Todd’s Serial Blog

I’ve always enjoyed serials that combined different genres together, like Mascot’s combining science fiction and westerns in Phantom Empire (1935) or Columbia’s mix of superhero and mystery villain in The  Spider’s Web (1937).    One on the better ones from Republic came in the late forties combining cops and robbers with a jungle adventure (in the later chapters) with Federal Agents vs. Underworld Inc. (1949).

The serial opens with nasty hood Spade Gordon (Roy Barcroft) kidnapping famed archeologist Prof. James Clayton (James Craven).  Famed FBI agent Dave Worth (Kirk Alyn) is assigned to the case.  He immediately sets up headquarters in Clayton’s office with his partner Steve Evans (James Dale).   To get background on possible motives, Dave has Clayton’s assistant Laura Keith (Rosemary LaPlanche)  tell him about the professor’s last expedition.

It was to the country of Abistahn.  Prof. Clayton, Prof. Paul Williams (Bruce Edwards) and Laura discover a handless statue of the the Abistahnian god Kurigal. Digging around the site of the statue, Clayton unearths a golden hand.  According to legend, there are two hands that when fitted into the statue will lead to a vast treasure and the person who controls the hands will control the people of Abistahn.  Being a consientious archeologist, Clayton returns the hand to the spot he found it so as to protect the integrity of the dig site.  Unfortunately news of the find leaked out and the hand was stolen.  Dave suspects it may have been stolen by Nila (Carol Forman), a known Abistahnian revolutionary who has wanted to usurp power there for some time.

While they are talking, Gordon sneaks into the museum and attempts to kidnap Prof. Williams.  Williams fights back and Dave hears the ruckus.  He joins the fray and beats Gordon off.  Gordon runs for his car with Dave close behind.  This leads to a high speed car chase  that careens around hairpin corners.  Gordon’s car comes equipped with an oil spray dispenser for just such an emergency.  Gordon deploys it once they are out of the city and Dave’s car spins out out of control.  Dave manages to leap to safety before the car slides off a cliff and explodes at the bottom of a ravine.

Now safe, Gordon continues on to his hideout, an abandoned mansion on the outskirts of a swamp.  Waiting for him is Nila, who is not too pleased with his failure, or the intervention of Dave Worth, a clever and dangerous adversary.  Gordon wants to know what real deal is with grabbing the academics. Nila shows him  a golden hand and explains the significance of it.  Hers she found years ago.  She went to steal the hand that Clayton discovered but it was already gone.  Nila believes Williams has it.  Once they get it from him and find the treasure, Nila plans to take over Abistahn and also use the vast treasure to combine all the criminal gangs in America into one vast organization, an Underworld Incorporated, with herself….and grudgingly, Gordon at the head.

Later Williams receives an invitation to a dinner at The Archeology Club. He fills out his acceptance and seals the return envelope.  He immediately goes into a trance.  Nila calls the drugged professor and tells him to come to her at a specific time.  Dave arrives and informs Laura and Steve that it has been confirmed that Nila is in the country.  He notices Williams’ odd behavior.

When Williams goes out to the main floor of the museum, Dave searches the professor’s desk.  Finding the invitation reply, Laura comments to him that she didn’t receive an invitation.  Dave calls the club and learns there is no dinner.  Opening the envelope, he notices a strange odor on the adhesive flap.

Taking the letter to a lab Dave and Steve have it examined and discover the adhesive contains contains a powerful hypnotic.  Dave calls Laura and tells her this and to keep Williams at the museum till he can get there with an antidote.  Laura tries to keep Williams occupied with registering newly arrived artifacts.  Williams becomes agitated and tries to leave.  When Laura tries to stop him. he attacks her.  Dave and Steve arrive in time to save Laura and Dave administers the antidote.  Once back to himself, Williams tells Dave the address Nila wanted him to go to.

Dave goes to the address, an office building, and tries to sneak in but is caught by a henchman.  He is taken to Gordon. Dave pops off some wisecracks then starts a fight.  During the tussel a lamp is broken from it’s cord and and the sparking cord starts a fire in a trash can. Dave knocks out the henchman and Gordon manages to knock Dave out.  Seeing  the office in a mass of flames, Gordon skedaddles, leaving Dave and the henchman to burn to death……

This a good latter day serial from Republic.  The plot is a cross between Dick Tracy’s G-Men (1939) and Perils of Nyoka (1942), govenment agents track foreign spies while also racing to uncover a hidden treasure.  The early chapters are a standard cops and robbers story, but then in chapter Nine things shift to a foreign and exotic location when the heroes head to the fictional country of Abastahn.

