Customer Reviews

The Green Hornet Strikes Again

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This DVD release is SUPERB. I can say that because I have purchased numerous releases for the same serial, including VHS and unauthorized DVD releases. The picture quality is sharp and clear and evidently from the studio masters. The sound is excellent and the detail level is superb.

The serial is chaptered so you can select which chapter you want to watch or you can watch them all from beginning to end without interruption. Old-Time Radio shows are a bonus.

Best part about this release is the liner notes. Authored by Martin Grams, it reveals just how and where they filmed each scene for the chapters, character actors in small roles (such as an unbilled Alan Ladd) and more. I recommend you read the liner notes before watching the serial so you have plenty to look out for during viewing. Makes viewing more fun. (And according to the end of the notes, the author has an authorized book on THE GREEN HORNET coming out in early 2010!)

Overall, quality, liner notes, radio shows, bonus features, this is as good as it gets. If you question whether this is worth the price, take it from a Hornet fan. Grab this.

Warren Hull replaces Gordon Jones in the lead role in this sequel to The Green Hornet. Hull, who is best known in his role as The Spider and who also played Lee Falk's Mandrake is a welcome improvement for Jones. Keye Luke returns as the sidekick Kato. Y'know next to Clark Kent's glasses as a disguise, how could you not figure out who the Green Hornet and Kato was. A white guy and an oriental kinda stands out, huh? But, despite the lame secret identity (you have to suspend some disbelief), this is a fair serial despite it's Columbia label (sorry, but I have a real prejudice for Columbia serials). It contains a fair amount of action, a good cast and some semblence of a story. If you want to view Hull's best work, however, find a copy of "The Spider Strikes" and avoid at all costs "The Spider Returns."

Fran Striker, co-creator of The Green Hornet radio show, was script supervisor and two actors, William Hall and Jay Michael were from the popular radio show. Hall was the voice of radio's Hornet for a time. So what we see here is a first-rate serial that really tried to be faithful to the radio series.

The company known as Video Treasures has done it. They have successfully raised a film from the dead A long, long, time ago a list was published called "The Lost Sound Serials" GHSA was one of them. There was no hope to ever see this story again, until Anchor Bay makes a fine print brought fromk Universals original film negatives. As for the movie, it's good but not great. Warren Hull brings more dignity to the role of GH. Keye Luke is a passable Kato, but expect no Bruce Lee, Kato rarley gets into a fight. The story is full of action, adventure and heart stopping cliffhangers. It's great fun for children and adults.

I got this on VHS like the first one and am glad this is also coming out on DVD. I think Warren Hull portraies the Green Hornet as well as Gordon Jones did. Watching both serials in a row it seams to be one large movie since they both go togather so well. If you like adventure and superheroes these two serials are a good chose.

"The Green Hornet Strikes Again" was released by Universal in late December of 1940, produced after the success of the first Green Hornet serial. This one stars Warren Hull instead of Gordon Jones, but still with Keye Luke as Kato, Anne Nagel as Lenore Case and Wade Boteler as Michael Axford, directed by Ford Beebe and John Rawlins. Warren Hull had played a similar character, "The Spider" in a 1938 Columbia serial and would do so again in 1941.

The plot follows the same formula used in the first Green Hornet serial, with newspaper publisher Britt Reid battling racketeers, using his secret identity to take direct action against them. The bad guys perpetrate a series of rackets, most taking only a chapter or two to be cleaned up, rather than having a single large-scale plan. This time the main bad guy is Boss Crogan (Pierre Watkin) with main underlings Bordine (James Seay), Tauer (Arthur Loft), Dolan (Joe A. Devlin) and De Luca (William Hall). There is more of a connection with "a foreign government" than in the first serial.

