The Trail of the Octopus
Hallmark
1919; 15 Chapters
Starring
Ben Wilson
as Carter Holmes
Neva
Gerber
William Dyer
Howard Crampton
William Carroll
Marie Pavis
and ? as
Monsieur X
The
Trail of the Octopus
reviewed by Doctor Daka
"The
production standards of the sets and the camerawork in this
serial were top notch. There were a number of scenes that
I'd say were filmed with the best use of light and shadow I
have ever seen. Visually, Octopus
was fantastic, but they seemed to make the story up as they
went along, with the plot and locations often changing
suddenly in a completely different direction. This is the
"trail" that is the subject of the
title.
The producers [at first can't] seem to decide on whom they
wanted the main villain to be. First it's a group of devil
worshipers and their female leader, then we find out she
works for this other guy, then we find out he is an agent
for this other Arabic bad guy who lives in "the orient."
Well that guy in the orient actually works for yet another
guy over in the orient, who is a Fu Manchu knockoff.
Perhaps he really is the final leader of all the bad guys?
There is also a mysterious masked man known as Monsieur X
who pops up in the story every so often, but he's someone
else completely. Whew!
Octopus
is different than what fans of the talkie cliffhangers may
be used to, but those differences may make it a better
serial in some ways. Even hardcore fans will admit that
most serials are thin on plot and heavy on rather
repetitious chases, fistfights, and escapes.
Octopus
has all that, but the twists and turns in the storyline and
the round the world changes in location, make it come off
more like a 280 minute feature film than a typical serial.
It would have been 20 minutes longer if chapter 9 had been
shown.
I will try to summarize the storyline, which was
rather complicated compared to the serials made by Republic
or Columbia in the 1930's through 1950's. The location of
the action changes from an unnamed city, to San Francisco,
to "the orient," to Paris France, back to the original city
and then to San Francisco again. This serial revolves
around a group who are trying to obtain an ancient talisman
for some nefarious reason and the various murders, fights,
chases, and cliffhangers that ensue. There are some really
fantastic scenes where ghost like hands come out of walls
and other creepy stuff - better than the best horror movies
you've seen. There is a fight on a balcony in a rainstorm
that is just amazing - some of the best camera and lighting
work ever. There is another fight that starts in a room and
then the lights go out. The combatants begin shooting at
each other in the darkened room - and as each gunshot goes
off we see where everyone is for an instant before it goes
back to black. This is an effect much like a strobe light -
but the flashing light from each gunshot only flickers on
when triggers are pulled, with the actors seen in different
places as they scramble about the room between gunshots.
I've never seen anything like it before and thought that a
scene like this has probably never been topped
yet.
Chapter 1 starts off with archeologist Dr. Reid
Stanhope finding some sort of ancient talisman during an
excavation in what appears to be Egypt. Another man attacks
him and there is a struggle for the talisman in a tomb. I
was left with the impression he may have been
killed.
The scene then changes to an unnamed city about 20
years later where we meet Ruth Stanhope (Dr. Stanhope's
daughter) played by Neva Gerber and Carter Holmes (the
hero) played by Ben Wilson. Dr. Stanhope has hidden the
talisman in a cave in a cliff and he is kidnapped by a
group of devil worshipers who want it for themselves. We
follow his daughter Ruth and her friend Carter as they try
to get the professor back from the kidnappers. Along the
way they are all trying to get a series of daggers that are
needed to unlock a chamber in the cave where the talisman
has been hidden. The complete set of daggers is to be
placed into a series of impressions in the cave wall in
order to open the chamber and get access to the
talisman.
The exotic Mme. Zora Roularde, played by the
excellent silent actress Marie Pavis, leads the devil
worshiping kidnappers of the professor. The coven is shown
looking rather evil in their satanic costumes. Especially
chilling are the scenes that take place in their
underground devil-worshipping chamber. I've never seen
anything like that in a serial or any old movie for that
matter.
The story takes us to a cliff by the seashore where
Carter scales down the cliff to get into the cave. The
evildoers use some explosives to try to blow him up, but
are not successful.
Ruth also gets kidnapped by the gang and taken to San
Francisco, so Carter follows the trail to try to get her
back. After various shenanigans we find out that the devil
worshippers and Mme. Zora actually are agents of another
criminal type guy. Then we find out he actually works for
someone else - a mysterious man who is over in "the
orient." The scene changes from San Francisco to "the
orient" (is this supposed to be China?) as Carter follows
the trail to get kidnapped Ruth and her father back. This
man in the orient is rather unusual because he is actually
very Arabic - he has a harem and very middle eastern like
surroundings. We have no idea what he's doing in the orient
though. A lot of money must have been spent on the sets and
costumes in this section of the serial - they are very
elaborate. This Arabic villain was going to make Ruth part
of his harem, but Carter prevents that from happening. We
then find out that the mysterious Arab works for another
even bigger criminal named Wong Fu (or something like that)
- he's a Fu Manchu knockoff.
Carter manages to free Ruth, and the action then
moves on to Paris France where the kidnappers have taken
her father. In Paris the storyline takes a science fiction
twist all of a sudden, as we encounter a mad scientist who
uses a ray gun device to cause asteroids to strike the
earth. We see the asteroids falling from the sky and
wrecking havoc. Also in Paris, the bad guys try to cut the
skin off the kidnapped professor's arm. They want to do
this so they will have the tattoos on his arm that supply
further clues to the location of the daggers they are
trying to obtain. They fail in their nasty skin removal
attempt and the professor is rescued by the Carter and
reunited with his daughter Ruth. We then find out that he
is not really her father but his twin brother. The real
professor has died many years ago and he has been secretly
in his stead ever since.
The action now changes back to America. Another
sci-fi storyline pops up out of nowhere as the heroes
battle a villain who has a "replicator" machine he uses to
create numerous zombies that do his bidding. The automatons
are shown walking out of his replicator machine, which is a
big metal box in his mad scientist
laboratory.
The search for that talisman winds down as we return
to the cave in the cliff by the seashore. The race against
time to find it ends with the heroes finally obtaining the
complete set of daggers, opening the chamber, and
retrieving the professor's ancient talisman. When we
finally get a chance to see the talisman, it seems like an
afterthought.
The story then shifts to showing Carter and Ruth
getting an award from the President for their efforts. The
President states how thankful he is that they brought about
the end of such a far reaching organization - this
"octopus" of crime."
14 of 15 chapters of this serial exist complete in silent
form.
The Serial Squadron Collectors' DVD will be released in
three volumes
Volume 1: Chapters 1, 3-5
Volume 2: Chapters 6-10
Volume 3: Chapters 11-15
The pledge amount for each volume is $20.
Volumes will be released individually based on pledge
response.
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