The Green Hornet (serial)
The Green Hornet | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ford Beebe Ray Taylor |
Written by | Fran Striker (adapted from the radio show adventure series) |
Screenplay by | George H. Plympton (as Geo. H. Plympton) Basil Dickey Morrison Wood (as Morrison C. Wood) Lyonel Margolies |
Produced by | Henry MacRae |
Starring | Gordon Jones Wade Boteler Keye Luke Anne Nagel |
Cinematography | Jerome Ash William A. Sickner |
Edited by | Irving Birnbaum Joseph Gluck Alvin Todd |
Production company | Universal Pictures |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 258 minutes (13 chapters) 99 minutes (movie) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Green Hornet is a 1940
Plot
Britt Reid, the new publisher of The Sentinel newspaper, secretly becomes the vigilante crime fighter The Green Hornet. Backing him up is his Korean valet and inventor Kato. Together, they investigate and expose several separate underworld rackets. During the course of 13 serial chapters, these high-profile events lead the Hornet and Kato into continued conflict with the henchmen of "The Chief", the hidden mastermind behind a 12-person criminal syndicate controlling those rackets.
Cast
- The Green Hornet[1]
- Al Hodge as the (uncredited) voice of the Green Hornet
- Wade Boteler as Michael Axford
- Filipino, and years later, after the war, returned to the standard show introduction.[2]
- Anne Nagel as Leonore Case
- Phillip Trent as Jasper Jenks
- Cy Kendall as Curtis Monroe aka 'The Chief'
- Police Commissioner[Chs.1,5,8,9,13]
- District Attorney[Chs.4,10]
- Joseph Crehan as Judge Stanton [Chs.1,9,10,13]
- Walter McGrail as Dean
- Gene Rizzi as Corey
- John Kelly as Pete Hawks
- Eddie Dunn as D.H. Sligby [Ch.7]
- Edward Earle as Felix Grant [Ch.1]
- Ben Taggart as Phil Bartlett [Chs.3-4]
- Clyde Dilson as Meadows [Ch.5]
- Jerry Marlowe as Bob Stafford [Chs.7,11]
- Frederick Vogeding as Max Gregory [Ch.11] (as Fredrik Vogeding)
- Raymond Bailey as Mr. West
Chapter titles
Source:[3]
- The Tunnel of Terror
- The Thundering Terror
- Flying Coffins
- Pillar of Flame
- The Time Bomb
- Highways of Peril
- Bridge of Disaster
- Dead or alive
- The Hornet Trapped
- Bullets and Ballots
- Disaster Rides the Rails
- Panic in the Zoo
- Doom of the Underworld
Alternative versions
In 1990, under the same title,
Under the title The Green Hornet: Movie Edition, VCI Entertainment released its version of the serial on DVD, January 11, 2011, which includes the first and last chapter and selected other chapters.[4]
Influence
The 1960s Batman television series was created because of the popularity of a re-release of Columbia's Batman serial. The success of both led to the production of a Green Hornet TV series, which was played as a straight action crime series, "in the tradition of its former presentations", rather than the campy Batman series. It was cancelled after only one season.[5]
References
- ^ "The Green Hornet". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
- ^ Lidz, Franz (2011-01-07). "Float Like a Franchise, Sting Like a ..." The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-01-10.
- ISBN 0-7864-0471-X.
- ^ Jones, Steve (2011-01-17). "DVD extra: Go back in time with The Green Hornet". USA Today. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
- ISBN 0-7864-0471-X.
External links
- The Green Hornet (serial) on YouTube
- The Green Hornet (serial) at IMDb
- The Green Hornet (1990 feature compilation) at IMDb
- The Green Hornet is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- The Green Hornet at AllMovie