Don Winslow of the Navy (1942) – Chapter 6: Menaced by Man-Eaters

OUR STORY SO FAR (taken directly from the “crawl” that opens Part the Sixth): While Don’s friends are rescuing him from the wreckage of the fallen smokestack, Scorpion agents rescue Barsac and carry off Chapman, Don’s radio operator.

Don traces Chapman to an old sea mill, but runs into a trap.  Locked in a dungeon with Chapman, he learns that Scorpion agents have photographed the Navy’s secret codes.

Desperately seeking a way out, Don operates a lever which opens a vent letting in a flood of water from the sea and…

Yes, it’s been close to a month since we’ve looked in on the hotbed of spy activity rampant on Tangita Island…and as such, Winslow (Don Terry) and Chapman (Peter Leeds) are getting kind of pruney.  (I like that “desperately” part in the crawl there—“I’m so determined to get out of this enclosed space I’m going to drown myself!”) For those of you out there in YesteryearLand who were concerned that this might mean the end of our hero and his radio operator flunky—well, allow me to assuage your fears.  They are rescued in the nick of time.

But the interesting part of how they were rescued is this: when Don and “Red” Pennington (Walter Sande) first approached the old sea mill they were considerably outnumbered by agents in the employ of The Scorpion (Kurt Katch), and were pummeled senselessly despite the fact that they are trim, fit Navy men.  The agents, however, start to slowly disappear (i.e. run the hell out of the mill) upon the arrival of Mike Splendor (Wade Boteler) and John Blake (Ben Taggart), two middle-aged, flabby bozos who, while armed with handguns, were bound to run out of ammo eventually at the rate they were shooting up the place.  I can only believe that the presence of Splendor and Blake is not the reason why the agents slowly started running for the tall grass but rather, suddenly have become disenchanted with The Scorpion and his ideology of taking over the world.

DON: You got that door opened just in time, Red!

RED: Looks like those crooks tried to drown you!

“No…I did that to myself!”

SPLENDOR: Two of them made their getaway!

DON: They have photographs of our secret codes!

Ah, yes…the secret codes—the “MacGuffin” of the last chapter.

BLAKE (handing him a weapon): Here, Commander…take this gun!

DON: Thanks, Blake… (To Red) If those Scorpion crooks get out of this mill with our secret codes they’ll escape in our car!

Actor Terry, a native of Natick, Massachusetts, pronounces that last word as “cah.”  (“They’re in the yahd, not too fah from the cah…”)

DON: Can you navigate, Chapman?

CHAPMAN: Yes, Commander…

“Just let me cough up this gallon of water in my lungs from that death trap you put the both of us in, and I’ll be fine.”  Don, Red and Chapman head for the mill’s exit while Splendor and Taggart elect to check upstairs.  The scene then cuts to a shot of Henchman Spike (Ethan Laidlaw) running for the hills, carrying a package…he’s spotted by the three men, with Red commenting “He’s headed for our car!”  (Cah.)

The trio give chase, and manage to wing Spike with a bullet, causing him to drop the package…the men then arrive at the spot where it was dropped, and as Chapman picks it up and unwraps it (why the need to wrap it—was it a present for The Scorpion?) Don warns Red not to go after Spike because they still have half-a-serial to go by alibing: “Let him go, Red…he’ll be as hard to catch as a rattler in this thick jungle growth.”  (It’s all about pacing.)

The package, as lazy cliffhanger serial writing would have it, contains the very camera the spies used to take snaps of the secret code books.

DON: We’ll take them back and have them developed to make certain!  And then burn them!

RED: Say—if those are the codes we’ve spoiled another of The Scorpion’s little plans!

DON: This was a big plan, Red…if The Scorpion had our code, he could intercept our messages and then send out false ones!  Without our knowing it!

Zounds and gadzooks!  Well, the two middle-aged guys show up and report that a search of the mill has turned up nothing—so Don assures them that “we’ll have that place thoroughly investigated later”…about the time they also assign somebody to tear down the spies’ various listening posts.  The scene then shifts to the entrance of The Scorpion’s headquarters…where Karl, the narcoleptic security guard in charge of operating the elevator that descends into the nether regions where Scorpion Enterprises, LLC is housed, gets a bit big for his britches by admonishing henchman Prindle (Robert Barron): “About time you showed up, Prindle…M-22’s been askin’ for ya.”

Prindle tells the old busybody to “stow the gab”…and just as he’s getting ready to take the ride downstairs Spike comes running up.

SPIKE: Wait a minute, Prindle!  (He climbs onto the elevator just as Karl is closing the gate)

PRINDLE: Where’s the code photographs?

