OUR STORY SO FAR: Britt
Reid (Gordon Jones), newspaper publisher, is waging war against the
racketeers. Masked as “The Green
Hornet,” he hunts the biggest of all game—public enemies that even the G-men
cannot reach. With his faithful valet
Kato (Keye Luke), he visits a tunnel being constructed under the river with
faulty material and equipment. Forcing
the foreman (Don Rowan) into an air lock, with an ingenious gas-fun he is
ordering him to name the higher-ups in the construction racket, when an air
compressor fails, the tunnel walls collapse, and rushing flood waters…
Just wanted to stick in a quick note: the “Our Story So Far”
recaps come directly from the opening crawl in each chapter (all I’ve done is note
the actors)…so if it reads a little clunky, it’s not my usual clunk.
Well, last week on Serial Saturdays we had “The Tunnel
of Terror”…so if the title of this week’s chapter of The Green Hornet (1940) is
any indication, the “Terror” is now out of the tunnel and has commenced to
“thundering”…whatever the heck that means.
One thing is for certain—Britt Reid was not swept away into the city’s
sewage system after that torrent of water came rushing at him in the
tunnel. He ends up outside the tunnel
just as Kato pulls up in the Black Beauty—Reid has been pulling the
half-drowned Markheim behind him.
KATO: Are you all right, Mr. Britt?
REID: Yes, I’m all right…but we
have to get Markheim to a hospital…
KATO (placing a hand on Markheim’s
chest): We had better be quick…he is sinking fast!
REID: Help me get him to the car!
If you’re behind the wheel of a car that can travel 200
miles per hour, getting to a hospital quickly is going to be the least of your
worries. But according to the headline
in the morning edition of The Sentinel,
Reid and Kato must have pulled into a Sonic on the drive over because the
article states the contractor “was mysteriously delivered to the County
hospital shortly after the accident, with a note signed by the Green Hornet,
accusing Markheim’s company of endangering lives by the use of faulty
material. In a death-bed statement, Markheim
admitted these charges.” (I wonder if
the Hornet has Blue Cross.)
After the usual montage of stock footage showing us how
newspapers are put together, we are whisked to the area outside Reid’s office,
where his secretary Lenore “Casey” Case (Anne Nagel) is conversing with editor
Gunnigan (Joe Whitehead) and ace reporter Jasper Jenks (Phillip Trent).
CASEY: That must involve someone in the city building department…
JENKS: Oh, I’ll say it does! The
Commissioner of Public Works has disappeared and the state has taken over the job!
Yeah, The Sentinel
certainly busted that racket wide
open!
CASEY: You might give The Green Hornet some of the credit…
REID (entering the office): You
certainly admire that night-riding masked bandit, Miss Case…
JENKS: Morning, Chief!
REID: Morning, Jenks…
CASEY: You’re late, Mr. Reid…and I do admire the Green Hornet…I like any
man who knows what he wants to do and does it!
REID (giving Gunnigan a wink): Maybe
he’s clearing away competition so he can start his own rackets…
CASEY: I don’t believe it…the Green
Hornet is just what this city needs…
GUNNIGAN: Anyway, he’s just what The Sentinel needs… (To Reid) Have you seen the circulation figures?
REID: Well, that helps…what about
those men that escaped from town—have you located any of them?
GUNNIGAN: Nah, that bunch won’t
talk…after what happened to Gorman and Grant…
I suppose we really shouldn’t blame “that bunch”…see as how
Messrs. Gorman and Grant are now in a new line of work…daisy-pushing.
JENKS: I found out one thing, though…every one of them was
covered by an insurance policy, written by a broker named Mortinson and payable
to the company that employed them!
CASEY: Do you mean that someone
expected to make a profit if those men were killed?
I probably don’t need to editorialize on how this is not as
farfetched as it sounds—this link here will suffice.
REID: I suggest a good editorial…
CASEY (grabbing pad and pencil):
Shoot!
REID: Gunnigan, put this in a box
on the front page…and head it: Profit in
Death!
Good man, Gunnigan!
