This week I review one of the classic Republic cliffhangers, and as you read it, you’ll see why it’s a classic. This serial was produced as World War II was ending. America was winning, and this chapter play reflects the prevalent fervor of patriotic bravado. An invasion from Mars? Bring ’em on! We’re licking the Nazis, we can lick Mars!
As our story opens, Dr. Cyrus Layton sits in his observatory, looking through his huge telescope. He sees a strange, purple meteor heading toward earth. Except, it turns out that it’s not really a meteor; it’s a small, one-man spaceship from Mars! And inside is the Purple Monster. Okay, it’s not really a monster; it’s just a guy who acts really mean. And maybe he’s wearing purple. It’s hard to tell in black and white.
The spaceship crash lands near Dr. Layton’s observatory, so naturally, Layton has to investigate. He arrives just as the Purple Monster jumps out of the burning wreck of the spaceship. The alien doesn’t give his name. “My name would mean nothing to you.” Dr. Layton takes the alien Martian back to his observatory. Seems like the logical thing to do when you encounter an alien life form for the first time.
Dr. Layton shows the Purple Monster the plans to his interplanetary jet plane. They are classified as top secret, but… hey, let’s show them to this stranger from another planet! Actually, I’d call this thing a rocket ship. But the Purple Monster refers to it as an interplanetary jet plane, so an interplanetary jet plane it is. Dr. Layton also has invented an anti-gravity device to assure a safe landing. One smart dude! But, unfortunately, one that’s not long for this world.
Mars has long been planning to invade Earth and enslave its inhabitants. The Purple Monster is spear-heading that invasion. And Dr. Layton’s inventions are just what Mars needs. To achieve his evil ends, the Purple Monster kills Layton and takes over his body.
Dr. Layton’s niece, Sheila, and Craig Foster, a former Secret Service agent, show up just as Dr. Layton falls to the ground dead. Craig Foster sees the Purple Monster and has a brief altercation with him, before being knocked out. The Purple Monster quickly inhales a capsule of Martian gas and inhabits the dead body of Dr. Layton. Now he’s safe, and Sheila and Craig have no idea that lovable old Cyrus Layton is just an outer shell that actually contains the Purple Monster.
The jet plane… or spaceship…
Now all the Purple Monster has to do is gather up Layton’s plans and take the interplanetary jet plane (that’s “space ship” to you and me) back to Mars. Yep, that’s all he’s got to do. So why does it take fourteen more chapters? Well, there are complications. In serials, there are always complications.
You see, the jet plane hasn’t actually been built, yet. Various parts are still under construction. The Purple Monster intends to build his own jet plane in a secret underground hideaway. He will acquire funds and materials with the assistance of a couple of lowly thugs he has hired since arriving on Earth. That’s right, when you intend to take over the entire planet, enlist the aid of the first scum of humanity you run into. Yeah, that’s where you’ll find your quality workers, all rightee.
Seeking to thwart his plans at every turn is our hero, Craig Foster, and our heroine Sheila Layton. They don’t realize that the Purple Monster is an interplanetary menace. They think he’s part of a gang that was trying to extort money from Dr. Layton before the meteor incident.
In the basement of the observatory, the Purple Monster has his hidden lair. In a records room, a wall cabinet swings aside, revealing the secret entrance to a hidden workshop. There, he and his two assistants work on the space ship. Oops, I mean jet plane.
He can enter the body of the dead!
The effect of the Purple Monster entering and leaving the body of Dr. Layton is well done, using film dissolves. And the scene is repeated in nearly every chapter. We either see the Purple Monster fade to semi-invisibility and then slip into the slumped figure of Dr. Layton, or we see him reverse the process and return to his own alien body. Or, often, both in the same chapter!
So, where does the name “the Purple Monster” come from? Well, that’s what he calls himself, both when inhabiting the body of Dr. Layton and when introducing himself to his new human lieutenant. If it’s good enough for him, then I guess that’s good enough for me, too.
There’s a lot of technical gobblety-gook which adolescent boys in the audience must have just eaten up. The Purple Monster kills Dr. Cyrus Layton in chapter one with a capsule of carbo-oxide gas. This is the atmospheric gas that surrounds Mars, we are told. Fortunately, it’s instantly fatal to humans. And let’s not forget metalarium an element found only on Mars. That pops up later in the serial.
Let’s talk about those amazing inventions. When the Purple Monster arrives on Earth, he tells Layton that years ago, Martians invented the distance eliminator that allows them to see and hear everything that happens on Earth. He has brought it to Earth with him in a square metal box, and uses it to report to the Emperor of Mars in several chapters.
Other unique inventions include a small device that speeds up the mechanism of the time lock on a vault door, rendering it vulnerable. And an atmospheric stabilizer which regulates the pressure inside the jet plane.
