Government Agents vs. Phantom Legion – Chapter 1: River of Fire

Greetings, cliffhanger fans!  Serial Saturdays is pleased to present the inaugural installment of our latest chapter play to be featured here on the blog—Government Agents vs. Phantom Legion (1951).  Legion was one of three serials to be released by Republic that year—the other two being Don Daredevil Rides Again and Pirates’ Harbor…which was actually a retitled re-release of a 1944 chapter play, Haunted Harbor.  You can’t say Republic wasn’t thrifty; they saved money with the Harbor re-release, and Legion didn’t run them into too much money either—the total negative cost was $153,612, according to Jack Mathis’ must-own reference book Valley of the Cliffhangers.  Using a heck of a lot of stock footage also helped (and I mean a lot of footage); they did the same with Don Daredevil…which consists mostly of recycled material from the previous serial productions in Republic’s Zorro franchise.

Our presentation begins with stock footage highlighting the first-rate miniatures of Republic’s ace special effects team, Howard and Theodore Lydecker:

Kowabunga!  That ought to satisfy the stunts-and-explodiations crowd!  A series of screaming newspaper headlines accompanies the footage:

More stunts and explodiations…

Another headline…

And finally things get underway.  It is night, and in the cab of a hauler we find Hal Duncan (Walter Reed) and his number-one driver, Sam Bradley (John Pickard).  The reason why Sam is not at the wheel is because Hal is his boss; Duncan owns a trucking company, and has decided to accompany his buddy because of the rash of trucks sabotaged shown in the previous stock footage,

SAM: With all this hijacking going on, I suppose it’s a good thing having you along—but if you keep on driving this crate yourself you’re gonna run me right out of a job!

HAL (chuckling): And if anything happens to my last truck the Duncan Transportation Company will be busted and we’ll both be out of a job!  So we gotta be careful…

SAM: I don’t see why anyone should be so hot after this load of hardware we’re packin’…

HAL: Well, it isn’t just hardware…we’re loaded with precision machine tools for the government stockpile of critical materials…and it’s just the kind of stuff the crooks are going after…

That is—without a doubt—the clumsiest bit of verbal plot exposition I’ve ever witnessed in a serial.  Suffice it to say, I have high hopes for Legion.  And speaking of crooks going after, Sam and Hal are blissfully unaware that that they’re being followed by a sinister sedan.  There are four men in the car, but the only two that need concern us are the man at the wheel, Cady (Fred Coby), and the shotgun-riding hood known as Regan (Dick Curtis).

Actor Walter Reed was no doubt chosen to play the part of Hal Duncan because of his strong resemblance to Republic leading man Ralph Byrd—the actor who starred in all four of the studio’s Dick Tracy serials as the titular detective.  (There’s a lot of footage from those four productions recycled in Legion.)  Reed previously starred in a wacky Republic cliffhanger released a year earlier, Flying Disc Man from Mars, but he’s perhaps best known as Gail Russell’s jellyfish husband in the 1956 Western classic Seven Men from Now.  Reed also played hubby to Latina firecracker Lupe Velez in the last two Mexican Spitfire films, Mexican Spitfire’s Elephant (1942) and Mexican Spitfire’s Blessed Event (1943).  In an interview with B-Western and serial historian Boyd Magers, Reed admitted that he had no memory of working with Legion leading lady Mary Ellen Kay nor Pierce Lyden.  "I never knew him [Lyden] until he came up to me at a film festival in Sonora a couple of years ago and said, 'We worked together in a serial.'"  Reed went on to explain: "You work so hard in serials that you don't have time to socialize.  You hit your marks, do your lines and move on."

