’s right it’s the old double cross!” Pity he didn’t make more serials, as he is always an entertaining presence.

George J. Lewis, one of the best actors to work continually in serials on both sides of the law, gives his definitive performance with Jim Belmont. His character is an interesting study in contradictions. He says he doesn’t like the rough stuff, letting underlings torture and rub out people that oppose him, yet he shows no hesitation to engage in knock down drag out fights with the hero, and fights dirty to boot. He’s all full of charm and sophistication, dressed in his overly prim pin strip suit, complete with homburg, gloves, and flower in the lapel. Yet at the least sign of failure on the part of his men and he turns as nasty and thuggish as Charles Middilton’s Pa Stark. In Lewis’ hands it becomes apparent that for all of Belmont’s fastidious manners and impeccable speech, he is really just a sadistically brutal street punk who thinks he’s cultured and acts like what he believes true sophisticates act like instead of actually being sophisticated.

This is perfectly contrasted with Marten Lamont’s Jerry Blake who comes off as a true sophisticate. His soft English accent makes one think his character might have come from an upper class Bostonian family (which would easily explain his adeptness with fencing), his ordinary suit is augmented by an understated but stylish hat, and he carries himself with the kind of natural dignity that Lewis’s character has to visibly work at to maintain. I wish Lamont had kept his mustache for this serial as it made him greatly resemble Errol Flynn.

Many have criticized his performance, saying he was miscast as the hero and lump him in with other less than stellar Republic heroes like Larry Thompson who were hired more for their resemblance to a stunt man than for any true thespian qualities. I myself disagree with these criticisms, feeling he gives a good performance full of nuances and clearly demonstrates his character is a thinking man as well as a man of action. A good example is in Chapter Six. He is going to meet someone to get information and pauses outside their hotel room. He seems to ponder for a second before taking off his belt, rolling it up and holding it in his right hand before knocking on the door. A good thing too as it turns out to be a trap and he uses the belt like a whip to disarm the henchman before engaging in a fight. What sells it for me is that little pause he does before removing the belt, you actually get the feeling he was thinking. I think the problem many have with Lamont is that he isn’t miscast so much as totally different from standard serial heroes like Charles Quigley or Clayton Moore, who are tough and cool. Lamont comes off as tough, cool and sophisticated (I’m going to make a sacrilegious remark here) almost a precursor to Ian Fleming’s similarly accoutremented James Bond.

Please take a brief moment to vent at that last statement and then we can finish this up after you’ve calmed down. ……………………………………………………………………………………. Better now? Good, let’s continue. I find Federal Operator 99 to be a well made serial from Republic during their peak years of production and well worth a look even it’s just to see a different kind of hero than the usual two fisted tough guy exemplified by Rod Cameron. Heck it is worth it just for the aforementioned torture scene in Chapter One and the big blow out fight at the end.

Tags: Reviews //