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.
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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.Read More »
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 WikipediaRead More »
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.Read More »
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.Read More »
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.Read More »
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.Read More »
Plot summary for
Manhunt of Mystery Island
A young couple journeys to Mystery Island to rescue the girl’s father, who is being held prisoner by the evil Captain Mephisto, a pirate from 200 years ago who uses his Transformation Machine to travel forward in time and disguise himself as one of the four owners of Mystery Island. Written by AnonymousRead More »
allmovie wrote:
This adventure is the first live-action Superman serial and was one of the most successful multi-chapter films ever made. Superman is played by B-movie hero Kirk Alyn. The story centers upon the hero and the nefarious Spider Lady, who is trying to rule the Earth. If she cannot have complete control, she plans on shrinking it with her powerful reducer ray. Much of the episodes center upon Superman’s relationship with Lois Lane and upon his ability to fly.
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