Secret Agent X-9 Times 2!

Before Alex  Raymond became the icon of comics with the creation of Flash Gordon he worked on another strip with Dashiell Hammett to fashion Secret Agent X-9. Most folks agree this was a work with virtues and flaws and soon enough both Hammett and Raymond were gone. But X-9 held on, changing with the times and creators who took on  the strip over the course of many years.

Two movie serials were made using the character, the second and best was done in 1945 by Universal and starred Lloyd Bridges, Keye Luke and others. On Shadow Island (reminded me of Madripoor) X-9 (Bridges) and his Chinese ally (Luke) joined with several others to forestall the ambitions of Japan as it attempted to spread across the Pacific. At risk is a secret formula which will make water into airplane fuel, so as you might guess this a a doughty task. My favorite character is Solo played by Samuel Hinds, a terse man who spends almost all of the serial seated at the bar, but who is a significant figure when the time is ripe. He never looks up but he always knows what's going on.

In 1937 Universal had made another serial with Secret Agent X-9 and in this earlier film he's pretty much a different person and functions as a cop more than a spy as he tries to recover some stolen jewels for the good of his country. Scott Kolk portrays X-9 and I don't really know what he was going for in the presentation, but it doesn't work very well. He comes across as too jovial by half. Jean Rogers is gorgeous as usual but has almost nothing to do and has just as many clothes on in this serial as she had off in Flash Gordon. The plot is nothing much, just a jumble of antics and some decent fights. My dvd had weird sound issues and was missing a chapter, but I'm pretty sure I got the sense of the story.

Of the two I can only recommend the 1945 version and that's for two reasons, the Sam Hings character and Keye Luke's very rich and adult presentation of an Asian character, not something you could count on.

Rip Off