The Green Hornet – Chapter 13: Doom of the Underworld

OUR STORY SO FAR: Britt Reid (Gordon Jones) sends Axford (Wade Boteler) and Jenks (Phillip Trent) to spot gangsters among the carnival crowd at the Cooper Zoo who are forcing “protection money” from Cooper (James Blaine) by threatening sabotage.  The Green Hornet then goes to Cooper’s office, where he traps Lefty Bates (John Harmon), strong-arm man of the crime ring, and forces him to write a confession.  Axford and Jenks, battling gangsters outside, overturn a popcorn stand which starts a fire.  People and animals run amuck and stampeding elephants wreck the buildings, in one of which the Hornet is questioning Bates…

…but we knew, of course, that the Hornet wasn’t in any real peril because this is the building ablaze on the outside…

…and here are the two men on the inside.  (Now...I'm aware that these chapters were shown once a week, and that kids have short attention spans...but you can't convince me there weren't more than a few of them out there in the audience going: "Oh, come on..."  We must be getting close to the end of this thing, because it would appear they are running out of money.  Speaking of money, I’ve yet to figure why the opening crawl of this chapter puts “protection money” in quotes.  Is that supposed to be sarcasm?)

HORNET: Come on, Bates…snap out of it!

BATES (groggily): Well…it’s you…the Green Hornet!

HORNET: Yes, Bates!  You started this fire and stampede so you could collect more blackmail from Cooper!

BATES: No…no, I haven’t been doing any blackmailing!

“A little check kiting…sure.  Oh, and I didn’t bother to pick up that gum wrapper when I missed the trash can in the park.”  The Hornet bends down and picks his gas gun up off the floor.

HORNET: Perhaps this will persuade you to talk!

BATES: No…wait…don’t…don’t shoot…it’s true, we…we were making Cooper pay protection…

HORNET: What do you mean, we?

“I have this little mouse…right here in my pocket…”

HORNET: Who were you going to take that money to?

BATES: A man…I…I don’t know…I think his name is…Ogden…

HORNET: Ogden, huh?  Is he the man who’s head of all this?

Well, we know that not to be the case—Lefty is referring to Joe Ogden (Arthur Loft), whom I thought was a mere flunky but later on we’ll learn that he’s business partners with criminal kingpin Curtis Monroe (Cy Kendall).  In any event, Lefty doesn’t have any insight on the syndicate’s flow chart, he’s merely a bag man.  But he does have information regarding The Daily Sentinel, the newspaper owned by the Hornet’s alter ego, Britt Reid:

HORNET: What did you mean when you told Cooper that The Sentinel was going to be taken care of?

BATES (hesitant): Nothin’…it was…just a threat…

HORNET: You’re lying again…there are worse things than being turned over to the police!

BATES: Okay…all right…I’ll tell ya…a man’s gonna put a bomb in The Sentinel office tonight...

HORNET: At what time?

BATES: It’s set to explode…around 11 o’clock…

Jehosophat!  You better get a move on, G.H.!  Making certain that Lefty has been trussed up securely so that the gendarmes will have no trouble when they come to collect him, the Hornet then runs to where the Black Beauty is parked and tells faithful valet and chauffeur Kato (Keye Luke) to get thee quickly to a phone.  (Back before cell phones, boys and girls, it was possible to find in most places what was known as a “phone booth”—where calls could be made after dropping coins in a slot to pay for the privilege.)

I probably should have stressed something like “with all deliberate speed.”  Inside the outer office of Sentinel publisher Britt Reid, a man (Edward Keane) identifies himself as “Williams” and informs Britt’s secretary, Lenore “Casey” Case (Anne Nagel) that he has a package for her boss containing crucial evidence in a criminal case.

Actor Keane was in tons of movies in the 1930s and 1940s, usually as a detective or district attorney, and also had roles in such Universal serials as Winners of the West (1940), Sea Raiders (1941) and The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack (1943).  (You might remember him as the obstreperous Bailey Building & Loan customer “Tom” in It’s a Wonderful Life.)

