The Green Hornet

Through thirteen chapters in this serial The Green Hornet manages to discover and eliminate a number of various criminal enterprises that are plaguing his city. Playing The Green Hornet in this version is a younger and leaner Gordon Jones who was best known for being Mike the Cop on the Abbott and Costello show. Keye Luke plays his sidekick and chauffeur Kato who because of the impending war was changed from Japanese to Korean for this serial.

Not that this serial is all that much better though it is a cut above most of them, but one of the things that struck me was that each chapter stood more on its own than you would normally have. The premise here is that the various rackets are controlled by a city syndicate of twelve and the Green Hornet as himself and in his real identity of Britt Reid, millionaire publisher of a crusading newspaper the Sentinel, systematically exposes each racket in each chapter and eliminates the head through death or imprisonment.

The obvious comparison is to Batman, but The Green Hornet relies a whole lot less on gadgetry than most superheroes. His car, 'the Black Beauty' is really a souped up hotrod, nothing unique about it in any other way. He's not got the variety of gadgets that Batman or most of his other peers seem to have.

He even has a gas gun that shoots small gas pellets and when they hit the target they merely disable. Fran Striker who created The Green Hornet also created the Lone Ranger and the Ranger's creed was always to shoot to wound. Modern technology has given the Green Hornet a weapon that will do nothing else. In fact The Green Hornet is the grand nephew of The Lone Ranger.

A cut above maybe, but The Green Hornet is as dated as all those other serials that the Saturday afternoon kids used to enjoy.

It should not have been surprising to the World that the dynamic, young Publisher of The Daily Sentinel, Mr. Britt Reid, would become that double-agent of crime fighting, The Green Hornet. You see, Britt Reid had a Great, great, great Uncle, John Reed. Uncle John had been a Texas Ranger and the only one to survive as a group of those Lawmen were ambushed by the gang of cut-throats and their leader, Butch Cavendish.

Do you give up? Of course you don't, for everybody in 3 or 4 generations knows of the exploits of "the masked rider of the Plains" and his Indian companion, Tonto. This is just too easy, so there's no prize! I bet ya'll knowed it was the Lone Ranger all along! So being that there's those "Champion of the People" gene in his lineage it followed that in the mid-Twentieth Century, when the Nation was being plagued with Organized Crime and free-lancing Bank Robbers & Stick-up men that somebody in the family would assume an identity of a Masked Man to strike back at the Underworld in an extra-legal manner.

"THE GREEN HORNET" was born on the Radio. It was in the fertile Studios of WXYZ Radio in Detroit that Mr. Britt Reed and alter-ego, The Green Hornet, first HEARD the light of day. (Remember, this is Radio and only the mind can see!) Soon, the whole Green Hornet ensemble was present and prepared for action. There was Kato, Valet to Mr. Reed but secretly the Hornet's partner in crime-fighting, expert driver of the super-auto, the Black Beauty. Kato is as well, a great inventor and scientist-innovator in that he is responsible for the powerful sedan's make-up underneath the hood, as well as its futuristic design.

Kato was also responsible for the "Hornet's Sting" a sort of stun gun-type weapon. But Kato could and did deliver a stun of his own; via his mastery of the Martial Arts, being Jiu-jitsu, Judo, Karate, Aikido and other related disciplines.

So, let's imagine. This is 1940 and Universal Pictures, one of the 3 Hollywood Studios that regularly turned out the Serials as a part of their films, was looking for new properties suitable for adaptation to a Screen Chapter-play. And from out of the airwaves, presto! There's The Green Hornet, already known and quite popular! It has made its theme music, Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Flight of the Bumble Bee" into a well known household tune.

Universal wasted no time in putting the project on their production schedule. For the leads they cast a slender and youthful Gordon Jones as Britt Reed/The Green Hornet, Keye Luke portrayed his partner Kato, Anne Nagel as his Secretary and Confidant Miss Lenore Case (just "Casey" for short), Wade Boteler as retired Cop turned Reporter Mike Axford, Selmer Jackson as the District Attorney, Stanley Andrews as the Police Commissioner; also Cy Kendall, Joseph Crehan, Walter McGrail, Gene Rizzi, John Kelly and a cast of thousands! (Well a lot more anywho!) They did one more thing with the cast. As the sound of voice was the story telling medium on the Radio, a popular leading character's voice was as well known as the face of a Movie Star. So the Universal production team decided to give us the "real" voice of The Green Hornet from the Radio. Actor Al Hodge* dubbed in his voice to speak any of the lines that Gordon Jones spoke when he was decked out in the Hornet's garb. It was a very neat and effective dramatic device.

