The Purple Monster Strikes
| The Purple Monster Strikes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Spencer Gordon Bennet Fred C. Brannon |
| Written by | Royal Cole Albert DeMond Basil Dickey Lynn Perkins Joseph Poland Barney Sarecky |
| Produced by | Ronald Davidson |
| Starring | Dennis Moore Linda Stirling Roy Barcroft James Craven Bud Geary John Davidson |
| Cinematography | Bud Thackery |
| Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
Release date | 1945 |
Running time | 15 chapters (209 min) |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) is a Republic Movie serial.
Plot
Late one night while astronomer Dr Cyrus Layton works on his new airplane design in his observatory, he gets three surprises. The first is seeing what he thinks is a meteor landing in the far distance. He contacts his niece Sheila Layton, advising her to bring Craig Foster to the observatory to help analyze his discovery. The second surprise, he goes to take a look at the meteor and discovers that it is actually a spaceship with a still living pilot inside. The pilot emerges from the spaceship and explains to Layton that he is from the planet Mars.
Mistakenly thinking the alien to be friendly, Layton takes him back to the observatory. There Layton gets his third and final surprise. The Martian, who calls himself The Purple Monster, wishes to see the designs for the airplane/spaceship that Layton was working on. The astronomer/engineer proudly shows the alien the designs. It is then that the alien explains that he is really here to steal the designs, build one of the spaceships for himself, fly back to Mars, have his people build a fleet of these spaceships and invade the Earth. When Dr. Layton objects to this plan, The Martian kills him with a Martian weapon that emits a "carbo-oxide" gas which kills humans instantly. The alien then transforms into a ghost and takes over Dr Layton's body. This enables him to fool the astronomer's niece Sheila and criminologist Craig Foster, both of whom work for the same scientific foundation as Dr Layton. The foundation is also responsible for commissioning the spaceship project in the first place.
Posing as Dr. Layton also enables the Martian to witness the unrelated attempt of an Earth gangster named Garrett to also try to steal Layton's spaceship design. The Martian convinces Garrett and his henchmen to aid in the invasion plot. With the criminals' aid the alien begins building the spaceship. However, in spite of the Martian's best efforts at pretending to be Dr Layton, Craig Foster and Sheila Layton begin to get wise to what is happening. A long series of action scenes ensue as the pair try to figure out what the alien is doing on Earth and put a stop to it. Craig and Sheila are constantly battling the Purple Monster's henchmen led by Garrett who use mind-controlling poisons, carjackings, gunplay, a vacant apartment that remotely turns into an execution chamber and other tactics to dispose of Craig and Sheila.
The closest the criminals come to succeeding is in Chapter 7 "The Evil Eye" when Sheila is lured into a trap at a house the gang is using as a hideout. Foster gets the information out of a captured gang member and speeds to the house to save Sheila, who has been tied up and gagged inside a room filled with explosives sent to detonate when an electric eye in the doorway is tripped. Foster just barely manages to get Sheila out before the house explodes in a huge fireball. In time the alien even calls the Emperor of Mars for aid and a female Martian, named Marcia, is sent earthward. In the long run she is not much help.
In the last chapter Craig and Sheila realize that the Purple Monster is using Professor Layton's body as a disguise to his real identity, and devise a plan to uncover the truth. While Sheila gets the supposed Doctor Layton to come downtown to sign some papers needed for funding, Craig slips into Layton's office and secretly installs a silent movie camera which will be remotely activated when the telephone is picked up. Foster then escapes before the Purple Monster returns, and calls him to advise him that he will be bringing a squad of men to search the observatory which he has discovered is being used as the Purple Monster's hideout. Craig and Sheila arrive to find the observatory deserted. Sheila goes to the document basement where she stumbles upon Purple Monster's subterranean lair and is kidnapped. Foster goes to check on Sheila and finds the basement empty, and then himself discovers the secret lair where Sheila has been bound and gagged by the Purple Monster who orders his henchmen to dispose of her and destroy the observatory once he escapes.
The story ends with Craig Foster using a separated component of the spaceship, a sonic pulse cannon device to destroy meteors, to destroy the alien spaceship with the Purple Monster inside as he attempts to escape back to Mars and lead the invasion fleet to Earth. This ends the Martian threat.
Cast
- Dennis Moore as Craig Foster
- Linda Stirling as Sheila Layton
- Roy Barcroft as The Purple Monster
- James Craven as Dr Cyrus Layton
- Bud Geary as Hodge Garrett, Henchman
- Mary Moore as Marcia
- John Davidson as Emperor of Mars
- Joe Whitehead as Carl Stewart
- Anthony Warde as Tony
Chapter titles
- The Man in the Meteor
- The Time Trap
- Flaming Avalanche
- The Lethal Pit
- Death on the Beam
- The Demon Killer
- The Evil Eye
- Descending Doom
- The Living Dead
- House of Horror
- Menace From Mars
- Perilous Plunge
- Fiery Shroud
- The Fatal Trail
- Take-Off To Destruction
Trivia
- The name of the aircraft that is intended to travel to Mars is always called the "jet plane". This startles technically minded people because a jet aircraft cannot do that. However, jets were new at the time the series was made and Universal Studios' serial Flash Gordon had the copyright on the word "rocketship" for use in serials and their featurizations.
Stunts & Effects
Stunts by:
- Dale Van Sickel as Craig Foster (doubling Dennis Moore)
- Babe DeFreest as Sheila Layton (doubling Linda Stirling)
- Fred Graham as The Purple Monster (doubling Roy Barcroft)
- Tom Steele as Hodge Garrett (doubling Bud Geary)
- Polly Burson as Marcia (doubling Mary Moore)
- John Daheim
- Bud Geary
- Carey Loftin
- Cliff Lyons
- Henry Wills
Special Effects by the Lydecker brothers
References
- Republic Pictures Home video vhs tape, The Purple Monster Strikes
- Science Fiction The Illustrated Encyclopedia by John Clute DK Publications copyright 1995 pg 259
- The Encyclopedia of Super Villains by Jeff Rovin Facts on file copyright 1987 pg 282
- The Purple Monster Strikes at IMDb