The electro-annihilator is a weapon designed to protect the jet plane from meteors and other space-borne objects while in flight. It’s a cool-looking ray gun with dual barrels, about three feet apart, with a large televised sight in between. We get to see it blow up a test object, which only convinces us that this awesome power is going to be featured in an upcoming cliffhanger. And it is.
And then there’s a strange poison called curava. Before it kills its victim, it drives him insane with the desire to kill and destroy. And there’s the blind organ grinder who carries around a portable two-way radio inside his hand organ. And the electric eye that sets off an explosive charge. And then there’s the dimensional magnet. I’m not sure what it is, but we’re told that is has been completed, and that certainly sounds ominous. Yes, this serial certainly had its share of technical wonders.
The cliffhangers
Now let’s talk about the cliffhangers and their resolutions. There are the usual quota of “he jumps out of the way in time” resolutions. But even those are pretty inventive. Like when the rocket-booster sled ignites and crashes through the roof and explodes in mid-air. That’s a cliffhanger ending that I don’t think I’ve seen recycled in any later Republic serial.
At the end of chapter two, Craig is fighting on a ladder suspended horizontally high above the street, between two buildings. The Purple Monster, safely through the office-building window, pushes his end of the ladder off the window sill. The ladder and Craig Foster drop to certain doom. I liked that one, especially. Of course, the certain doom was anything but. I still liked it, though.
Some of the cliffhangers were originated in this chapter play, and then reused in later serials. One in particular that I noticed was where the car containing Craig and Sheila crashes into a truck containing jet fuel that’s rolling back down the hill. This was used in Daughter of Don Q only a year later.
What’s supposed to happen is that the car crashes into the truck, and there’s a terrific explosion. But what actually happens is that both explode a bit before the crash. The car is at least six feet from the truck when both explode into flames. It’s obvious even without the assistance of slow motion or still frame. One of those Lydecker brothers must have jumped the gun when filming this model scene.
One of my favorite chapter endings is where Craig is trapped in a phone booth. The wall is moving inward, relentlessly pushing him toward a metal wall covered with sharp spikes. That happens at the end of chapter 10, which was also the economy chapter. Perhaps they decided to use this really excellent cliffhanger to compensate for the somewhat lame chapter. An excellent cliffhanger! But a cheezy resolution, which I won’t detail here.
Marcia, Marcia, Marcia…
Chapter 11 introduces a new character, Marcia, the Purple Monster’s assistant from Mars. Feeling he needs more help that he can get from the puny Earthlings, the Purple Monster contacts the Emperor of Mars and requests that his assistant be sent to Earth.
This gives us a chance to see those terrific film clips where a rocket ship flies through space and crash lands on Earth. It’s the same footage as in the opening of chapter one, but I’m sure young boys in the movie matinees didn’t object; after all it had been nearly three months since they saw that footage. And it looks really great!
Marcia’s job on Earth is to take control of the body of a secretary. She’s secretary to a scientist who has invented an atmospheric stabilizer. She is to learn the secrets of its construction for the Purple Monster.
When the scientist demonstrates a new disintegration device, you just know it’s another cliffhanger in the making. There are these two glowing panels six feet apart, you see. And anything that passes between the two panels is immediately disintegrated in a puff of smoke. Anything. Like a human being, for example. And sure enough, as we near the end of chapter 11, Craig gets in a fist fight in the lab. The disintegration panels are activated. And Craig is forced into the deadly field.
Chapter 12 has an interesting cliffhanger. It’s not often we get to see two females fighting in a serial. Occasionally we see our female heroine fighting against a female antagonist in the background, while the men battle on in the foreground. But at the end of chapter 12, we see Sheila fighting Marcia alone. Just the two of them on the top of a high cliff. And as the two wrestle together, they both fall off. The resolution at the beginning of chapter 13 is quite satisfactory, as well. I won’t spoil it for you, but I’ll just say there is no cheat. It’s a good resolution.
It takes the good guys until chapter 12 to figure out that something strange is going on here. Until then, Craig and Sheila figure they are battling against gangsters who are out to get the secrets of Dr. Layton. But finally in chapter 12, Sheila sees the Martian assistant Marcia leave the body of the secretary. She realizes that there’s something funny going on here…
Putting two and two together
And finally in chapter 14, they put two and two together and figure that they are fighting some sinister menace from Mars. But that’s only because of a medallion dropped by Marcia; a medallion made of metalarium. (Who makes up these names?) Since this element is only found on Mars, and it is found to be impregnated with carbo-oxide gas, also found on Mars, well… Gosh, maybe we’re fighting some invasion force from Mars. Ya think?
