EDUARDO CIANELLI
August 30th, 1889 -- October 8th, 1969

Above: The menacing Eduardo Cianelli, in his first serial, MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN (Republic, 1940), in which he (naturally) played the title role.

Of all the great cliffhanger villains, perhaps the most menacing, bar none, was Eduardo Cianelli. His grim, hard features, his deep-set, fiery eyes, his cruel, devilish smile, and his low, silky, slightly accented voice were enough to give any kid--or grownup--nightmares for a while. His talent for being menacing was used to good advantage in a great many major movies; his terrific performance as the demonic Thug leader in the all-time classic GUNGA DIN made a vivid impression on me as a youngster, and I still get a slight case of shivers when watching Cianelli in that film. He also brought his finely-honed talents to three serials, and each time created a memorable and creepy villain.

Born in Ischia, Italy, Cianelli graduated from the University of Naples with a doctor's degree, but he found his career in grand opera instead of in medicine. After gaining much success in his native country, Eduardo came to America in the early nineteen-twenties, and expanded his acting repertoire to included straight stage performing as well as opera singing. He gained acclaim for his performances in the Broadway versions of REUNION IN VIENNA and WINTERSET, and recreated his Broadway parts in the screen versions of those plays. These two movies were his first exposure to American film; from then on, he would appear in many more memorable Hollywood pictures. He already had successes in films like FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, SUPER SLEUTH, BULLDOG DRUMMOND'S BRIDE, and the already-mentioned GUNGA DIN to his credit by 1940, the year he accepted his first serial role in Republic's MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN. Cianelli was top-billed in the title role of Dr. Satan, a ruthless master scientist and master criminal who had dreams of conquering the world with an army of robots. When Governor Bronson (Charles Trowbridge) attempted to interfere in Satan's scheme, the doctor had him murdered without a moment's compunction. This act proved Cianelli's undoing, however, as Bob Wayne (Robert Wilcox), Bronson's adopted son, vowed to bring Dr. Satan to justice, and, disguised as the masked hero, the Copperhead, thwarted Satan's plan to steal a remote control cell from Professor Scott (C. Montague Shaw), which would enable the mad scientist to control his robots over a long distance. In the final chapter, Wayne turned the tables on the Doctor just as it seemed the villain had triumphed, and Cianelli met his death at the hands of his own robot. Cianelli's portrayal was so frightening, so purely evil, that one's apprehensions were raised the moment he entered a room. And yet, Eduardo gave Dr. Satan an air of real genius, and made you feel that this man had been born with equal propensities for great good or great evil, but had deliberately chosen the latter course. As William C. Cline has observed, the part of Dr. Satan was one that sounds fantastic or exaggerated in the study, but Cianelli made it one hundred percent convincing; the most believable and frightening "mad scientist" performance in any serial, or, indeed, in any movie.

Above: Eduardo Cianelli (center) commands his robot as it attacks the heroic Copperhead (Robert Wilcox) who is attempting to rescue Professor Scott (C. Montague Shaw, far right) in MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN (Republic, 1940).

Above: Cianelli again observes his robot with pride as it immobilizes Lois Scott (Ella Neal) in another scene from MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN (Republic, 1940).

Neither of Eduardo's two subsequent serials gave him a role to match the part of Dr. Satan, but he did a great job in both of them. His next was SKY RAIDERS (Universal, 1941), in which he played Felix Lynx, a sophisticated professional spy of unknown nationality, who was after a new miracle pursuit plane developed for the US Air Force by former flying ace Captain Robert Dayton (Donald Woods). Cianelli had much less screen time in this serial than in DR. SATAN (his female lieutenant Jacqueline Dalya and his henchman Reed Hadley shared equally in the villainy) but he delivered another menacing performance, and, instead of playing a mad scientist, gave a convincing portrayal of a different type of villain this time around--the high-living Continental mastermind--as well as managing to stand out among a very strong cast (Woods, Kathryn Adams, Hadley, Dalya, Billy Halop, and Robert Armstrong).

Above: Eduardo Cianelli confronts Donald Woods (thinking Woods is Woods' villainous double) in SKY RAIDERS (Universal, 1941).

Eduardo's final serial was also a Universal airplane thriller--THE ADVENTURES OF THE FLYING CADETS (Universal, 1943). He played Carl Von Heiger, a Gestapo agent who struck a deal with the treacherous Black Hangman (Robert Armstrong) for valuable helium deposits deep in the African jungle that could aid the Nazi war effort. The titular flying cadets, four young flying students (played by Johnny Downs, Bobby Jordan, Ward Wood, and Billy Benedict) are accused of the murders perpetrated by Armstrong in his quest for the helium formula, and fly to Africa in an effort to clear themselves. They manage to defeat the Hangman and his Nazi allies and rescue Professor Mason (Selmer Jackson) and his daughter (Jennifer Holt), who are being held prisoner in order to conceal the location of the helium cache. Though sharing the villain spotlight with Armstrong, Cianelli once again made his characterization stand out; his foreign accent and hard, merciless face lent themselves perfectly to the part of a Nazi agent. He had already played a similar Nazi character in FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, and he used the same expertise he had shown there to make Von Heiger a formidable figure indeed.

Above: Eduard Cianelli guns down a henchman (Pat Flaherty) who’s developed troublesome scruples in ADVENTURES OF THE FLYING CADETS (Universal, 1943).

Cianelli continued to act in many major films, including KITTY FOYLE, A BELL FOR ADANO, and FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. He even played some sympathetic roles (!), such as the part of Sophia Loren's father in the romantic comedy HOUSEBOAT. He must have returned to Europe some time in the mid sixties, for most of his last movies were filmed there. His last English-language film was THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA in 1969; the same year, he passed away in Rome at the age of eighty.

Eduardo Cianelli, as well as being a terrific villain, gives the lie to the charge that no actor of note ever appeared in a "mere" serial. A great actor by any standard, he wasn't too proud to appear in cliffhangers, and managed to lift those cliffhangers out of the ordinary run by the force of his acting ability, and by his great capacity for being just plain scary!

Above: Cianelli is up to his evil tricks again, as he tries to crush the Copperhead in a room with compressing walls in MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN (Republic, 1940). The resourceful Copperhead is about to send a well-aimed shot into the control mechanism, however, foiling poor Eduardo's scheme once more. Just one of the many hardships of being a serial arch-villain.