The episodic format helps keep the plot moving, though not necessarily in any particular direction. The schemes and cliffhangers tend to be repetitive, and don't provide any logical path to the capture of Crogan, who is uncovered more-or-less by accident. Britt Reid sends Axford and Ed Lowery (Eddie Acuff) to investigate the latest known racket, and they encounter the same crooks. "The Hornet" never learns to tie up BOTH bad guys before questioning one of them, nor to watch out for the third one. And he is remarkably resistant to collapsing buildings and explosions, even by serial movie standards, hobbling away with only a little help from Kato, being back in full action after a few minutes. None of this would have been as obvious when watched one chapter per week.

This is a serial from Universal, so production values are not what Republic had. We get the usual tons of stock footage; that in the steel mill even includes a short piece of "feeding the atom furnaces" from the 1936 Flash Gordon serial. Cars drastically change shape as they head over cliffs, similar things happen to airplanes as they turn into cheap-looking models before they crash. The "Black Beauty" looks pretty silly going around corners at the supposed speeds, even if they did add fancy fender skirts. But on this one Universal did fairly well in avoiding padding, the fights are not deplorable, and the direction takes the story seriously. The music, in addition to Rimsky-Korsakow's "Flight of the Bumblebee" is mostly Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, with Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony, the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream and "The Storm" from Rossini's Lone Ranger Overture. It is fairly effective, and the type of music favored by George W. Trendle for the radio program -- no royalties required.

VCI's edition on DVD, # 8556, is clear, clean and sharp, and the sound is also good, though 11 minutes and 37 seconds into Chapter 13 it drops out for a couple seconds. There is a pamphlet by Terry Salomonson and Martin Grams, Jr., who have a book due out in time for the "new movie" tie-in; it is hoped they did a better job of proofreading for the book. Still, a useful item, with a very complete cast list and radio-program sources for some of the chapters. There is a small "cheat" in the restoration; the chapter titles all have MPPDA certificate number 6540, while on the original this would be different for each chapter. And it doesn't pay to cheat; the "before" example in the "special feature" illustrating the restoration shows a title with certificate number 6556, from a different piece of film than the "restored" example. I'll bet VCI didn't think anyone would notice. The other "extras" include a "Bio" of Keye Luke, a "Photo Gallery" and a "Facts and Trivia" piece. Of far more interest are two vintage "Green Hornet" radio programs, both somewhat later than the serial and neither embarassing to the quality of the film. They are in a form that does not allow pausing them; if stopped they must be played from the beginning. Those familiar with the radio Lone Ranger will doubtless recognise many of the voices.

So a fairly good serial from Universal, transferred from an excellent source print, and with two original radio shows, well worth the asking price. But don't watch it all in one sitting; one chapter at a time is still the best way to watch serials.

Well as sequels go this was not bad. A new guy playing the Hornet but he pulled it off pretty well. It was a continuation of the first thrilling saga of " The Urban Robin Hood."

I enjoyed this serial which was done by Universal Studios in 1940 as a sequel to The Green Hornet serial done by the same studio in 1939. Gordon Jones was the Star of the first serial and Warren Hull[who became host of a T.v.Show in the 1950's]was the star of the sequel. The film gives you a lot of action thrills and chills and was as good as the original serial. Key Luke was the green hornet's valet and sidekick in both films.

Universal Pictures present "GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN" (1941) (300 mins/B&W) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- is a 15-Chapter Universal Movie Serial starring Warren Hull, Anne Nagel, Keye Luke & Eddie Acuff, relive those thrilling days week after week venue brought you to the theater, as you were mesmerized in your seat waiting for the final chapter ... exciting action within 15 episodes from Universal Serial, released in October 1940, story thus far, The Green Hornet (secretly publisher Britt Reid of the Daily Sentinel) uses his crime-fighting weaponry to track down the mysterious head of a city-wide racketeering ring ... he is ably assisted by and his trusted valet Kato. ... based upon characters from the popular radio and pulp series, what fate awaits our heroes Hull and Luke in this Universal classic cliffhanger.

