''The Spider Returns'' is a 1941 15-chapter Columbia

movie serial A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

based on the pulp magazine character

The Spider The Spider is an American pulp-magazine hero of the 1930s and 1940s. The character was created by editor Harry Steeger and written by a variety of authors for 118 monthly issues of '' The Spider'' from 1933 to 1943. A 119th Spider novel manuscr ...

. It was the fourteenth of the 57 serials released by Columbia and a sequel to their 1938 serial '' The Spider's Web''. The first episode runs 32 minutes, while the other 14 are approximately 17 minutes each.

Plot

Amateur criminologist Richard Wentworth, formerly the masked vigilante, the Spider, brings his former alter ego out of retirement for 15 action-packed chapters to help his old friend, police commissioner Kirk (Kirkpatrick in the pulp novels), battle a dangerous, power-obsessed maniac called the Gargoyle. This mysterious crime lord and his

henchmen A henchman (''vernacular:'' "hencher"), is a loyal employee, supporter, or aide to some powerful figure engaged in nefarious or criminal enterprises. Henchmen are typically relatively unimportant in the organization: minions whose value lies pri ...

threaten the world with acts of sabotage and wholesale murder in an effort to wreck the National security of the United States.

Cast

Warren Hull John Warren Hull (January 17, 1903 – September 14, 1974), known professionally as Warren Hull, was an American actor, singer and television personality active from the 1930s through the 1960s. He was one of the most popular serial actors in t ...

/ Richard Wentworth / Blinkey McQuade *

Mary Ainslee Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

as Nita Van Sloan * Dave O'Brien as Jackson * Joseph W. Girard as Commissioner Kirk * Kenneth Duncan as Ram Singh * Corbet Harris as McLeod/The Gargoyle * Bryant Washburn as Westfall * Charles F. Miller as Mr. Van Sloan * Anthony Warde as Trigger (henchmen) * Harry Harvey as Stephan *

Forrest Taylor Edwin Forrest Taylor (December 29, 1883 – February 19, 1965) was an American character actor whose artistic career spanned six different decades, from silents through talkies to the advent of color films. Early years Taylor was born in B ...

as Voice of The Gargoyle

Stunts

Chuck Hamilton Charles George Hamilton (born January 18, 1939) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward who played four games in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens and St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional i ...

George Magrill George Magrill (January 5, 1900 – May 31, 1952) was an American film actor who appeared in more than 320 films between 1923 and 1952. Magrill performed on stage before he began to work in films. Besides his acting, Magrill worked as a s ...

Ken Terrell Kenneth Jones Terrell (April 29, 1904 – March 8, 1966) was an American western and action film actor and stuntman best known for playing Joe Marcelli in the 1956 film ''Indestructible Man ''Indestructible Man'' is a 1956 American cri ...

Dale Van Sickel Dale Harris Van Sickel (November 29, 1907 – January 25, 1977) was an American college football, basketball and baseball player during the 1920s, who later became a Hollywood motion picture actor and stunt performer for over forty years. ...

Production

Columbia Pictures used their original serial ''The Spider's Web'' as the basic template for many of its early serials: the daring hero and his assistants adopt disguises to battle an exotic, secretive villain and his lawless gang. In ''The Spider Returns,'' The Gargoyle wears robes which would not look out of place being worn by Flash Gordon's longtime nemesis

Ming the Merciless Ming the Merciless is a fictional character who first appeared in the ''Flash Gordon'' comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, television series and film adaptation. Ming is depicted as ...

. Both serials feature a dramatic wardrobe enhancement to the Spider's original magazine appearance: his simple black cape and head mask are over-printed with a white spider's web pattern and then matched with his usual plain black fedora. This striking addition gave the

silver screen A silver screen, also known as a silver lenticular screen, is a type of projection screen that was popular in the early years of the motion picture industry and passed into popular usage as a metonym for the cinema industry. The term silver scree ...

Spider an appearance more like that of a traditional superhero, like other pulp and comics heroes being adapted for the era's movie serials; it also made the serial Spider look less like the very popular Street and Smith pulp hero

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...

, which also had been produced by Columbia and starred

Victor Jory Victor Jory (November 23, 1902 – February 12, 1982) was a Canadian-American actor of stage, film, and television. He initially played romantic leads, but later was mostly cast in villainous or sinister roles, such as Oberon in ''A Midsummer N ...

James W. Horne, who had co-directed the first Spider serial, was in complete charge of the sequel. By this time, Horne was filling his serials with tongue-in-cheek melodramatics, ludicrous fight scenes (in which the hero fights six or more men, and wins), as well as ridiculous-looking machines. For this reason, action fans often dismissed ''The Spider Returns'' as an inferior serial; but others consider it one of Horne's best, and a worthy sequel. While The Spider does take on half-a-dozen henchmen at a time, he doesn't always come off the clear winner. Horne keeps the action fairly straight until the last chapter, when he inserts some obvious humor (two henchmen, exhausted from their fist-fight, haphazardly swing at each other and then collapse). The action-filled screenplay employs a typical serial formula of fist-fights, gun battles, explosions, and car chases, not forgetting secret weapons, death traps, and hairbreadth escapes as The Gargoyle tries to steal some top secret plans. The Spider serials are unique in that The Spider is also sought by the police with the same vigor that he is sought by criminals. The one real difference between this and the first serial is the police know Wentworth goes undercover at times in disguise as petty criminal Blinky McQuade; they work with him following the leads he uncovers as McQuade. Dave O'Brien, who had performed The Spider's acrobatic stunts in ''The Spider's Web'', is now a full-fledged second lead playing the role of Wentworth's assistant. This appearance led to a starring role in Columbia's later serial, '' Captain Midnight''. Only three of the main participants in ''The Spider's Web'' (Warren Hull, Kenne Duncan, and Dave O'Brien) are on hand for this sequel.

Chapter titles

# The Stolen Plans # The Fatal Time-Bomb # The Secret Meeting # The Smoke Dream # The Gargoyle's Trail # The X-Ray Eye # The Radio Boomerang # The Mysterious Message # The Cup of Doom # The X-Ray Belt # Lips Sealed by Murder # A Money Bomb # Almost a Confession # Suspicious Telegrams # The Payoff _Source:

Distribution

Although the serial was not released in the UK, a feature version of about 80 minutes running time did appear there in 1943.

References

External links

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The Spider Returns
at Movie Serial Experience {{DEFAULTSORT:Spider Returns, The 1941 films 1940s superhero films American black-and-white films Columbia Pictures film serials 1940s English-language films American sequel films American superhero films Films directed by James W. Horne Films based on American novels Films based on thriller novels 1941 adventure films 1941 crime films American adventure films Films with screenplays by Harry L. Fraser Films with screenplays by George H. Plympton 1940s American films