Thrilling Days of Yesteryear

Death Curve

 

Three chapters into the 1945 version of Secret Agent X-9 and I can concur with Laughing Gravy of In the Balcony fame that it’s far superior to the 1937 serial, simply by virtue of its cast alone.  But there are an awful lot of similarities between the two chapter plays, most notably the lack of inspiring cliffhangers.  In the last chapter, I thought Phil Corrigan was going to be barbecued in the burning lake he was trapped in but he walks away from it without so much as a by-your-leave.  He ambles back down the road to the internment camp, where he meets back up with Ah Fong and Lynn Moore:

 

CORRIGAN: Well!  I didn’t think you’d still be here waiting for me…

 

AH FONG: We almost gave you up…

 

LYNN: Nabura’s men came by about an hour ago—one of them in my car…

 

CORRIGAN: Yeah, I figured they’d bring your car back in…I couldn’t get back to it…

 

AH FONG: Were you successful?

 

CORRIGAN: I don’t know any more than I did before…I’ve gotta become Phil Corrigan again, but I’ll need some money to pay Kamber’s head tax…uh, and I purposely sent my identification papers to Australia…

 

AH FONG: Uh, pardon—but one thing at a time…now. Lynn can get through to Australia for you…I can hide you, and then while you’re still…

 

CORRIGAN (interrupting): And while I’m waiting to hear from Australia, I’ll be arranging a welcome for Mr. Drag Dorgan…and a little surprise for Tokyo, huh?

 

I have to get Steve at Blog D’Elisson a copy of this serial, by the way—he’d have a field day counting all of Bridges’ “huh’s” in this one.  (Though for my money, you could start a nifty drinking game by downing a beer every time Victoria Horne’s Nabura says “Ah so…”)  But back to the proceedings: Nabura’s goons inform her that Corrigan has gone on to meet his maker (or so they think) but because they drove Lynn’s car back from the lake, suspicion has fallen on “Miss Australia” in that she may not be what she seems.  Kapitan Grut discusses this with his stooge Yogl (the ever-present Gene Roth), who, as someone at the IMDb points out, does look like a train conductor in his Nazi uniform:

 

YODL: Do you think, sir, that Miss Moore is a secret agent…instead of merely a traitor?

 

GRUT: Never trust a traitor, Yodl…if Miss Moore has been tricking us, Korakaga’s in a position to know…

 

YODL: And if she is a counterspy?

 

GRUT: She’ll be taken out to sea and shot out of a torpedo tube…

 

Nyahh!!!  I’ll say one thing for those Nazis—they don’t mess around, boy.  Later, when Lynn is brought aboard the sub for another one of her propaganda speeches:

 

KORAKAGA: I think it might be a good idea if I examine what you’ve written…it is impossible for me to detect a hidden code just by listening to your broadcast…

 

LYNN: If I had been in your place, Captain Korakaga—and you in mine—I would have looked for a hidden code long ago…

 

Korakaga is unable to find any kind of hanky panky in Lynn’s speech, and so she is effectively left off the hook.  The decision is also made by Nabura and Grut to allow Dorgan to go free in order for him to lead the Axis agents to the trail of his “confederate.”  Dorgan saunters back into the House of Shadows, and is slipped the following note by Ah Fong: “If you want a chance at something really big, go to Dupray’s hotel and ask Papa Pierre to see the man in Room #4.”

 

So Dorgan ambles on over to the 4-star establishment known as Hotel Dupray, owned and operated by “Mama Pierre” Dupray (Ann Codee) and her “lazy, good-for-nothing” spouse (Ferdinand Munier):

 

PAPA PIERRE: Zut!  You, Dorgan—what you want?

 

DORGAN: You got a man staying here…

 

PAPA PIERRE: You hear, Mama?  We’ve got a man staying here…

 

MAMA PIERRE: Hmm…ask him which one…

 

PAPA PIERRE (to Dorgan): You heard her…

 

DORGAN: Room four…

 

PAPA PIERRE: Voila!  Down the hall…

 

Papa Pierre, of course, has to use expressions like “Zut” and “Voila” because otherwise we might think he’s Swiss (that way they don’t offend anybody)…but he’s definitely up to no good, because he sneaks back upstairs to his office and listens in on the conversation (via a pot-bellied stove) between Dorgan and the mysterious man in Room Four…Secret Agent X-9:

 

CORRIGAN: You wrote a letter to Jack Roberts telling him where to pick up a package…and asking him to bring it to you…

 

DORGAN: How do you know about Roberts?