CASEY: Strange he didn’t say anything to me about it…

WILLIAMS: I can’t help that…he told me to bring it here tonight before 11 o’clock…

CASEY: Mr. Reid is hardly ever here at night…

WILLIAMS (glancing at his watch): He promised to meet me here…

There is then a cut to the sight of the Black Beauty coming to a screeching stop outside some apartment buildings.  At first, I thought the Hornet was going to knock on someone’s door at random to ask he could borrow the phone.  (“Who is it, honey?”  “Just the Green Hornet, dear…he left his spare change in his other pants…”)  But the Hornet goes in the opposite direction until he finds the pay phone he’s been searching for, and in a dissolve, we find the destination of his phone call—the desk of ace reporter Jasper Jenks, who is putting paper in his typewriter.

JENKS (answering the phone): Jenks speaking… (After a pause) Oh, so a man’s gonna blow us up?  I suppose you’re the Green Hornet!  Okay, pal…I’m Napoleon!

Jenks hangs up on his “prank caller,” so the Hornet dashes back to the Black Beauty and tells Kato to step on it towards the Sentinel office.  Back in Casey’s “cubicle”:

WILLIAMS: This package contains very valuable evidence…uh…do you mind putting it in Mr. Reid’s safe?

CASEY (after some hesitation): Very well…

There is another brief cut to the Black Beauty, speeding toward the offices to get there in the nick of time, and then we see Casey put the package in Reid’s safe as Williams again glances at his watch.  The Hornet and Kato finally arrive at the Sentinel building, albeit in its seedy-looking back alley.

HORNET: Gotta risk it and go in the office, Kato…

KATO: Why not remove your disguise and go as Britt Reid?

HORNET: I’ve got to do something Britt Reid wouldn’t do…

Pay more than thirteen percent in income taxes?  “There’s no other way,” the Hornet tells his employee.  “Keep me covered at all times in case I get trapped.”

As the Hornet is planning his assault on The Sentinel’s would-be assassin, there is a cut to a shot of ineffectual henchman Dean (Walter McGrail) on another pay phone, apprising Joe Ogden of the current carnival situation:

DEAN (into the receiver): The Hornet got Bates…and left him for the cops…I have a hunch that Bates is gonna talk plenty...

OGDEN: I’ll get Monroe down here…it looks bad…you cover Williams at the Sentinel office in case the Hornet goes there before 11 o’clock…

Back at The Daily Sentinel:

WILLIAMS: I can’t wait any longer…uh…you sure you locked that safe?

CASEY (irritated): I took care of the safe…

(Williams turns to go out the door, and is surprised by the arrival of the Hornet)

HORNET: Stand where you are!  (Pushing Williams back into the office, he addresses Casey) Did this man bring a package up here?

WILLIAMS: Don’t tell him!  He’s the Hornet!  He’ll steal it!

HORNET: Then you did bring a package up here!  (To Casey) Would it induce you to find it if I told you that package contains a bomb that will destroy this building at 11 o’clock?

WILLIAMS: That’s a lie!

Or is it?  The Hornet tries to pump Williams as to the package’s whereabouts, even to the point of shoving him into a desk chair.  Casey is unsure whether or not she can trust the Hornet, so she reaches for the telephone, which G.H. grabs away from her.  “All right—if that’s the way it is, I’ll leave you tied up here to wait for it!” he barks at Williams.

“If you know where that bomb is, miss—you’d better talk,” the Hornet warns Casey.  “It’ll explode in three minutes.”

Not a good time to play chicken, if you ask me.  Outside the office, Dean and his sidekick Corey (Gene Rizzi) have arrived to help out their buddy Williams…but they are approached by Jenks…

JENKS: Hey—what do you want?

DEAN: We’re after a man in there…we’re from…

JENKS: No, you aren’t!  I know you!

Jasper may know him…but he should really look into taking some self-defense classes, because Corey delivers to him a sock on the jaw that renders the reporter non compos mentis.  Inside the office:

HORNET: You’ve one minute to tell me where that bomb is!  If you value your life, you’ll talk fast!

CASEY: All right, I’ll tell you!  It’s in there—in Mr. Reid’s safe!

Casey leads the way into Reid’s office as the Hornet drags Williams along (who has since been tied up for his protection).  As Jenks continues to be pummeled outside by more physically-fit thugs, Casey opens the safe…and grabbing the package, the Hornet orders her to open the window.  He flings the package to the four winds, and the contents produce the most pathetic explosion I’ve ever seen in a major motion picture. 

