The Editor of the Daily Clarion newspaper hires amateur criminologist Steve Colt to solve a series of murders, all involving poisonous spider bites.
Meanwhile, King Hitomu has sent his daughter Sombra to the United States to fulfill his plan for global domination. There she poses as a fortune teller and, with a gang of henchmen, attempt to steal a prototype Atomic Rocket Engine.
(From Wikipedia)

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The post Spencer Gordon Bennet & Fred C. Brannon – The Black Widow (1947) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

15 Part Columbia serial starring Buster Crabbe concerns the search for 5 million dollars in diamonds that went missing at the close of the Second World War. Crabbe plays Jeff Drake who is summoned to a small south pacific island by a war time buddy who has run in a nest of vipers looking for the stolen gems. The story begins as Jeff is summoned to the island, and how he reluctantly heads out, the result not so much of wanting to help a friend, rather because several people, including his friends sister, all want to go to the island. Once he’s on his way Crabbe and his friends are beset by many of the usual and several unusual serial dangers.

https://nitro.download/view/4B338F438E66F93/Pirates-of-the-High-Seas_-_serial.part1.rar
https://nitro.download/view/DC0237B35897CB7/Pirates-of-the-High-Seas_-_serial.part2.rar
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The post Spencer Gordon Bennet – Pirates of the High Seas (1950) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Plot
The film series is a complicated serial with more twists than a maze that basically centers around a U.S. Air Force captain and his quest for missing microfilm that contains vital information. The heroic Buster Crabbe plays Captain Roger Drum, who shoots down an enemy plane on its way to Africa with the secret microfilm. Intent on revealing the subversive group that the message was for, Drum assumes the pilot’s identity and flies to Africa himself and crashes in the jungle. He is rescued by the pacific Rock People, led by Princess Phi (Gloria Dea), and is renamed Thunda, King of the Congo, after he rings a temple gong in alarm. With the subversives believing Thunda is their missing pilot and under constant attack by another tribe called the Cave Men, our hero plots to bring down the subversives who are searching for a new metal more radioactive than uranium. At the end, Thunda (or Drum) clear the jungle of villains and reunites the Rock People and Cave Men for well. From Wikipedia

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The post Spencer Gordon Bennet – King of the Congo (1952) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

This is one of the worst Columbia science fiction serials. That said, it does have a couple of interesting qualities. First, it has some very unusual cliff hangers, but there’s no set up that allows you to guess ‘How do they get out of it?’ Almost every one is a cheat, with Captain Video pulling out a new secret gadget to neutralize the terror, or Gallagher (Don C. Harvey, usually a ‘henchman’ in other serials and movies) in the Control Room twirling dials and flipping switches to save our heroes. When a fire in a well fails to burn them, Captain Video explains that it’s because human bodies from Earth react differently to the atmosphere of Theros. But there’s only one ‘jump out of the car before it explodes / goes over the cliff’ cliff hanger! As usual, it’s the stirring narration by Knox Manning at the end of each episode that teases you into wanting to watch the next chapter.

The real fun and the best part of the serial are the names of the gadgets! The ‘hose-inator’ sucks up poisonous gas; the ‘degravitator’ counteracts gravity by creating a ‘sonic air cushion’ which allows our heroes to fall slowly and safely to Earth from deep space; their ‘inertializer’ paralyzes the bad guys; bombs are defused by an ‘anti-detonator’— wow! The list goes on and on! There’s ‘the space platform,’ the ‘optican skillometer,’ the ‘thermograph,’ the giant binoculars called ‘scanning goggles,’ the ‘atmospheric locator,’ the ‘static beam,’ ‘platinite,’ the ‘stethapod,’ the ‘interference ray,’ ‘hyrogenic radiations,’ the ‘magnetic impulse detector,’ the ‘diathermic accelerator,’ ‘paralyzing vapor bombs,’ the ‘space radiophone,’ the ‘palm mike’ (a kind of mini-walkee talkee), the ‘cosmic vibrator,’ and the ‘cloak of invisibility.’

Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere is a 15-chapter serial released by Columbia Pictures in 1951. It was directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and Wallace A. Grissel with a screenplay by Royal G. Cole, Sherman I. Lowe and Joseph F. Poland, based on a treatment by George H. Plympton. The serial is unique for several reasons— in particular, it is the first and last film serial ever based on a television program, Captain Video and his Video Rangers.

