Spy Smasher

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!

This 12-chapter action serial from Republic Pictures, based on the Fawcett comic book character, was directed by William Witney. Alan Armstrong (Kane Richmond), in the guise of masked hero Spy Smasher, battles Nazi bad guys in occupied France. He follows their trail back to the US, where a secret gang of Nazi villains, led by the Mask (Hans Schumm), plots a campaign of sabotage and terror. Alan enlists the aid of his twin brother Jack (also Richmond), as well as retired Admiral Corby (Sam Flint) and his plucky daughter Eve (Marguerite Chapman), to stop the German menace.

This largely forgotten costumed hero makes for a good serial, with some of the best stunt work put to film, supervised by the legendary Yakima Canutt. The serial is also exceedingly violent compared to others of the time, with lots of gun play, including by the hero, who isn't above machine-gunning a foe or running one over with a car. Speaking of vehicles, there's also a lot of nice action scenes involving car chases, high-speed boats, and Spy Smasher's custom motorcycle. Although the action is above-average, the script is weaker, with unmemorable characters and only a vague understanding of who's doing what and why. Still, this is one of the better serials, and is recommended to fans of such.

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."

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 action-packed serial never fails to amaze me--first-rate work by Kane Richmond in the lead and some of the best-choreographed action scenes to be found in any serial; the stunts are sometimes astonishing. Spy Smasher is as convincingly agile a serial good guy as I've seen; his falls from balconies during fights are truly breathtaking. Sure, none of the bad guys lose their fedoras during the intense fight scenes; but if you can't suspend disbelief during a serial, you shouldn't bother watching them in the first place. Several very clever cliffhangers are impossible to explain until their subsequent resolution in the succeeding chapter. The whole serial is stylish, exciting, fun, and even ends, notably, with the tragic death of a beloved favorite good-guy character. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!