THE GREEN HORNET / Chapter 1 - "The Tunnel Of Terror" - 1940

In this classic movie serial from Universal, a newspaper publisher and his Korean servant fight crime as vigilantes who pose as a notorious masked gangster and his aide in 13 Action-Thrill Episodes!

Gordon Jones stars as newspaper publisher Britt Reid and the crime fighting Green Hornet. Gordon had 162 acting credits and played the sheriff in THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD. He died of a heart attack in 1963 at age 52 in Tarzana, CA.

Keye Luke stars as Kato, he had 226 acting credits and played Charlie Chan's number 1 son among other roles and did English voiceover in the American versions of RODAN and GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER. He was born in China, raised in Seattle and died at age 86 in Whittier, CA in 1991.

This serial was adapted from the radio show created by Fran Striker, who also wrote for THE LONE RANGER and SERGEANT PRESTON OF THE YUKON. Francis Striker was a man.

Okay, so here we go, chapter one, "The Tunnel Of Terror."

Britt Reid visits his servant Kato in the garage where the Korean handyman is creating clever devices designed to fight crime for his boss...

Britt's father has just died and he takes over the reigns at The Sentinel newspaper.

After meeting with the police chief, it seems like there's a need for a modern day Robin Hood to fight against the crime syndicates in the city...

Then, the man who was going to spill the beans on a tunnel project, well, he gets blown the Hell up in his truck as he was driving to meet with Britt Reid about the situation.

Like in many of the serials, the big boss is just a voice coming over a radio until he's exposed at the end of the story.

Here are the crooks carrying out the boss's orders, guy on the left needs to be followed.

After floating the idea of becoming a real crime fighter, freaking Kato has made Britt a leather mask with a hornet tooled in. And, a special gun that fires sleeping gas pellets instead of bullets.

There's also a very cool Green Hornet emblem sewn onto the palm of one of his new gloves.

Green Hornet goes to the home of one of the crooks for info, and when the guy's ready to name names, his pals that are keeping an eye on him turn off the lights and shoot him dead. Hornet ends things when he hits the men with a few gas pellets.

Reid and his driver try to get into the mine tunnel to check out the safety violations claims but are forcefully turned away by one of the goons in charge there.

So, it's time for the Green Hornet and Kato to hit the scene. This is a special 1937 Lincoln-Zephyr named Black Beauty, and Kato has tricked it out to do 200 mph!! In this scene, Kato, who's driving, has just kicked in the Energizer. To the mine!

Green Hornet has ordered one honcho to take him to mine 4, the other one sees them and follows with a hunk of wood in hand. But, Kato sees that guy and follows him. What's cool is that Kato karate chops the big oaf in the back of the neck and he drops like a ton of bricks!

The unsafe tunnel decides to implode, causing a disaster that Green Hornet and Kato must escape from. See what happens in chapter 2, next week at this theater!

After this, THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN! Now, that is one sweet poster!