Villain of the Month: Leonard Penn
Broadway stardom does not always translate into film stardom. Leonard Penn had great success on Broadway from 1934 to 1941 then went to Hollywood where he would have a long but undistinguished career in B Westerns like Hoppy’s Holiday (1947), unless you were a serial fan. Starting with Columbia’s Chick Carter, Detective (1946) playing a minor hood, Penn would become a Katzman regular, appearing in seven serials. After a similar henchman role in the Robin Hood inspired Son of the Guardsman (1946), Penn next played a scientist’s assistant who is one of the good guys until the final third of the serial in which he decides to play a lone hand and tries to play the heroes and villains against each other in Brick Bradford (1947).
After a minor henchman role in Superman (1948), Penn played the main villain in Congo Bill (1948), fighting the fame jungle explorer in an attempt to grab a missing heiress’s fortune. Next came a red herring role as a butler who is a possible suspect for the mystery villain The Wizard in Batman and Robin (1949), which muddied the water effectively by havng Penn supply the voice of the masked villain.
The fifties gave Penn his best role playing a mystery man who turns out to be the famed scientist Captain Nemo in Mysterious Island (1951). Penn’s final serial was playing a Commie spy battling Buster Crabbe in King of the Congo (1952). Penn would spend the rest of his career on TV appearing in such shows as Adventures of Superman, Hopalong Cassidy, Rocky Jones Space Ranger, and Lassie.
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