Above: A title card for SECRET AGENT X-9 (Universal, 1945). Featured along the top of the lettering are Cy Kendall, Jan Wiley, an unidentified player, and Samuel S. Hinds. Along the bottom are Keye Luke, George Lynn, Victoria Horne, Clarence Lung, Lynn again, and Luke grappling with Ted Hecht. Oddly, star Lloyd Bridges is not pictured, but rest assured, he's very much in evidence in the serial itself.

SECRET AGENT X-9

Universal, 13 Chapters, 1945. Starring Lloyd Bridges, Keye Luke, Jan Wiley, Victoria Horne, Cy Kendall, George Lynn, Clarence Lung, Ferdinand Munier, Ann Codee, Benson Fong, and Samuel S. Hinds as Solo.

So now I've come to the third and last of the long-lost Universal serials that VCI Entertainment put out in 2003. And I must say that all of them are very worthy additions to the serial canon.

SECRET AGENT X-9 (not connected, except in name, to the 1937 version) opens in Tokyo in 1943. Japanese government scientist Hakahima (Benson Fong) stumbles onto a discovery that just may ensure victory for the Axis powers. A sample of a formula called "7-22" which Hakahima obtained when working as an assistant to Professor Albert Raymond in America before the war, is accidentally spilled into a container of water, and the mixture results in a perfect synthetic fuel. Since Raymond has discarded his 7-22 project as unsuccessful, the Japanese are determined to get the formula away from him before he or the Allies can realize its true value, and spy queen Nabura (Victoria Horne), is assigned to the job. Nabura's headquarters are on Shadow Island, a small isle off the coast of China, privately owned and "governed" by Lucky Kamber (Cy Kendall). Kamber is solely interested in making money, and allows spies of all nations and criminals of all types to use his island as a base of operation or a haven, provided they pay him "protection tax." As a result, Nabura and her German and Japanese cohorts are not the only spies on the island; American agent Terry Haney (Nick Warwick) gets wind of Nabura's plans but is killed by her henchmen before he can learn just what "7-22" is. However, he learns enough to let the US know that the papers containing the secret are being brought to Shadow Island aboard a German ship, and that an ex-con named Jack Roberts (Henry Wadsworth) is the unwitting courier. Wisely, American Intelligence puts top operative Phil Corrigan (Lloyd Bridges), aka Secret Agent X-9, on the case. Corrigan boards the ship as a stoker halfway to Shadow Island, confronts Roberts en route, and lets him know that the papers he's carrying are intended for the Axis powers. Roberts proves to be a patriot if a crook, and he throws in with X-9. The two of them commandeer the ship's radio and trick a nearby Japanese sub into torpedoing the ship. Before they can escape, they are attacked by Nazi sailors and Roberts is killed. X-9 jumps overboard just before the Japanese torpedo hits, and is picked up by an Australian plane. The formula for 7-22 goes down with the ship, and X-9 decides to head for Shadow Island to find out why the papers were so important to the Japanese. Landing on the island disguised as a Gestapo officer, X-9 makes contact with fellow agents Lynn Moore (Jan Wiley) and Ah Fong (Keye Luke). Lynn, an Australian double agent, sells lottery tickets in the House of Shadows, Lucky Kamber's saloon and casino, and broadcasts apparent Japanese propaganda (really coded messages for Australian intelligence) under the name of Miss Australia. Ah Fong, a Chinese operative, also works in the House of Shadows, the center of all the island's intrigue, posing as a faro dealer. X-9 attempts to find Drag Dorgan (Edward Howard), Roberts' partner and the nominal recipient of the 7-22 papers, but the agent’s disguise is penetrated and he narrowly escapes being killed by Nabura's henchmen Bach and Takahari (George Lynn and Clarence Lung). Shortly afterwards, Ah Fong's identity is also discovered by Nabura, and the two agents play a deadly cat-and-mouse game with Nabura's thugs, while trying to uncover the secret of 7-22. Lynn helps them out while precariously maintaining her own incognito. In the meantime, since the 7-22 plans were lost at sea, Nabura sets her sights on the only other copies of the formula--the discarded notes in Raymond's personal files. With Hakahima's help, she begins training several Shadow Island criminals as doubles for Raymond, hoping to enable one of them to impersonate the scientist well enough to raid his laboratory in the States. As things progress, Lucky Kamber also puts his finger in the pie and plots to undermine both sides for his own profit. Adding further to the confusion are Mama and Papa Pierre (Ann Codee and Ferdinand Munier), the proprietors of the Dupray Hotel who just might not be as jovially ignorant of the situation as they pretend to be. And just who is Solo (Samuel S. Hinds), the laconic, phlegmatic, and well-informed old gent who manages the House of Shadows and seems to spend all his time sitting at the bar and playing tiddlywinks?

