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The Spider's Web (1938)
Topic Started: Nov 10 2005, 10:41 PM (1,314 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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If more serials like The Spider’s Web (Columbia, 1938, 15 chapters) were readily available for today’s fans of vintage action films, I suspect that movie serials would be held in higher regard than they are by casual film buffs. It’s 15 chapters of non-stop action, excitement, laughs, and thrills.

A mysterious crime lord known as the Octopus has his treacherous tentacles in all facets of the city’s transportation department. Planes, trains, trucks: anything he can’t control, he destroys, and woe be to him that gets in the Octopus’s way. Until along comes the Spider, a masked vigilante who is wanted by the police and the underworld alike. Unbeknownst to either group, the Spider is actually Richard Wentworth, wealthy criminologist, who – with his fiancé, Nita Van Sloan, and his efficient assistants, Jackson and Ram Singh, battles the forces of evil from behind the façade of an arachnid.

Although at first (and second) glance a close relative of fellow pulp fiction avenger the Shadow (whose exploits would grace the serial screen two years later), the Spider has a panache all his own. Wentworth tends to do the thinking; once he dons that Spider mask and cape, he’s all action, frequently entering a room with two guns a-blazing. And let me tell you, he’s the most accurate shot of any movie hero I’ve ever seen. If he leaps into a room and fires two shots, well, you’re going to require two henchman-sized body bags, that’s for sure. Wentworth has another disguise, too: he frequently infiltrates gangland in the get-up of a wharf rat named Blinky McQuade. Practically colorful enough in his own right to carry a film all by himself, Blinky’s appearances throughout the chapterplay are a particular delight. Warren Hull, who would also play serial heroes Mandrake the Magician and the Green Hornet, is excellent, one of my favorite cliffhanger heroes, and at the final fadeout he even gets that rarity of serial rarities, a big smooch from his lovely leading lady, Iris Meredith.

As directed by Ray Taylor & James W. Horne, The Spider’s Web is one of the most exciting and fast-moving of all chapterplays, and scores in the top ten of most serial lovers’ polls. A sequel, The Spider Returns, followed for Columbia in 1941. ***½*
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Tony Bolton
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As I've seen more chapterplays from Columbia and Universal my tolerance for post English-Witney serials Republic has been reduced. And once Spencer Bennett left that was it brother. The Spider's Web is one of my favs with non stop action and a terrific performance by Warren Hull. Hull had a personality that came through in his serials and he had a pretty good post serial career being a game show host. I always get a kick out of ad lib when Blinky fumbles putting on a coat.
I don't know where the original film is but this one demands release in clean crisp form. I was hoping that the release of Spider-Man might have inspired a release of this serial with the misleading tag of the first Spider Man but it did not.
I was frankly bitterly disappointed with the sequel. Comedy in serials I don't mind but when you have a top notch action serial the follow up should stay in that vein rather than be close to slapstick.
LG seems to have a higher regard for this serial than several years ago but this is a serial that seems to hold up with repeated viewings.
For me the Republic slugfests accompanied by petrified performances which looked good the first time around now hold little interest.
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Laughing Gravy
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My regard for it has indeed improved with age, but I've always felt it's a good serial. I've heard from a lot of people who think it's a GREAT serial, and some who feel it and perhaps The Phantom are the only Columbia chapterplays to deserve that lofty a ranking. I prefer Batman, The Secret Code, The Shadow, Monster and the Ape, and probably a few other Columbias over The Spider's Web.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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panzer the great & terrible
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The Serial Squadron has access to a good print of this serial, but there's a big question about the legality of their releasing it.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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AndyFish
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Rich Orsak has a great print of THE SPIDER'S WEB-- easily 9.5/10
As good as a commercial release, IMO.
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AndyFish
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Just got the SS Spider's Web an boy is it nice! It looks to my unskilled eyes like it was chained and cleaned up from a 16mm print but it's extremely nice.
www.andytfish.com
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The Batman
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Would you say the SS version is better than Orsak's? I have it, but always looking for a worthy upgrade!


Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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John Doe
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I don't think Richard's web site is active anymore - it wasn't a while back. Noone had heard from him in some time. Is he still around?
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The Batman
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Sorry, I was meaning I had Richard's version and was wondering if the SS version was a significant upgrade.


Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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rodney
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I have the Restored Serials version, and if this is truly straight from a 16mm print, it's almost certainly an upgrade from that release.
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The Batman
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Thanks, Rodney. I have been unable to find Restored Serials online anymore. Are they still operating?

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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williejg
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Bats,

Restored Serials is defunct. The SS THE SPIDER'S WEB is the best available, as far as I know. Andy Fish will agree with that, I think. I just got an email from him and he confirms that in it. He has both copies and stated that the SS version is as close to a commercial release as we will get.

'Cat
Edited by williejg, Apr 25 2017, 12:51 PM.
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The Batman
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Thanks, 'Cat, I'll have to add that to my to-get-from-the-SS pile.

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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AndyFish
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The Restored Serials version is a cleanup from Richard's copy, I know this because I connected the two of them.
The SS version is nicer than both Richards and RS copies, although I'm not sure it would warrant an upgrade if you happen to have one of those. Really depends on how insane you are about upgrades. I myself am certifiable having bought 4-5 copies of the serials I like best trying to find the best of the best (and that doesn't include the VHS copies I bought WAAAAY back in the day).

But personally, I'm glad I got the SS version.
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The Batman
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Thanks, Andy. THE SPIDER'S WEB is a favourite of mine, so well worth the upgrade, IMHO. Appreciate the feedback.

Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman!
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