‘The Crimson Ghost’: a colorized serial

Republic Pictures produced some of the most pulpy of movie serials. And I’ve seen a ton of them. What follows is a review that was written in 2004 but never published. It was a period of time when I was digitizing a lot of my old VHS serials and putting them on DVD. That required watching the entire DVD, checking for glitches which would require re-burning the disc. Such things happened more often that you might suppose. So as long as I was watching these serials, I wrote down my thoughts on each one.

Republic studios produced, as most fans agree, the best serials. Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios also made a slew of serials as well, but it was Republic who got the most value for their production dollars, put it all on-screen, and is today considered the king of the serial studios. In 1990 Republic released two of their serials onto VHS tape in condensed and colorized versions. Zombies of the Stratosphere was one of those. The Crimson Ghost was the other, and is the one I’ll be discussing here, today.

I took time out of a busy Saturday afternoon (ha) to sit down and watch the colorized version of Republic’s 1946 serial The Crimson Ghost. All 12 chapters condensed down to 93 minutes. And with that fake coloring that was the fad in the early ’90s.

I watched it. I liked it. There, I said it and I’m glad. For the purist, editing serials is heresy. Adding color is heresy. Doing both is… well… let’s just say, something even worse. But I liked it. It was certainly better than watching three colorized, first-season episodes of Gilligan’s Island. Yes, for those of you not in-the-know, the first season was originally in B&W and was later colorized.

Producers of the new version of The Crimson Ghost didn’t cut any chapters. They didn’t cut any cliffhangers. They didn’t cut any major parts of the story. They just re-edited it for a faster pace, leaving a nice streamlined serial. And in color, to boot.

Please note that I have watched the original full-length black-and-white version of The Crimson Ghost. I liked it, too. I’m not going to try to compare them, because each is different and should be treated as such. Each was intended for a different audience and a different period of time. And both, in their own way, are pretty cool.

So, what’s it all about?

Let’s run through the plot, for those of you who saw it so long ago that you’ve forgotten the details. Or maybe they’ve blurred together with all those other serials you’ve seen. That’s what you get for watching so many serials at one setting. Yes, you know who you are…

Professor Chambers has invented a “cyclotrode” which will detect and repel any atomic bomb attack. But we never get to see it demonstrate this ability in the entire serial. That’s because this device has a secondary purpose which the evil Crimson Ghost finds much more desirable. It will stop any electrically controlled device from a distance. Hey, didn’t I see this device in another serial recently? They’re all blurring together…

The Crimson Ghost is an impressive, cloaked villain who runs around wearing a really neat looking skull mask and a red outfit. In the old black-and-white version, you assumed it was red. In the colorized version, it’s visually realized. This unknown mastermind is actually one of four professors at “The University.” He intends to steal the cyclotrode and turn it into the most powerful offensive weapon in the world.

Professor Chambers has an assistant and collaborator, Professor Duncan Richards. He’s not only one of the most outstanding physicists in the country, he’s also a criminologist, responsible for protecting government secrets involved in atomic research. This is our stalwart hero who will take 12 chapters to defeat the red-robed master criminal. You’d think a guy with those outstanding qualifications would be a little faster. But I suppose it was in his contract.

The deadly mind-control collar

The Crimson Ghost has developed an amazing invention of his own, the mind-control collar. He injects his subjects with a special drug which destroys their willpower, and then places the special metal ring around their necks. Once they are under his power, he can order them around by remote control.

The Crimson Ghost doesn’t realize what a powerful weapon this control collar could be in its own right. Instead, he only sees it as a means toward helping him acquire the cyclotrode. Personally, I’d advise him to forget the cyclotrode and concentrate on using the mind-control collar to take over the world. A bird in the hand, you know… But those masked villains never listen to me.

Professor Chambers is kidnapped by The Crimson Ghost, and dies at the beginning of chapter three. From then on, it’s up to Duncan Richards and his lovely assistant Diana Farnsworth (played by Linda Stirling) to thwart the sinister plans of The Crimson Ghost and discover which of the four professors is the man behind the mask.

By the final few chapters, The Crimson Ghost has decided to sell out to another country. Count Theta, who represents an unnamed foreign government, has paid The Crimson Ghost cool millions for the plans to the cyclotrode. So much for world conquest, when “cool millions” have been dangled before your masked face.

And as we all expect, in the 12th and final chapter, The Crimson Ghost is finally brought to justice and is unmasked. Yes, he was one of the four non-descript professors. Which one? Well, they all sorta look alike, but at least we can rest assured that the world is once again safe for democracy.

Don’t miss the next exciting chapter!

The cliffhangers are pretty routine. And the escapes in the following chapters are usually less than original. In six of the 12 chapters, our hero (or heroine) simply jumps in time. This is the “easy out” that is used all too often in serials. Car goes over a cliff? No problem. Next chapter, he jumps out in time. Car crashing into a plane? Jump out in time. About to be buried under a ton of falling debris? Jump out of the way in time.

And one chapter resolution was a definite cheat. At the end of chapter eight, Richards is removing Diana’s control collar when it explodes. It explodes right in front of him, just below the camera. But in the next chapter, he safely removes the control collar and tosses it into a garbage can before it explodes. The explosion is four feet away, and to the side. Not in close, in front of him. Cheat!

And what about the death-ray machine? A death-ray machine, you ask? Yes, there was a death-ray machine. Of course there was. There’s always a death-ray machine! You should know that by now. But this one was only casually mentioned in one chapter as something that Duncan Richards had been working on. Why didn’t they say more about it? And what about another device… the “isatron” that can nullify the cyclotrode? After all the build-up for the cyclotrode, in chapter seven we are casually told that “fortunately, there’s a way to nullify the power of the cyclotrode.” Say, what?! Kinda makes all the running around seem pointless, doesn’t it?

And one last thing. The Crimson Ghost has two outfits. Two red cloaks and two skull masks. In one later chapter, his chief henchman dresses up in the duplicate outfit to fool Duncan Richards. I can only guess that The Crimson Ghost keeps the second outfit around for just such occasions. Either that or as a spare when the first one is at the cleaners.

Fun in 12 exciting chapters

I think you’ll like this serial. It’s a fun romp with a masked villain. Watch the original black-and-white version if colorization insults you. (Elitist!) Or watch the edited, colorized version if you prefer. Unfortunately, neither has been officially released by Republic studios on DVD, but you can find either on gray-market DVDs or streaming online, so find a copy somewhere and watch it. With a cloaked, skull-faced mastermind running around, you can’t go wrong!