Well, after a hiatus of a few weeks we’re rarin’ to go on Serial Saturdays with another pulse-pounding chapter of The Black Widow (1947). If you remember the events from last time we visited the chapter play, plucky girl reporter Joyce Winters (Virginia Lindley) was completely oblivious to the news that she’s carrying a deadly time bomb capable of explodiating her and her vehicle all over a series of back roads in Cali-forn-i-a. Her friendly nemesis, criminologist/novelist Steve Colt (Bruce Edwards), has been following her and honking the horn to get her attention—but to no avail, because Joyce is a very competitive sort…and not very bright.
However, we didn’t see footage in Chapter
3 that is available to us in this week’s chapter: Bruce does catch up to
Joyce, and tells her to evacuate her car by jumping into his, else she’ll be
blown to smithereenies. Why he resorts
to this gallantry, I cannot say; I would think he’s be relieved to be shed of
her, since she can be a bit of a nuisance.
Perhaps he feels he must set a proper example by always doing good, so
that we can contrast it with the wickedness that is Sombra (Carol Forman).
Speaking of Her Diabolicalness, we find her in her hideout once we fade out from the car explosion; her faithful lackey, Dr. Z.V. Jaffa (I. Stanford Jolley), is by her side, pressing one of her latex masks into the head of a mannequin. Suddenly, a gong rings out—which is the signal that Sombra’s pop, Hitomu “Brother” Theodore Gottlieb), wishes to have an audience with his daughter (via the tele-transport device)…and that Jaffa needs to get the hell out.
Atascadero Escondido!
SOMBRA: Much has been accomplished,
Illustrious Father…Jaffa has successfully taken the Weston formula from the
quartz tube…Mendoza is preparing the rocket fuel for testing…
HITOMU: We progress…yet I grow impatient…we must speed our next move
toward placing me on the throne of the world…
SOMBRA: Weston will soon test his
rocket motor…
HITOMU: I must have it…it will propel the atomic bomb to any point in the
world…
SOMBRA: His laboratory is closely
guarded…we will strike at the first opportunity…
HITOMU: Remember, Sombra…speed is
important…but success is imperative…
SOMBRA: Yes, father…
HITOMU: That is all…
Hitomu out, bitches! And
with that, let’s drop in on a meeting at The
Daily Clarion—where editor John M. Walker (Gene Stutenroth) is having a
powwow with Steve and Joyce.
STEVE: Absolutely—we flew together
during the war…
JOYCE: Well, you aren’t writing a
mystery—give!
STEVE: A friend of mine, Andy
Baldwin, bought a transport plane from the Army…he flies a freight service from
Turner Field to Johnson City…
Turner Field? What’s
Andy gonna do when the Braves get their new stadium?
STEVE: …just beyond the testing
grounds…I’ve arranged to have him transfer the motors for us in a non-stop
flight…
WALKER: Sounds good…
It would sound even better if you called the authorities in
on this…because Steve and Joyce are just gonna muck it up again. “A decoy shipment will leave Weston’s
laboratory by truck under heavy guard an hour before we take off,” Steve
explains further. He tells Walker that
he’ll phone him when they land, and the editor wishes him good luck (“I’ll see
you later”) as he exits the office.
(Where the hell does he need to be this hour of the day, I wonder?)
JOYCE: That sounds like a good
idea, Steve! We’ll be there before…
STEVE: Now, wait a minute—Andy runs
a freight line…no passengers…
JOYCE (after a pause): Are you
going?
STEVE: As co-pilot…
Joyce then offers to “walk as far as the corner” with him
and he gives her a look that seems to suggest he knows she’s going to horn in
on this little affair. They go out the
door, and this thing happens…
…an identified janitor enters the office, ostensibly to clean up—but instead, he goes over to the stock market ticker thingy I showed you in Chapter 1 and snips off a large portion of it. A dissolve reveals that the device actually acts as a Dictaphone, because the subsequent scene shows Sombra, Jaffa and henchman Ward (Anthony Warde) listening to the previous disclosure revealed by Colt in Walker’s office. What I thought interesting with regards to the custodial scene is that they have an African-American actor in the part of the treasonous janitor…something I don’t see too often in serials (it’s usually some old white guy), and proving that Sombra is an equal opportunity employer when it comes to her Empire of Evil.
