THE MASKED MARVEL

The Masked Marvel (Tom Steele) drives into action!

THE MASKED MARVEL (12-chapter Republic serial/1943). Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet. Colorized. 

The Worldwide Insurance Company is being particularly hit hard by acts of sabotage committed by Mura Sakima (Johnny Arthur of The Ghost Walks) and his treasonous underling, "Killer" Mace (Anthony Warde) and others. When the head of Worldwide is murdered, his daughter, Alice (Louise Currie of The Crimson Key), is unaware that her late father's associate, Martin Crane (William Forrest of Spy Ship), is secretly working with Sakima. Four investigators come forward to help in the battle against Sakima: Jeffers (Richard Clarke); Morton (Bill Healy); Arnold (Rod Bacon); and Barton (David Bacon, no relation to Rod). One of these four is revealed to be the Masked Marvel at the very end, but throughout the serial the Marvel is actually played by stuntman Tom Steele. (Without the mask, Steele also plays one of Sakima's underlings, especially an assassin who stabs a cohort in the hospital before he can talk.)

Forrest, Currie and the 4 investigators

The Masked Marvel is one of the best Republic serials. Although there was at least one character in the comic books called the Masked Marvel, this one was invented by Republic studios. The business of hiding which of four men is the actual hero was borrowed from The Lone Ranger, as otherwise it seems a bit pointless. What matters is that Masked Marvel moves at a breathless pace, has one great action sequence after another, and features some highly entertaining cliffhangers: Alice placed beneath a freight elevator and about to be crushed; a truck that crashes through a warehouse wall; a bomb inside a briefcase that threatens everyone in the boardroom; the Masked Marvel using his wits and a clever rope trick to escape from another runaway truck; a thrilling business involving a hand car packed with explosives that is heading for a train carrying important war products. 

Bad guys: Forrest; Arthur; Warde

The furious, furniture-busting fisticuffs are fabulous, especially a fistfight between the Marvel and a gunsel in a warehouse. Louise Currie isn't much of an actress, but Johnny Arthur is a hoot as the nasty Japanese Sakima, spitting out his lines with an almost sublime contempt for everyone. Anthony Warde always scores as the cold-blooded chief hood who has no respect for human life or anything else. Other serial specialists who make appearances in this include Stanley Price of The Invisible Monster, Roy Barcroft of Manhunt of Mystery Island, and Ken Terrell of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and numerous cliffhangers. 

Verdict: Serial fans will love The Masked Marvel. ***1/4.