Spy Smasher

10-year-old boys must have really gobbled this up when it was a brand-new serial back in 1942. Even now it has the power to involve and entertain with its narrative flow, frequent spurts of action, and that pounding musical introduction from Beethoven's Fifth. Best of all it has Kane Richmond, (born in Minneapolis in 1906), who has all the looks and manner you want in a serial hero. He also has amazingly tough skin. In Chapter One he's captured by the Nazis, bound against the wall of a Gestapo dungeon, and given a vigorous whipping across his bare chest -- but hardly seems to suffer so much as a paper-cut! Actually, this is one of those floggings where the whip is never shown touching its victim. Instead, the impression of a flogging is given by means of editing together various visual elements. In any case, this scene ranks 18th in the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies."

The score for Spy Smasher, a variation on Beethoven's fifth symphony, is a fabulous reminder of the era in which this classic serial was made.

While Spy Smasher is certainly one of the top 5 adventure serials ever made at Republic, it also is a rousing WW2 propaganda film. Check out the title sequence -- three dots and a dash appear on the screen, coinciding with the first four notes of Beethoven's fifth. Three dots and a dash are Morse code for the letter "V," made famous by Churchill's hand sign as a determination to defeat the Nazis and their cronies. Twin searchlights in the title sequence freeze into another V. The coded messages abound in Spy Smasher--even on Spy Smasher's belt buckle.

The action here is top notch, the cast capable, the stunt work great (as always at Republic) and the special effects likewise. If you like Republic serials (Zorro's Fighting Legion, Adventures of Captain Marvel, etc.) you MUST take a look at this one. It is one of the very best. Kane Richmond later went on to play the Shadow in a couple of films, one of which featured a killer who pulled his victims to their deaths off of balconies using a bullwhip, a stunt which was first seen in Spy Smasher. One thing I love about this chapterplay is the acknowledgment that we would not win the war without suffering losses. Great pacing, great action, great serial!

I do so love to watch professionals at work.

When you watch "Spy Smasher," you see a genre and a studio at the top of their form. Everything in this serial clicks and hums along like a well-oiled machine. The plot is exciting and as logical as it need be, the music fast and inspiring, the cliffhangers harrowing, and the acting professional and dead-on. It's Republic Studios at the height of their game, ancestor to the big action flicks of today, and sheer pleasure to watch.

This is the finest serial ever made. Kane Richmond plays twin brothers battling Nazi agents in America. With expert casting, stunt work and direction this is Republic's finest hour in cliffhangers. The serial never drags and the camera work and doubling creating the illusion of twin is peerless.

Spy Smasher is a rather good chapterplay. It features a rather obscure character from Whiz Comics (the same book that spawned Captain Marvel). From an adaptation point of view, it isn't very good, but then very few comic book-to-screen adaptations are all that true to the source material.

The cliffhangers are all acceptable and explainable from chapter to chapter (using the "they-don't-show-us-all-the-action" angle)...and the storyline is action-packed. The villain, The Mask, is a typical one spawned of both serials and comics of the times. There also doesn't seem to be a lot of stock footage use (though there is a bit of footage reuse in later chapters).

Kane Richmond isn't too much of an actor, but he is quite adequate here as the dashing identical twins and Spy Smasher. The rest of the cast isn't too noteworthy...nor do they have performances of any real note.

This is definitely a good example of a good movie serial...12 chapters that are worth the time to watch.