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

Recap: “Criminal mastermind Tarnack has kidnapped Doc Savage’s friends to lure him into a trap so he can force the location of Doc’s Fortress of Solitude from him. Doc and Pat follow clues that lead to a seemingly deserted house where Tarnack captures Doc!”

CHAPTER 2: INFERNO OF DOOM

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.

Thinking quickly, Doc puts his ear next to the wall where he can hear the motor that is controlling the walls. When he locates the room on the other side of the wall, Doc pulls a small explosive from his utility vest under his shirt and blows a hole in the wall big enough for him to climb through. Once in the room he sees that that there is a door, but finds it is locked. Luckily this one opens toward the room and using a small screwdriver from his vest, Doc pops the hinges off and pries the door open.

Once in the hallway, Doc starts exploring the place and finds the room where Monk, Ham, Rennie, Johnny and Long Tom are chained to a wall. When they start to talk, Doc motions them to be silent, and using a lock pick from his vest, frees them from their manacles. They are discovered as they leave the room and a massive fight breaks out with lots of punching, kicking and opponents getting flipped over combatant’s shoulders.

Tarnack stops the fight by producing Pat, who he holds at gun point. Doc and the Fab Five are locked in the room they were held prisoner while the villains make their escape. Doc and his companions break out of the room but find the house is completely deserted. They head back to Doc’s penthouse to work out a new plan to rescue Pat.

Tarnack takes Pat to another hideout to try and force the location of the Fortress from her. It soon becomes evident that only Doc knows its location. Not to be so easily foiled, Tarnack comes up with a brilliant plan to force Doc to tell him where it is. Tarnack has Pat taken to a warehouse, where she is locked in a room where a disabled phone is sitting under a table. Pat manages to fix the phone by reattaching the wires to the call box and gets a message to Doc.

Doc goes to the warehouse and sneaks in through a window. He finds the room where Pat is being held and frees her. Suddenly Tarnack and his men appear with guns drawn. Tarnack taunts Doc by calling him stupid to not know it was a trap. Doc counters that he knew it was a trap all along. Just then Monk, Ham, Rennie, Johnny and Long Tom burst through the front door, jump the henchmen from behind, causing them to drop their guns and a fight erupts.

During the fracas a lamp gets over turned and sets the warehouse on fire. Tarnack manages to get hold of a gun and holds Doc and his men at bay. Once his own men are out of the building, Tarnack leaves, locking the door behind him, trapping them in the burning building. Doc says he has something that can open that door and heads for it just as a burning timber falls from the ceiling and lands on him, trapping Doc under it as the fire gets closer and closer to the heroes…

“Is Tarnack now free to pursue his ultimate goal? He and his men are heading into a frozen wasteland! Has he discovered the location of Doc’s Fortress of Solitude? For the answers don’t miss ARCTIC AVALANCHE, the third thrill packed episode of DOC SAVAGE! At this theater next week!”