As sidekick Sam Bradley, actor John Pickard’s career wasn’t quite as distinguished as Reed’s; though the hard-working thesp did appear in many small roles in a number of movies both A and B—True Grit fans know him as the father of Kim Darby’s character, whose death sets the plot of that classic oater in motion.  Pickard’s main claim to fame was starring in a 1957-58 syndicated television western, Boots and Saddles, and he later had a recurring role in another boob tube series, Gunslinger, in 1961.  The (always reliable) IMDb says that Pickard was in the running for the starring role on the greatest TV western of them all, Gunsmoke—producer Charles Marquis Warren thought his tests were promising but that he “floundered in a love scene with Kitty.”  “I don't think he ever knew how close he came to immortality!” Warren later observed…though considering the amount of actual “lovemaking” that went on between Matt Dillon and Ms. Russell on that show I find that anecdote highly suspect.

Fred Coby was another actor who did the gruntwork in the trenches (according to Reed Coby was a lifeguard before and after this production), playing bit parts in a number of films…serial fans have seen him as Tioga in the 1946 chapter play The Scarlet Horseman.  His boss is far more recognizable (though he’s without his familiar moustache)—it’s Dick Curtis, the movie veteran who played bad guys in scores of B-westerns and whose serial appearances include Flying G-Men (1939), Terry and the Pirates (1940), Batman (1943), The Phantom (1943), Lost City of the Jungle (1946) and Roar of the Iron Horse (1951).  (Legion would mark Curtis’ serial swan song.)  Dick appeared in many of Columbia’s two-reel comedy shorts with the likes of the Three Stooges (Yes, We Have No Bonanza, Crash Goes the Hash) but one of my favorites is a Hugh Herbert “scare” comedy, Get Along Little Zombie (1946)—he’s the jealous husband of Christine McIntyre in that one, and hysterically funny.

Hal and Sam’s truck is passed by the Bad Guy Sedan, which then blocks off the highway up ahead—prompting our heroes to take a quick detour down a side road.  The hoods follow them in their car, and after a few minutes of spirited car chasing, Hal cleverly knocks over a billboard…blocking their pursuers from following.  The two friends looked at one another as if to say “Suck it, Phantom Legion!” and drive off as the scene shifts to…

…the Interstate Truck Owners Association.  Here, in the unassuming building known as Interstate Block, lies the real power behind the cargo-carrying vehicles that traverse this great land of ours.  The members of the association will now hear a lecture from a colorless government drone named J.J. Patterson (John Phillips), who is so boring and inconsequential his appearance in this production is limited to the first chapter only.  We also meet the four other members of the ITOA—well, five if you count our boy Hal:

Armstrong (Pierce Lyden), seen standing here with Patterson…

Crandall (Arthur Space)…

Thompson (Mauritz Hugo)…

…and Willard (George Meeker).  So this is how this serial is going to work: in a moment, bad guys Regan and Cody will get their orders from one of these four gents…but we don’t know which one.  This device was often used by Republic, most famously in Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945)—in which the audience had to wait until the last chapter to learn which one of four people had assumed the identity of Captain Mephisto (played by the Baddest Serial Villain of Them All, Roy Barcroft).  (I have this one on hand here at Rancho Yesteryear—I might tackle it in future if I get over my aversion to fifteen chapter cliffhangers someday.)  The studio also used it on the other side of the coin with regards to their masked heroes, with four possible suspects as The Lone Ranger (1938) and The Masked Marvel (1943).

J.J.: Well, I’m already acquainted with Mr. Duncan…we worked together during the war…

This is why I did not lump Hal in with the usual suspects.  He’s been given the stamp of approval by Uncle Sam.

ARMSTRONG: Oh…is that so?  Well, as far as we truck owners are concerned…we’re practically in another war with these hijackers right now…and we’d appreciate any help you can give us on how to protect ourselves…

J.J.: Well, that’s why I’m here, Mr. Armstrong…

“Just make the check out to ‘Cash’…”

J.J.: Gentlemen…all of you have suffered considerable loss from the hijackers the last two months…it looks very much like it’s the work of a single, organized gang…since they only go after shipments on the government’s critical supplies list…

CRANDALL: That’s what I’ve always maintained…some organization of saboteurs or foreign agents is trying to wreck this country’s defense program…

J.J.: Well, that may be it, Mr. Crandall…

“Although you seem to be forgetting I’m the government agent here…”

J.J.: …or someone may be running the gang just for his own profit…in any event—the situation is serious enough to warrant the assigning of a government agent to work full-time with your association…and I believe Hal Duncan would be just the man for the job…

Hey…waitaminnit…Hal’s not with the government!  He’s a respectable citizen what owns a trucking company!