 

CORRIGAN: We got together on board the Swanson before she was torpedoed…he died saving me…

 

DORGAN: And the package?

 

CORRIGAN: Went down with the Swanson…

 

DORGAN: Did Roberts know what was in that package?

 

CORRIGAN: No, he didn’t…but he said you know…that’s what I want you to tell me…

 

Dorgan claims not to know, but promises to introduce Corrigan to the man who does.  Unfortunately, Dorgan’s zeal for patriotism doesn’t quite match that of his late friend Mr. Roberts—as it turns out, he’s tipped Nabura off to the fact that Corrigan is still very much alive:

 

DORGAN: Corrigan ain’t dangerous, Nabura…he don’t know nothin’…

 

NABURA: Are you sure?

 

DORGAN: Yeah!

 

NABURA: Then how would you like to make a thousand dollars?

 

DORGAN: How?  Getting rid of Corrigan?

 

NABURA (coldly): Yes…but so cleverly that no one can even suspect…

 

Then, as an afterthought, Nabura realizes that “cleverly” is not a word one normally associates with the hard-luck Dorgan, and instructs her henchman Takahari to follow both Dorgan and X-9.  “If anything goes wrong,” she hisses, “kill them both!”  Dorgan takes Corrigan to an out-of-the-way house to supposedly meet the individual with the information on the package—but it’s just a ruse to try and kill the agent with a well-thrown knife.  However, Corrigan might have been born at night—but it wasn’t last night; he trailed Dorgan after their initial meeting and discovered that he was working alongside the treacherous Nabura.  Trapped like a rat, Dorgan agrees to spill his guts…but Takahari does that for him, felling him with a bullet.  Corrigan chases after the henchman, but Takahari manages to get away and report back to his boss:

 

NABURA: Failing to discourage X-9 this time was less important than silencing Dorgan…

 

TAKAHARI: But X-9 himself mentioned “722”—where did he learn that number?

 

NABURA: I must find out…perhaps he knows more about our secret than we thought…it is better X-9 escaped…

 

TAKAHARI: X-9 must be made to talk—but how, please?

 

NABURA: With the help of Lucky Kamber…I think the convenient laws of Shadow Island may prove useful…

 

The “convenient” laws of Kamber’s “business” are proving to be a hindrance for our man Corrigan—without money to pay the “head tax,” he’s walking around with a target on his back.  He’s trying to plead his case to Lucky, but their conversation is interrupted by Nabura:

 

NABURA: I am your greatest admirer, Mr. Corrigan…but this time I underestimated you…

 

KAMBER: What are you two talking about?

 

NABURA: I presume he has made some arrangement to pay protection?

 

KAMBER: Yes…with a twenty-four hour deadline…

 

NABURA: Ah so…credit, Mr. Corrigan—is not as good as cash…

 

CORRIGAN: But good enough to stop you, Nabura…

 

Ah so…hell, she’s got me doing it now.  Exiting the office, Corrigan informs Lynn that Nabura is putting the squeeze on him (after he left, she reminds Kamber that Japan protects the neutrality of Shadow Island) and Lynn gives him a lottery ticket that’s “a sure winner.”  With the ticket is a note: “Your credentials and money will be dropped from Australian plane ten o’clock tonight at Shadow Peak.”

 

That night, Ah Fong arranges for Corrigan’s transportation to the drop zone—but he also follows along at Lynn’s insistence to act as sort of a “rear guard.”  Sure enough, Corrigan is dropped off at the predestined spot and picks up the package—but Nabura’s man Bach was following along with a truck driver (ace stuntman Dale Van Sickel) and the two of them gang up on Corrigan to beat the snot out of him.  The driver picks up the package dropped by X-9 during his pummeling and heads for the hills—fortunately, Ah Fong pulls up in his car in time for Corrigan to hop on the running board and follow the driver.  Corrigan gets close enough to jump into the driver’s truck…there’s a fight behind the wheel…and the truck crashes a guardrail and plummets off a cliff…

 

Tomorrow’s thrilling chapter: “Floodlight Murder!”