(You know, one of the more amusing aspects of The Green Hornet serial is that it features one of the few movie
newspaper editors who end up taking more orders than they dole out.) This paper is in the hands of Andy the Thug
(Ralph Dunn), the faithful lackey of criminal kingpin Curtis Monroe (Cy
Kendall)…both to whom we were introduced last week. The two men are discussing the rather
disturbing Sentinel editorial:
ANDY: They haven’t accused Mortinson of anything…
ANDY: We’ve got two of our best men
watching every move he makes…
ANDY: With instructions to
eliminate him when it can be done safely…
If those mooks were really keeping close tabs on our hero,
they’d have found out he was the Green Hornet by now. (I think somebody’s padding their time
sheets.) Enter Martin Mortinson (Douglas
Evans), the skeevy insurance guy who’s in charge of the “Dead Peasant”
policies:
MORTINSON: Of course, I’m late—with
reporters lying in wait for me
everywhere I turn… (He throws a copy of the newspaper on Monroe
ANDY: Or the Green Hornet…
MORTINSON: Do you suppose Markheim
told him the names of the rest of us?
MONROE: No…if he had, we’d have
heard about it before this…The Chief’s waiting to give you your orders… (He
switches on the intercom on his desk) Mortinson’s here, sir…
“The Chief,” in case you weren’t with us last week, is the
unseen mastermind behind all the deviltry committed in this serial…and he’s
either broadcasting from an undisclosed location…or is actually inside the
squawk box, he’s that tiny.
CHIEF: All right, Mortinson…take
all papers pertaining to the tunnel job and hide out at your country place
until you hear from me…
Gosh all fishhooks!
This guy must have a pretty sweet racket to afford “a country
place.” (I’ve only known one other
person who has “a country place”—she comments occasionally on this blog, as a
matter of fact.)
MORTINSON (to Monroe): Wait…get him
back…I wanna know what protection I’m to have against the Green Hornet…there
are twelve of us in this thing together…
Mortinson doesn’t say anything further…but
you know that inside he’s seething.
(He’s that easy to read.) Back at
The Sentinel, Jenks enters
Britt Reid’s office.
REID: Did you interview Mortinson?
JENKS: Oh, can’t find him…his
office says he’s left town for a few days…
REID (musing out loud): A lot of
people have left town since this story broke on the tunnel job…
The two men’s conversation is interrupted with the arrival
of Michael Axford (Wade Boteler), Reid’s lovably dumb (and comically Irish)
bodyguard.
AXFORD: Oh, Mr. Reid…sure, I found
him!
REID: Found who?
AXFORD: Mortinson, the murderin’
goon…
REID (interrupting): Wait a
minute…we know his accomplishments—what
did he have to say?
AXFORD: I ain’t seen him yet… (This
provokes an outburst of laughter from Jenks, prompting Axford to turn around
and glare at him) But he’s at his country house on the Westwood Pike, seven
miles out…
Somebody want to look that up on Google Maps?
AXFORD: …and the place is closed
up, but I found his car in the garage…
REID: So that’s what makes you think
he’s there…
AXFORD: Yes, sir…and when a couple
of thugs made up like gardeners run me off the place I knew he was there…so now I aim to get me friend, Captain Ridge of Police
Headquarters…
REID (interrupting him): Wait a
minute, Michael…we have no definite proof that Mortinson has done anything criminal…if we start making charges,
we’ll have a libel suit on our hands!
AXFORD: Oh, sure…but I know that
Mortinson…
REID: Forget Mortinson…and try to
find some of those men that escaped from the tunnel…I’m calling it a day…
And with that, our hero takes his leave of Axford…who’s left
grumbling about the current situation with “How can I call it a day and go
lookin’ for people up at the…I tell ya, it
just don’t make sense…”
There is a fade to black, and then an establishing shot of
the alleged luxurious apartment building where wealthy playboy publisher Britt
Reid resides. It sort of looks more like
a public housing project to me, but then again I never really understood why
Reid didn’t own some palatial manor like Bruce Wayne…I mean, Reid kept the
Black Beauty parked in a hidden garage next to his building and I can’t believe
somebody didn’t stumble across it all
those years he was on the air. Reid and
Kato peer out the window and observe the two men assigned by Andy the Thug to
keep tabs on our hero, goons Dean (Walter McGrail) and Corey (Gene Rizzi),
spying on the apartment.
