THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR

The great Bela Lugosi

THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR (1929). Director: Tod Browning. 

When playboy Spencer Lee is found stabbed to death, it is suspected he was killed due to his negative writings on the thugee cult. But his old friend Edward Wales (John Davidson of Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc.) is sure the killer was a woman. At the home of Sir Roscoe Crosby (Holmes Herbert), Wales is present when a medium, Madame LaGrange (Margaret Wycherly), arrives to hold a seance. Others present include Crosby's son Richard (Conrad Nagel), who is engaged to his father's secretary, Nellie (Leila Hyams); his daughter, Helen Trent (Moon Carroll); his wife, Lady Crosby (Mary Forbes); the disbelieving Mary Eastwood (Helene Millard); and others. The seance begins, a scream rings out, the lights go on -- and somebody else has been murdered! Inspector Delzante (Bela Lugosi of Son of Frankenstein) arrives ... 

Conrad Nagel and Leila Hyams

The rather creaky Thirteenth Chair betrays its theatrical origins with its stage-bound quality and generally old-fashioned acting styles. It eventually becomes interesting in a minor way, and it's fun to watch Bela Lugosi adroitly hammering home his accusations as he questions the host and many guests. Margaret Wycherly, repeating her stage role, is excellent, as is Leila Hyams, who plays with comparative restraint, something you certainly couldn't say of the over-the-top Helene Millard. Conrad Nagel acquits himself nicely as he repeatedly protests his fiance's innocence. Not enough is made of the gruesome business of the corpse of the second victim being present at a second seance -- two people are forced to hold hands with a dead body! The film was remade in 1937 and filmed previously in 1919. Two years after this film Browning directed Lugosi in Dracula. 

Verdict: Minor mystery with some good performances and an unexpected conclusion. **1/2. 

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Dick Purcell as Captain America

CAPTAIN AMERICA (15-chapter Republic serial/1944). Directors: Elmer Clifton and John English. Colorized version. 

Dr. Maldor (Lionel Atwill of Lady in the Death House) is royally pissed. All he got out of a trip to some Mayan ruins with several associates is a lowly position at the Drummond Museum of Arts and Sciences. Maldor is not about to take this slight lying down, so he uses a drug called the purple death to force the other men to commit suicide and calls himself the Scarab.  And that's just for starters. Maldor has other nefarious plans in mind and has to continually keep dealing with District Attorney Grant Gardner (Dick Purcell of X Marks the Spot) and his alter ego Captain America, who is out to stop him whatever it takes. Maldor uses a "dynamic vibrator" to make an entire building collapse in chapter one, and then uses a stolen "electronic firebolt" to rob banks and the like. He even gets involved with a professor who can bring dead animals and even people back to life. Grant/Cap has a take no prisoners attitude, and it seems as if every other chapter one of Maldor's gunsels is being thrown to his death from a great height. 

Atwill, Gray, Pucell

Captain America is one of the very best Republic serials, with a constant stream of riotous action, fabulous fisticuffs, and some great cliffhangers, including the aforementioned collapsing building, a crushing tractor on a direct path to Cap's prone body, a guillotine that nearly beheads Grant's plucky associate Gail (Lorna Gray), and an ore car that is dropped down a shaft on top of our semi-conscious hero. In one scene Atwill whips John Hamilton when he won't talk, and puts Gail in a case where he intends to employ "mummifying" gas to turn her into a desiccated prune. Gail thinks of a clever way to trap Maldor, making up the name of a doctor which is the Scarab's real name spelt backwards. Purcell and Gray are suitably heroic, but Atwill walks off with the movie with his smooth, amused, and highly sinister turn as the utterly evil and sociopathic Maldor. John Davidson and George J. Lewis are Maldor's primary henchmen, and Jay Novello has a neat scene as a gunsel who comes to a bad end. Mort Glickman's score also works overtime to keep the excitement level up. Gray and Lewis  also appeared together in Federal Operator 99. NOTE: Even though the serial's hero has a different secret identity than in the comic books, this is the very first Marvel Comics movie adaptation.

Verdict: Lots of thrilling fun. ***1/4. 

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL

Tom Tyler crashes through!

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL/12 chapter Republic serial/1941). Directed by John English and William Witney. 

Very young reporter Billy Batson (Frank Coghlan Jr.) accompanies some scientists to the Valley of the Tombs in Siam. There they uncover some secret chambers,  one of which holds ancient lenses that could be used to create a devastating weapon. In another chamber Billy meets the old wizard Shazam, who imbues him with special powers based on the gods of legend. All he has to do is utter the magic word "Shazam!" and he instantly transforms into the powerful hero, Captaim Marvel (Tom Tyler)!