Despite the less-than-impressive special effects, it makes enough noise to alert Dean and Corey that they need to be getting the hell out of there, and in the distance sirens can be heard, signaling the arrival of the police.  Loyal Kato, who’s been waiting in the alley the entire time, starts to scramble up a fire escape at the sound of the sirens.

CASEY: You’ve got to get away before they catch you!

WILLIAMS: He can’t get away!  He’s trapped!  And I’ll collect the reward!

Yeah, your arms are tied behind your back…how are you going to endorse the check, smart guy?  The Hornet tells him in a cocky fashion: “Don’t be too sure of that!”  But he can do this because he knows that Kato is several floors up on the nearby fire escape, preparing to lower down a rope.

HORNET (to Casey): Turn him over to the police…you’ve got enough evidence to convict him!  (Pulling out his gas gun) This will only render him unconscious for a short while…

Williams falls to the floor, and after a brief clip of Kato lowering the rope, the Hornet then puts his calling card on the crook’s chest.  (Actress Nagel coughs a bit from the smoke residue from the “gas gun” going off, which made me giggle.)  As the Hornet grabs the rope and prepares to “Yoicks and away!”

CASEY: I won’t let the police in until you get away!

HORNET: Thank you…

CASEY: I should thank you…and I do…

Oh, ferchrissake…rent a room already.  The Hornet swings on the rope and lands on the fire escape, then he and Kato beat a hasty retreat to the alley below.  Casey, in the meantime, has removed the Hornet’s calling card from the unconscious Williams and, holding it in her arms while smiling, is apparently going to paste it in her scrapbook.  But upon hearing someone rapping on the office door, she slips the seal into one of Reid’s desk drawers and goes outside to find Jasper, who’s holding a handkerchief to his face (must have a nosebleed).

JENKS: Say—what goes on?  Who started the fireworks?

CASEY: Get those cops up here!  I’ve got the man who tried to blow us up!

JENKS (wailing): Oh, I suppose you’ll be telling me next The Green Hornet was here!

CASEY: He was!  And he was wonderful!

“I’m going to have his baby!”  The Hornet and Kato arrive back at the alley just in time to see Dean and Corey get into their ride and drive away.  Kato tells his boss that before the two of them went into the building, he heard one of them say that they “had to help Williams,” which lets our heroes know the henchmen must be followed thanks to lazy screenwriters.  “We’ve got to trail them, Kato,” answers the Hornet, confirming what I just told you.  “They’ll lead us to the man—the big shot we’ve been looking for!”

So we’re subjected to recycled footage of squealing tires, sharp curves, etc. until we see this…

…which I’m taking to be the back of the Bradley Building.  But because there’s still eleven minutes in this thing, our heroes are not going to immediately round up the bad guys just yet.

HORNET: This is the place we’ve been looking for…the hideout of the big boss of the racketeers…

KATO: You are going in there tonight?

HORNET: We have other things to do first…

“I just saw the ‘Hot” sign light up at Krispy Kreme…”  Inside their less-than-swanky Bradley Building offices, Ogden and Monroe are browbeating their employees for their blatant breach of henchman protocol:

MONROE: I told you not to come straight from a job…you might be trailed!

“Especially by a car that can go…oh, I don’t know…zero to two hundred in 5.2 seconds?”

DEAN: So what?  Things are gettin’ so tough it’s the only place to go!

MONROE: What happened?

DEAN: Plenty!  Somebody wised the Sentinel mob to Williams’ game…they heaved his bomb out of the window…and maybe him, too!

OGDEN: Bates must have talked…

DEAN: And maybe somebody else did, too!  (Staring at Ogden) There’s been the smell of a double crosser around here for some time…

“Oh…I can explain that…one of the secretaries put some leftover salmon croquettes in the microwave…”

OGDEN (angrily): What are you getting at, ya lug?

MONROE: Stop it!  There’s no time for trouble!

DEAN: Well, we got trouble all right…why don’t we split our take and get out of here while we’re able to spend it?

