''The Green Hornet'' is a 1940

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

13-chapter

movie serial A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

from

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

, produced by

Henry MacRae Henry Alexander MacRae (August 29, 1876 – October 2, 1944) was a Canadians, Canadian film director, film producer, producer, and screenwriter during the silent film, silent era, working on many film Serial (film), serials for Universal Studios. ...

, directed by

Ford Beebe Ford Beebe (November 26, 1888 – November 26, 1978) was a screenwriter and Film director, director. He entered the film business as a writer around 1916 and over the next 60 years wrote and/or directed almost 200 films. He specialized in B-movi ...

and Ray Taylor, starring Gordon Jones,

Wade Boteler Wade Boteler (October 3, 1888 – May 7, 1943) was an American film actor and writer. He appeared in more than 430 films between 1919 and 1943. Biography He was born in Santa Ana, California, and died in Hollywood, California, from a heart ...

Keye Luke Keye Luke (, Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Cant ...

, and

Anne Nagel Anne Nagel (born Anna Marie Dolan; September 29, 1915 – July 6, 1966) was an American actress. She played in adventures, mysteries, and comedies for 25 years. She also appeared in television series in the 1950s. One book described her as "one ...

. The serial is based on ''

The Green Hornet The Green Hornet is a superhero created in 1936 by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell. Since his 1930s radio debut, the character has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media ...

'' radio series by

George W. Trendle George Washington Trendle (July 4, 1884 – May 10, 1972) was an American lawyer and businessman best known as the producer of the ''Lone Ranger'' radio and television programs along with ''The Green Hornet'' and '' Sergeant Preston of the Yukon'' ...

and

Fran Striker Francis Hamilton "Fran" Striker (August 19, 1903 – September 4, 1962) was an American writer for radio and comics, best known for creating the characters the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. Early life Born in ...

Synopsis

Britt Reid, the new publisher of ''The Sentinel'' newspaper, secretly becomes the vigilante crime fighter The Green Hornet. Backing him up is his Korean valet and inventor Kato. Together, they investigate and expose several separate underworld rackets. During the course of 15 serial chapters, these high-profile events lead the Hornet and Kato into continued conflict with the henchmen of "The Chief", the hidden mastermind behind a 12-person criminal syndicate controlling those rackets.

Cast

* Gordon Jones as Britt Reid and

Al Hodge Albert E. Hodge (April 18, 1912 – March 19, 1979) was an American actor best known for playing space adventurer Captain Video on the DuMont Television Network from December 15, 1950, to April 1, 1955. He played the Green Hornet on radio f ...

as the (uncredited) voice of the Green Hornet *

as Michael Axford *

as Kato. Kato is

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

in the serial rather than being the original

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

character of the radio series, due to rising anti-Japanese sentiment around the world. This was two years prior to Japan's December 7, 1941 attack on

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

and the United States' entry into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The radio show dropped Kato's nationality from the introductory sequence, included passing references in dialogue to his character being

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

, and years later, after the war, returned to the standard show introduction. *

as Leonore Case *

Phillip Trent Phillip Trent (October 16, 1907, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – January 24, 2001, Englewood, New Jersey) was an American stage and film actor. He began his career on Broadway and starred in nine stage productions. He appeared in numerous films dur ...

as Jasper Jenks *

Cy Kendall Cyrus Willard Kendall (March 10, 1898 – July 22, 1953) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1935 and 1950. Kendall's heavy-set, square-jawed appearance and deep voice were perfect for wiseguy roles such ...

as Curtis Monroe aka 'The Chief' *

Stanley Andrews Stanley Andrews (born Stanley Martin Andrzejewski; August 28, 1891 – June 23, 1969) was an American actor perhaps best known as the voice of Daddy Warbucks on the radio program ''Little Orphan Annie'' and later as "The Old Ranger", the first ...

as Police Commissioner hs.1,5,8,9,13*

Selmer Jackson Selmer Adolf Jackson (May 7, 1888 – March 30, 1971) was an American stage film and television actor. He appeared in nearly 400 films between 1921 and 1963. His name was sometimes spelled Selmar Jackson. Jackson was born in Lake Mills, Iowa an ...