J.J.: (to Hal): Your knowledge of trucking operations…and…uh…your war experience as an undercover investigator…gives you the necessary qualifications…

HAL: Well, this is pretty sudden…

And a little too convenient…if you ask me…

HAL: …but none of us are going to do any good in the trucking business until this gang is cleaned up…so I’ll tackle the job if it’s all right with the others…

THOMPSON: What makes you think Duncan can handle the job better than the police?

J.J.: Because it seems very likely…that some of your employees are working with the thieves…’cause they always know where and when important shipments are being made…and I feel Hal would have a better chance to uncover the informers than an outsider would…

CRANDALL: I’m for it!  What do you think, Willard?

WILLARD: Well, I vote yes…it’s about time these outrages stopped!

ARMSTRONG: Sounds like an excellent idea to me—how about you, Thompson?

THOMPSON: I still think the police should be able to handle the job…that’s what we pay taxes for…

“You pay taxes, old man?  Remind me to introduce you to my accountant when this meeting is finished…”

THOMPSON: However, since I’m outvoted I’ll go along with the rest of you…

Thompson…there’s no shame in filibustering.  I’m just sayin’.  So now that Hal has the job, Patterson will take him over to “headquarters” and have him “sworn in.”  (I put those in quotes because I’m not sure I like this setup.)

ARMSTONG: We want to give you all the help we can, Hal…

HAL: Thanks…I think my best bet is to ride with the trucks until I can pick up some leads…but I would like to have access to your records and reports here…

ARMSTONG: Of course!  Make this office your headquarters!  Miss Roberts will give you all the help she can…

“F**k that noise—I’m leaving for Cancun next week!”  Miss (Kay) Roberts is the lone female character in Legion, played by actress Mary Ellen Kay—who had a brief career in the 1950s doing small parts in films (The Well) and playing B-Western leading ladies until the 1960s.  Legion was her only serial.  The meeting adjourns, and with a fade we find ourselves outside…

…the Metz Building.  Inside, Regan and Cody wait in an office that hosts a desk in front of a large mirror.  This looking glass is a two-way affair, the individual on the other side can see Regan and Cody but they, alas, cannot see him.  The villain in Government Agents vs. Phantom Legion is identified as “The Voice”…

…but he’s actually never technically referred to as such in the serial (he’s generally just called “the boss”), so I hereby declare I won’t make any jokes about the successful NBC reality series (nor First Generation Radio Archives founder Harlan Zinck or country music legend Vern Gosdin)…unless I get really desperate.

CADY: When’s he gonna get here, Regan?

REGAN: As soon as he can get away from the Association meeting…

CADY: It’s a funny business…workin’ for a boss you never even see…

It’s not that funny.

REGAN: Yeah…but don’t forget…he can always see us, Cady…with the kind of stakes he’s playin’ for, he can’t afford to trust anybody…and with the kind of dough he’s payin’ us we got nothin’ to kick about…

The Voice enters the adjoining room, and addresses his minions through the mirror.

VOICE: I have some bad news…at the Association meeting today, Hal Duncan was appointed special government agent to try and break up our organization…

“Damn it!  I had Crandall in the office pool…”

CADY: Well…he can’t get anything on you, can he?

VOICE: I’ll see that he doesn’t…but he already suspects that we have connections inside the Association…and I’ll have to be very careful what I say at the meetings…

REGAN: How’s he gonna operate?

VOICE: So far he plans only to ride as a guard on some of the trucks…so if he should happen to be on one that you stop…you know what to do about it…

REGAN: Okay…do we still go on with the hijacking?