MONROE: You’ll get yours when the time comes…

OGDEN: And that goes double for me, too…

Dissension in the ranks…this can’t be good.  The next morning, the headlines are a-buzz with the events of last night…

...so the Sentinel staff—Reid, Casey, Jenks, Axford and editor Gunnigan (Joe Whitehead) are all kicking back in the boss’ office for a little congratulatory chat.

AXFORD: Can you imagine the Har-nut gallavantin’ around and me not here to catch him and collect that reward?

REID: And, of course…Miss Case is so wealthy that she didn’t need the reward…so she let the Hornet escape…

CASEY: Yes, and I’d do it again…

REID: Listen—I even heard it rumored around that you helped the Hornet escape…you know, that makes you an accomplice and just as guilty as he is…

CASEY: Guilty of what?  For cleaning up this city?  They ought to pin a medal on him instead of trying to catch him and put him in jail!

JENKS (correcting her): Prison…

AXFORD: By golly, I’m beginnin’ to believe she was in cahoots with him…

Reid orders Axford to go fetch his car, because he’s planning on going out of town for a weekend business trip.  But back at his penthouse apartment…

REID: You sure Axford didn’t see us come back?

KATO: Yes, Mr. Britt…

REID: Good…we’re going to investigate that place we discovered last night…

KATO: You mean where those men went…in the car?

REID: Yes…Bates mentioned a man, Ogden, to whom he paid protection money…and there’s a firm—a brokerage firm—Monroe and Ogden occupying offices in that building…

“I’m pretty sure we’ll find that Monroe and Ogden are the big shots we’re looking for,” declares Reid, now decked out in his Hornet regalia.  (So the villains are members of the 1%.  Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.)  Faster than you can say “Hi-Yo Silver,” the Hornet and Kato are in and out of the secret passageway, gassing up the Black Beauty and are rarin’ to go…arriving at a spot just outside the Bradley Building.  G.H. tells his valet that Monroe’s offices are at the end of the corridor on the third floor…and that he’ll take the fire escape.  (“If anyone’s going to make it to the sequel, it’s going to be me.”)

Inside Monroe’s office, Dean and Corey are starting to have second thoughts about their positions on Team Monroe.

DEAN: You might as well know, Monroe…we’ve been talkin’ things over…

MONROE: What’s the matter?  Turning yellow?

DEAN: No—but just as I told you yesterday…we think the job is gettin’ too hot…

MONROE (yelling at an outer office): Pete!  Get in here!

The outer office finds Pete the Coward (John Kelly) seated at a desk with his feet propped up, and he puts his newspaper down in a sort of “What-the-hell-does-he-want?” manner.  Pete is the most timid of all the henchmen in this serial, but one thing he can always be expected to do is back up his friends even at the risk of his own creature comforts.

MONROE (as Pete enters the office): Dean’s raising a squawk—is he talking for all of you or just for himself?

PETE: That’s news to me…I’m satisfied…and I guess Andy is, too…

Oh…I was so close.  I really thought Pete was going to show some gumption.  “Andy,” of course, refers to the henchman/attorney (Ralph Dunn) we affectionately know as “Andrew T. Thug” (the “t” stands for “the”).  As Monroe and the rest of his gang hash out the differences raised by Dean, the Hornet gains entrance to the outer office through the open window…and listens to the conversation from outside.

MONROE: How about it, Andy?

ANDY: It’s okay by me…

(The conversation is interrupted by the buzzing of Curtis’ intercom)

CURTIS: That’s the Chief’s signal…we’ll see what he says…yes, sir?  We’re ready…

CHIEF: With regards to the question you put to me this morning…we have too big an investment at stake to give it up without a fight…the Green Hornet is giving us most of our trouble…he must be stopped…and The Sentinel must be silenced!

MONROE (shutting off the intercom): We’re carrying out the Chief’s orders…

Beggin’ your pardon, sir…but those are quite similar to the orders issued in last week’s chapter.  Does the Chief not have a new course of action to follow?

DEAN: Well, I’m still for gettin’ out while we can…

MONROE: And give up everything we’ve worked for?

DEAN: No!  We’ll take the dough that’s in that safe and split it up and lay low for a while!

OGDEN: Aw, we’re wasting time…let’s bring that stuff up from the car…

MONROE: Dean and the boys can take care of that… (Indicating Ogden) You and I have an important call to make…

The Hornet hurriedly hides behind a desk as the racketeers slowly file out of Monroe’s office.  Monroe instructs Andy to wait behind in the office, and that he’ll phone him “in a few minutes.”