SPIKE: Winslow and his pals jumped me…creased my shoulder with a piece of lead…took the camera and films…

Oh, boy.  Somebody’s due for a right pranging.  Downstairs, Prindle spots another henchman, Corley (Lane Chandler), and orders him to take Spike over to the hospital to “have his shoulder fixed up.”  For some odd reason, Spike is not amenable to this: “I can go over to the hospital myself!”

Corley explains that he was on his way to let the submarine captain know the “undersea oil well” is fixed and that he can fuel up.  Then Spencer Merlin (John Litel), aka “M-22” and the leader of this sorry band of goombahs, emerges from the door leading to the “hive” of the headquarters and tells him to get a move on because The Scorpion is waiting for his report.

SPIKE: The Scorpion ain’t gonna like Prindle’s report…

CORLEY: You can’t blame him…with Winslow free, there’s always a chance of him findin’ this underwater sub base…

SPIKE: Yeah…it’d be a shame to have that sailor Winslow interfering with this set-up…

Corley then reminds Spike that he needs to get over to the hospital and have the doctor take a look at that shoulder.  (Maybe Spike just doesn’t like doctors.)  Meanwhile, it’s time for Merlin’s weekly visit with the mastermind known as…The Scorpion!

SCORPION: M-22…again you have failed…

If The Scorpion already knows that Spence has screwed things up, why does he feel the need to call him on it all the time?  Couldn’t he just slip something into his folder and then broach the subject during his performance review?

SCORPION: …this time you must carry out my instructions or suffer The Scorpion’s punishment…

He’s referring to himself in the third person.  Never a good sign.

SCORPION: Work on the United States Naval Base continues without interruption in spite of the fact that Don Winslow is dead…it must be stopped!  Do you understand?

MERLIN: Yes, master…but I must report that Winslow is still alive…

I love the above screencap, with The Scorpion turning away as if to say “These people are idiots…and yet I am powerless to fire them, because they are union idiots…”

MERLIN: …he escaped from the accident which we thought had killed him…

SCORPION: Alive?  Then he outsmarted you again…

Um…weren’t you the one who told Merlin that Winslow had to be taken alive?  Don’t you think it would be better for your employer-employee relationship if you just congratulated Merlin on this stroke of luck?

SCORPION: Can’t you realize that Winslow threatens our undersea base in Tangita?  He must be taken prisoner and his destroyer—the 620—must be destroyed!  You, M-22, are not to be suspected…contact Koloka, the witch doctor at his native village…and remind him of his promise to help us…use him!  Winslow’s disappearance must look like a native job…you have heard my orders…obey them…

And so with a “Peace out” the TV screen with The Scorpion goes blank…prompting Prindle to observe: “The Scorpion was sure plenty sore.”

“He has reason to be,” counters Merlin.  “We’ve got to obey his orders or…well, you know the penalty.”  I’m going to have to challenge this.  The Scorpion always seems more annoyed than angry, and I think he’s mostly bluff.  You never really see any of his underlings punished for their transgressions with the exception of that Human Torpedo guy…and even then he didn’t exactly object to his punishment by saying: “No, I’m not going to do that.  Somebody could get an eye put out.”

PRINDLE: What’s this about Koloka?

MERLIN: Oh, he’s an ambitious old crook who wants to take over the tribe from the rightful chief, Tombana…

PRINDLE: I don’t see how that’s going to help us…

Neither do I…nor I don’t want to alarm anybody, but it looks as if this serial is drifting perilously into Jungle Queen territory.

MERLIN: If we promise Koloka to help him get control of the natives…he’ll take care of Winslow and his associates for us…I have an idea!  If it works, it’ll make Koloka do anything we ask him…I’ll contact him right away…we’d better take Corley—he understands and speaks the native tongue…we may need him…

There is then a cut to Merlin, Prindle and Corley ascending an impressive stone stairway leading up to some sort of monument that looks like an Easter Island statue.  There is then a shift to the outside of some temple, with a stern native standing guard beside a gong.  Corley, who is carrying something resembling a large briefcase, tells the guard “Koloka”—which prompts the guard to ring the gong.  At first thought, I was convinced that “Koloka” was Native-speak for “Get it on, bang a gong, get it on…” but when a gong is heard inside the temple and the native motions for the three goons to go inside, apparently it’s some sort of password.

Merlin and the two henchies enter a great stone hall, where a man stands next to an altar.  This is Koloka, and he’s played by Lebanese actor Frank Lackteen…whose specialty was playing swarthy villains as far back as the silents (he was in many early serials, like The Green Archer and the Charlie Chan chapter play, The House without a Key).  He continued his wicked ways as Indians, Arabs and natives in the sound era—Lackteen is perhaps best-known as the treacherous Shamba in the 1941 serial classic Jungle Girl, but he also turns up in a lot of the Columbia two-reel comedy product, particularly such Three Stooges farces as Shivering Sherlocks (1948) and Malice in the Palace (1949).