The sinister Scorpion wants those lenses!

Back in the States, both nerdy Billy and the super-butch captain will need their wits about them because they have an adversary, a masked man who calls himself the Scorpion and who is secretly one of the scientists on the expedition.  The lenses have been divided up among the other men and the Scorpion will stop at nothing to get them so that he can create a "Solar Atom Smasher." Billy, CM, and secretary Betty (Louise Currie) all find themselves in doom-traps thanks to the Scorpion and his equally evil henchmen. These include a guillotine, a bomb in Billy's plane, a machine gun safe trap, and a car with Betty inside careening floor by floor down a parking garage, among others.   

Captain Marvel takes to the air

"Junior" Coghlan is boyishly earnest and although older than the character in the Captain Marvel comic book this is based on, he manages to come off as a juvenile even though he was 25-years-old at the time. Former cowboy hero Tom Tyler has limited dialogue but he makes an impressive Captain Marvel, and the flying sequences and other FX are well-done by the Lydecker brothers. Captain Marvel is a tough character who takes no prisoners, tossing crooks around like tenpins, and even throws one guy off the roof of a building to his death in chapter five, in which he also gets trapped by a river of molten ore. 

Frank (Junior) Coghlan Jr. as Billy Batson 

Among the supporting cast, the best impressions are made by Reed Hadley [Public Defender] as Rahman Bar, who is working with the Scorpion, and John Davidson as the Indian Tal Chotali, who is also a suspect. An unseen Gerald Mohr is the voice of the Scorpion and apparently plays the part while masked, but when the villain is unmasked he is revealed as someone else entirely. An exciting scene in chapter ten has the gang trapped on a floundering ship, and Billy suggests they use a breeches buoy to get everyone off of it before it sinks. It's a suspenseful sequence, but one can't help but think that Captain Marvel could have simply flown everyone off the ship in a quarter of the time. Nevertheless, this is a very entertaining serial. 

Verdict: More entertaining than the comic books, frankly. ***.                                                              

DICK TRACY VS. CRIME INC.

Ralph Byrd and Ralph Morgan

DICK TRACY VS. CRIME INC. (15 chapter Republic serial/1941). Directed by William Witney and John English.

"New York must be evacuated at once. Proceed in an orderly manner."

Some years before the story begins, a special "secret council" was able to get the goods on a crook named "Rackets" Reagan, who received the death penalty. It develops that one of the members of the council (who was apparently unable to stop the others from convicting Reagan) is, unbeknownst to them, Rackets' brother, and now he's out for revenge. In his masked identity of the Ghost, he sets out to kill off the other members of the council, as well as to begin a wave of robbery and terror as the head of Crime Inc. His first dastardly deed is to try to destroy New York City with a deluge.

The Ghost prepares to give orders

The Ghost has two main underlings: a nasty gunsel named Corey (Anthony Warde); and a scientist named Lucifer (John Davidson), who has developed a machine that the Ghost can use to turn invisible. Sometimes the machine kicks out at inopportune moments, meaning that the Ghost has almost as many close calls as Dick Tracy has. Tracy is assisted by his associate, Billy Carr (Michael Owen), and his secretary, June Chandler (a colorless Jan Wiley), who just happens to be an "expert in sound research," which comes in handy when they need to trace the sound generated by the invisibility machine and even negate its effects. The council members are played by Ralph Morgan, John Dilson and Hooper Atchley, among others.

Tracy and Billy rush into action

Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc is one of the very best Republic serials, with a pace that never flags, furious fisticuffs, cliffhangers both within each chapter as well as at the end of each, excellent photography (Reggie Lanning), slick editing, and an exciting musical score by Cy Feuer. In addition to the suspense worked up over the true identity of the Ghost, there are lots of memorable moments: Tracy and Billy racing across a field as a plane lobs bombs at them below; Tracy falling unconscious on a conveyor belt that rushes him toward an inferno where he'll be cremated; Billy chained to the roof of a train with explosives aboard; June and Tracy trapped in a raging conflagration. In one great scene Tracy gets out of a boat speeding towards destruction by grabbing the rung of Billy's low-flying plane and soaring off to safety! The fight scenes in this are numerous and beautifully-handled: Tracy battling a supposed butler in a manor house; a rooftop battle between Tracy and the Ghost in which the latter manages to throw Tracy to his apparent doom. Unlike most Republic serials, this one doesn't have a "catch-up" chapter where previous scenes are replayed.

Verdict: Tremendous fun and flair in this lightning-fast classic cliffhanger. ***1/2.