With the other men gone, it takes precious little time for the Hornet to enter Monroe’s office, dose Andy with the gas gun…

…and start a cursory search of the premises.  He is momentarily startled by the arrival of Kato, whom he tells to put Andy in the other office and keep an eye out for the others.  The intercom on Monroe’s desk stokes our hero’s curiosity…and in flipping a random switch, activates “the Chief,” whose previous instructions have apparently been transcribed for later broadcast.  “Pretty clever, Monroe,” the Hornet says to himself.  “Using a phonograph record to conceal from the rest of the gang that you are The Chief.”  The Hornet starts to trace the origin of the wire from the intercom, but…

…now, normally in these situations, Pete’s survival instincts kick in and he starts to head for the hills.  What induced him not to run and instead foolishly try to tackle the Hornet by his lonesome?  Well, we’ll never learn the reason…

Ba-zinga!  Judo chop, courtesy of Kato.  “Good work, Kato,” the Hornet praises his valet.  “Put him in with the other man…use your gas gun if necessary.”  Going back to his wire hunt, the Hornet discovers a recording studio tucked away in a supply closet in Monroe’s office.  (“You’re listening to the voice of The Chief…on K-MON, the Voice of the Underworld…”)

HORNET: Kato!  Any sign of the others returning?

KATO: No, sir…

HORNET: Get in that closet and speak into the microphone you find there…

Complying with his Master’s request, the Hornet then goes back over to the desk and flips the intercom switch in time to hear Kato ask “Can you hear me now?”  (Sorry about that…little Verizon joke.)  Exiting the closet studio, Kato is told by the Hornet that he has a great idea…which will begin after the Hornet answers Monroe’s ringing telephone.

HORNET: Hello?

OGDEN: Andy?

HORNET: Yeah…

Oooh, you big fibber.

OGDEN: This is Ogden…did the boys get there with that stuff yet?

HORNET: No…and that ain’t all…how long would it take you to get back here?

OGDEN: About five minutes…what’s up?

HORNET (on the phone): Pete just came back…says he heard Dean and Corey plannin’ to crack the safe and clear out!

OGDEN: Well, you keep ‘em busy—we’ll get right back there!

After telling Ogden a few whoppers, the Hornet turns to Kato and says: “Now if we can open that safe in a hurry, we can make those crooks capture themselves!”  So Kato, clever little safecracker that he is, gets to work.

One screen wipe later, and we find Dean and Corey returning to Monroe’s office, carrying boxes of unidentified stuff.  (I don’t think they serve any real purpose—it’s just to move the plot along.)

COREY: Hey…where’s Andy?  Monroe told him to stay on the job…

DEAN: Out lookin’ for Pete, I guess…

COREY: Where’s he?

DEAN (shrugs): I don’t know…

(Their conversation is interrupted by the buzzing of the intercom)

COREY: What’s that?

DEAN: The signal Monroe gets when the Chief wants to talk to him…

COREY: Let’s hear what he’s got to say… (He switches the intercom on)

Oh, G.H.  You sneaky bastard, you!

HORNET: Attention, Monroe…Pete and Andy have been caught by the police…they will talk…get all the money out of the safe and take it to the Mortinson place…I’ll meet you there later…now it’s important to get rid of Dean and Corey at once…as we discussed…

(Corey snaps off the intercom)

DEAN: Oh, they discussed us, huh?  They’re gonna get rid of us!  Come on, Corey—we’ll beat ‘em to it!

COREY: What will we do?

DEAN (pointing to the safe): Open that safe…take the dough and get out of here!

The two men open the safe, never stopping to wonder why it was so easy to do so (Dean editorializes “What a break!”) just as Monroe and Ogden return…and find their henchies doing precisely what “Andy” told Joe on the phone they were going to do.  Gunfire is exchanged, and the members of the gang all die like whimpering dogs in the dirt.

HORNET: Gather up all that money and put it in the Black Beauty at once!

