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!

FRINGE - "Question The Answers" (2008)

Tonight's Wednesday Weirdness is just that and more! It's called "Fringe" and it's a TV show that aired from 2008 until 2013! Did I ever see any of them at the time? Hell no, I've been busy watching movies from 50 or 60 years earlier. Here's the deal! You see those three names on the title card? Then, just think "Star Trek," "Star Wars," and "Mission Impossible" just for starters and you will know what kind of show "Fringe" was!

 

"Fringe" is a high-tech freak show!

 This "Pilot" episode starts on an airliner, and ends somewhere East of Hell!

So, what's the big deal? Everything seems just fine. Just another mundane day on the job!

Everything goes to Hell in a handbag in no time at all!

Hey Captain, I think I might be sick!

It's a good thing they did, or this flight would never have made it to the runway!

Is there anything more comforting that a neon Motel sign?

I think not!

The star of this show is Anna (Mindhunter) Torv as FBI agent Olivia Dunham. That's Olivia's boyfriend agent John Scott behind her. They have to keep their relationship secret because FBI agents are not supposed to fraternize, much less have sex! John was played by Mark Valley. Mark was the voice of Superman in "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns."

The plane landed and now it's time to have a gagging good time looking inside!

The two agents have a perp in their sights!

Agent Dunham sees her boyfriend get blown up in a massive explosion!

And she barely escapes alive herself!

But somehow the perp comes out of it unscathed!

John Scott, on the other hand, ain't feeling that great, and it appears that the chemicals that were in that explosion have a lot to do with what was happening to the people on that plane.

You know what they say about desperate times, Agent Dunham is willing to enlist the help of a Doctor who has been in a mental institution for almost two decades. His son also becomes a major player in this story, because you can't visit this lunatic unless family is present, and his son is the only family he has left.

If you think this giant high-tech company called "Massive Dynamic" has anything to do with it, then you might be right! 

"What do we do?" Everything! "What don't we do?" Nothing!!

Agent Dunham gets the krazy ass Doctor out of the asylum, and they get his old lab up and running. He tells her that he has a plan where she can communicate with John, but she has to strip and take L.S.D. and get in this tank to make it all happen!

The reason she wants to get inside John's head is so that maybe she will be able to identify the perp, since John actually was the only one who saw the jerk's face.

It's quite an interesting journey for her!

 

Her efforts were not wasted, and they are able to quickly put together a composite of the perp!

 

There are moments of levity............

......But it's mostly pretty damn serious!

I watched the first official episode last night, and I don't know if I will make it through a full five seasons, but I think I'm going to give it a try, starting with the next episode as soon as I finish writing this.

TALES OF TOMORROW / "The Invader" - 1951

Now, here's a shocking little production about five people on an ocean expedition looking for rare sea plants. A 'meteorite' hits down near their boat, and what happens next is unexpected...

This thing stars Eva (THE MAD MAGICIAN) Gabor, William (in two episodes of LIGHTS OUT) Eythe, Edgar (4D MAN) Stehll, Salem (I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS!) Ludwig and Ferrell (DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE) Pelly. Very sad about William Lythe, died at age 38, and considered a victim of Hollywood.

The story starts with Burroughs pulling up a basket full of a rare sea weed that his diver had found. His son Roy is there with his fiancée, Laura.

It is very strange that pops is mean to his son and won't let him help with anything and is just simply mean with him constantly. Laura logs in the catch.

Chandler, the diver, eventually makes it back to the surface and gets help removing his gear.

Even Chandler is a jerk with Roy, calling him junior, and tells him to give his dad the message, he's not doing any more diving, he wants to go to port and have some fun.

The crew then witness something falling out of the sky. They watch as the thing splashes down into the sea with a bang near their ship!

They establish that the object came down in a zig-zag trajectory and it couldn't possibly be a meteorite, and, must be a spaceship from another world! Chandler refuses to dive down to see what's on the sea floor, and of all things, Roy says that he'll do it...

He wants to prove to his dad that he can contribute to the expedition, but Laura's frightened about Roy agreeing to the dive, and that unknown object down there.

Roy makes it to the bottom where he sees something and heads off towards it...

Roy returns to the surface and reports that it was just a meteorite, not a spaceship. He has a hard edge to his demeanor now, and is very short with his dad who's proud of his accomplishment.

McQueen is the first one to go, he sees Roy for who he really is and dies from the alien's touch!

Ho boy, no kidding! Laura then receives the death touch from the deadly invader! He's already taken care of Chandler.

When the lights go out, we can see Roy as the alien. Very underwhelming! So, when the lights go out, William had to run over to a makeup artist who, as quickly as possible, makes him into an alien and get him back to the camera! That's just horrible! 

Burroughs gets to see some of the victims!

The alien tells the old man that everyone is dead, including Roy, and that he plans on getting to the mainland to continue his mayhem and destroy the people of Earth. 

But the tricky old codger comes up with a plan to get rid of the threat. He cuts a gas line and then splashes the invader with an acid or something, causing him to fade into the darkness, just like this post!