The Green Hornet (1940)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Directors:

Ford Beebe
Ray Taylor

Writers:

George H. Plympton (screenplay) &
Basil Dickey (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 January 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure

Plot:

A newspaper publisher and his Korean servant fight crime as vigilantes who pose as a notorious masked gangster and his aide.

Plot Keywords:

Korean | Publisher | Green Hornet | Vigilante | Kato

Cast

Gordon Jones	...	Britt Reid / The Green Hornet
Wade Boteler	...	Michael Axford
Anne Nagel	...	Lenore "Casey" Case
Keye Luke	...	Kato
Phillip Trent	...	Jasper Jenks
Cy Kendall	...	Curtis Monroe
Stanley Andrews	...	Police Commissioner [Chs. 1, 5, 9, 13]
Selmer Jackson	...	District Attorney [Chs. 4, 10]
Joseph Crehan	...	Judge Stanton [Chs. 1, 9, 10, 13] (as Joe Crehan)
Walter McGrail	...	Henchman Dean
Gene Rizzi	...	Henchman Corey
John Kelly	...	Henchman Pete Hawks
Eddie Dunn	...	D.H. Sligby [Ch. 7]
Edward Earle	...	Felix Grant, Attorney [Ch. 1]
Ben Taggart	...	Phil Bartlett [Chs. 3-4]

Runtime:

258 min (13 episodes) | 99 min (movie version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

When the actions of Tojo, et. al., made the concept of a Japanese hero, even a sidekick, box office poison, Kato was quickly changed from Japanese to Filipino by the producers of the original radio show. Hollywood apparently had greater foresight, however, and herein made him a Korean.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Homestarrunner.com: Everything Else, Volume 2 (2006) (V)

Smashing The Rackets, Superhero Style

Through thirteen chapters in this serial The Green Hornet manages to discover and eliminate a number of various criminal enterprises that are plaguing his city. Playing The Green Hornet in this version is a younger and leaner Gordon Jones who was best known for being Mike the Cop on the Abbott and Costello show. Keye Luke plays his sidekick and chauffeur Kato who because of the impending war was changed from Japanese to Korean for this serial.

Not that this serial is all that much better though it is a cut above most of them, but one of the things that struck me was that each chapter stood more on its own than you would normally have. The premise here is that the various rackets are controlled by a city syndicate of twelve and the Green Hornet as himself and in his real identity of Britt Reid, millionaire publisher of a crusading newspaper the Sentinel, systematically exposes each racket in each chapter and eliminates the head through death or imprisonment.

The obvious comparison is to Batman, but The Green Hornet relies a whole lot less on gadgetry than most superheroes. His car, 'the Black Beauty' is really a souped up hotrod, nothing unique about it in any other way. He's not got the variety of gadgets that Batman or most of his other peers seem to have.

He even has a gas gun that shoots small gas pellets and when they hit the target they merely disable. Fran Striker who created The Green Hornet also created the Lone Ranger and the Ranger's creed was always to shoot to wound. Modern technology has given the Green Hornet a weapon that will do nothing else. In fact The Green Hornet is the grand nephew of The Lone Ranger.

A cut above maybe, but The Green Hornet is as dated as all those other serials that the Saturday afternoon kids used to enjoy.