A sequel to The Green Hornet, The Green Hornet Strikes Again is a 15-chapter serial that was based upon characters from the popular radio and pulp series. The Green Hornet (Warren Hull) is actually Britt Reid, fearless newspaper publisher, who dons the Hornet's guise to battle criminals that have managed to escape the long arm of the law -- aided, of course, by his invaluable sidekick, Kato (Keye Luke). As Strikes Again opens, Reid and Kato are enjoying a well-earned vacation in Hawaii. Their respite is short-lived, however, as they discover that master criminal Crogan (Pierre Watkin) has ratcheted up his operations and is starting a whole new series of rackets that require the Hornet's attention. After a rough crossing, they begin closing down Crogan's rackets -- including selling bombs to foreign agents -- one by one. Along the way, the duo encounter a number of close calls involving a plane crash, an explosion in a laboratory, a roof cave-in, electrocution, and driving a car into a warehouse loaded with explosives. In the end, of course, the Hornet brings down Crogan and all is once again well. For Strikes Again, Warren Hull, who had already played super-heroes The Spider and Mandrake the Magician, replaced Gordon Jones, the Hornet from the original serial.

Under Ford Beebe (Director), John Rawlins (Director), Henry MacRae (Associate Producer), George H. Plympton (Screenwriter), Basil Dickey (Screenwriter), Sherman L. Lowe (Screenwriter), Fred MacIsaac (Screenwriter), Fran Striker (Original Story Characters), Charles Previn (Stock Score), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Original Theme), Hans J. Salter (Stock Score), Frank Skinner (Stock Score), Jerome Ash (Cinematographer), Joseph Gluck (Editor), Louis Sackin (Editor), Alvin Todd (Editor), Ralph M. DeLacy (Art Director) ------ the cast includes Warren Hull (Britt Reid/Green Hornet), Wade Boteler (Michael Axford), Anne Nagel (Lenore "Casey" Case), Keye Luke (Kato), Eddie Acuff (Lowery), Pierre Watkin (Boss Crogan), James Seay (Bordine, a gangster), Arthur Loft (Tauer, chief gangster), Joe Devlin (Dolan, a gangster), William Hall (DeLuca, a gangster), Dorothy Lovett (Frances Grayson/Stella Merja), Jay Michael (Foranti, construction racketeer), Charles F. Miller (George K. Otterson), Jean Brooks (Gloria), William Forrest (Frederick Harper), C. Montague Shaw (Weaver, gang scientist),Roy Barcroft (Cop at Newspaper Truck Vandalism), Al Bridge (Ship's Captain), Lane Chandler (Cop car-chasing Foranti), Jack Cheatham (Pete, steelmill watchman), Eddie Dew (Henchman-Delivery Man), Frank Ellis (Bill, Steel Mill Guard), Jack Ellis (Franks, a gangster), Karl Hackett (Hansen, the Stranger), Reed Howes (Policeman at Breedon's House), Bob Kortman (Thug on guard at farmhouse), Tom London (Thug with explosives), Pierce Lyden (Tonjes, gang pilot), John Merton (Thug at Rear of Truck), Eddie Parker (Henchman with Dolan), Jack Perrin (Gunner, an army deserter), Jason Robards Sr.(Foley's Bodyguard), Barry Sullivan (Thug in car's back seat), Forrest Taylor (Snipe, Foranti thug), Ray Teal (Chief Guard at Steel Mill) ------ A sequel to The Green Hornet, The Green Hornet Strikes Again is a 15-chapter serial ... The Green Hornet is actually Britt Reid, fearless newspaper publisher, who dons the Hornet's guise to battle criminals that have managed to escape the long arm of the law, aided and by his side is Kato ... many close calls as the duo encounter a number of close calls involving a plane crash, an explosion in a laboratory, a roof cave-in, electrocution, and driving a car into a warehouse loaded with explosives, as they trail the foreign agents who are planning to sell bombs ... great stunt work by the Universal stunt personnel Eddie Parker (stunt double), Ken Terrell (stunt double) --- don't leave the theater until the final chapter "Smashing the Crime Ring" ... another winner from the vaults of Universal Pictures --- this is a must watch for the serial buffs in all of us.

