Spy Smasher is a 12-episode 1942 Republicmovie serial based on the Fawcett Comics character Spy Smasher which is now a part of DC Comics. It was the 25th of the 66 serials produced by Republic. The serial was directed by William Witney with Kane Richmond and Marguerite Chapman as the leads. The serial was Chapman's big break into a career in film and television. Spy Smasher is a very highly regarded serial. In 1966, a television film was made from the serial footage under the title Spy Smasher Returns.
Plot
Alan Armstrong as the Spy Smasher is a costumed vigilante and freelance agent, not associated with the US government as the country has not yet joined its allies in World War II. After discovering information about Nazi activities in occupied France, he is captured and ordered to be executed. However, with the help of Pierre Durand, he escapes back to the United States, meeting with his twin brother Jack. Jack is incorrectly recognized and attacked by a Nazi agent on American soil. The agent works for a sabotage leader codenamed The Mask, who operates a U boat near the coast. Eve Corby plays Jack's fiancé. The Mask's attacks on the United States begin with an attempt to flood the country with forged money and destroy the economy. When this is defeated, he continues with other attacks including destroying aircraft, oil and munitions intended for Britain. Constant defeats at the hands of Spy Smasher, with support from Jack Armstrong and Admiral Corby, also leads the villain to take the fight back to the masked hero. In the end, the villain is killed aboard his own U-Boat in a sea of flaming oil.
Chapters
America Beware
Human Target
Iron Coffin
Stratosphere Invaders
Descending Doom
The Invisible Witness
Secret Weapon
Sea Raiders
Highway Racketeers
2700° Fahrenheit
Hero's Death
V..._ Source:
Cliffhangers
Chapter 11 has what film historians Harmon and Glut consider to be the "most unique chapter ending of them all:" Spy Smasher is gunned down by enemy agents at point blank range and falls from the top of an office building to crash into the pavement below. In the resolution, the audience discover that Jack, Spy Smasher's brother, has knocked him out and stolen his costume. The real Spy Smasher turns up too late to save his twin. This is notable because in nearly every other chapter ending ever produced the person in danger manages to somehow survive.
Cast
Kane Richmond as "Spy Smasher", his secret identity Alan Armstrong and his twin brother Jack. The twin brother was added by Republic but other characters, including Admiral Corby, his daughter Eve and the villain The Mask, are all from the original comic. Harmon and Glut 1973, pp. 244–247, 250–251.
Marguerite Chapman as Eve Corby, Admiral Corby's daughter and Jack Armstrong's fiancé.
Hans Schumm as "The Mask". The Nazi villain of the serial "appeared just as often without the disguise as with it, the only purpose of the mask seemed to be to make him familiar to comic book fans."
Tris Coffin as Drake, The Mask's spearhead heavy. Drake is a reporter working for the Ocean-wide Television Network. One of his espionage techniques was to leave the camera rolling after an interview inside Admiral Corby's office or a report from a crime scene. The broadcast was then picked up by the Mask in his submarine.
Production
Spy Smasher was budgeted at $153,682 although the final negative cost was $156,431. It was the most expensive Republic serial of 1942. Spy Smasher was filmed between December 22, 1941 and January 29, 1942. The serial's production number was 1196. Spy Smasher's aircraft from the comic, the Gyrosub, was changed for the serial to be a secret Nazi aircraft called The Bat Plane. Mort Glickman echoed the "V for Victory" theme from Beethoven's 5th symphony in the Spy Smasher theme song. Both pieces of music include the "..._" Morse code for the letter V. Columbia's The Secret Code, released later in 1942, was patterned after Spy Smasher. Adverts for the Columbia serial included the phrases "Smash spies with the Secret Service" and "Thrill again to spy smashers' biggest chase!"
Kane Richmond did some of his own stunts but the most spectacular were performed by Dave Sharpe and Carey Loftin. Sharp for example, "rolled from an overturning motorcycle to leap atop a careening auto that plunged from a cliff." Loftin "showed what a motorcycle could do in the hands of an expert."
Special effects
All the special effects in Spy Smasher were created by Republic's in-house effects duo, the Lydecker brothers.
Release
Theatrical
Spy Smasher's official release date is April 4, 1942, although this is actually the date the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges.
Television
Spy Smasher was one of 26 Republic serials re-released as a Century 66 film on television in 1966. The title of the film was changed to Spy Smasher Returns. This version was cut down to 100-minutes in length.
Critical reception
In the opinion of film historians Harmon and Glut, Spy Smasher is the best serial in terms of special effects and stunts, and one of the best in general: "Although lacking the beauty and imagination that appeals to a kind of racial unconscious in the Jungian sense that is found in Flash Gordon...Spy Smasher emerges in a class by itself, the foremost cliffhanger example of a whole school of Hollywood film-making in the 40s that gloried in matchless pure entertainment." The script is consistently logical and well constructed with credible dialogue and good characterization. The cinematography is atmospheric and often artistic. According to Cline, Spy Smasher had a "very tight and fast-moving screenplay." In the words of Grant Tracey, writing on the Images Journal website, Spy Smasher is "perhaps one of the best serials of all time because of its stunning cliffhangers and unique innovations to the serial form."
