MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND (1945 serial)

Prof. Forrest is working on a device that, when finished, will be able to generate power on land that can be transferred to planes in the air and ships at sea to use in addition to traditional fuel. While scouting off the coast of California for a new element needed for the invention, Forrest and his assistant have disappeared. His daughter Claire and famed criminologist Lance Reardon go searching for him and wind up tracing him to Mystery Island, a small private island co-owned by four businessmen. (What they do on the island is never made clear--I assumed it was a private resort but we never see anyone else there except servants.) We soon discover that a villain named Captain Mephisto, supposedly the ghost or descendent of a pirate who used the island for his piratical ways, is holding Forrest and demanding that he finish his device so Mephisto can use it in some world domination scheme. Lance and Claire obtain the help of the owners in looking for Forrest, but it soon becomes clear that Mephisto is a flesh-and-blood being, most likely one of four owners. To become the spitting image of the historical pirate, the man sits down in a transformation machine which changes "the molecular arrangement of blood corpuscles" to make him look exactly like the pirate. Over 15 chapters, Lance and Claire survive fistfights, gunfights, floods, the collapse of a rope bridge, and an exploding speedboat to eventually find her father and figure out who Captain Mephisto really is.

There are some things I like quite a bit about this serial. For the most part, the action is confined to one setting, the island, big enough for some variety--the main house, various cliffs and fields--while avoiding the sometimes numbing repetition of industries around a city being targeted by the bad guys. The fistfights, averaging 2 per chapter, are excellent, full of stuntmen leaping across the room at each other, smashing lots of furniture and throwing breakable items of all kinds. The idea, planted in the beginning, that the villain might be supernatural in origin, is fun, and there is a great weapon, a "radium vapor" ray, though it's only used once. Much of the rest, however, I’m not so crazy about. The transformation device is cool at the beginning as we watch a man strap himself into a chair and throw a switch that causes much electrification behind him and results in him becoming Captain Mephisto. But we see this same footage repeated in almost every chapter (except for one 'clip show' episode, Chapter 10, which is used as a catch-up summary) and it becomes tedious. I couldn't bring myself to care about the central mystery (who is Captain Mephisto?) because the suspects are not well differentiated; the owners are just four well-dressed middle-aged men who are basically interchangeable. The acting all around is bland. Richard Bailey, as Lance, has no charisma, bland looks, and just isn’t hero material. Linda Stirling (Claire) is slightly better, and even manages to pop into a couple of the room-wrecking frays. Roy Barcroft as Mephisto, is disappointing--he often seems tired and cranky rather than evil. Kenne Duncan is more effective as Mephisto's chief henchman. The serial lasts for fifteen chapters, which is about three too many, but despite all its faults, it remained watchable, mostly for those great fisticuff scenes. Pictured are Bailey and Barcroft. [DVD]