Now…earlier Andrew mentioned to Curtis they were “watching
every move he makes” but he left out the part about “until Reid retires for the
evening”…because when Britt switches off the lights in the apartment to make
Dean and Corey think he’s gone beddy-bye, the two henchies decide to pack it in
as well. It sounds as if there’s a
serious manpower shortage at Monroe Industries—perhaps they could take out an
ad for some part-time help (and if it was in The Sentinel, it would be just that much funnier):
“Situation wanted…two experienced thugs to watch publisher of major
metropolitan newspaper at night…full medical and dental provided, as well as
lucrative life insurance benefits.”
REID: Those men that were watching
the house are gone, Kato…
KATO (picking up the mask): And the
Hornet will talk to this Mortinson tonight, Mr. Britt?
REID: Yes…I believe he and his
associates are taking out insurance on men in dangerous jobs so that they can
profit by their deaths…
Reid “suits up,” and then he and Kato enter the secret
passage to the garage—the entrance which can be found behind a dresser bureau
in Reid’s bedroom (the exit is behind a shelf in the garage). I would kill
to have something like this in my house.
The two men then get into the Black Beauty, and speed off into the night
as the bitchin’ automobile makes that oh-so-familiar buzzing sound and Flight of the Bumblebee plays on the soundtrack.
Meanwhile, outside police headquarters—Axford meets up with
Captain Ridge (Edward LeSaint).
LeSaint’s captain does something curious that made me snicker the first
time I saw this; he gives a wink to the camera after his line “Still playing
detective, are you, Mike? “ I thought he
was having one over on the audience; it wasn’t until I watched it a second time
that I realized his wink was meant for his partner in the patrol car (which is
out of camera range).:
AXFORD: Hello, Captain! I’ve been lookin’
for you! Hey—I got a line on this fella Mortinson
and I want you to get out of him and question him!
RIDGE: Still playing detective, are
you, Mike? There’s no evidence against
Mortinson to justify an arrest!
AXFORD: I’ll get it! With the force behind me I can shoot some
tough questions at this guy!
RIDGE: All right, Mike…take Tim
with you and see if the man will talk…I’ll send a couple more men after ya…
AXFORD: Okay, Captain!
Axford climbs into the patrol car with Officer Tim Rand
(Edgar Edwards) and the two of them speed off to Mortinson’s. Meanwhile, the Green Hornet and Kato are
nearly at that same destination, and after driving the seven miles out with
that loud buzzing sound ringing throughout the surrounding hills, now the Hornet asks his man to shut it
off (he tells him to “silence the motor,” so I guess that makes the hornet
noises as well as the horn). Arriving at
Mortinson’s estate, G.H. tells Kato: “Stand by and be ready for a quick
getaway…”
Inside the house, Mortinson is rifling through documents
stored in a safe and he comes across this item of interest:
Now—I realize that this is for our benefit (so that we’ll
know that the hell they are) but I question as to whether they would actually
make it that obvious in real life. But Morty
is about to get a visitor, who uses this as his calling card:
MORTINSON: What do you want?
HORNET: I know that you’re one of
the eleven racketeers in this criminal reign!
MORTINSON: I don’t know what you’re
talking about…
HORNET: Come clean, Mortinson! There’s enough evidence in those envelopes to
send you up for life! Who’s the big shot
in back of this racket?
Mortinson is getting ready to tell the Hornet what he wants
to know…but we then hear a police siren in the distance, and a distracted Hornet
turns around to see Mortinson shoving the evidence back into the safe and
securing it.
MORTINSON: I asked the police to
pay me a visit tonight…
HORNET: Ha! You don’t want to see the police any more
than I do!
The Hornet makes that “quick getaway” he mentioned earlier
to Kato as ex-flatfoot Axford and his cop pal stagger out of the vehicle. Axford is stopped by Andy the Thug, who’s
pretending to be a “caretaker,” and he tells Axford: “There’s nobody home.”
“Don’t give me that line…we know Mortinson’s here,” Axford
shoots back. And it’s true: Mortinson is
by his safe, loosening his tie and mussing his hair in a transparent attempt to
make it seem like he was molested by our hero.
Axford then tells the cop with him to go inside while he keeps an eye on
Andy; he refers to him as “Jim,” which is curious since his name was “Tim” a
couple of minutes earlier. (I have
noticed several instances where directors Ray Taylor and Ford Beebe apparently
couldn’t stop for retakes…but since this serial was cranked out in 26 days that
shouldn’t come as a surprise.) Officer
Tim-Jim enters Mortinson’s joint just as Morty has finished turning over a few
knick-knacks on his desk to complete the “ransack” effect.