I've just given you a rough outline of the first couple of chapters of SECRET AGENT X-9, but I've only scratched the surface of the multi-layered plotline. Usually, a serial sets up the entire plot in the first chapter and wraps it up in the final chapter, with no development in between. However, X-9's plot keeps developing through all 13 chapters, making it tough to outline. Hard as this unusual aspect makes things for a reviewer, it makes X-9 a great serial, perhaps the best "espionage" serial ever made. Directors Ray Taylor and Lewis D. Collins maintain a real atmosphere of intrigue and complication, but, thanks to them and to the screenwriters, things really never get complex beyond comprehension. The cast is excellent, and the script gives each player a well-defined character. Taylor and Collins also keep the pace swift, despite the relative scarcity of fistfights: suspense, not stuntwork, is the keynote of the action here. There are some good gun battles and chases (particularly a motorboat sequence in Chapter 12), and some great cliffhangers. For once, Universal came up with good take-outs to compliment their good climaxes: there are hardly any "lived through it" cliffhanger resolutions. The blazing lake at the end of Chapter Two and the truck crash at the end of Chapter Three are well-handled by the special effects team, and the "Dropping Floor" and "Japanese Burial" cliffhangers are positively hair-raising. The latter peril comes right out of ADVENTURES OF SMILIN' JACK, but is still very effective here. Speaking of SMILIN' JACK, X-9 is similar to it in a couple respects, but very different in most. Unlike SMILIN' JACK, which had a large group of protagonists working largely in surroundings where they had the law on their side, X-9 isolates its protagonists, Corrigan and Ah Fong, in a hostile environment--the crook-ridden and corruptly governed Shadow Island, where everyone is waiting for a chance to trip them up. Few serials do such a good job of conveying the dangerous "man against the world" nature of a secret agent's job. One gimmick that X-9 and SMILIN' JACK both use to great advantage is the "character recap" where we're brought up to date on the last episode's happenings by conversations between the characters, instead of a narrator or recap cards.

Lloyd Bridges is incredibly self-assured in his starring role, especially when you realize this is his first screen part of any real size, and the first time he ever took center stage. Bridges is tough, courageous, and resourceful, with a wry sense of humor and a certain enjoyment of his job despite its danger. Bridges doesn't make one false step in his performance, and it's clear from his expert work at this early stage that he was destined for bigger things. According to Keye Luke, producer Morgan Cox was perceptive enough to notice this about Bridges, and commented "Keep your eye on that boy, because he's going somewhere." Mr. Cox was certainly right!

Luke himself is just as good, in perhaps the best of all his serial roles. He's fully as efficient as he was in both GREEN HORNET serials, and fully as friendly as he was in SMILIN' JACK, but his Ah Fong must act and decide on his own much more often than either Kato or Captain Wing. Though maintaining a warm camaraderie with Bridges and Jan Wiley, Luke is quite violent when he has to be, as in the scene where he bashes a villain over the head with a rifle butt. Luke is so suave, cheery, and wily that I would almost call this his very best performance.

Jan Wiley is also forced to act on her own a good deal, and, like Luke, generally acts wisely. This is one of the unusual aspects of X-9--each of the three lead characters is an independent personality as well as a "team member." Though her British accent comes and goes, Miss Wiley possesses all the sophistication needed to pull of her undercover job, and has to do some pretty fast talking more than once to convince Nabura of her loyalty to Japan. Clearly no run-of-the-mill serial heroine could fill this important role, and Wiley, both attractive and intelligent, fits the bill perfectly.

Victoria Horne, as the vicious Nabura, goes all out to create a truly evil villain, but never goes "over the top" like J. Carroll Naish did in BATMAN. She has the ruthlessness of Rose Hobart in SMILIN' JACK, but carries it to an even great extent. Nabura is completely emotionless and pitiless, one of the coldest of serial villains, and seems to care as little about the lives of her own criminal tools as she does for the lives of her enemies. The nearly closed eyes that Horne affects to aid her Japanese makeup serve a double purpose by making Nabura seem totally disinterested in and aloof from ordinary humanity.

