Derrière le masque noir

Perplexing? It is never revealed how the Masked Marvel acquired his aura.

He doesn't possess magical powers, super brains, or any particular crime fighting skills. He does sport a mask. But what for? What's he trying to hide? He's truly not much, if all, different from the other three good guys.

One thing is clear. Men's hats must have been surgically attached. No amount of fighting, falling, leaping out of cars or boats, can dislodge the hats.

It appeared all of the serials many pugilists were in tremendous physical condition. How many blows to the chin, back flips, kicks, hurling into walls could you take? They are simply indefatigible.

The Masked Marvel serial makes Steven Segal foes seem like pre-schoolers.

If you have never seen a `real' serial before, they can be more fun that a true classic. By a "real" serial, I do not mean something made to fill 20 minutes of time on a Saturday afternoon like The Phantom Empire, The Brute Man or Radar Men From the Moon. The low budgets, the obvious stunt doubles (Sakima's stunt double in Episode 10 could have been any short man on earth other than Sakima) and the impossibility of the hero escaping tragedy at the end of each episode are all extremely enjoyable. In the Masked Marvel, I especially enjoyed all four investigators wearing the same suit with identically folded breast pocket handkerchiefs. Keeping track of everything that is going on can keep the viewer very busy.

For an adult, serials can be particularly enjoyable because they are mindless entertainment. One does not have to interpret any metaphors. There are no words of wisdom, no dissecting the characters and no symbolism to decipher. Just sit back and let the action roll!

The Masked Marvel is one of the kings of action serials. By my count there were 19 fights (four or more men fighting in two or more rooms were counted as one fight), an even 20 killings by gunshot, 15 deaths by miscellaneous means (explosions, knifes, auto accidents, to include the same shot of a car going over a cliff in Episodes 2 and 8, etc.) and 15 explosions (including cars going over a cliff and the three explosions at the beginning). Given that the killings by gunshot, the miscellaneous killings and the explosions are all divisible by 5, I may have missed a fight (I did not double count the deaths, explosions, etc. that occurred in the rehashing of the end of the previous episode at the beginning of the next episode). The entire serial runs 3 hours and 17 minutes. Subtracting 2 minutes for rehashing of the end of the previous episode at the beginning of the next episode (11 times) leaves 2 hours and 55 minutes. So on average there is a fight every nine minutes, a killing every 5 minutes and an explosion every 12 minutes. And they took The Wild, Wild West off the air because it was too violent. Parents/adults are no fun at all.

The next time I watch the video, I am going to have to count the number of times they use the same staircase. In the hospital scene there was a gurney on the landing. In the warehouse scene there were boxes on the landing. And in the office building scene there was nothing on the landing. The staircase was used a few other times, but I do not remember the exact scenes.

With the exception of the two bodies falling from the top of a building (the dummies could have been Raggedy Andy wearing a man's hat), the special effects were very good. The explosions were especially realistic and the stunts were top notch. There have been other comments regarding Tom Steele's excellent stunt work so I will not dwell on the subject.

Please do not take my comments as criticism. Much of the enjoyment in watching a serial is paying attention to the detail, or lack thereof, and catching the irregularities one would not be able to catch if they were nine or typically would not find in a higher budget film. The Masked Marvel is a top notch serial.

Made during the height of World War II, The Masked Marvel is 12 chapters of pure stunts and thrills. Despite the poor acting of the four leading men who are the "Marvel" suspects, the action-packed fights and rousing cliffhangers, plus the marvellous stunt work by Tom Steele and his team compensates.

The special effects by the Lydecker brothers are first-rate, as good as any major studio - if not better.

I have watched this serial a dozen times and still get excited and caught up in the adventure. If anyone wanted to begin a serial collection, this could do well as an introduction. It's Republic Pictures at the top of the studio's game.

In 1966 or so during the "camp"craze, the 1943 Columbia serial of "Batman" was released to ride the publicity generated by the Batman-TV program. (As an aside, as a True Believer I quickly tired of that program, haven't watched it since) Republic edited several of its much better made serials into 2 hour or so movies, sold them in syndication. Among the ones I remember were "Fighting Devil Dogs", "The Invisible Monster", "Manhunt of Mystery Island" and of course "The Masked Marvel" My mother joked that the actors hats seemed to be stapled to their heads, I later learned that they wore elastic bands so you couldn't tell it was a stuntman and not an actor, if in a fight scene one of the performers' hat came off he was a stuntman all along. Sort of a screen convention of the time. That said, this is one of the best wartime serials, I occasionally needed an adult to explain some of the wartime reference-the gas rationing stamps that the Marvel uses to track down Mace's car, e.g.

One sad bit of trivia, in Chapter One the actor David Bacon looks at a secret message dated September 13, 1943, he was murdered on September 13, 1943.

Previously, I noticed that many times they changed the ending and not too cleverly. In chapter 8 when the Marvel took the dive off the roof the action the next week was different and obviously sneaky, not a true cliffhanger! Oh yes, the agent who knifed the thug in bed after he identifies the Marvel was the Marvel technically. Tom Steele played the assassin and of course was killed again in the car crash. He is as you know the man behind the mask in all the action scenes. If you watch closely you can identify his stance, body language and physical running attitude. He was never mentioned in the credits at all. Most curious.