Merlin produces one of those Scorpion key chains to let Koloka know he’s with the bad guys, and Koloka asks him “What Scorpion man want?”

MERLIN: The Scorpion said you would help us…Koloka had given his word…

KOLOKA: Scorpion must help Koloka to be chief…Tombana not good king…

MERLIN: The Scorpion is ready to keep his word… (To Corley and Prindle) All right, boys…open up the outfit…

Corley and Prindle unpack the item Corley was carrying…it is apparently a loudspeaker system, which Corley sets up behind the head of a stone idol.  With microphone in hand, Merlin directs Koloka to speak into the instrument…and Koloka’s words soon ring through the stone hall.

KOLOKA: Talk box make look like our gate god talk!

MERLIN: That’s the idea…you can use it to make your idol Monacai…tell your people to get rid of Tombana and make you king!

KOLOKA: Koloka help Scorpion men!

Ah, let us give thanks for superstitious natives…for without them, the work of evil geniuses would never get done.  Merlin directs Prindle and Corey to set up the system behind the idol so that Koloka can really fool the rubes, and then while they’re doing that he asks Koloka if he knows “Commander Winslow”:

KOLOKA: Him big Navy man…

MERLIN: That’s the one…I’ll bring him here with his friends…you keep him alive as a prisoner…and throw the others in the ocean to the sharks…

KOLOKA: Many native people plenty sick…Koloka make native people believe the white man Winslow make their idol angry…

MERLIN (brightening): That’s a good idea!

Well, if you haven’t been offended by that previous “ignorant native” stereotyping…you’re going to love this next part.  Inside the construction office, Winslow is “blacking up,” apparently for an audition for Amos ‘n’ Andy later on, as Red and Red’s main squeeze Misty Gaye (Anne Nagel) look on in complete fascination.

RED: You know…I hope this idea of yours is worth all this trouble…

“And I also hope the NAACP doesn’t get wind of this…”

SPLENDOR (as he enters the office, with nurse Mercedes Colby): Sufferin’ snakes!  Will you look at the boy!

(Misty and Red begin to laugh)

MERCEDES: Don!  What on earth…

DON: I have a hunch that with this disguise I’ll be able to investigate that old sea mill without much interference…

Merlin arrives in the construction office after a slight pause.

MERLIN: Hello, folks!  Can you tell me where I can find Commander Winslow?

DON (turning around to Merlin): Hello, Merlin…I hope you’ll pardon my disguise…

“Personally, Winslow…I’se regusted.”

MERLIN: Well…it’s a very clever get-up!

DON: I hope it will help me in my efforts to learn something about The Scorpion’s gang…

“…and then I’m going to write a book—Native Like Me.”

Merlin, like the double-dealing swine he is, tells Don that he might be able to help him—he’s learned that there’s been an outbreak of illness in a nearby native village, and that the natives are blaming it on “the white man.”  Which would seem to be a completely baseless charge…provided you’ve forgotten that it was the white man who handed the Native American tribes smallpox-infested blankets about the time we were helping ourselves to their land.

MERLIN: Now this fear among the natives may be caused by The Scorpion’s agents…

DON: Why do you say that?

MERLIN: Well, this native said he saw a number of white men…in an old ruin near their village…they were working around an idol, which the natives hold very sacred…

SPLENDOR: Don, me boy!  That’s the clue we’ve been looking for!

The magnanimous Merlin is even going to show Don and Company where this old ruin is located (“It’s on a cliff, overlooking the village”) and take them there…because he’s just the swellest guy.  Winslow suggests they investigate tuit suite, because there’s not much time left in the chapter.

MERCEDES: But, Don…what about this get-up?

DON: I’ll leave it on…I may be able to investigate the old sea mill later… (Chapman enters the scene) Oh, Chapman…I want you to go with us…we may need you…

CHAPMAN: Aye, aye sir…

“But I’m not putting on the blackface, sir.  That sh*t is racist.”  Don, Red, Splendor and Chapman all file out after Merlin, leaving Misty and Mercedes behind.  There is a cut to an establishing shot of them approaching the large stone steps to the ruins, and then we cut back to the two women in the office as Blake addresses Mercedes (Claire Dodd). (It sort of makes you think that the village ruins are located right across the street, when you stop to think about it).

BLAKE: Miss Colby…I’m in something of a jam…a number of my native workmen’s children are sick and I thought perhaps you might…

MERCEDES: Of course, Mr. Blake!  I’ll be glad to help them…I’ll get my kit…

MISTY: I’ll get it for you!

Blake explains to Mercedes that the company’s doctor has overextended himself and they need all the medical help they can get—“If these children don’t recover, the superstitious natives might blame it on our naval construction job!”