VOICE: Yes…my buyers, both in the black market here and abroad, will pay almost any price for the critical materials the government is stockpiling…and we must secure these materials before they’re placed under guard in federal warehouses…

The last time I heard dialogue this clunky I was listening to a Frank and Anne Hummert radio program.  The Voice informs his flunkies that their next assignment is to procure some hand grenades…and he has devised a cunning plan to assist them.  A fade out, and then fade in on the truck carrying that very same cargo as it tools along an “alternate” highway.  In the cab are Special Government Agent Hal Duncan and his trusty sidekick Sam.

SAM: Didn’t we get into enough jams tryin’ to get your own trucks through?  Without takin’ on Armstrong’s troubles, too?

HAL: Well, this time we’re looking for trouble…I wanna get a line on some of these hijackers and this load of grenades ought to be good bait…

Up ahead, Hal and Sam spot what appears to be a car accident.  They pull up in their truck and run up to where the body of the unconscious man lies and find a man named Brandt (Tom Steele) kneeling over him.  The bicycle is a nice touch, though I think I would have enjoyed it more if the bad guys had put a kid on the payroll.

HAL: Is he badly hurt?

BRANDT: I’m afraid so…I don’t know whether I should move him…

Hal examines Cady, and declares “I can’t find anything wrong with him.”  (Oh, so now we can add “physician” to his “special government agent” resume?)  Hal, this is because you have been duped—Regan emerges from behind the car, pistola drawn, and tells our heroes to get their hands up.  Regan tells Cady to break into their truck for the grenades while at the same time ordering Hal and Sam to get over to the side of the road.

I love how things are always so clearly labeled in serials, because they don’t do nuance in these things.  (“Hand grenades are explosives?  Who’da thunk it?”)

Regan tells Brandt to tie up Hal and Sam, and when he’s finished doing that, Cady is to slip live grenades into their pockets.  But before anyone blows up real good, Hal shoves Cady into Regan and, grabbing Sam, runs down a hill to escape their pursuers.  Regan fires after them, but of course since this is only the first chapter he is a piss-poor marksman.  So he takes one of the grenades from Brandt and lobs it in their direction.  Then the second…

…both miss their mark by a country mile, which means we might have to rework that old saw about “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”

CADY: Should we go after them?

REGAN: Nah, we’ll never find them down there…we’d better clear out…

Regan orders Brandt to take their car while he and Cady make off with Hal’s truck.  (I like how Brandt disposes of the bicycle by just running it off the road.)  Speaking of which, Brandt is played by legendary Republic stunt man Tom Steele—who started out early in his career as an actor, but quickly learned that stunt work paid better and was more regular.   His thespic talents still came into play, however, he appeared in a number of the studio’s serials (sometimes playing multiple roles within the course of the same production—he turns up again in this one, playing a “warehouse thug” in Chapter 3) and even starred (though he received no onscreen credit) as the titular hero known as The Masked Marvel (1943).  (This is because the audience was forced to dope out which of four individuals was the true Marvel…and to add insult to injury, Steele suffered the indignity of having his voice dubbed in that one by actor Gayne Whitman.)

Hal and Sam are shown watching the car and truck being driven away by the crooks—though how they’re able to observe this from their hiding place down a hill remains a mystery.

HAL: Looks like we’re in the clear…

SAM: Yes—but we’re a long way from home…and it’s miles to a phone…so by the time we can turn in a report the truck will be hidden out someplace, getting new numbers and a new paint job…

HAL: Yeah, but I got the number of that car…they might not think to change that…

Yes, because criminals are so stupid.  Trust me, this is not a plot contrivance and I resent you thinking as such.  A dissolve finds Hal hanging up a pay phone and walking over to Sam, who’s massaging his feet to make us believe the two men walked the miles to same.  Hal informs Sam that he’s just got off the phone with the police; he gave the gendarmes the numbers of both the truck and the car and they’re in the process of setting up roadblocks to catch those miscreants.  A second dissolve finds Brandt at the wheel of the Bad Guy Sedan, and he slows down at a roadblock to be asked by a cop (Frank Meredith) some routine questions.