Like most serials from this era there is a lot of stock footage used throughout to pad out the chapters with car chases and explosions. While this is usually a major complaint for fans, here it is not too intrusive thanks to a strong story line and above average interesting characters thanks to the acting of the leads.  Plus the serial keep throwing in some great plot twists throughout, not only do we get an exotic villain and a plot that hinges on bringing an ancient legend to fruition, but when the setting switches to the desert, there is an unveiling of a mystery villain.  The odd thing here is that up to that point there had been no mention of a mystery villain, making the chapter title Unmasked a real surprise.  But during the explanation of the mystery villain’s machinations you realize there was more going on than first suspected.

Kirk Alyn gives a strong performance, probably his best in the genre.  While seeming  to be an all business G-Man in the Ralph Byrd mode, his dialog is peppered with some great one liners that Alyn puts the perfect sarcastic spin on, giving his character some needed humor and personality.

Jerry Blake talks about one in Chapter Eight where Alyn catches Barcroft burning records and asks if he is getting rid of old love letters, but my favorite is in Chapter Three when Barcroft  captures Alyn and takes him to an old warehouse.  Alyn looks around, sadly shakes his head and quips that Barcroft just doesn’t live right.  Makes me laugh no matter how many times I’ve seen it because of Alyn’s delivery.

Carol Forman, in her second of three face offs with Alyn, plays a reworking of her character from The Black Widow (1947), though not poured into a tight, sheath like gown this time, she still cuts an alluring figure as the exotic villain.  More ruthless than usual she doesn’t bother shading her character with any sympathetic nuances.  She is after what she wants and if you don’t want to give it to her, you are not being stubborn in her mind, just stupid and need to be killed.

For once in a serial a villain does the smart thing.  When the hero gets caught in Chapter Four, she doesn’t have an elaborate death trap to put him in. She is more than willing to waste a bullet on him, pulling out a gun and shooting Alyn at point blank range.  This cliffhanger is marred in the resolution with Alyn escaping death by simply jumping out of the way of the bullet.  No seriously, that’s what happens.

Bruce Edwards is a real surprise in this serial.  After playing a lackluster hero in The Black Widow, he comes into his own as a supposed good guy who is really working his own villainous plot and eventually teams up with the bad guys for the first half of the serial.  His changed from feigned kindliness to a sneering  and angry villain is effective and it is a shame he wasn’t given the opportunity to play bad guys more often as he showed a real knack for it.

Rosemary LaPlanche is given little to do but look pretty, though she does get more involved in the action in the Abistahn portion of the film.  But since she is a beauty queen, she can sit around the office set and look pretty all she wants with no complaints from me. James Dale is only used as back up in some fights and shoot outs. He does have an amusing scene in Chapter Seven where he complains about all this newfangled scientific detective work, a gun and billy club is all you really need to handle crooks.

Roy Barcroft plays an ambitious but not too bright thug, good for the heavy work, but not someone to go to for any deep thinking.  When Forman is given some slightly cryptic information in Chapter Three, Barcroft reponds sarcasticly, “Wow that’s exciting news,” causing Forman to exasperatingly eplain it to him.  He is a good combination of humorous ingnorance and nasty brute force.  His scenes with Alyn are amusing as he is constantly infuriated with Alyn’s flipant behavior and just wants to kill him.

Spoiler Alert!!!! I’m going to talk about who got revealed in Chapter Ten as the mystery villain. Skip this paragraph if you don’t want to be told who that turned out to be.  Are they all gone? Okay, now where was I?  Oh yeah,   shown as a kindly scientist in Chapter One James Craven disappears from the serial before the first chapter is even half over and doesn’t appear again until Chapter Ten where it is revealed he is the real villain of the piece and was kidnapped as cover.  He is slick and oily at this point, easily playing the good guys and villains against each other so he will come out the only one left.

I really like this serial, it is not as great as some of the company’s earlier serials like Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939) or Secret Service in Darkest Africa (1943) but it is a solid action film with some fun performances and interesting twists and turns along the way.  Made at a time when there was still some originality in the company’s product, it is a must see for Alyn fans.

Tags: Reviews //