C. MONTAGUE SHAW
March 23rd, 1882 -- February 6th, 1968

Above: A typically distinguished-looking publicity portrait of C. Montague Shaw.

Tall and broad-shouldered, with a high forehead and firm jaw, C. Montague Shaw looked so scholarly and distinguished that cliffhanger directors invariably cast him as scientists, statesmen, or other highly dignified personages. Even when he was a villain, he was a villain of social stature and cultured bearing--for instance, a greedy, powerful industrialist or a corrupt medical man. Due to Shaw's imposing presence, he was almost always showcased to a certain degree in his serials, whether his part was a major supporting one or a "guest appearance." The producers realized that they really had something in the person of the classically trained Shakespearean actor, and they made sure that the audiences got their money's worth out of him. And Shaw, being the thoroughgoing trouper that he was, was happy to oblige.

Charles Montague Shaw was born in Adelaide, Australia. After graduating from Prince Alfred College, he threw in with a theatrical company touring the Land Down Under. The company eventually made its way to England, where Shaw performed upon the London stage and gained considerable attention. His crisp, precise voice landed him a job as a phonetics instructor in a government school in South Africa; after holding this post for a while, he took similar jobs in Toronto, Canada and, finally, Boston. Once Montague was in the US, it was only one small step from Boston to Broadway, and another short step from Broadway to Hollywood, in 1926. Shaw's voice again stood him in good stead as talkies replaced the silents; he made the transition without a hitch, and began a career as an elocution teacher into the bargain. This job kept him too busy to get many major roles through the early thirties, but even the bit roles that he played in films like THE MUMMY, PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES, and TALE OF TWO CITIES benefited from his polished bearing and assured voice.

Above: C. Montague Shaw sneaks up on Ray Corrigan in this scene from UNDERSEA KINGDOM (Republic, 1936), Shaw's first serial.

But, in 1936, Montague became a major player to one sector of the American public: the serial audiences. UNDERSEA KINGDOM (Republic, 1936) was the second serial released by Republic, and a rather blatant attempt to capitalize on the success of Universal's FLASH GORDON, released the same year. Republic stuntman Ray Benard was rechristened "Crash Corrigan", to mimic the sound of Flash Gordon's name, and Monte Blue was signed to play Unga Khan, an evil warlord imitative of Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon. The big difference in the two serials was the setting; UNDERSEA KINGDOM took place in the submerged realm of Atlantis, where Crash, scientist Professor Norton (Shaw), and reporter Diana (Lois Wilde) ventured via submarine to seek the source of mysterious "sea-quakes" disturbing the shipping lanes. Together with Norton's son Billy (Lee Van Atta) they discovered that Khan, the evil ruler of Atlantis, was bent on conquering the surface world, despite the oppposition of the benevolent High Priest Sharad (William Farnum). Norton was captured by Khan's Volkites (robots) and placed in the despot's mind control cabinet. The wise and kindly scientist was then transformed into a minion of Unga Khan's, and remained so until the end of the serial, when Crash rescued him and restored his mind. UNDERSEA KINGDOM was a rich but somewhat confused medley of many elements. Corrigan, later a top cowboy hero, and Blue, a veteran silent star, were both reliable performers but seemed out of their league in their respective parts, and Montague Shaw as Norton nearly stole the serial from them both. Shaw was upright and intelligent as the un-transformed Norton, but when zombie-fied by Blue's machine, he became a sneaky, crazed lackey, causing endless trouble for the unwitting Corrigan when he tried to rescue him and doing his best to aid Unga Khan in his conquest of the "surface world." UNDERSEA KINGDOM clearly showed that it was no lack of talent that had caused Montague to play bit roles in films up to now.

Above: Lon Chaney Jr. gets a half-nelson on Ray "Crash" Corrigan as a gleeful C. Montague Shaw prepares to sock our hero with a crowbar in UNDERSEA KINGDOM (Republic, 1936).