COP: Is this your car?

BRANDT: Yes…why?

COP: Pull over to the side of the road…

The policeman hops up on the running board as Brandt starts to comply with his request…then Brandt puts the pedal to the metal and zooms off, dumping the cop to the ground.  The cop and his partner hop on their motorcycles and take off after Brandt.  After several minutes of a furious chase, one of the cops shoots out a tire on Brandt’s jalopy and…

Poor Brandt.  We hardly knew ye.  Back in the office that Armstrong bestowed upon Hal, our hero chats up Miss Roberts—telling her that while Brandt’s escape was foiled by the men in blue, the cops have had no luck in locating the stolen truck.

KAY: How can anyone ever dispose of a stolen truck?

HAL: Well, they switch numbers…repaint…even rebuild bodies…it can be done, all right—but it takes time…and they have to have a safe place to work in…say…that might give us a lead…with the quantity of stuff they handle, they must need a lot of warehouse space…and there aren’t too many big warehouses available to them…

KAY: I know, but…supposing they took the loot to some other city?

HAL: Nah, I don’t think they’d risk it…the police have the out-of-town highways patrolled…so chances are they’re storing the stuff and working over the trucks here…

You know…he seems to know an awful lot about how these guys work, and I don’t think it can be merely chalked up to his amazing powers of deduction.  I’m keeping an eye on him.

HAL: Say—I’ve got an idea… (He walks over to a desk and picks up a large book with “Directory” on the cover, then pulls a chair over to Kay’s desk) Let’s get a list of all the warehouses in town, and tomorrow Sam and I will start checking on them…

KAY: All right…

“What the hell—those Cancun tickets were non-refundable anyway.”  A scene dissolve finds Hal and Sam having no luck with their warehouse searches…and then…

SAM (as Hal prepares to open the doors): Well…here we go again…

HAL: Might as well keep trying…you never know…

Jackpot!  Inside the building, Regan and Cady are commiserating with a third thug clad in coveralls.  “You guys better get out of sight,” he tells his friends as he goes over to open the warehouse doors to allow Special Government Agent Hal Duncan snooping privileges.

HAL (flashing a badge): Government agent…just want to have a look around…

THUG: Okay…not much doin’ in here, but help yourself…

What a polite young man.  So Hal and Sam give the jernt a thorough going-over as Regan and Cady watch from their hiding place.  Sam approaches a rack of tires, and makes a startling (and eye-rolling) discovery.

SAM: Say, Hal…

HAL: Yeah?

SAM (lifting a tire): This tire came off of one of Armstrong’s trucks…

HAL: You sure?

SAM: Positive…I looked at this cut in the casing, wondering how long it would last…

“Um…I also slept with it.  I’m so ashamed.”  Regan and Cady realize that the jig is up, and emerge from where they are hiding to ambush our heroes.  “Stick ‘em up!” he barks at Hal, then he orders Coveralls Guy to frisk them.  The quick-thinking Sam rolls the tire with which he was intimate at Cady, and the trademark Republic free-for-all gets underway.

In between thrown punches and hoods being tossed over tires, Coveralls Guy is shot and killed in a struggle for a gun that he attempted to use to kill Hal.  Momentarily distracted, Regan and Cady open up a convenient trap door in the floor and scamper down it like frightened rabbits.  Hal finds the open trap door and also descends the ladder, which leads to an underground area filled with boxes…and a couple of railroad handcars.  Regan and Cady have already commandeered one of them, so Hal takes the other and follows them down a long tunnel.

Unfortunately for Hal, the handcar he’s liberated has a few boxes of hand grenades on it…while the villains’ getaway vehicle accommodates several cans of gasoline.  After Hal fires at Regan and Cady, his bullet puts a hole in one of the cans, and the resourceful Cady sets the stream of gasoline ablaze with his lighter.  Hal furiously doubles back to keep from being explodiated in a climax taken from the first chapter (“America Beware”) of the studio’s 1942 cliffhanger classic Spy Smasher (1942).