JOHN PICORRI
August 4th, 1895 -- July 1st, 1976

Above: John Picorri as the evil witch doctor Porotu in his first serial, ROBINSON CRUSOE OF CLIPPER ISLAND (Republic, 1936).

While some of the serial character actors (Forrest Taylor, Edmund Cobb) played a wide variety of characters over a long period of time, and others (Ernie Adams, Herbert Rawlinson) played basically the same character over a long period of time, there was one great cliffhanger performer who played the same character for a very brief four-year period, and was never heard from again. John Picorri was a specialist in playing demented, completely off-center, and yet very cunning secondary villains. The head villains in Picorri's serials generally depended on him to supply them with the gadgets they used to wreak havoc on society, and tolerated his lunatic tendencies for the sake of his criminal genius. Picorri was fully capable of stepping outside his "crazy" persona, but only once did he get that chance. This typecasting probably was the reason why Picorri's career in serials--and movies--was so short, but he is very well-remembered by serial fans to this day, despite his brief acting tenure. Alan Barbour, William C. Cline--both of these celebrated cliffhanger scholars gave him special mention when discussing serial heavies. Once seen, Mr. Picorri was simply unforgettable.

John was born in England, but unfortunately there is no other biographical information on him available. His film career began in 1935, with an uncredited role in THE MAN WHO BROKE THE BANK AT MONTE CARLO, starring Ronald Colman. None of his subsequent film roles were any bigger, so we must assume that it was a piece of casting genius on Republic's part when they hired Picorri for the part of Porotu in ROBINSON CRUSOE OF CLIPPER ISLAND (Republic, 1936). Porotu was a treacherous witch doctor, who ostensibly served island princess Melani (Mamo Clark) but was really seeking a way to dethrone her and seize her power for himself. When federal agent Ray Mala came to Clipper Island to investigate the activities of the saboteur known as HK, he ran afoul of the natives, who were whipped into fury by Porotu's prognostications of doom and by the machinations of HK's men. When the Princess sided with Mala, the villains agreed to help Porotu gain control of the tribe if he would get rid of Mala once he was in power. Porotu was only too happy to throw in with the heavies, and almost succeeded in having Melani sacrificed to the god Pele. Mala rescued her, and helped her regain her power over the tribe, much to Porotu's dismay. The witch doctor made several more attempts to get control of the natives before he was crushed by the falling idol of Pele--and immersed in lava, to boot--during a volcanic eruption in the last chapter. ROBINSON CRUSOE was one of Republic's early serials, and severely marred by the non-acting of leads Mala and Clark, as well as some blatant budget cuts, but Picorri made every one of his scenes as Porotu worth watching. He blended superstition, greed, and devilish glee to create the perfect serial witch doctor. It was a performance without precedent, and it's safe to say it had considerable influence on later portrayals of the same type, most notably Frank Lackteen's Shamba in JUNGLE GIRL and Monte Blue's Yellow Weasel in HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS. Neither of these excellent performers, however, achieved Picorri's demented dignity.

Above: John Picorri prepares a nervous-looking Mamo Clark for sacrifice to Pele, the Fire God, in ROBINSON CRUSOE OF CLIPPER ISLAND (Republic, 1936).

Republic took note of John's great performance, and quickly cast him in DICK TRACY (Republic, 1937), in a role that could have been (and probably was) written for him. As Moloch, the hunchbacked, leering scientist who served the mystery villain known as the Lame One, Picorri kicked off his villainous activities by performing an brain operation on Dick Tracy's brother Gordon that turned the young man into a vicious killer. In the final chapter, Moloch attempted to perform the same operation on Tracy (Ralph Byrd) himself, but was knocked unconscious and blown sky-high when a time bomb (set by Moloch and the Lame One to destroy vital evidence) exploded the villains' hideout. In between, Moloch administered some surprisingly sound advice to the Lame One, when not lovingly stroking his black cat and speculating on the possible results of transplanting a cat's brain into a man's body. Picorri's Moloch had a profound impression on me when I first saw DICK TRACY as a kid--quite frankly, he scared the daylights out of me! His fiendish pride in the effects of his experiment on Gordon Tracy was enough to make anyone shudder, and the incongruity of his byplay with his cat made it even worse. Of all the serial bad guys, the one I'd like to meet least in a dark alley would be old Dr. Moloch.