WARD: Yeah? Sounds easy—how’re ya gonna do it?
SOMBRA: Prepare a packing case
large enough to hold two of your men…have a messenger take it to the airport…
And with another dissolve, we arrive at Turner Field to watch
the Braves take on the Pirates find Steve and a few lackeys loading the transport
plane flown by his pal Andy (Harold Landon).
The messenger mentioned by Sombra in the previous transcribed dialogue
arrives with the “package” for Steve Colt.
STEVE: I’m Steve Colt…
MESSENGER: Can you prove it?
“Why, sure I…oh, wow…I think you just blew my mind!”
STEVE: Why, sure—why? What gives?
MESSENGER: I gotta make sure the
box gets to the right guy, that’s all…
GUARD: He’s Colt, all right—give it
to him!
MESSENGER: Ah, maybe…but Mr. Weston
said to make sure—I ain’t takin’ any
chances…you got any papers on ya?
“Sure do…and roll me one of those, too, while you’re at
it.” Steve fishes his driver’s license
and Army ID out of his shirt pocket and hands it to the all-too-cautious
messenger…who decides to take his word that he’s Steve Colt. He thrusts an invoice at our hero and asks
him to sign in order to take possession of a packing crate that absolutely
positively does not have henchmen in it all, no sirree.
The messenger then apologizes for the TSA scrutiny, explaining
to Colt that Professor Weston wants him to drop the package off in Bisbee,
Arizona; Steve tells the man that he’ll load the package onto the plane but
Messenger Guy alibis that he’ll need some help because it’s heavy even though
there aren’t any henchmen in that crate.
Steve directs a couple of Andy’s men to give him a hand.
Meanwhile—snoopy Joyce has arrived at Turner Field, poking her reporter’s bazoo into things where it doesn’t belong. However—in this case, her curiosity is justified; while meddling around on a loading ramp, she overhears this conversation between Ward and Messenger Guy:
MESSENGER: Colt fell for it like a
ton of bricks…
WARD: Swell…the rocket motors will
be in our hands within an hour—see ya later!
As Ward prepares to descend the ramp, he spots Joycie hiding
behind some cargo and grabs her before she can get away. Yelling for Messenger Guy, Ward directs his
friend to open a handy nearby truck whilst he subdues the Gal Reporter with his
powerful henchman hands.
Steve directs his workmen to load the rest of the cargo onto the plane since it’s nearly time for them to take off. One of those pieces of freight is a trunk in which an unconscious and trussed-up Joyce has been placed by Ward!
With the plane fully loaded, one of the workmen closes the door to the plane and Steve makes his way up to the cockpit where friend Andy is ready for take-off. Up, up…and away!
The two goons silently sneak out of their packing case and enter the cockpit—bold as brass, and with guns drawn…
STEVE: How’d you get aboard…?
GOON #1: Shaddup! (To Andy) Fly due
north…we’re landing just over the Knobby Mountains…
ANDY: Can’t—too much cargo
aboard! We can’t get high enough!
“And besides—Steve gave his spare papers to that messenger
dude!” So First Goon directs Steve to
make tracks for the rear of the plane in order to help dump the cargo…all
except the rocket motors, of course.
While Steve opens the door to the plane for Second Goon, First Goon
keeps an eye on Andy…who’s about to make an incredibly stupid move…
…but not nearly as stupid as Goon #1’s bright maneuver, which is to sap the back of Andy’s head with his pistola. Naturally, this causes the plane to go into a dive—and much hilarity resulted from me when First Goon started yelling at the unconscious Andy: “Wake up, fella! We’ll all be killed!” (Maybe you should have thought of that before you hit him with your gun, brainiac…)
Back in the cargo hold—as you’ve probably already predicted—Steve
and Second Goon are mixing it up in an interesting variation of the Republic
fist fight. Interesting because this
trunk that’s headed perilously close to the open door…
…contains the now-awake Joyce. Second Goon is shown the emergency exit by Steve…
Well, that ought to lighten the load some…and it looks as if Joyce is taking the same short cut!
“Wake up, fella! We’ll all be killed!” (Maybe you should have thought of that before you hit him with your gun, brainiac…)
ReplyDeleteHaha wow.
God bless the stupidity of movie serials.