MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND

Roy Barcroft as Captain Mephisto

MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND (15 chapter Republic serial/1945.)  Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet, Wallace Grissell, and Yakima Canutt. 

Professor Forrest (Forrest Taylor), who is working on a special device, is kidnapped by a man calling himself Captain Mephisto (Roy Barcroft of The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm). Mephisto wants the professor to weaponize his device so that he can use it to rule the world. Forrest's daughter, Claire (Linda Stirling of The Crimson Ghost), and detective Lance Reardon (Richard Bailey) manage to trace the professor to Mystery Island, a former penal colony and stronghold of a pirate (also named Mephisto) that is now owned by four businessmen. Mephisto, a descendant of the original, is actually one of those four men, but he uses a special transformation chair to turn himself into an exact duplicate of the long-dead pirate. Thus, Mephisto always knows the couple's plans ahead of time ... 

Richard Bailey and Linda Stirling

Manhunt of Mystery Island is a terrific, fast-paced and exciting Republic serial, with one excellent cliffhanger after another. There is a splendid bit in chapter seven in which Reardon, engaging in fisticuffs in a skyscraper, saves himself after being punched out of a window by grabbing onto a firehose! Chapter eleven features a thrilling fight between Mephisto and Reardon on shaky wooden platforms built high above the water's edge. There's a rope bridge that is deliberately snapped, plunging the couple to near doom in chapter thirteen. Not to mention our hero being trapped under a wine press, cornered by a destructive ray that threatens to parboil him, caught in a small chamber filling with gas, and so on. The acting in the movie may be merely serviceable, but no one watches these things for great acting. 

Verdict: Suspenseful, intriguing and often thrilling Republic cliffhanger. ***1/4.  

FEDERAL OPERATOR 99

Marten  Lamont and Helen Talbot

FEDERAL OPERATOR 99 (12 chapter Republic serial/1945). Directors: Spencer Gordon Bennet; Wallace Grissell; Yakima Canutt.

Master criminal Jim Belmont (George J. Lewis) who loves classical music but only seems to play "Moonlight Sonata," has a number of decidedly anti-social money-making schemes in which people are kidnapped, threatened, and even tortured for information. (The owner of a Stradivarius is told he'll have his fingers crushed if he doesn't hand it over!)  Fortunately special federal operative 99, Jerry Blake (Marten Lamont), is out to stop Belmont any way he can. In this he is assisted by the gun-carrying Joyce Kingston (Helen Talbot,) who is far more than a mere "secretary." Belmont also has a female helpmate, a sadistic creature named Rita (Lorna Gray of Exposed), not to mention a chief assistant named Matt Farrell (Hal Taliaferro). Jay Novello [Atlantis the Lost Continent], "Mr. Versatile," plays a crooked jeweler.

Joyce and Rita have at each other! 

In addition to some great fight scenes, the serial boasts some splendid cliffhangers: Joyce is nearly incinerated when she is locked in a cabinet; a car crashes through a high floor with Jerry out on a ledge; Joyce goes over a cliff in a runaway laundry basket etc. The best and most horrifying cliffhanger has Joyce tied up in an aircraft factory while a huge propeller moves inexorably down a track directly towards her. Rita is broken out of jail in a clever fashion, and has a cat-fight with Joyce, who simply throws her out of a truck! At one point nasty Rita even threatens a countess by holding a cigarette lighter near her face. What a witch! Of the players, British Lamont is appealing and plays well with the feisty Talbot. George J. Lewis plays with restraint but there are times you wish he was a little over-the-top; Lorna Gray is more on the mark. 

Verdict: Federal Operator 99 is a remarkably entertaining serial with lots of action and interesting incidents throughout. ***1/2.