G-MEN NEVER FORGET

Clayton Moore

G-MEN NEVER FORGET (12 chapter Republic serial/1948). Directed by Fred C. Brannon and Yakima Canutt.

Notorious criminal Vic Murkland (Roy Barcroft) escapes from jail and joins his gang at the sanitarium of Dr. Benson (Stanley Price). Murkland has come up with an ingenious plan: he has Benson surgically alter his face so that he looks exactly like Police Commissioner Cameron (also played by Roy Barcroft) and then changes places with him, keeping the real commissioner prisoner. This way he secretly keeps interfering with agent Ted O'Hara (Clayton Moore of Lone Ranger fame) and his very capable assistant, Detective-Sergeant Frances Blake (Ramsay Ames) as they try to stymie the plans of the missing Murkland and his chief gunsel Duke Graham (Gil Frye) and others.

Moore and Roy Barcroft

G-Men Never Forget has a more interesting story than many other serials, and some times almost plays like film noir. Moore makes a strikingly handsome and very effective leading man in this, and Ramsay Ames makes a better impression than she does in other productions. With this serial Roy Barcroft, who appeared in a great many serials, is given one of his best opportunities, and he's fine in a dual role. Premiere stunt man Tom Steele also has more to do than usual, not just as a stunt double but as one of Murkland's gang. Douglas Aylesworth is Detective Hayden, whom at one point O'Hara suspects of being in league with Murkland, a fatal error.

Moore and Ramsay Ames

There are the usual thrills and spills, chases and fist fights. An explosion in a tunnel unleashes a torrent of water that nearly swamps O'Hara and he is nearly electrocuted when his truck runs into high voltage wires and explodes. Just as a truck she's trapped in is about to go over a cliff, Frances uses her wits to narrowly escape the death trap. In a surprising development, our hero doesn't save the day when Murkland sabotages a ship and a large heavy piece of its frame falls from a crane and causes death and destruction -- although O'Hara doesn't get a scratch. (This might have been real footage of a shipyard accident, the use of which is in questionable taste if anyone was actually killed.) Co-director Yakima Canutt was a famed stunt man, bit actor, and stunt coordinator who was the second unit director for the chariot race in the 1959 version of Ben-Hur.

Verdict: Snappy, fast-paced serial with the added sex appeal of Moore and Ames. ***.