Chapter 15 is the final chapter, and it really delivers the goods. For 15 weeks, youngsters had been paying their dimes in order to see what happens next. And the final payoff is really worth it. We get to see the completed space ship… er… I mean jet plane. I keep forgetting. The Purple Monster jumps into the jet plane and takes off. It spits smoke and fire as it races towards the stratosphere, only to be blown out of the sky by Craig Foster using the electro-annihilator.
I can imagine the adolescents rising in their theater seats cheering as the Purple Monster meets his due justice. The world was once again safe from domination by the powers of evil, whether they be Nazis in the real-life war or Martians in the theatrical serial.
Republic could have cheaped out on the final chapter. There was no need to entice kids back for another chapter. They had wrung all the dimes out of the kids that they could. So they could have easily resolved the entire storyline without resorting to special effects shots. But they didn’t. They resisted the temptation to take the easy way out, and gave this serial a really classy ending. And that’s one of the things that makes this serial so memorable. You always remember when the Purple Monster tried to make his escape, only to meet his final doom. Republic, I’m proud of you!
Yet unresolved
The only thing left unresolved, is the dead body of Dr. Layton. After the Purple Monster abandons it in chapter 15 to plot his escape from Earth, nothing more is said about it. He left the corpse sitting in the office chair, yet neither Sheila or Craig seem to see it when they later enter the office. I guess that will just have to be one little mystery that’s never satisfactorily resolved. But considering how much I enjoyed this serial, I guess I can forgive that one little detail.
It’s a fun Republic serial. While it never actually takes us to outer space, it still has that great sci-fi feel to it. I remember seeing it years ago; watching it again was a real treat. One that I can recommend.
I’ve only seen the feature version of this serial. They called it “D-Day On Mars,” go figure…
About 1952 Roy Barcroft, who played the Purple Monster, was cast as Rettig, Ruler of the Moon, in “Radar Men From The Moon.” He wore ceremonial robes as he communicated with Crog, his point man on Earth and when Commando Cody dropped in.
Then Crog got killed. Rettig told the Earth traitor henchmen that he’d come down to Earth to take command. For the trip to Earth Barcroft, who’d put on a bit of weight, stuffed himself back into the Purple Monster suit. That was because Republic lifted the entire ending of Purple Monster, to include a slimmer Barcroft running thru tunnels to get to his ship, so that Commando Cody could take credit for blowing Rettig up without the cost of any new footage other than the raygun going off.
I’ve always loved Republic Serials…
Republic Pictures… heavy on action, light on plot. And they became masters at reusing previously shot footage. Gotta love the Republic serials!
“The Purple Monster” was one of Republic’s last truly memorable serials, with many original shots and concepts, especially for 1945. “Marcia” was the first female alien to appear on the big screen since the women of Mongo and Mars in the Flash Gordon serials of 1936-38-40.
“The Purple Monster” was surprisingly grim and violent for a serial of its era, although there were no references to World War II. This was probably because Republic almost surely sensed the opportunity to re-release this serial, although I’m not sure if it was ever re-released in its original serial format.
Although I got in on the tail end of serials in theaters in the mid-1950s, and watched many serial chapters on TV in the 1950s and 1960s, I never knew much about this serial until the condensed 100-minute “D-Day on Mars” (1966) feature version was shown in my area of the West Coast in 1969. I watched it in fascination with a friend. She pointed out how dated this serial seemed (in sharp contrast to most of Republic’s adventure and western serials), even though “The Purple Monster” was one of Republic’s best in many ways. I guess science-fiction does date faster than any other genre.
I think the space ship was called a “jet plane” because our military’s mid-1940s conception of jets was far more often in the news than anything to do with space travel. When Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in 1947, that was incredible scientific news.
I recall the first time I flew in a passenger jet, in 1959, the blast up into the stratosphere, following the takeoff felt much like I had imagined a space ship would feel. I’ve never forgotten that feel; I was 11 years old, and that jet’s takeoff was the most original feeling I had ever encountered up to that time.
Thanks for a fun review!!
According to Wikipedia (do we trust what we read on Wikipedia?) “The Purple Monster Strikes” was re-released to theaters in its original 15-chapter format on March 25, 1957. That would have put me at eight years old, at the time. But somehow I missed it. What an idiot I was!
The hypothetical question is sometimes posed: if you had your life to live over again, what would you do differently? Surprisingly, I find I can truthfully answer, “very little.” But this would be one. To see “The Purple Monster Strikes Back” on the giant theatrical screen at the age of eight… that would be awesome!
Hillsboro, Oregon had two theaters, the Hill and the Town. If memory serves, the Hill was the one that showed double-features… good old B-films and serials. That’s where Purple Monster must have been shown.