The Spy Ring

1938's "The Spy Ring" was one of the handful of non genre titles included in Universal's SHOCK! package of classic horror films issued to television in the late 50's. It shouldn't come as a surprise that a little 'B' feature about a spy ring would garner little attention in such a distinguished format, but this one fails to entertain on even the most modest scale, clearly deserving its relative obscurity. Top billing went to little known William Hall, strictly a bit player who quickly returned to same afterwards, as the Army captain whose buddy has designed a new trigger mechanism that could help revolutionize anti-aircraft defense. The friend is quickly murdered in his Washington DC apartment by an attractive blonde (Esther Ralston) working for a spy ring based in California, so our hero travels out West to ferret out the villains by (get this!) playing polo! Hard to believe, but once the ponies come on, the spy stuff gets buried, and the viewer winds up feeling like a horse's a--. About the kindest thing one can say is it's better than 1941's "A Dangerous Game." Fetching teenager Jane Wyman gets second billing in the lesser female role of the ingenue, and other familiar faces include Robert Warwick, Leon Ames, Egon Brecher, and burly Glenn Strange, in a silent thug part. This was the only time in her career that former silent screen beauty Esther Ralston was billed under the name Jane Carleton (two years away from retirement), and there are musical cues from both "Dracula's Daughter" and "The Invisible Ray." Cult director Joseph H. Lewis did go on to do a pair of genre titles in 1941, Monogram's "Invisible Ghost" (Bela Lugosi) and Universal's "The Mad Doctor of Market Street" (Lionel Atwill).

This is now a very obscure film which is only somewhat interesting. It is meant to be a spy story with a little polo thrown in. The spy intrigue angle is only made somewhat interesting and the polo is hard to watch with such an old grainy film. The acting is generally poor, William Hall has kind of a creepy toothy smile that makes him look silly in this role. The studio was just trying Hall out as a leading man and apparently he failed because he was relegated to minor roles for the most part after this film. Some of the supporting actors are quite good, though, and Jane Wyman comes across quite well in a small role with no real dialog to work with. The original story by F.V.W. Mason is quite a bit more interesting than this watchable but not particularly recommended film.