As for the story and plot of THE GREEN HORNET serial, the usual subjects of international espionage agents and Renegade Super Scientists were jettisoned away from the first Hornet Screen appearance. Instead The Green Hornet, Kato and company concentrated on Organized Crime and their involvement with rackets in the building of sub-standard buildings, collapsing public works, intimidation and extortion. All of these are real-life type problems being dealt with then, now and as long as Man walks the face of our home, Planet Earth.

NOTE: * Actor Al Hodge not only got to be well known as the Radio Voice of the Green Hornet/Britt Reed; but also during the period of 1949-55, he was famous World-Wide as Television's CAPTAIN VIDEO.

Addendum: 1/07/2008. Oh, by the way, we did forget to mention that a condensed feature version of this Universal Serial was released to TV and to video in 1990. There still may be some of those VHS Casettes floating around out there.

Mr. Watson is correct. Green Hornet radio programs aired up to at least 1938 and earlier which still exist describe Britt Reid's chauffeur as his "Japanese valet." When international tensions subsequently increased, in 1939 or 40, the announcer's line was changed so the phrase became "trusted valet," which Kato remained throughout the majority of the the war years. In wartime programs his nationality was simply not mentioned in the show's opening or anywhere else during the program. After the war, in 1945, the opening was changed again, and announcers begin to refer to Kato as Britt Reid's "Filipino valet," and that is how openings were recorded till the end of the series. So the change didn't happen overnight, but in fact took at least five years, and the "Pearl Harbor" comment is an oversimplification, but the general idea is correct. The idea that this is all an urban legend arises mainly from the posting on urban legend website snopes.com, which is wrong about a lot of other things too and apparently more interested in perpetuating legends than publishing facts. Also, later syndications of Green Hornet radio programs consisted primarily of later broadcasts which would have for the most part included the description of Kato as Filipino. It is also correct that in the movie serials Kato, played by Keye Luke, is identified as Korean, and in the first serial Britt Reid and Kato discuss how they first met -- Britt saved Kato's life in Shanghai. In comic books published by NOW in the 1980s and authorized by the Green Hornet Inc., the situation is rectified and Kato's Japanese heritage fully acknowledged. Perhaps the truth of it all is that Mr. Reid told people his friend was something other than Japanese during the war to protect him from being taken to an interment camp.

I recently watched the 1940 serial edition of "The Green Hornet". As someone who has not watched very many serial movies, I found this film series to be fun and extremely well made for its day. The movie is about four and a half hours long, but is divided into thirteen chapters, each twenty minutes in length. I myself watched a chapter every few days over the course of a month or so.

"The Green Hornet" tells the story of the eponymous radio suspense character from the 1930's who is essentially a mild mannered newspaper editor who takes it upon himself to fight crime in disguise. The character is not exactly a vigilante, at least not in the violent sense, as the Hornet is constantly portrayed as a hero rather than an antihero. Still, his standing outside the law causes him to have run ins with both crooks and the police.

There is definitely a vibe to this film that fits into a "noir" genre, as the plot centers on an elaborate scandal. However, the film maintains a lighthearted vibe overall, as this is ultimately a superhero series, so to speak, rather than the kind of existentialist commentary one might expect from film noir.

The best thing this serial has going for it is its elaborate settings and fight scenes. Railroad scenes, flight scenes, train wrecks, auto wrecks, plane wrecks, flooded mines--this one has it all. And of course, each chapter ends with a cliffhanger made to keep you on the edge of your seat.

All that said, I've given this movie 7/10 stars. It's certainly well made and a delight for its day and age, and for its genre. However, it is quite a long series and by the end you're kind of ready for it to be over with. Still, the final chapter is perhaps the best of the series, and makes it all worth the watch.