Above: John Picorri (far right) prepares to operate on Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd), while Gordon Tracy (Carleton Young, far right), already transformed by Picorri's operation, looks on coldly in DICK TRACY (Republic, 1937).

John teamed up with Ralph Byrd again in SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937), the one cliffhanger that gave Picorri the chance to play a relatively normal character for an extended period of time. As G. A. Rackerby, a rather shady chemical manufacturer, Picorri was pressed into the service of mad scientist Bela Lugosi, who needed John to manufacture deadly melting gas for him. Picorri's nervous objections to the plan were quickly stifled when his partner was summarily strangled by Lugosi's massive henchman Thorg (Richard Alexander). For the rest of the serial, Picorri busily supplied Lugosi with the gas, all the while voicing doubts and fears as Coast Guard Lieutenant Terry Kent (Byrd) got closer and closer to the villains' operations. John was fully believable as the spineless Rackerby, and showed how easily he could assume another persona if he chose. Also, for those who had seen John's two previous serials, it was nice to see Picorri being scared for a change instead of scaring others!

Above: John Picorri mixes up a batch of melting gas under the watchful eye of Bela Lugosi in SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937).

Picorri returned to the maniacal mold for FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS (Republic, 1938). He donned his DICK TRACY hunchback get-up, with the addition of a beard and moustache that made him look even more grotesque, for the role of Professor Gould, chief scientist and counselor to the Lightning. The Lightning was a masked master villain intent on conquering the world with the power of his devastating electrical torpedo and his ominous aircraft, the Flying Wing. This was a plan that met with full approval from Picorri, who enthused, while surveying a fort full of electrocuted Lightning victims: "All those men--dead by your hand! And no one will ever know what killed them!" The Lightning and Gould were eventually destroyed, due to the heroic interference of Marines Lee Powell and Herman Brix, but before the end came, the masked madman and his hunchbacked helper ran up a frighteningly large body count with their electrical weapons. Picorri did not get as much screen time in DEVIL DOGS as he had in DICK TRACY, but he made every moment count, in what would turn out to be the last credited role of his career.

Above: John Picorri and his boss the Lightning menace Eleanor Stewart in FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS (Republic, 1938).

John made one more "guest appearance" in a serial before vanishing from the screen. In Chapter Six of DRUMS OF FU MANCHU (Republic, 1940), Dr. Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon) kidnapped hero Allan Parker (Robert Kellard) and decided to disguise as him in order to escape a police dragnet. The plastic surgeon that Fu employed to create a facemask for this purpose was none other than John Picorri. In the best Picorri tradition, John made the most of his part, assuming an air of irritable professional pride that lent a rather amusing, quirky touch to his obviously crooked character. John only turned out four more films after his cameo in DRUMS, the last being MADERO OF MEXICO in 1942, in which he played (uncredited) Madero's vice-president. After this picture, John Picorri left films, never to return, and no one heard of him again till he passed away in 1976, in Inglewood, California.

Above: John Picorri measures Robert Kellard's head preparatory to creating a mask of Kellard's face in DRUMS OF FU MANCH (Republic, 1940).

Serial fans the world over would like to know more about John Picorri, and wish that his career in cliffhangers hadn't been as short as it was. I fully agree with them, but we ought to be thankful for the Picorri performances we do have. This mysterious character actor came and went in almost the flash of an eye, and yet is always recalled vividly by those who saw him on screen. That John Picorri was that scary and that memorable stands as a real, enduring tribute to his skill as an actor.

Above: John Picorri, at his ghoulish best, in DICK TRACY (Republic, 1937).