- Directed by: Robert F. Hill
- Written by: Robert F. Hill, William Buchanan
- Stars: Bela Lugosi, Bruce Bennett, Joan Barclay
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 11 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFZpH4euwiQ
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
We watched the officially edited version cut down from over four and a half hours of fifteen serial episodes – it was released that way at about the same time as the serials. The end result still manages to feel too long and dull after it gets going – the full thing would be excruciating. The poster gushes about flaming action, dynamic thrills, and eerie mystery, but it was pretty tame.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open in San Francisco, on the docks. A woman reads a letter about destroying the competition. She calls Victor Poten; they’ve discussed this, and now it’s time to act. She offers him $10,000 to ruin the merchants of Chinatown. He says with his machine, he can do it easily.
Poten gets his gang together and they synchronize their watches before their plan. The men dress up like Chinese and spread out over Chinatown. They blow up smoke bombs, shoot off guns, and cause mass confusion.
Joan comes to her editor, Martin, about getting to the bottom of this crime. She’s a reporter, and she’s desperate. Martin’s servant Willie explains the crime to her: someone wants to break up the Chinese tourist trade. She continues investigating with the local beat cop. She pesters the police chief and mayor, but they don’t even believe she’s a real reporter.
Joan watches a Chinese man, Tom Chu, be kidnapped off the street and follows them. A remote-control statue drops him down into a pit. Poten and Sonya smirk at the success of their plot.
Joan goes missing, so Martin and Captain Walters go looking for her in Chinatown. Joan uses a mirror to signal for help, and Martin sees what’s going on, goes inside, and finds her. Captain Walters gets the wrong idea and arrests Martin as being part of the gang.
Sonya and Poten talk about finishing his work. He’s obsessed with revenge, but she’s more reasonable, only caring about business.
Joan is reassigned to Los Angeles to cover a story there. Sonya is also going to L.A. Grogan, one of Sonya’s crew, wants to get rid of Poten. Poten comes in and catches Grogan, then hypnotises him. Poten then boards the ship in disguise to kill Grogan. Grogan calls Martin to tell him everything, but just before he can spill the beans, Poten shoots him with a poison dart, knocking him out instantly.
Later, Poten grabs Grogan from the infirmary and dresses him up in Poten’s disguise. When it’s time to disembark, Grogan gets off, and the police go after him. Somewhere down the line, Sonya decides she’s had enough of Poten and goes to the police.
Martin catches up to Sonya and starts interrogating her as Poten comes in. She also soon winds up hypnotised. She eventually wakes up and tells the heroes about Poten’s devastating devices. Joan writes up Sonya’s story for the papers, and her boss still gives her no credit. Joan and Sonya figure out that Martin’s heading into a trap and drive right over. Meanwhile, Martin and Willy Fu battle one of Poten’s henchmen. Martin and the thug fall off the roof; Martin lands on the fire escape, but the thug is killed.
Poten hooks up a trap, fixing it so that the chandelier falls. Sonya pushes Martin out of the way, saving him and dying in the process. This leads to a car chase through town, ending when Potan drives his car off the end of the dock and drowns.
Joan writes the story for the paper and tells Martin about it. He just called the paper and had her fired. He won’t have his wife working on a newspaper. Happy ending?
Brian’s Commentary
Lugosi is Poten, a mad scientist with a criminal gang. He can still hypnotize people with just a stare, which is convenient. He’s described as a Eurasion, but he still just looks like regular Bela Lugosi.
In one scene, Poten hypnotises Grogan to obey him, and in the next, he’s boarding a ship to kill him. There was something in-between that must have been edited out. Why was Grogan important enough to keep alive through most of the film? Actually, there’s a lot here that doesn’t really make sense, most likely due to poor editing. Then again, a fifteen-episode serial, unless tightly plotted, could easily forget details between episodes.
Martin and Joan spend most of their time arguing about his misogyny. It’s considered a good thing when he gets her fired in order to marry her.
This was edited down from the four-plus hour serial, and it still managed to get really dull for the middle twenty minutes. The first twenty minutes are bearable, but it goes downhill fast. If they only included the best parts of the original here, I can’t imagine trying to sit through more than four hours of this cheaply made mess.
Kevin’s Commentary
I want to say it would have made more sense seeing the unedited serial, but I’m grateful to not have to sit through the whole thing. This was pretty dull, and it wouldn’t be fun sitting through four times as much of it.