The character of The Green Hornet first appeared on WXYZ radio, Detroit, Michigan on January 31, 1936, and was created by station program manager/co-owner George W. Trendle (who also created The Lone Ranger) and, was like that station's Lone Ranger, primarily written by Fran Striker, at least in the early years of both programs. And Trendle's creation from the word go, but Striker was the one who came up with the gas gun and "Black Beauty."

Trendle created Britt Reid/The Green Hornet as the son of Dan Reid, the boy who called The Lone Ranger uncle. (Actually, Dan Reid was a Junior as his father was Dan Reid the first, a Texas Ranger Captain who was killed in the ambush at Bryant's Gap, by the Butch Cavendish gang, along with the rest of his Texas Ranger troop, with the sole exception of his younger brother John Reid, who became The Lone Ranger. Dang right, The Lone Ranger had a name.)

The Green Hornet, like his predecessor kinsman, fought crime wearing a mask; he carried a gas gun while Uncle Lone had a six-shooter and silver bullets; he drove the fastest car on radio, "Black Beauty", while his great-uncle rode Silver, the fastest (and whitest) horse on radio. The latter had Tonto, a native-American (and Indian on the radio) who had saved his life when his band of Texas Rangers were ambushed...while the Hornet's sidekick was Kato, a Filipino who doubled as his valet, and was a college graduate who knew all the secrets of Oriental in-fighting, a master chemist and he could drive "Black Beauty" anywhere, anytime at any speed. (One of the great non-true urban myths has it that Kato was introduced on the program as being Japanese, and had to change his country-of-origin in 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Not so. Kato was Filipino from day one in 1936 on the radio program. But it has been told so much---it started as an WWII joke with comedians---that only those who were there in 1936 or take the time to research the radio program and its scripts know it isn't true. Surprised somebody hasn't posted that myth on the IMDb site, somewhere.)

And, while The Lone Ranger had the "William Tell Overture" as the opening-and-closing theme music, the Green Hornet opened (and roared through his crime-fighting duties)with "Flight of the Bumble Bee" as the main piece of music. And over the Lone Ranger theme music, a voice intoned: "A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again!" And over "The Flight of the Bumble Bee" a voice said: "With his faithful valet Kato, Britt Reid, daring young publisher, matches wits with the underworld, risking his life that criminals and racketeers within the law may feel its weight by the sting of The Green Hornet." Granted, a bit wordy but it served the purpose. And, the follow-up intro to The Lone Ranger was more than a bit wordy as Fred Foy would add: "With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains.......37 more words....followed by.. From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver! The Lone Ranger rides again.!

For their 1940-41 serial schedule, Universal Pictures Corporation announced to their exhibitors that their four serials would include..."The Lone Ranger -The greatest serial property in show business history!" (They sure did---in trade ads and on the inside front cover of the press book of "The Phantom Creeps" You can look it up. We don't have to...it's on our desk) Well, the description blurb was true---Republic had already cleaned up on The Lone Ranger in 1938 and 1939---but WXYZ, Trendle and Universal couldn't agree on the terms. meaning Trendle wanted more money than Universal wanted to pay. Pity. A Universal Lone Ranger serial would have made an interesting companion to Republic's two offerings. And don't knock Universal for promising something they couldn't deliver; in the same 1940-41 schedule Republic announced a Superman serial. That fell through, also, but Republic made up for that, in spades, with "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" in 1941. (Republic used the intended Superman script, anyway...as "The Mysterious Dr. Satan" with "The Copperhead" character filling in for old Supe.)

But Universal did acquire the rights to make two serials based on Trendle's "Green Hornet" character and, relative to serials---which should only be judged by other serials and not every genre and budget that comes down the pike---both are easily in our top-third.

This one was Universal's 45th sound-era serial and they slipped it in between "The Phantom Creeps" and "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe."

Edit: Despite what the cowardly "reviewer", who will not respond to e-mails, says in his snarly, mad-dog attack review, in which he put my name in the subject line I stand by every comment I made. But his attack is typical of the snit-fits he tosses out on the Contributor's Help Board. Edit: It appears the attacker has just corrected his incorrect assertion, with a slithering and cheap "for what it's worth" squirm. Now, take my name out of your slanderous subject line.