Judd Holdren, in what was only his second starring screen role, plays Captain Video, the leader of a group of crime-fighters known as the Video Rangers. He faces an interplanetary menace, as the evil dictator of the planet Atoma, Vultura (Gene Roth) and his lackey, the traitorous earth scientist Dr. Tobor (George Eldredge) are planning to conquer the earth.

Cast

* Judd Holdren as Captain Video
* Larry Stewart as Ranger
* George Eldredge as Dr. Tobor
* Gene Roth as Vultura
* Don C. Harvey as Gallagher
* Skelton Knaggs as Retner
* William Fawcett as Alpha
* Jack Ingram as Aker, a henchman
* I. Stanford Jolley as Zarol
* Jimmy Stark as Ranger Rogers
* Rusty Wescoatt as Beal, a henchman
* Zon Murray as Elko’, a henchman

Captain Video was the only serial adapted from television.

As produced by Sam Katzman, the serial has a production budget seemingly not much larger than the famously tiny budget of the DuMont Television Network’s live daily teleseries.

Republic Pictures used and reused the same basic plot in Radar Men from the Moon, Zombies of the Stratosphere and Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe in 1951 – 1953, and borrowed Holdren himself for the latter two serials. The Captain Video chapterplay is a bit more satisfying to science-fiction fans, because it does make an effort to keep the action interplanetary, instead of earthbound. Captain Video and his teenaged sidekick, the otherwise nameless “Video Ranger” (Larry Stewart), must make frequent visits both to Atoma and to another distant planet, Theros.

Both Atoma and Theros are impersonated by Bronson Canyon, so to distinguish the two, the Atoma footage is tinted pink and the Theros footage is tinted green in the original release prints. These colored scenes were processed by Cinecolor.

In the Captain Video teleseries, “Tobor” is the name of a large robot, who was one of the series’ most popular characters. Calling a villain “Dr. Tobor” may have been intended to fool young theater-goers into thinking they would see the robot in the serial. In fact, the only robots on view are the ludicrous cardboard, fedora-wearing robots seen in the 1935 Gene Autry serial The Phantom Empire. (These were originally built as dancing robots, for the 1933 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical Dancing Lady).

This was the second of only three science fiction serials released by Columbia. The third, The Lost Planet (1953), is a virtual sequel although with different character names,[2] The slaves of The Lost Planet’s evil extraterrestrial dictator Reckov (also Gene Roth) inexplicably all wear uniforms that look like those of the Video Rangers of 1951. In any case, the hero in The Lost Planet is a newspaper reporter named Rex Barrow, also played by Judd Holdren. As in the Captain Video serial, there is also an evil earth scientist, Dr. Grood (Michael Fox), in cahoots with Reckov of the Lost Planet.

Captain Video was very successful when first released to theaters, and kept playing long after other serials had been retired to the vaults. It is one of only two serials that Columbia reissued three times (in 1958, 1960, and 1963).

Harmon and Glut describe this serial as a “rather shoddy, low budget space cliffhanger.”

The serial includes several science fiction gadgets of the era. The Opticon Scillometer was used for looking through walls. Objects were made to disappear with the Isotropic Radiation Curtain. The Mu-ray Camera could photograph lingering images after the event. Temporary madness could be caused with the Psychosomatic Weapon. A variation on Radar was entitled the Radionic Directional Beam and the Radionic Guide.[1]

Chapter titles

1. Journey into Space
2. Menace of Atoma
3. Captain Video’s Peril
4. Entombed in Ice
5. Flames of Atoma
6. Astray in the Stratosphere
7. Blasted by the Atomic Eye
8. Invisible Menace
9. Video Springs a Trap
10. Menace of the Mystery Metal
11. Weapon of Destruction
12. Robot Rocket
13. Mystery of Station X
14. Vengeance of Vultura
15. Video vs. Vultura
======================================================

Remember, this was made in the days of when you could order your ‘decoder ring’ and other gadgets from the top SF TV shows of the time — the best of which in all ways was ‘Space Patrol’ (1950) which offered home versions of gadgets used on the show. (And then again, you get one for free in a box of cereal!)