Nabura's henchmen, George Lynn and Clarence Lung, give equally chilling performances. Neither actor seems to have had many other large roles in serials, but both definitely should have. Lung’s Takahari seems filled with a sort of uncontrollable ferocity, while Lynn's brooding, almost Karloffian features and deep voice give Bach an air of implacable menace. Serials hold many prime examples of henchmen duos, including Lugo and Ranga (G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON), Weber and Hagen (DON DAREDEVIL RIDES AGAIN), and Snell and Gregg (HAUNTED HARBOR), but Bach and Takahari are right up there with the nastiest of them.

In contrast to this trio of creeps, some secondary villains might seem sympathetic, but not the slimy, sneering Cy Kendall. At first the mercenary and cynical Kamber merely tries to levy money out of both factions, but as the serial progresses he starts playing both ends against the middle and nearly succeeds in trumping both X-9 and Nabura. Kendall uses his fat, oily voice and sneering grin to full advantage, whether he's proclaiming sanctimoniously to everyone that he's a "neutral" and won't take sides, or chortling over upsetting Nabura's well-laid schemes.

Benson Fong takes an unexpected approach to his role of Hakahima; instead of playing him as nasty and sneering, he gives him a sort of absent-minded air, to the extent that he seems more interested in coming up with the 7-22 formula than ensuring victory for Japan. Arno Frey, a veteran movie Nazi, is properly curt and snarling as Captain Grut, commander of the interned German liner Lorelei, aboard which a lot of Nabura's scheming takes place. Gene Roth plays his aide Yogel, and gigantic Jack Overman is given high billing but little to do as Marker, head of Kendall's island "police force." Restrained comedy is provided by the garrulous, lazy Papa Pierre (Ferdinand Munier), and his exasperated, long-suffering wife (Ann Codee). (SPOILERS AHEAD) We're thrown a clever twist in the later chapters when we find that Papa is not as dumb as he pretends to be, and that he and Mama are both agents of the French Underground.

Mauritz Hugo plays Albert Raymond (a play on the name of X-9's creator Alex Raymond?), the scientist who unknowingly possesses the formula for synthetic fuel. Hugo as a good guy would be a bit of a stretch, so the directors wisely only have Raymond "appear" through newsreels that Nabura and Hakahima use to train the potential Raymond doubles. Incidentally, the serial takes a more believable approach to the old "doubling" idea than is common in cliffhangers, with Nabura spending almost the whole serial in training henchmen to impersonate Raymond. Usually a bad guy just slips on a rubber mask and becomes somebody else immediately. Among Nabura's "class" of impersonators are George Eldredge, Stanley Price, and Hugo himself in a dual role. George Chesebro has a bit as an impostor "reject", and John Merton plays a thug who helps Nabura screen impostor candidates in one chapter.

Tom Steele and Dale Van Sickel both pop up briefly--Steele as a Nazi on board the ship in the first chapter and Van Sickel as a Shadow Island henchman in Chapter 3--and Edward Howard is Drag Dorgan, another Shadow Island crook who figures prominently in the early chapters. Beal Wong is the commander of the Japanese sub that Jan Wiley makes her broadcasts from, and Jack Rockwell, I. Stanford Jolley, and Jack Clifford all appear as Nabura's thugs in various episodes. Edmund Cobb is the bartender in the House of Shadows, and Zon Murray has a bit as a German sailor. Thankfully, it's a short bit, as classic cowboy heavy Murray has too much of a noticeable Western drawl for the part of a "Nazi."

While the whole cast is admirable, the most memorable character of all is Solo, perfectly played by a deadpan Samuel S. Hinds. Solo--aptly named--obviously has a game of his own, but we're kept guessing as to its nature throughout. Rarely stirring from his bar stool--not even when he shoots I. Stanford Jolley in Chapter Five--Solo sits at the bar intent on his tiddlywinks game, no matter what's going on around him. Though we finally are let in on Hinds' motives, his personality remains as enigmatic and stoic as ever, making Solo one of the most fascinating serial characters of all time. Solo is the topper, the piece de resistance, of a serial that is already "practically perfect."