This 1945 Republic serial turned out to be a doozy! A little research on this flick indicates it was among the very first alien invasion movies ever, and it had to be one of the earliest to make use of the then sparse UFO mythology.
"The Purple Monster" played by Roy Barcroft, is from Mars. He/It arrives here in a one-way rocket that destroys itself on impact, so with the aid of Earth criminals the Monster spends the whole of the serial finding parts for and building a "jet plane" which will allow for two-way travel between Mars and Earth, thus signaling an invasion on a grander scale.
Now this serial is a brisk adventure, and so won't let you slow down enough to ponder how the apparently technologically backward Martians plan to overcome the Earth folks using their own science against them, but for this story it will serve. Also, the Monster finds through his instant association with criminals an elaborate network of underworld types who will work with him, something else about his plan that seems a bit scattershot.
But the elegance of the Monster's plan aside, this serial offers up some of the most violent fisticuffs I've seen in a Republic serial, shows renown for their fights anyway. There is at least one in each chapter and each is brutal, though of course our hero usually wins despite almost always being outnumbered.
There are some pretty elaborate traps too, with a wide range of technology on display. There are molten metal traps, vaporizing ray traps, exploding traps, and my personal favorite a trap-door water chamber which a seemingly honest scientist has in his lab. He was turned mad by a drug, but conveniently has this water-torture system already in place to showcase his murderous rampage.
Being a Republic serial, there are some good car and truck explosions and two buildings get exploded with gusto. But of course the hero and heroine always escape in the nick of time.
Dennis Moore is the stalwart hero and frankly he seems a bit small in stature to sell this role completely, though his voice is on spot. Linda Stirling is the heroine, and she's beautiful but doesn't really offer up much help in most instances.
One twist in this story is that the Purple Monster kills Stirling's uncle and using elaborate Martian ways assumes his body throughout the rest of the flick. The transformation scene is in every episode too, and after the first few I started fast-forwarding through them. But then a serial is not supposed to watched in one session, and that's not a criticism of the creators.
A Martian chick named, ahem, "Marcia" shows up toward the end of the serial, but she adds little to the mix. If they'd added her earlier, it might've been more valuable.
All in all this was a slam-bam enjoyable serial. My bootleg VHS copy had some defects which took away from the enjoyment, but didn't ruin it completely. This is a dandy one.
Here's a link to the trailer for this one.
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