What makes this one really weak as a serial: too much walking or driving around outside (but it’s in the great slanted rocks of the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth); bland hero; costumes from the stock room; no physical contact between the hero and head villain, Vultura (Gene Roth, a left over from the Three Stooges shorts)– in fact, as someone who wants to rule the universe, he spends virtually all his screen time talking into hand held microphones and showing his flabby stomach. There’s too much time spent by all the characters twisting dials, flipping switches, using microphones, and staring into video screens (‘the optical skillometer’).

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The post Spencer Gordon Bennet – Captain Video, Master of the Stratosphere (1951) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

BRUCE GENTRY, based on a short-lived but well-done post-World War Two adventure comic strip, begins in South America, where Bruce Gentry (Tom Neal), pilot and adventurer, is recruited by a US government agent (Dale Van Sickel) who needs to fly to the States in a hurry. After fighting off some thugs pursuing the agent, Bruce takes to the air with his passenger, who explains that he’s been gathering information on a plot engineered by an unnamed foreign power (it’s those Russians again!) and traitorous American fifth columnists that has as its goal the conquest of the nations of the Americas–North, Central, and South. The weapon the would-be-conquerors intend to use shortly after comes on the scene: a sinister flying saucer that heads for Bruce’s plane at an incredible rate of speed. Bruce escapes being hit by the strange projectile, though the heat waves it gives off cause some damage to his controls, and lands safely in the United States. Quite interested in this threat to the world, Bruce goes to consult his scientist friend Dr. Benson (Forrest Taylor) for his opinion on the makeup and source of the flying saucers–for the frightening things have been seen throughout the country, and no one can pinpoint their place of origin. However, Benson is kidnapped by a gang of thugs led by Allen (Jack Ingram) almost as soon as Bruce arrives at his house, despite Bruce’s attempts to stop the abduction. Shortly afterwards, Bruce is sought out by Paul Radcliffe (Hugh Prosser), an aircraft engineer and industrialist, who is interested in solving the mystery of the flying saucers and–possibly–mass-producing the things in his factories for peace-time uses (I can’t quite figure out what uses Radcliffe could make of them, but then I’m not an industrialist), and wants to enlist Bruce’s services in tracking them down. Bruce begins to investigate, and shortly afterwards locates the area that seems to be hiding the saucer’s testing grounds–the mountains and mesas adjoining the property of brother and sister ranchers Frank and Juanita Farrell (Ralph Hodges and Judy Clark). In the meantime, Krendon (Tristram Coffin), the leader of the foreign agents, forces Dr. Benson to lend his scientific know-how to the perfection of the deadly explosive saucers, but Krendon’s subsequent attempts to get his hands on the necessary materials for the project are continually thwarted by Bruce Gentry, who, with the help of Radcliffe and the Farrells, begins to get closer and closer to Krendon’s boss, the mysterious spy leader who calls himself, “The Recorder,” and only communicates with his followers by means of pre-recorded tapes.

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The post Spencer Gordon Bennet – Bruce Gentry (1949) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

From the files of Jerry Blake:
THE MASKED MARVEL.

Republic, 12 Chapters, 1943. Starring William Forrest, Louise Currie, Johnny Arthur, Richard Clarke, Rod Bacon, Anthony Warde, David Bacon, Bill Healy, and TOM STEELE as the Marvel.

THE MASKED MARVEL is almost universally recognized as one of Republic’s best. The action alone would be enough to place it in the top ten. The story deals with a wave of sabotage unleashed by Mura Sakima, a Japanese super-spy who employs former racketeer Killer Mace and other no-good turncoats in his evil schemes to destroy the American war effort. The World-Wide Insurance Company, principal insurer of the war materials, sends its four of its top investigators to stop the sinister sabotage. The Masked Marvel, mysterious foe of crime, aids the quartet in their battle, and it becomes evident that he is secretly one of the foursome. The Marvel is aided by Alice Hamilton, daughter of Warren Hamilton, the murdered head of World-Wide, and hindered by Hamilton’s partner, Martin Crane, who is actually in league with Sakima.

The acting talents of the four heroes–the insurance investigators played by Dave Bacon, Rod Bacon, Bill Healey, and Richard Clarke–seem to be the biggest bone of contention among fans where this serial is concerned, but I think that all four actors are passable in their roles. They’re not great, but they’re certainly not bad. And even if they were bad, that wouldn’t affect the performances of the other cast members and the magnificent direction of Spencer Gordon Bennett. Rod Bacon is the best of the group: he has some energy and seems not to be “lost”; too bad he gets killed off first. David Bacon is subdued but competent, but Bill Healey and Richard Clarke are frankly rather stiff. Healey doesn’t even remotely resemble Tom Steele physically, so one wonders why he was cast in the first place. I doubt any one of them could carry a serial alone, but all working together and partnered with Louise Currie and the mysterious Marvel, they’re very easy to watch.