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

hs.4,10*

Joseph Crehan Joseph A. Creaghan (July 15, 1883 – April 15, 1966) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 300 films between 1916 and 1965, and notably played Ulysses S. Grant nine times between 1939 and 1958, most memorably in ''Union Paci ...

as Judge Stanton hs.1,9,10,13*

Walter McGrail Walter B. McGrail (October 19, 1888 – March 19, 1970) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1916 and 1951. Besides feature films, he appeared in ''The Scarlet Runner'', a 12-chapter serial. McGrail was born in ...

as Dean * Gene Rizzi as Corey * John Kelly as Pete Hawks * Eddie Dunn as D.H. Sligby h.7*

Edward Earle Edward Earle (16 July 1882 – 15 December 1972) was a Canadian-American stage, film and television actor. In a career which lasted from the 1910s to 1966, he appeared in almost 400 films between 1914 and 1956. He was born in Toronto and died ...

as Felix Grant

h.1 H1, H-1, H01, H I may refer to: Places *Interstate H-1, a highway in Hawaii * Area H1, the area of Hebron controlled by the Palestinian Authority under the Hebron Protocol Science * H1 (particle detector) * Histamine H1 receptor * Histone H1, ...

Ben Taggart Ben Taggart (April 5, 1889 – May 17, 1947) was an American actor. Taggart's stage experience began in Seattle, and he went on to play leading roles in Washington, Portland, San Francisco, Trenton, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia. He was described ...

as Phil Bartlett hs.3-4* Clyde Dilson as Meadows h.5* Jerry Marlowe as Bob Stafford hs.7,11* Frederick Vogeding as Max Gregory

h.11 H11, H-11 or H 11 may refer to : * H-11 (Michigan county highway) * British NVC community H11, a type of heath community in the British National Vegetation Classification * Heathkit H-11, a microcomputer * , a Royal Navy B-class destroyer * , a ...

(as ''Fredrik'' Vogeding) *

Raymond Bailey Raymond Thomas Bailey (May 6, 1904 – April 15, 1980) was an American actor, and comedian on the Broadway stage, films, and television. He is best known for his role as greedy banker Milburn Drysdale in the television series ''The Beverly Hill ...

as Mr. West

Chapter titles

Source: # The Tunnel of Terror # The Thundering Terror # Flying Coffins # Pillar of Flame # The Time Bomb # Highways of Peril # Bridge of Disaster # Dead or alive # The Hornet Trapped # Bullets and Ballots # Disaster Rides the Rails # Panic in the Zoo # Doom of the Underworld

Alternative versions

In 1990, under the same title,

GoodTimes Home Video GoodTimes Entertainment, Ltd. was an American home video company that originated in 1984 under the name of GoodTimes Home Video. Though it produced its own titles, the company was well known due to its distribution of media from third parties and ...

released a feature-length version of the serial on VHS tape, re-edited from the footage in the last six chapters. Under the title ''The Green Hornet: Movie Edition'', VCI Entertainment released its version of the serial on DVD, January 11, 2011, which includes the first and last chapter and selected other chapters.

Influence

The 1960s ''Batman'' television series was created because of the popularity of a re-release of Columbia's ''

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

'' serial. The success of both led to the production of a ''Green Hornet'' TV series, which was played as a straight action crime series, "in the tradition of its former presentations", rather than the campy ''Batman'' series. It was cancelled after only one season.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Green Hornet, The 1940 films American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films Films based on radio series Universal Pictures film serials Films directed by Ford Beebe Films directed by Ray Taylor The Green Hornet films American action films 1940s action films Films with screenplays by George H. Plympton 1940s American films