CHAPTER TITLES:
1. Flaming Havoc
2. The Plunge of Peril
3. The Avenging Heavens
4. A Night of Terror
5. Shattering Doom
6. The Fatal Flash
7. Death in the Clouds
8. Human Targets
9. The Tragic Crash
10.Blazing Fury
11.Thieves of the Night
12.Crashing Barriers
13.The Flaming Inferno
14.Racketeering Vultures
15.Smashing the Crime Ring

BIOS:
1. Warren Hull (aka: John Warren Hull)
Date of birth: 17 January 1903 - Gasport, New York
Date of death: 14 September 1974 - Waterbury, Connecticut

2. Keye Luke
Date of birth: 18 June 1904 - Guangzhou, China
Date of death: 12 January 1991 - Whittier, California

3. Ford Beebe (Director)
Date of birth: 26 November 1888 - Grand Rapids, Michigan
Date of death: 26 November 1978 - Lake Elsinore, California

4. John Rawlins (Director)
Date of birth: 9 June 1902 - Long Beach, California
Date of death: 20 May 1997 - Arcadia, California

If you're into vintage serials as I am, why not pick up a copy of the following titles from VCI Home Video:
VCI CLIFFHANGER TRAILERS:
1. Adventures of Red Ryder (Don "Red" Barry)
2. Adventures of the Flying Cadets (Bobby Jordan)
3. Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe)
4. Captain Midnight (Dave O'Brien)
5. Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere (Judd Holdren & I. Stanford Jolley)
6. Dick Tracy's G-Men (Ralph Byrd)
7. Don Winslow of the Navy (Don Terry)
8. Don Winslow of the Coast Guard (Don Terry)
9. Drums of Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon)
10.Fighting Kit Carson (Johnny Mack Brown)
11.Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Buster Crabbe)
12.The Green Archer (Victory Jory)
13.Jungle Girl (Frances Gifford)
14.Jungle Jim (Grant Withers & Raymond Hatton)
15.Lost City of the Jungle (Russell Hayden & Keye Luke)
16.Mandrake the Magician (Warren Hull & Dick Curtis)
17.Miracle Rider (Tom Mix & Tony Jr)
18.The Painted Stallion (Ray "Crash" Corrigan)
19.The Phantom (Tom Tyler)
20.The Return of Chandu (Bela Lugosi)
21.Riders of Death Valley (Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo & Buck Jones)
22.Secret Agent X-9 (1937) (Scott Kolk & Henry Brandon)
23.Secret Agent X-9 (1945) (Lloyd Bridges & Keye Luke)
24.Sky Raiders (Donald Woods & Billy Halop)
25.Undersea Kingdom (Ray "Crash" Corrigan)
26.Winners of the West (Dick Foran, Harry Woods, Roy Barcroft & Charles Stevens)
27.Zane Greys "King of the Royal Mounted" (Allan "Rocky" Lane)
28.Zorro's Cliffhanger Collection (Reed Hadley, John Carroll & Linda Stirling)

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc) and Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") as they have rekindled my interest once again for B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 300 mins on VHS ~ Anchor Bay Entertain ~ (12/16/1997)

Britt Reid the Grandson of Dan Reid nephew of The Lone Ranger,is a masked crime fighter like his "Famous" Great Uncle whose mask is to strike fear into the hearts of the criminals of his city. Resoursefull,well funded,and aided by his faithfull servent and sidekick Kato,The "Green Hornet" rides across the city in the "Black Beauty"a car,But like his famous ancester does not want to kill but disable his prey,not with Silver Bullets but a gas gun.Actor,and 50s game show host Warren Hull does a nice job with the material,and keeps the legend alive. Great fun either in episodic form or as a feature film. A breif footnote;prior to the Second World war,Kato was a Japanese,but not so mysteriously became Phillipino at the outbreak of War. On Radio the character was created by George W. Trendle of "The Lone Ranger" fame. Should you ever be able to hear the old radio show I know you will like them as well.