Saturday Action Matinee

Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945), Chapter 2: “Satan’s Web”

The Resolution: Trapped in a wooden box with Brand aiming the radiotomic transmitter at it and flames rising up around it (and seriously, wouldn’t a raygun which blasted a hole in the concrete and stone walls of the lab have gotten done with thin plywood sooner?), Lance has nothing he can do but kick the box over backwards, shielding himself slightly by offering the bottom side of the box to the radium ray. Fortunately, Claire chooses that moment to rush in to Lance’s rescue, firing a gun at Brand. Brand hightails it through the same hole in the wall through which the scientists escaped.

Ouch — that’s gotta hurt, Lance. Getting saved from your first cliffhanger by a dame?

The Narrative: Before leaving the lab, Lance removes the power control unit from the radiotomic transmitter, an essential component without which the transmitter is an ungainly paperweight. Meanwhile, anticipating some sort of breakout attempt from the imprisoned scientists (!), Captain Mephisto had positioned men in the tunnels into which their breakout attempt led; by the time Brand gets back to report, Mephisto has the errant scientists in hand (!!).

Helpfully, Lance explains the situation to the four owners of Mystery Island; remember, we may know that one of the four is really Captain Mephisto in disguise, but he doesn’t. He even tells them about his possession of the control unit, which he plans to ship back to the States by boat as soon as possible for safekeeping. Until then, it’s just sitting prettily in Claire’s room…

Well, Lance isn’t as stupid as all that, at least when the plot requires it. Announcement of the imminent shipping of the control unit is a ruse; he expects that somehow word will get back to Captain Mephisto, and thus he intends to have a decoy package in Claire’s room, and Claire there with it. (Hey, she’s game if it means rescuing her father.) With her door locked, the only way in will be by the window, and Lance plans to guard that from outside to take an agent of Captain Mephisto prisoner.

And it’s a good plan, all except that “window” part. Mephisto and Brand instead enter Claire’s room by secret passage, and when they find that the box has nothing but rocks in it, they decide to take Claire and make her talk. Claire manages to get a signal to Lance (throwing something through the window will do that), and leaves a string in the secret door so Lance can find them.

Then — car chase! Up winding roads! Mephisto has Brand string a rope across the road to catch Lance on one of the hairpin turns, and it almost works, but NOTE: THIS IS NOT THE CLIFFHANGER. (In every serial I’ve seen up to now, a car going off a cliff is the cliffhanger ending. But not here. Well played!) Lance bails out just before his car hits the rope and goes over the edge.

But — a clue! The pulley at the end of the rope reads “Sponge Warehouse No. 2.” And wouldn’t you know it, Warehouse No. 2 is exactly where Mephisto and Brand are attempting to make Claire talk. They’ve got her trussed up in a net which they lower through a trapdoor to the waters below, with the intent being to lengthen the time she spends underwater with each dip until she breaks. (Go ahead, make a waterboarding joke. You know you want to.

The Cliffhanger: After they dip her once, Lance comes in with his gun, and a fight (yes!) ensues. Chairs are thrown! Cardboard boxes are destroyed! Assailants launch themselves through the air! And unfortunately, the brake on the pulley system that holds Claire out of the water gets knocked open. She quickly splashes into the water, and straight to the bottom, and there’s too much fighting for Lance to pull her back out! Can she hold her breath long enough?

Next Week: “The Murder Machine”