KATO: There is a lot of it…

HORNET: Every cent of it must be returned to the men it was stolen from…Roberts, Cooper and all the others…

“But I have still not received a paycheck in four months, Mr. Britt…”  I make this joke because this headline…

…mentions that the “loot is missing”—I’d like to think Kato stuffed a little in his pocket and went to Atlantic City for the weekend.  Back at Casa del Reid, our hero sneaks in on a sleeping Axford and places both a note and the Hornet’s “seal” on his chest.  The next day in the office, we find out just what was in its contents.

AXFORD: Can you imagine me sleepin’ there and the Green Har-nut deliverin’ letters to me?  And a most insultin’ note it ‘tis, too…

REID: What does it say, Michael?

AXFORD (reading): “My job is finished…too bad you couldn’t catch up with me and collect the reward…but perhaps another day is comin’…so better luck next time, you wild Irishman…”  And signed with the seal of the Green Hornet, no less!

(Both Reid and Jenks laugh)

JENKS: Boy, did I hit the front page with that story, or did I?  I ought to rate a byline after this…

AXFORD: And what I’m wonderin’ is who gave you that mysterious tip that put you wise?

CASEY (entering the office): The Green Hornet, of course…

Casey makes her entrance to let Reid know that Judge Stanton (Joseph Crehan) and the police commissioner (Stanley Andrews) are on hand “to thank The Sentinel for breaking up the rackets.”

“Too bad the Green Hornet isn’t here to take a bow…eh, Casey,” jokes Reid.  There’s a little dog-and-pony show in Reid’s office involving a dedication to the paper for “freeing the city of the rackets which were exacting a financial toll.”  (Now if it can manage to keep the city government’s nose clean, they’ll be batting a thousand.)  Reid thumbtacks the document to the wall of his office, and Casey slaps on one of the Hornet’s “seals” declaring, “He’s the one who really earned it.”

AXFORD: Aw, take that thing down…sure, ‘tis a sight that makes the eyes of me sore…

REID (blocking his hand): Let it stay, Michael…the Green Hornet is gone…he said his job was finished…if you get Miss Case sore, she’s liable to call him back again…

CASEY: I don’t believe he’s gone…I believe he’s just been too clever for us…and he’s probably some place close right now, laughing at us all for our stupidity…

REID (leaning over to Casey): Miss Case…you’re positively psychic…

A good cast is worth repeating…

As I mentioned earlier during one of the chapter write-ups, the success of The Green Hornet (1940) for Universal (and the fact that it pleased George W. Trendle and everyone else in the WXYZ organization) led to a speedy follow-up that was released in January of 1941, The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941).  The sequel was a couple of chapters longer, and only Keye Luke, Wade Boteler and Anne Nagel returned to reprise their roles; Pat O’Malley took over for Joe Whitehead as Gunnigan the editor and the Jenks character was excised, replaced by Ed Lowery (and portrayed by character actor fave Eddie Acuff).  The biggest casting change, however, was the replacing of Gordon Jones (in the dual role of Britt Reid and The Green Hornet) with Warren Hull.  Hull had already established himself as a serial stalwart by playing the title roles in such chapter plays as The Spider’s Web (and its sequel, The Spider Returns) and Mandrake the Magician…but many generations raised on a television diet probably remember him best as the host of Strike It Rich.

I kicked around the idea of tackling Strikes Again! as our next serial here on Serial Saturdays…but I’ve decided that instead I’m going with something a little off the beaten cliffhanger path: I recently acquired a nice DVD copy of The Adventures of Sir Galahad, a 1949 Columbia/Sam Katzman corker starring George “Superman” Reeves as the titular knight (this is the production he’s complaining about in the 2006 biopic Hollywoodland, with Reeves played by Ben Affleck) and featuring Nathan Leigh, William Prosser, Charles King, Pat Barton and Marjorie Stapp.  Knowing that Sam Katzman produced this serial, we’ll be treated to lavish sets and the crème de la crème of production values…oh, I knew I’d never get away with that.  It will be cheap, folks…but it will be fun (I can already see people counting the Python references).  In the meantime, you can relieve that serials itch by following The Phantom Creeps (1939) at my BBFF Stacia’s She Blogged by Night…and my good friend James Vance has just started tucking into a hearty portion of Dick Tracy Returns (1938) at Shadow Cabaret.  But until next time…have a great week!