WARREN HULL
January 17th, 1903 -- September 14th, 1974

Above: Warren Hull as Richard Wentworth in THE SPIDER'S WEB (Columbia, 1938).

One of the lesser-known cliffhanger stars, Warren Hull was nevertheless one of the most polished and suave actors ever to grace a serial. All of his serials were based on famous characters adapted from other media, and, in each serial, Hull gave credence and strength to the legendary character he played.

Hull, who was born in Gasport, New York, started his showbiz career in the 1920's as a radio announcer, a job that his cultured vocal quality lent itself to. He wound up in Hollywood in 1935, and was signed to a contract by Warner Brothers. In most of his Warner films, Hull was relegated to small parts and occasional romantic leads. Never gaining the recognition he deserved in major films, Warren was to earn his laurels in another field; serials. In 1938, Columbia Pictures, who had just begun making serials, signed Hull to star in what is still regarded as one of their best cliffhangers, THE SPIDER'S WEB. Based on the pulp novels by Norvell Page, the serial dealt with the adventures of Richard Wentworth, a millionaire and secret crusader for justice in the guise of the mysterious Spider. As the Spider, Wentworth metes out justice to the underworld, and not even the police are aware of his identity (in fact, they regard him as just another lawbreaker!) Columbia transferred Wentworth/The Spider to the screen with remarkable faithfulness. All the pulp characters were in place: The Spider's fiancee Nita Van Sloan (Iris Meredith), his closest friend Jackson (Richard Fiske), his butler Jenkyns (Don Douglas) and his Sikh manservant Ram Singh (Veteran serial villain Kenne Duncan,). These four were the only ones who knew of the Spider's activities, with Commissioner Kirk (shortened from Kirkpatrick in the books), played by Forbes Murray, unaware of the Spider's true motives. In the serial, the Spider matched wits with another eight-legged creature, the mysterious Octopus, who was out for big cash by taking over all the city's industries. The Octopus's true identity was not revealed until the final chapter, after he had truly given the Spider a run for his money over the course of fifteen chapters. THE SPIDER'S WEB provided Hull with a triple-barreled acting challenge: not only did he play Wentworth and the Spider, but he also was Blinky McQuade, the underworld character whose identity the Spider assumed to gather information. Hull met the acting challenge well, and made THE SPIDER'S WEB one of Columbia's most popular and successful serials.

Above: Nita Van Sloan (Iris Meredith) and Richard Wentworth (Warren Hull) hang on for dear life in THE SPIDER'S WEB (Columbia, 1938).

Columbia was so pleased with Hull's performance as the Spider that they quickly cast him as another famous hero: Lee Falk's comic-strip character MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN (Columbia, 1939). As Mandrake, Hull lacked the moustache that distinguished his comic-strip counterpart as well as some of his more impressive magical powers. Columbia in probability couldn't afford really spectacular magic feats for Hull to perform, so Warren's Mandrake had to use his fists and wits more often than his magic in order to defeat the Wasp, a mystery villain out to steal a radium-energy machine invented by Professor Houston (Forbes Murray). Mandrake was aided by Houston's daughter Betty (Doris Weston) and his Asian assistant Lothar (Al Kikume) in his 12-chapter battle against the Wasp's minions. Once again, Hull played a familiar character with zest and vigor, even pleasing the fans of the comic strip who thought the serial diverged too much from its source material.

Above: Warren Hull holds center stage in this impressive poster for MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN (Columbia, 1938). Doris Weston is on the left and the mysterious Wasp is on the right.

For his next serial, Warren Hull moved over to Universal, where he played another masked avenger leading a double life--The Green Hornet. Universal had already done one Hornet serial starring Gordon Jones (THE GREEN HORNET in 1939), but for THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN (Universal, 1940) they cast Hull as the Hornet and his alter ego, wealthy Brit Reid, owner and publisher of the Daily Sentinel. The serial dealt with the Hornet's attempts to destroy a far-flung crime syndicate operating in and around his home city. With the help of his faithful Oriental valet Kato (Keye Luke) he was successful in smashing the racketeers, who were headed by Pierre Watkin, Arthur Loft, and James Seay. Mike Axford (Wade Boteler), one of Reid's reporters and his bodyguard, provided the Green Hornet with equal shares of help and hindrance as he attempted to catch the Hornet for the police reward on his head. THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN was a worthy sequel to an equally good serial, and another triumph for Hull in the double role of Reid and the Hornet.

Above: The masked Warren Hull protects Dorothy Lovett from William Hall (far left) and Charles Miller in THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN (Universal, 1940).

Hull's last serial was a return to the role of the Spider: THE SPIDER RETURNS (Columbia, 1941). Unfortunately, THE SPIDER RETURNS came nowhere near its predecessor in quality. The great comedy director James W. Horne was now Columbia's resident serial director, and, possibly out of frustration at being assigned to work below his talents, persisted in playing his serials for laugh value, in a manner similar to the presentation of the 1960's BATMAN show. In THE SPIDER RETURNS, Hull was allowed to play Wentworth and the Spider straight, but Horne immediately picked up on the comic possibilities of Blinky McQuade and made Hull spend a disproportionate amount of time in the Blinky guise. In addition, the serial's villain, the Gargoyle, threw regular temper tantrums when his plans failed to come off, while his henchmen held "wild parties" at headquarters. For the record, the only returning cast member from the original SPIDER'S WEB besides Hull was Kenne Duncan as Ram Singh; Joseph Girard, Mary Ainslee, and Dave O'Brien took over as Kirk, Nita, and Jackson, respectively. None of these did as good a job as had their predecessors. All in all, THE SPIDER RETURNS was an inappropriate finish to Hull's otherwise distinguished serial career.

Above: Warren Hull (standing, far right) thumps a thug in this action scene from THE SPIDER RETURNS (Columbia, 1941), while another thug attacks Mary Ainslee and Kenne Duncan (far left) is hammered by a third villain.

Above: Jackson (Dave O'Brien), Nita (Mary Ainslee), and the Spider (Warren Hull) in THE SPIDER RETURNS.

After his serial career was finished, Hull dropped out of films for a while, going back to radio announcing, only to return to acting with a vengeance in the late forties and early fifties, mainly as a TV host. Among the shows he hosted were CAVALCADE OF BANDS, CRAWFORD MYSTERY THEATRE, and WHO IN THE WORLD, a celebrity interview show. All of these were relatively short-lived; his longest-running and best known show was STRIKE IT RICH (1951-1955), the show where folks who were down on their luck could tell their sad stories and hope for offers of help from the show's viewers phoned in via the "Heart Line". The show was quite well remembered, even being deemed worthy of a parody by the Beany and Cecil show!

Warren Hull passed away in 1974.

Warren Hull gave us excellent screen interpretations of three great heroes, Mandrake, the Spider, and the Green Hornet. He was one of the most talented and versatile actors to do serials, as he proved by his triple masquerade in THE SPIDER'S WEB. This small page is only a mini-tribute to an actor who deserves much greater accolades.

Above and below: The Spider ready for action, both masked (above), and unmasked, with Ram Singh (below).