Il ragno nero

I love the original pulp stories, the best of which were scribed by Norvell Page. In the pulps, Wentworth was a grim, brutal (and borderline deranged) killer of criminals, and Nita was almost as steely as her fiance. The menaces were epic (crooks poisoning canned food, for example) and Wentworth's revenge swift and terrible, making for one of the most violent pulps of the period.

There's none of that darkness in this serial. As other reviewers have noted, the music is a bit too upbeat, and Warren Hull's portrayal of Wentworth is a bit too cheery. And Iris Meredith is a bit too wholesome for an accurate reading of society girl turned vigilante Nita Van Sloan.

But there's much to recommend The Spider's Web. The pace is breakneck, The Octopus is a great villain and there's a wonderful Death Ray used by the baddies to down aircraft.

If you've never seen a movie serial from the 1930s or 1940s, you may well watch the first episode then give up, thinking, "What the blue blazes am I watching?" But if, like me, you grew up watching these chapterplays at the Saturday morning matinees, then give this one a chance ... it's one of the best.

This is an early serialized movie series. I only watched parts 1-5, but I feel sorry for a movie that, in all probability, no one has seen, much less commented on.

Apparently the best part of this movie is the getaway car, because my roommate would occasionally look up while I was watching this and next to, ÒAre you actually going to watch that all the way through?Ó her most common comment was, ÒWhat a cool car.Ó The car has an external step, so in getaways the crooks can jump on and keep shooting. They do this fairly often, and they also laugh maniacally, and leave loose ends in their evil plans for the Spider to pick up on. If the Spider needs a rope to swing from there is a rope there, as happens when he foils the bank heist. This is comic book style action for the twelve year old market of viewers, who now wonÕt be interested because the film is in black and white.

The other cool thing is that the Octopus has a fake arm to make people feel that they know what he is doing, while he keeps a gun trained on them. His evil minions dress like klansmen, not so much to make them look evil as because this was a cheap costume. The Spider wears a black over sized sock with holes cut in it, and a silver painted spider web on it.

If you do come across this my advice is not to bother watching it. Instead read a comic book. This should have a similar feel to the movie only portable.

Posing as a "Spider," the terror of the underworld, as well as Blinky McQuade, the underworld, Richard Wentworth (Warren Hull), Is this the end for Spider and will Octopus succeed in its goal of gaining dominance over the country by taking control of its transportation, communications, banking and utilities?

A couple minor directorial changes in this serial would have made this a close to perfect example of the genre, putting it in the same league as Spy Smasher or Capt. Marvel. The musical score is often quite unsuitable, sounding too upbeat and heroic like Roy Rogers or Rin Tin Tin music, when instead there should have been something more mysterioso, ala film noir. Also, Warren Hull's speech is just a bit too fast and his affect just a bit too bright for a deadly vigilante such as The Spider.

And deadly the Spider is! This film is a fine relic of the pulp magazines, masked vigilantes, and of the 1930's, when duly deputized G-Men summarily executed real-life criminals such as Bonnie and Clyde, and John Dillinger. The Spider outdraws and dispatches criminals without the slightest qualms. (Do not think that flapdoodle64 personally approves of such things...he is instead fascinated by these windows into the mores of the past!) Despite the flaws, this is a very enjoyable serial, and while it takes some liberties with the source material, it is true to the spirit of the Spider and true to the spirit of 1930's pulp magazines as well. It is quite fun to see the Spider and his cadre of assistants seek to break the tyrannical hand of a predatory monopolist who seeks to control the country. In the 21st century, predatory plutocrats are considered admirable, but in the 1930's they were seen as criminal thugs.

Of the Spider's assistants, I particularly liked the Sikh guy...the turban and the beard are cool fashion accessories for crime fighters. Speaking of fashion, the Spider's cape is made out of some thin silk-like fabric, which tends to billow when the Spider runs and swings on ropes...this is a good effect.

There are plenty of fights and the stunts are pretty good by Columbia standards. There is a better than average believability factor overall, except for one of the later chapters, in which the Spider is shot several times by the thugs but in the next scene is shown to be undamaged. In a Columbia serial, however, such a flaw should be considered minor.

I recommend this serial to any serial fan, to fans of the pulps, and to fans of old-time escapist cinema as well. These fans should be able to overlook the awkwardness and enjoy the bloodthirsty vigilante action.

Full review on my blog max4movies: The Spider's Web is an action movie serial about Richard Wentworth, a rich criminologist, who fights crime as the masked vigilante The Spider. In 15 episodes, Wentworth's fight against the criminal mastermind The Octopus is shown, who plans attacks on the country's transportation systems to gain control over the most important industries. While the basic premise is intriguing and some action sequences are still enjoyable, the movie's entertainment value is largely due to nostalgic reasons. By modern standards, there are many drawbacks, like the jumbled narrative, the redundant cliffhangers, and the poor performances of side characters. Considering its runtime of about 5 hours, the movie serial never quite accomplishes to tell a coherent story with genuinely interesting characters - although some episodes are fun to watch.