This one is a companion volume to SECRET SERVICE IN DARKEST AFRICA—the two of them together contain enough great stunts and furniture-breaking fights to supply every other serial ever made. Bennett once said that the bills for balsa wood for these two were enormous. The Masked Marvel, as played by Tom Steele, is most definitely a man of action. Steele runs, fights, and jumps his way into serial immortality in the role of the hero–even with his voice dubbed by Gayne Whitman (By the way, Whitman’s deep, commanding voice is a perfect compliment to Steele’s physical presence).

The central theme, the mystery of the Marvel’s identity, is intriguing, and a nifty inversion of the usual “guess the heavy’s identity” gimmick. And (SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!) the guessing game is conducted fairly (as Jack Mathis says) because Dave Bacon, revealed as the Marvel at the end, bears the closest physical and facial resemblance to Steele.

Heroine Louise Currie deserves, in my opinion, “Serial Queen” status right alongside Linda Stirling and Kay Aldridge. She only made two cliffhangers (the other one is CAPTAIN MARVEL), but they compare to Linda and Kay’s output in quality, if not quantity. She creates a very memorable heroine in the person of Alice Hamilton, smart, capable, and a worthy assistant to the Marvel.

Anthony Warde is nastier than nasty as action heavy Killer Mace (Jack Mathis, in his book VALLEY OF THE CLIFFHANGERS, says George J. Lewis was originally intended for the role. George would have been good, but it’s hard to picture anyone but Warde in the role after seeing the serial). I love the way Mace snarls “The Masked Marvel!” every time he is confronted by the masked do-gooder, invariably following up the exclamation with a hail of lead. Johnny Arthur’s letter-perfect portrayal of Sakima is the exact opposite of Mace; one is pure brain, the other pure brawn. Arthur’s manner of sneering every time he mentions “the Marvel”, “those investigators”, or “the American war effort”, must have had every kid in the theatre jumping up and down and shouting “Just wait, you rat! The Marvel’ll get you in the end!” The fact that he is made up to resemble Hirohito makes him a perfect embodiment of wartime Japan’s threat to the US. William Forrest, as the turncoat Crane, is smart, slick, suave, and slippery, the epitome of the double-dealing “man at the trading post.”

The final showdown between Sakima and the Marvel is tense and exciting, and topped by the most priceless line in the history of serials–it’s a really great moment.

I’d forgotten that Roy Barcroft pops up in this one–he plays the crooked diner manager in Chapter Six. HAUNTED HARBOR and the top rank of villainy was still a year away. Bud Geary and Tom London also pop up in the same scene, as a pair of truckers doped by Barcroft. George J. Lewis appears in Chapter Five, as attorney Phillip Morton. As I said above, he was originally slated to play Mace himself, but apparently Republic, realizing he had to sleep some time (he had just completed G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON, was working on CAPTAIN AMERICA, and about to start TIGER WOMAN) they signed Anthony Warde to give him a much-needed break. Harry Woods, Barcroft’s acting role model, also appears in Chapter Seven. I can’t believe that Republic utilized an actor of Woods’ standing for such a small part deliberately. I think he must have been filming a B-Western on another lot, and it was a case of “Hey, come over here for a minute, will you?”

And, once again, let me mention Tom Steele. He REALLY does yeoman work in this one–playing the Marvel, doubling ALL FOUR investigators, and getting killed twice in his usual “stunt-mug” parts. Steele and Spencer Bennett are truly the guiding forces behind this truly great serial. THE MASKED MARVEL is quintessential Republic, and well deserves its place in the pantheon of the greats.

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The post Spencer Gordon Bennet – The Masked Marvel (1943) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

IMDB:
A police detective goes undercover and joins a gang of Nazi agents using explosive gases and artificial lightning to sabotage the war effort, whom he battles in disguise as The Black Commando.

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The post Spencer Gordon Bennet – The Secret Code (1942) first appeared on Cinema of the World.