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| Robert Wilcox as the Copperhead |
MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN (15-chapter Republic serial/1940). Directors: John English; William Witney.
Colorized version.
Dr. Satan (Eduardo Ciannelli of Monster from Green Hell) wants to conquer the world by use of robots, but for that to happen he first has to wrest away a special remote control device from a scientist named Scott (C. Montague Shaw), who has no interest in giving it to him. Satan eventually kidnaps Scott and gives him a drug to make him compliant, even as attempts at a rescue are made by Bob Wayne (Robert Wilcox); Scott's daughter, Lois, a reporter (Ella Neal); and Scott's plucky secretary, Alice (Dorothy Herbert); not to mention Lois' associate, Speed (William Newell).
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| Eduardo Ciannelli as the scheming Dr. Satan |
Governor Bronson (Charles Trowbridge) is murdered by Satan, but not before he tells Bob Wayne that he is the son of a late misunderstood vigilante named the Copperhead. As Bronson was like a father to Bob, he takes up the mantel of the Copperhead by literally donning the copper mesh headpiece once worn by his real father to tackle Dr. Satan. Satan is an utterly ruthless sociopath, ensuring the loyalty of his men by forcing them to wear chest devices via which he can electrocute them at will. He also employs a gun that can fire needles containing a fast-acting poison. Ciannelli underplays and is all the more effective for it.
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| Lois, Bob and Dr. Satan -- in disguise |
For fifteen chapters the heroic gang -- the two women are brave and resourceful -- try to outwit Dr. Satan, rescue Professor Scott, and save themselves from a variety of dire fates. The Copperhead races to get Lois and others off of a ship before the villain can explode it in chapter one. Bob and Lois are trapped in a leaking diving bell in chapter three, and Bob is nearly immolated by a rush of fire streaming from a gas truck on the highway in another chapter. Bob uses his wits to get out of another trap -- the walls of an underground cell closing in to crush him -- in chapter eleven. A suspenseful bit of business occurs in chapter 12 when the villain uses Scott's remote control device to take over a plane and tries to bring it down in order to stop another ally of the Copperhead. A box which presumably has the Copperhead inside it is placed inside a furnace in a later chapter, and the final chapter features a host of agents and police officers being snared by Satan's doom traps in his mansion.
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| The Copperhead: stand-in for Superman |
Mysterious Dr. Satan, like most of Republic's serials, is fast-paced and full of action and furious, furniture-breaking fight sequences. The Copperhead literally throws himself at his adversaries. As usual there are some absurd moments, such as when a gunsel standing on the sidewalk fires his gun and actually hits an associate who is on the roof of a skyscraper, and an amusing moment when Satan, swathed in bandages, claims his burns are superficial (and yet looks like the Mummy!). Dr. Satan was originally to be an adversary for Superman, but DC Comics withdrew their permission and gave it to Columbia. Republic cobbled together the Copperhead character, who has no powers and is nothing like the Man of Steel, and the following year adapted Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel for another excellent serial. As for Robert Wilcox, he had a difficult marriage to fellow alcoholic Diana Barrymore, and died of a heart attack in his forties.
Verdict: Fun, fast cliffhanger serial with a diabolical, classy bad guy and an interesting good guy. ***1/4.