MORTINSON: Did you see him? The Green Hornet? He held
me up!
Outside the house, Andy the Thug is able to distract Axford
with the oldest trick in the book—the time-honored “Who’s that behind you?”
bit. I could tell you that Axford is too
smart to fall for it, but that would be lying…Andy settles his hash and Axford
falls to the ground after being socked.
Andy then rushes toward the house, and a few yards away the Hornet tells
Kato (who’s reaching for the car door): “Not yet…wait…”
MORTINSON: I tell ya, he was tryin’
to force me to open my safe…and your siren sounded, and he ran out!
A shot rings out, and Officer Tim-Jim slumps to the
floor. Andy the Thug has settled his
hash as well. “Come on, Mortinson,” Andy
pleads, “there’s a car in the back lane!”
But the Green Hornet and Kato have also heard the gunshot, and the
Hornet tells his valet he’s going in to find out the party responsible. With the sound of a second siren and the
patrol car to which it belongs pulling up in front of the house, the Hornet
reconsiders his plan. Inside, Mortinson
is nonplussed at Andy’s ad-libbing: “Why, you dumb lug…you’ll get us all
hung. Clear out; I’ll handle this.” Andy makes a quick exit just as another cop (Jack
Carr) wanders into the scenario.
MORTINSON: Quick, Officer—this man
has been shot by the Green Hornet!
LIEUTENANT: Stand over there and don’t move!
I have to tell you—I’ve become quite impressed with
Mortinson’s improvisational skills, able to come up with a complete line of
bullsh*t whatever the situation demands.
Outside the house, the Hornet and Kato observe Andrew T. Thug heading
for that “back lane” automobile he told Mortinson about earlier. They don’t know it’s Andy, however, since the
Hornet observes: “Mortinson must be making a getaway…” They pile into the Black Beauty and follow
the fleeing car.
MORTINSON: I was just telling this
man how the Hornet was trying to rob me when he came back in and fired!
LIEUTENANT: Sounds fishy to me…
Officer Tim-Jim is interrupted by the buzzing of the Black
Beauty in the distance as it speeds along after the fleeing automobile driven
by Andy. “The Green Hornet!” exclaims
Mortinson. “Now you know I’m speaking
the truth!” It’s misunderstandings of
that nature that lead to headlines like these:
REID (reading): “The police dragnet
is out for the Hornet…but so far, nothing is known of the identity or
whereabouts of the mysterious night-riding bandit…” It’s a good story, Jenks!
JENKS: Aw…thanks, Chief…
CASEY: Not so good…I don’t think
the Hornet did the shooting…if he was
there at all…
JENKS: Oh, he was there, all right…plenty of witnesses
heard that Hornet siren of his when
he left…
GUNNIGAN: Listen, Chief…I think The Sentinel ought to offer a reward for the Hornet…
REID: A reward for the capture of
the Hornet?
GUNNIGAN: Yeah!
“Hey…I could collect that reward, and become even wealthier
than I…no…hang on a sec…there’s a flaw in that plan somewhere…”
REID: Well…do you think that’d get
him?
GUNNIGAN: I don’t know about
that…but it would certainly boost
circulation…
REID (laughing): You never lose
sight of that end of it, do you?
As Gunnigan joins in his boss’ mirth, supercop Axford lurches
into the office, with a noticeable bandage over his right eye.
AXFORD: Oh, Britt! (Pointing to his “war wound”) Look! I took the police out there last night…
REID: And I suppose it was the Green Hornet who hit you?
AXFORD: It was indeed, and when I
wasn’t lookin’! And anyway…I still think
Mortinson knows all about that racket!
REID: Yeah…and thanks to your
bringing the police out there, he’s been whitewashed…he
can refuse to talk to reporters, and the police will vouch for him… (To
Gunnigan) Work out that reward idea and let me see it…
That Axford. What a
dumbass. The scene shifts to Monroe
Enterprises, where Curtis is giving the “exonerated” Mortinson his instructions
from “The Chief”…who apparently only issues these proclamations when it’s
suitable for dramatic effect. (I mean,
seriously—if I were in this guy’s employ, I’d start asking for things in
writing.)