ACE DRUMMOND (Universal, 1936) gave Shaw a less flamboyant (but still pivotal) role as Professor Trainor, father of heroine Peggy Trainor (Jean Rogers). Trainor was an archeologist who discovered a priceless mountain of jade while exploring in Mongolia. Following his discovery, he was kidnapped by the mysterious Dragon, who tried to force the scientist to reveal the mountain's location. Ace Drummond (John King), agent for International Airways, was already in Mongolia investigating a rash of airplane sabotage (also instigated by the Dragon) came to Peggy Trainor's aide and helped her rescue her father from the mystery villain's clutches, while cracking the sabotage case as well. This time, Shaw had more competition from the other cast members, but he still stood out in his characterization of the dedicated Trainor, cleverly managing to outsmart his captors more than once.

Above: John King (far left) and Noah Beery Jr. grab Chester Gan as he emerges from a trap door, while C. Montague Shaw (seated), Jean Rogers, Arthur Loft, and Guy Bates Post watch in ACE DRUMMOND (Universal, 1936).

Shaw now settled down into a steady trend: small parts in big pictures, and big parts in serials. (SPOILERS AHEAD) While he continued to play ministers, judges, and even presidents in features, he now did his first cliffhanger villain role (though his role in UNDERSEA KINGDOM had actually been more bad guy than good guy) in the serial RADIO PATROL (Universal, 1937). He was Mr. Wellington, a wealthy, distinguished, and seemingly irreproachable tycoon--but turned out in the end to be the man behind all the villains' attempts to steal a "flexible steel" formula. Shaw actually outwitted and outlasted all the other heavies (Frank Lackteen, Richard Botiller, Gordon Hart) and even Withers (along with the audience) didn't learn until the final chapter that Shaw was working against the forces of good, and was in fact the killer of young Mickey Rentschler's father and the heroine's (Kay Hughes) brother.

Above: C. Montague Shaw, Grant Withers, and Mickey Rentschler in RADIO PATROL (Universal, 1937).

FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (Universal, 1938) featured Montague in his most bizarre part: that of the Clay King. The Clay People were a group of exiled Martians who had been transformed into clay by the Martian queen, Azura, and banished to the Clay Caverns. When Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe) and his friends arrived on Mars to stop Azura and Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton) from conquering the Earth, the Clay King took the hero and his group, thinking them allies of Azura, but learning differently, asked that Flash kidnap Azura and force her to restore the Clay People to their proper shapes. The King kept Flash's girl Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) and reporter Happy (Donald Kerr) as hostages while Flash and Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon) attempted to break into Azura's palace. Due to a mistaken report that Flash had betrayed them and allied with Azura, the Clay King nearly caused the deaths of Dale and Happy by exposing them to an attack by Azura’s bombing squadron, but learned of his error and subsequently came to trust Flash completely when the heroic Earthman saved him from two of Azura’s men. So covered with makeup as to be completely unrecognizable (he did get to appear in his own person towards the end, when the curse of the Clay People was finally lifted) Shaw managed to make the character of the Clay King both sympathetic and eerie, giving the character an aura of noble long-suffering that occasionally gave way to fits of frustration or despair.

Above: C. Montague Shaw (seated) as the Clay King in FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (Universal, 1938). His prisoners are, from left to right, Donald Kerr, Jean Rogers, Buster Crabbe, Frank Shannon, and Richard Alexander.

BUCK ROGERS (Universal, 1939), also starring Buster Crabbe, featured Shaw as Dr. Huer, scientific ally of Buck (Crabbe) and the Hidden City Exiles. The Exiles, a group of heroic Earth people in the 24th century, were pledged to defeat the tyrannical Killer Kane (Anthony Warde) who had made himself ruler of their planet. Shaw seldom left his laboratory, but he provided many handy gadgets for Buck, Buddy (Jackie Moran) and Wilma Deering (Constance Moore), including a teleportation machine, a degravity belt and an invisibility ray. Shaw's letter-perfect delivery enabled him to explain all of these fantastic gimmicks with complete seriousness, something essential to the spirit of any sci-fi serial.

Above: C. Montague Shaw (far left) demonstrates a new weapon for Phillip Ahn, an unidentified player, Buster Crabbe, and Constance Moore in BUCK ROGERS (Universal, 1939).

DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (Republic, 1939), Shaw's first Republic serial since UNDERSEA KINGDOM, cast him as Dr. Malcolm, an authoritative--but crooked--physician. Malcolm had been medical adviser to millionaire Horace Granville (Miles Mander), but threw in with Granville's bitter enemy Harry Crowel (Charles Middleton) in a plot to destroy the millionaire's businesses and ultimately his life. Granville was imprisoned in the basement of his own house, while Crowel disguised as him and directed his offensive against the Granville empire. When Crowel set fire to Granville's amusement pier, Sammy Townley (Robert Winkler), brother of acrobat Gene Townley (Charles Quigley) was killed. This led Gene and his pals Burt and Tiny (Dave Sharpe and Herman Brix) to ally themselves with Granville's granddaughter Blanche (Carole Landis) and--as they thought--Granville in an attempt to track down Crowel. Eventually, the villain's masquerade was exposed and he attempted to flee with the treacherous Malcolm, after booby-trapping Blanche's car in case of pursuit. Blanche and Tiny pursued the villains in the roadster, unaware that a bomb was set to go off when their car's speedometer hit seventy. Before this could happen, however, Crowel and Malcolm were overtaken by Gene and Burt, who had borrowed a police car. During a fight, Crowel was knocked out, and Malcolm, carrying his evil boss, managed to elude the Daredevils and Blanche and make off with the roadster. Malcolm knew nothing of Crowel's booby-trap, and Middleton awoke just in time to see the frantic Shaw drive the car past seventy, with the result being one big BOOM!

Above: C. Montague Shaw (far left) confers with Miles Mander (seated) and Ray Miller in DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (Republic, 1939).

Above: C. Montague Shaw lugs Charles Middleton to a car that (unbeknownst to Shaw) has been rigged up with a deadly bomb in DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (Republic, 1939).

As shifty as Malcolm was, the most villainous of all Shaw's heavy parts came in ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION (Republic, 1939). One of the most respected of all Republic serials, ZORRO starred Reed Hadley as the masked avenger and his foppish alter ego Don Diego Vega. Zorro found his hands full combating the treachery of one Don Del Oro, a mysterious Yaqui Indian idol come to life. Don Del Oro (voiced by Billy Bletcher) was inciting the Yaquis to plunder Mexican gold shipments, with the ultimate goal of making himself Emperor of Mexico; he was aided by four treacherous members of the Province Council of San Mendolito: Leander De Cordova, Edmund Cobb, John Merton, and Montague Shaw. One of these traitors was secretly the man behind Don Del Oro's mask--but which one? (SPOILERS AHEAD) Merton was eliminated when an Indian arrow killed him just as he was about to name Don Del Oro's identity for Zorro, and in the last chapter, two of the other suspects were killed by the "idol" in his shadowy throne chamber. Then Don Del Oro, feeling himself triumphant, took his seat on his throne and commanded the execution of Yaqui prince Kala (Paul Marion), who had tried to turn his people against the false god. Zorro arrived in the nick of time, and unmasked Don Del Oro, who proved to be--Shaw! The enraged Yaquis closed in on Montague, who backed away until he toppled into the fiery pit he had eliminated so many of his own enemies in.

Above: C. Montague Shaw as Pablo in ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION (Republic, 1939).

Above, from left to right: Two unidentified players, Edmund Cobb, Leander De Cordova, John Merton, and C. Montague Shaw inspect a message in ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION (Republic, 1939).

THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN (Universal, 1940) gave Montague an unaccountably small role as a crooked scientist involved in the theft of aircraft technology. After being intimidated into a confession by the Hornet (Warren Hull) he was downed by a shot from the masked man's gas gun and out of the picture. On the other hand, MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN gave him one of his biggest serial parts: as scientist Thomas Scott, Shaw took an active part in combating the schemes of the evil Dr. Satan (Eduardo Cianelli). Satan wanted Scott's revolutionary remote control cell--at any cost--and kidnapped the professor to get it. Scott, through a clever ruse, helped the masked hero, the Copperhead (Robert Wilcox) to locate him. However, the wily Dr. Satan managed to make off with Scott while his deadly robot attacked the Copperhead. Cianelli then drugged Shaw to force him to install the control cell in the robot--with the ultimate goal of creating an army of robots for world conquest. The Copperhead managed to rescue Scott in the final chapter, and the two of them stormed Satan's headquarters to rescue Scott's daughter Lois (Ella Neal) and reporter Speed Martin (William Newell) from the killer robot. The Copperhead slugged Satan in the hallway and put his mask on him, then concealed himself as two of the mad doctor's men arrived. Scott pretended to be still under the influence of Dr. Satan's drug, and pretended to the henchmen that he had knocked out the Copperhead. The gleeful henchman immediately placed their unconscious boss in the room where the good guys were awaiting death at the hands of the robot. Scott and the Copperhead then proceeded to the control room and subdued Satan's thugs in a mammoth fistfight--but not before the robot, his master in his clutch, had careened through a window to the rocks for below. Shaw's part in DR. SATAN allowed him to be heroic, upright, and crafty by turns, and provided him with what was arguably his best serial showcase.

Above: C. Montague Shaw (far right) watches as the henchmen of MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN (Republic, 1940) commandeer his salvage ship. William Newell is second from left, Yakima Canutt is third from left, and the henchmen are Bud Geary, Lynton Brent, Ken Terrell, and Joe McGuinn.

Montague made his first serial for Columbia, HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE, in 1941. His part was minor but important: he was police chief John Malloy, who enlisted the aid of federal agent Jack Holt to smash a ring of ruthless counterfeiters. Shaw played a similar role in PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (Columbia, 1942) as RCMP Commissioner Phillips, commanding officer of hero Sergeant MacLane (Robert Kellard). In between these two Columbia cliffhangers, he did another Republic, DICK TRACY VS. CRIME INC., in 1941. His part in this was a "guest appearance" so to speak; he played a scientist who had discovered a potentially dangerous earth fault under New York Harbor. The Ghost, an insane, revenge-seeking mystery villain, kidnapped Shaw and forced him (via the painful treatment of bamboo under the fingernails) to reveal the fault's location. Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) rescued Shaw, who explained that the Ghost planned to bomb the fault and flood New York; Tracy then managed to head off this plan in time to save most of the city. Montague's final serial role, in G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON (Republic, 1943), was very like his part in DICK TRACY, only this time he was less fortunate. As a scientist named Nicholson, he was kidnapped by the Japanese spy Haruchi, who tried to force him to reveal American defense secrets. After being rubber-hosed and nearly strangled by Haruchi's henchmen, Nicholson pretended to acquiesce, but secretly got a message to G-man Rex Bennett (Rod Cameron) before being moved to another hideout. En route, he escaped from the car and made a break for it, but was shot down by Haruchi's lieutenant Lugo (George J. Lewis). However, the message he left proved of vital help to Bennett in tracking down the murderous saboteurs.

After G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON, Shaw only made about a dozen more film appearances, none of that that large, but all of them noticeable by virtue of his solid presence. He retired in the late forties, his last movie being THE PILGRIMAGE PLAY in 1949. In his last years, he was admitted to the Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills, where he died in 1968.

C. Montague Shaw is probably my personal favorite among all the "distinguished professor" actors in serials. He was nearly always the soul of integrity in his serials, and even when he wasn't, you could easily see why the good guys never got around to suspecting him until it was almost too late. Shaw's abilities, honed on the stages of Australia and England, found their perfect outlet in cliffhangers. The talents Montague had mastered for the stage--poise, power to work under tight deadlines, and the power of projecting--were also the talents that took him so far in serials. But even without stage training, he still would have become one of the cliffhanger genre's leading character actors--he was a born thespian.

Above: C. Montague Shaw typically takes center stage as he demonstrates his remote control device in MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN (Republic, 1940). From left to right: Robert Wilcox, William Newell (behind Wilcox), Dorothy Herbert, Edwin Stanley, Shaw, and Ella Neal.