The Spider Returns

Infobox Film
name = The Spider Returns


image_size =
caption =
director = James W. Horne
producer = Larry Darmour
writer = Morgan Cox
Lawrence Taylor
John Cutting
Harry L. Fraser
Jesse Duffy
George H. Plympton
Screenplay and history
based on the pulp magazine character
created by
Norvell Page
narrator =
starring = Warren Hull
Mary Ainslee
Dave O'Brien
Joseph W. Girard
Kenne Duncan
Corbet Harris
music = Lee Zahler
cinematography = James S. Brown Jr.
editing = Dwight Caldwell
Earl Turner
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = Flagicon|USA May 9, 1941
runtime = 15 chapters
300 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by = "White Eagle"
followed_by = "The Iron Claw"
website =
amg_id = 1:141660
imdb_id = 0034223

"The Spider Returns" (1941) is a Columbia movie serial based on the pulp magazine character The Spider. It was the fourteenth of the 57 serials released by Columbia and a sequel to its 1938 serial "The Spider's Web". The first episode runs 32 minutes; the rest are about 17 minutes each.

Plot

Amateur criminologist Richard Wentworth was formerly the masked vigilante, The Spider. Wentworth brings The Spider out of retirement to help his friend, police commissioner Kirk (Kirkpatrick in the pulps), fight a dangerous maniac. This new enemy is The Gargoyle, a mysterious crimelord who threatens America with sabotage and wholesale murder in an effort to wreck national defense.

Columbia used "The Spider's Web" as a 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 on Flash Gordon's Ming the Merciless.

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 men and wins), and ridiculous-looking machines. For this reason, action fans often dismiss "The Spider Returns" as an inferior serial, but it is one of Horne's best, and a worthy sequel. The Spider does take on half a dozen henchmen at a time, but doesn't always come off best. Despite an unfortunately silly TV-camera contraption (with flailing robotic arms), Horne keeps the action fairly straight until the last chapter, when he inserts some obvious humor (two henchmen, exhausted from fistfighting, haphazardly swing at each other and collapse).

The action-filled screenplay employs a typical serial formula of fistfights, gun battles, explosions, and car chases, not forgetting secret weapons, death traps, and hairbreadth escapes as The Gargoyle tries to get hold of some 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 that the police know Wentworth is Blinky McQuade and work with him a number of times.

Dave O'Brien, who had performed The Spider's acrobatic stunts in "The Spider's Web", now has a full-fledged second lead as Wentworth's assistant. This appearance led to a starring role in Columbia's serial production, "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 the sequel.

Cast

* Warren Hull as The Spider, his secret identity Richard Wentworth, and Blinky McQuade
* Mary Ainslee as Nita Van Sloan, Richard Wentworth's fiancée
* Dave O'Brien as Jackson, Wentworth's assistant
* Joseph W. Girard as Police Commissioner Kirk
* Kenneth Duncan as Ram Singh, Sikh warrior and Wentworth's bodyguard.
* Corbet Harris as McLeod
* Bryant Washburn as Westfall
* Charles F. Miller as Mr. Van Sloan
* Anthony Warde as Trigger, one of the Gargoyle's henchmen
* Harry Harvey as Stephan
* Forrest Taylor (uncredited) Voice of The Gargoyle

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 Telegram
#The Payoff

tunts

*Chuck Hamilton
*George Magrill
*Ken Terrell
*Dale Van Sickel

ee also

*List of film serials by year
*List of film serials by studio

References

*imdb title|id=0034223|title=The Spider Returns

External links

*
* [http://www.serialexperience.com/showarticle.php?fldRecNum=239 The Spider Returns] at [http://www.serialexperience.com/ Todd Gault's Movie Serial Experience]

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Columbia Serial
before="White Eagle" (1941)
years="The Spider Returns" (1941)
after="The Iron Claw" (1941)