MONROE: Those are orders, Mortinson—direct from The
Chief…Andy will be at your place tonight…remove all evidence and head for the
border…
MORTINSON (scoffing): Why should I
run away? I got the cops with me now…
MORTINSON: Yes, I guess you’re
right…both Andy and I’d better clear out…
Back at Reid’s apartment, our hero prepares for another
evening of night-riding banditry and he asks Kato about Axford, who the valet
has just left in a bedroom. “He sleeps
like a baby,” Kato replies, “but louder.”
(My sister Kat once snapped at a co-worker who commented that she “slept
like a baby”: “Oh, so you were up every fifteen minutes, crying and
hungry? This was when my nephew Davis
was in his “infink” stage, to borrow a phrase from a spinach-eating sailor.)
REID: Could you burgle a safe?
KATO: Not burgle, Mr. Britt…but if it is necessary to open the safe to uphold
the law…
REID: That’s the idea…and save many
lives…
So Reid and Kato are off to go Horneting, and at Casa del
Mortinson, Mortinson places some papers in the safe, then instructs Andy to “do
your stuff.” Andy has placed a small
device in the safe commonly referred to in his line of work as an “explosive,”
and after finishing his handiwork jokes to Mortinson, “If the Green Hornet
opens that safe door he’ll never open another one.” (What could he possibly mean by that?)
Arriving at Mortinson’s in the Black Beauty, the Hornet and
Kato observe two men getting into a very familiar automobile:
KATO: That’s the car that escaped
us last night…
HORNET: He won’t escape us tonight…
KATO: Shall I catch him?
HORNET: Later…he’s headed for the
state line, he’ll stick to this highway…we’ll take a look at his safe…
Going into the house, Luke’s Kato starts to do something
most regrettable that I noticed minute traces of earlier…substituting his l’s
for r’s in that stereotypical way Hollywood
liked to portray Asian characters at the time.
He says of the safe: “It’s not rocked…” (Ouch.)
The Hornet suspects that something is up. “Wait…looks like a trap…too convenient…lights
on…safe open…” He asks Kato to hand him
“one of those curtain cords” and rigs up a makeshift way to open the safe
without getting his fool mask blown off:
After the safe blows up real good, Kato tells the Hornet,
“You saved my rife, sir.” (Double
ouch. Please don’t ask me why he started
doing this. He was speaking flawless
English up until this point.) Also worth
noting is that despite the explosion, the contents of the safe remain
intact. (The safe company then went on
to use this in their ads, by the way.) When
the Hornet doesn’t see what he’s looking for, he instructs Kato to head for the
car since “Mortinson must have taken the papers we want!”
Andy and Mortinson are on their way to what they think is
the perfect escape—the conscientious Andy is even prepared to gas up at the
next filling station since the needle is fluttering close to “E.” But Mortinson hears both the Hornet’s motor
and Flight of the Bumblebee in the
background, and orders Andy to “step on it.”
Outrunning a car that can travel 200 miles per is soon going to be an
exercise in futility, however.
ANDY: We’ll be out of gas in a
minute…ditch that envelope!
MORTINSON: Not yet…if these were
found, we’d all hang!
In the distance, Mortinson spots a locomotive slowing down
because it’s pulling in to take on water.
He tells Andy to pull up near the water tank, and the two men abandon
the car…then climb aboard the engine with their guns drawn. Instructing the engineer to keep going,
Mortinson watches as Andy makes short work of the engineer’s assistant,
slugging him with his gun and shoving him over the side. The Hornet and Kato, despite still being a
good ways down the road, have fortuitously reasoned that Andy and Mortinson
have boarded the train and so Kato speeds along the locomotive as the Hornet
climbs aboard. He’s been deposited
several cars back, and runs along the top of the train to give the bad guys
quite a surprise.
Andy looks back to see the Black Beauty is still following,
so Mortinson instructs the engineer to open ‘er up because “we want
speed.” The Hornet jumps into the cab
and a fistfight ensues—my favorite part has Mortinson slapping the stuffing out
of the engineer because, really, on a moving train the first person you’ll want
to take out is the guy driving it.
“It’s no use, Mortinson,” the Hornet says, “you haven’t a
chance in a million!” And he just may be
right…as the train picks up speed and “thunders” down the track—the locomotive
approaches a hairpin curve…and then winds up in the path of another oncoming
train…
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