Mysterious Doctor Satan Movie Review

This 15-episode chapter play is the second and last Republic serial to give the actor playing the villain top billing, and rightly so, for Edward (Eduardo) Ciannelli, best known for his role as a crazed high priest in the 1939 Gunga Din, is quite wonderful as the snarling madman planning to conquer the world with an army of robots (although Doctor Satan only manages to get one built and employed for the entire running time!). Originally based on a script called “The Adventures of Superman,” it had to be rewritten when legal rights to the Man of Steel couldn't be obtained. Reporter Lois Lane was turned into columnist Lois Scott, and Superman/Clark Kent transforms into the very mortal Bob Wayne (Robert Wilcox) who dons a chain-mail head mask to become the Copperhead and gets into one predicament after another as each episode reaches its climactic scene. Dorothy Herbert, a trick circus horseback rider, acts as a secretary and does some amazing stunts in episodes 1 and 8.

1940 250m/B Eduardo Ciannelli, Robert Wilcox, Ella Neal, Dorothy Herbert; D: William Witney. VHS REP, VCN, MLB