The Spider's Web
15 Episodes | Columbia, 1938
Directed by Ray Taylor and James W. Horne
Richard Wentworth...
Blinky McQuade .....}Warren Hull
The Spider..........
Nita Van Sloan.....Iris Meredith
Jackson............Richard Fiske
Ram Singh.........Kenneth Duncan
Commissioner Kirk..Forbes Murray
Steve..............Marc Lawrence
Chase.............Charles Wilson
Jenkins...........Donald Douglas
Posing as "The Spider" terror of the underworld, as well
as Blinky McQuade, underworld habitue, celebrated criminologist Richard
Wentworth wages a desperate battle to foil the plans of "The Octopus,"
whose outlaw gang is completely demoralizing the nation's transportation
system.
Wentworth's activities are quickly discovered by the Octopus, who attempts
to kidnap the sleuth. Escaping, Wentworth, disguised as Blinky, learns
that a passenger bus loaded with explosives is to be blown up. With the
aid of his faithful Sikh servant Ram Singh and disguised as the Spider,
Wentworth empties the bus terminal and drives the bus from the depot. The
police, however, blame him for the bombing.
The wave of terrorism continues and the Spider threads a dangerous course
between the police and the Octopus. In his guise as Blinky McQuade, Wentworth
finds a "deflection tube for specialized radios" in the safe
of one of the men he suspects of being the Octopus. A check of tube suppliers
reveals that equipment of this type was recently installed in a "technical
school" located in an office building. And significantly, the office
building is located in an area from which messages from the Octopus have
been traced.
Arriving at the building, Wentworth finds a suspicious-looking
sealed-off wing with no means of entry. Planting smoke bombs in the lobby,
Wentworth waits until fire engines arrive; he then uses a fire ladder to
gain access to the sixth floor. As the Spider, he leaps through an open
window right into the secret headquarters of the Octopus. The startled
villain is sitting with both hands on his desk, one grasping a special
microphone which he has used to disguise his voice. Suddenly the Spider
detects a movement beneath the robes of the Octopus, and a gun flashes
into view. But before the Octopus can fire, the Spider draws his own pistol
and kills the villain. The Octopus had used, as part of his deadly disguise,
an artificial right hand, enabling him to get the drop on his unsuspecting
enemies. The Octopus, dead, is unmasked as Chase, the banking magnate,
who had hoped to dominate the nation by gaining control of its transportation,
communications, and utilities. Wentworth is off at last on the longdelayed
honeymoon with his fiancee, Nita.
"Columbia's inexperienced but ambitious chapter-play unit, still finding its way after only four productions, delivered in The Spider's Web a serial that É does justice to its subject matter. Web is among the few Columbia serials that bear mentioning in the same breath with the more consistently worthy serial output of Republic and Universal; it approaches the dark ferocity of Drums of Fu Manchu (Republic; 1940) and The Phantom Creeps (Universal; 1939)."
George E. Turner & Michael H. Price, "The Spider Serials: A Critical History" (1990)
"The first two episodes reveal a smashing action serieal with more thugs being killed in five reels than in most other complete serials. In addition to the blood, action, it has good production, fast pace, with Warren Hull a very convincing hero. It also has the type of story the kids go for: a gun-fighting crusade against the "Octopus" (a mad degenerate) using the madman"s own methods."
Motion Picture Exhibitor (trade magazine, 1938)
WAV files from The Spider's Web available in Multimedia!
 The Spider Returns
15 Episodes | Columbia, 1941
Directed by James W. Horne
Richard Wentworth...
Blinky McQuade .....}Warren Hull
The Spider..........
Nina Van Sloan......Mary Ainslee
Jackson.............Dave O'Brien
Commander Kirk........Joe Girard
Ram Singh.........Kenneth Duncan
McLeod.............Corbet Harris
Westfall.........Bryant Washburn
Van Sloan.........Charles Miller
Trigger............Anthony Warck
Stephen.............Harry Harvey
When a gang of saboteurs led by the Gargoyle, a mysterious foreign agent, threatens national defense projects, socialite Richard Wentworth, alias the Spider, returns to his war with the underworld.
 Wentworth calls a meeting of the country's biggest businessmen, but the Gargoyle's gang disrupts it with a tear-gas bomb. Wentworth is captured by the gang and taken away in an airplane. The pilot then sets the plane afire and bails out, leaving Wentworth unconscious in the spinning plane. Fortunately, Wentworth recovers in time and parachutes to safety. Disguised as Blinky McQuade, underworld habitue, Wentworth joins the gang of saboteurs in an effort to learn the Gargoyle's identity; but he is unable to obtain the information.
After a number of successful attempts to circumvent the Gargoyle's many schemes to sabotage the nation's leading defense industries, the Spider discovers the foreign agent's hideaway and crashes into the torture room. After a furious struggle, he routs the gunmen and unmasks the arch fiend as McLeod, one of the industrialists!
Synopses from To Be Continued... by Ken Weiss and Ed Goodgold (Crown, 1972)
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