In the meantime, Don and his band of intrepid explorers continue to climb the long stairway…while Prindle and Corey watch from a distance in a tree-shaded area.

CORLEY: Winslow swallowed the bait all right!

PRINDLE: Yeah…then that old crook Koloka will do the rest…

CORLEY: Why is Merlin sticking with them?

PRINDLE: So that Winslow will think Merlin’s one of the victims when Koloka’s natives jump them…

CORLEY: And then when the natives sacrifice the others…Koloka will turn Merlin loose…

PRINDLE: Better than that…Koloka will hold Winslow for us to turn over to The Scorpion…then he’ll fix it for Chapman to escape…

CORLEY: Why let him escape?

PRINDLE: ‘Cause Chapman will report that the natives did the job…

“And that’s why Merlin is a GS-15, compadre.”  Well, with that plot exposition out of the way our motley crew reach the inside of the temple—prompting Don to exclaim: “Boy! What a set-up!”

“Yeah…looks a little weird,” editorializes Red…though that might be because he’s never seen that much dry ice in one place before.  Merlin cautions the others, telling them that “if there are any natives around, I’m sure they’d object to us touching their idol.”  (My hard-and-fast rule on that is that if you’re planning to touch my idol you have to buy me dinner first.)

A quick investigative peek around the temple, and Don discovers the Dictaphone set behind the idol.  Suddenly, from offstage, a swarm of native extras move in and quickly surround Don and his friends.  They are captured, and spirited down a series of hallways into a stone room that doubles as a holding cell.  Corley and Prindle enter the temple and spotting Koloka, Prindle asks: “We saw them come in here—did you get them?”  Koloka assures them they’re not going anywhere, to which Prindle replies “Good.”

Outside, at the bottom of the steps to the ruin, Blake and Mercedes have apparently completed their mission of mercy and Blake has decided to take the nurse on a little sightseeing tour.  He explains that the ruins were used as a sacrificial altar to honor the idol, which still stands inside the temple.  (Except on Saturday nights, when the VFW hosted their weekly dances.)  Mercedes coos: “Won’t he be surprised when he sees me walking in on the investigation?”

Well, Corley and Prindle are sure surprised…they spot Blake and Mercedes coming up the stairs as they’re coming out of the temple.  Prindle tells Corley that they’ll have to be sacrificed with the others, and has him inform Koloka of this new development.

Inside the prisoners’ cell:

DON: I’d certainly like to get out of this dungeon and investigate this place!

RED: It might be The Scorpion’s hideout!

MERLIN: From what I overheard I don’t think so…

SPLENDOR: Did you hear those heathens say what they’re going to do with us?

MERLIN: That old witch doctor…told the natives we were to be sacrificed…

DON: We’ve got to get out of here!

If I were with that group, my response would be: “And the next time you order me to come with you, Don Winslow…you can just bite me!”  Outside in the temple hall, Prindle issues orders to Koloka that Blake and Mercedes are friends of Winslow, and that they must be sacrificed with the others.  “Koloka do what you say,” replies the witch doctor.  (“Koloka only pawn…in game in life…”)

Well, as you can predict—Blake and Mercedes go blundering into the temple, and are quickly captured by the fast-as-lightning natives, who then take them to the same room where Don and the others are being held captive.  Prindle, positioned behind a pillar along with Corley, instructs Corey to tell Koloka to “start the sacrificial ceremony.”

But Don has readied a plan with that steel-trap mind of his: when the door to the dungeon is opened, they’ll jump the guards and make for the top of the stairs—“There’s a door there.”  They get their opportunity when Blake and Mercedes are brought in, and the six of them escape after yet another badly choreographed fight with stuntmen.  Downstairs, Koloka is whipping his fellow natives into a frenzy, telling them—in so many words—that they have to “kill Whitey.”

Don and the others reach a balcony…and peering down, see nothing but jagged rocks and the deep blue sea.  (So much for the brilliant idea of going up the stairs and out the unknown door.)

MERLIN: We’re no better off than we were before…

SPLENDOR: Sure, and you’re right…it’d be suicide to jump off of this cliff…

DON: Sure, and you’re wrong, Mike—I can make that dive…

MERCEDES: No, Don…please don’t try…

DON: I’m sure I can make it…then I’ll sneak back to the temple, get the guns…and if I’m lucky, we can make a break for it…

No one seems to raise an objection that his success rate in this venture is going to rely on a hell of a lot of luck…but, hey—if he wants to break his fool neck, you shouldn’t be too concerned about stopping him.  He takes a dive that would make Johnny Weissmuller proud, and once in the drink…

Rut-roh, Raggy.  Didn’t this chapter title say “Menaced by Man-Eaters?”  I only see one man-eater…