The Green Hornet (serial)


The Green Hornet is a 1940 black-and-white 13 chapter movie serial from Universal Pictures, produced by Henry MacRae, directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor, starring Gordon Jones, Wade Boteler, Keye Luke, and Anne Nagel. The serial is based on The Green Hornet radio series by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker.

Synopsis

Britt Reid, publisher of The Sentinel newspaper, is secretly the vigilante crime fighter the Green Hornet. He and his Korean valet Kato investigate and expose several seemingly separate criminal rackets. This leads them into continued conflict with "the Chief," the mastermind behind the criminal syndicate controlling those rackets.

Cast

Source:
  1. The Tunnel of Terror
  2. The Thundering Terror
  3. Flying Coffins
  4. Pillar of Flame
  5. The Time Bomb
  6. Highways of Peril
  7. Bridge of Disaster
  8. Dead or alive
  9. The Hornet Trapped
  10. Bullets and Ballots
  11. Disaster Rides the Rails
  12. Panic in the Zoo
  13. Doom of the Underworld

    Alternative versions

In 1990, under the same title, GoodTimes Home Video 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 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.