Masterful Movie

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The cliffhanger to chapter eleven is one of the most unusual and bizarre in the entire history of the movie serial in that it's not resolved. There are no cheats, no last-second surprises. It actually happens just the way you see it. Unlike most serials, the final chapter sees no let-up in chase and fight action. In fact Lydecker does some of his most thrilling work. All told, "Spy Smasher" is a very cleverly made and most attractive serial which belies its rapid shooting time and modest negative cost. Full marks to solo debut director William Witney.This was one of the best of the war-time Republic serials, with some marvelous action scenes, stuntwork and Lydecker explosions, set against striking natural backgrounds. The direction has both style and flair with some fine camera set-ups and visually exciting high angle shots. The plot, too, whilst following a well-worn path, rings some surprising changes on its well-worn theme (people are actually killed and the villains actually succeed in blowing up the munitions plant) and the ingenious device of twin brothers is effectively exploited in impressively realistic special effects. The cast too is a cut above the usual average, with a fine performance by Kane Richmond in his dual role.Production values are also first-class. Most of the film was made on location, with many changes of scene and an unusual number of interior sets.The Director: William Witney is one of the kings of both the serial and "B" western. He regards his best film as Stranger at My Door (1956). Of his 88 other features and serials, the most famous are Bells of San Angelo (1947) starring Roy Rogers, Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) starring Tom Tyler, Jungle Girl (1941) starring Frances Gifford, and Perils of Nyoka (1942) starring Kay Aldridge.

One reviewer, who clearly didn't pay much attention to the serial, says that Spy Smasher falls off a building and dies...then in the last chapter DOESN'T die. Well, that's plain silly. If anyone just watches the movie (I mean, you don't even have to pay super-close attention), you will see that it is Spy Smasher's twin brother Jack, who has donned the costume, gets shot and falls off the building. He does indeed die! But he isn't Spy Smasher! His brother Alan is...and has been the entire serial. His twin brother is no last chapter reveal...he's there from Chapter One. Wake up before you write a review...or at least watch the movie.

This movie earns its 3 for lousy writing, poor technical merit and continuity problems. Some people have given this movie a 10--and perhaps that is okay if you are simply scoring it for its fun factor. However, technically this is an inept movie serial from start to finish--produced by 3rd-rate writers, actors and crew. That really was true of nearly all the serials because they were meant as low-brow entertainment particularly aimed at the kids. And there's nothing wrong with that, but "high art" it ain't!! Spy Smasher earns a lower than average score compared to other serials because it is of even lower quality and has MAJOR continuity problems--even for a serial. It was common for a serial to have a "cliff hanger"--i.e., a moment at the end of the episode that looked as if the good guy dies but miraculously survives when the next episode began. BUT, in this film, it's much hokier and ridiculous. You would literally SEE the hero die in the last episode, but in the next, they re-shot the scene and showed he actually DIDN'T die (even though they clearly showed him buy the farm in the last one)! Again and again in SPY SMASHER he seems to die but in the next episode they show it from a different angle and he somehow avoided death--even if he fell 1500 feet into a river, fell into a buzz saw or whatever.Watch this movie not for its quality but either for a good laugh or to learn what it was like to go to the movies on Saturday mornings decades ago.By the way, a heavily edited version of this film was released in 1966 as a full-length film. Almost 2/3 of the original film was tossed but the new product did make more sense and lacked the impossible escapes that made the original laughable at times. Well worth seeing if you don't want to devote 3 1/2 hours to seeing the entire serial.

Possible spoilers.One of the best serials of the 1940s, Spy Smasher combines action and clever cliffhangers with a superb double role for its star, Kane Richmond, as well as an enjoyable cast. Richmond stars as twin brothers Alan and Jack Armstrong during the period just before and immediately into US involvement in the Second World War. Jack is fiancé to Eve Corby, the daughter of the recently-appointed director of foreign intelligence, Admiral Corby. Alan is a former news writer who faked his death in France during the Nazi conquest in order to begin building a network within the Resistance that will help him fight the Nazis on their own ground.Now, however, he must fight them in the US, as a Nazi intelligence officer, known as the Mask for his use of a mask when communicating with collaborators in the US, has hatched a scheme to flood counterfeit money into the US, the first of a series of sabotage efforts that bring out the intervention of Spy Smasher and Jack in a series of encounters with the Mask's henchmen.The running battle with the Mask's men, however, leads to tragedy, as Eve is kidnapped and an attempt at rescue proves fatal, leading to Eve's discovery of Spy Smasher's identity and eventually to a final showdown with the Mask amid a Nazi submarine attack on a US industrial base.