The Crimson Ghost

Source of the Skull face that was stolen by Glenn Danzig for one of his band The Misfits album covers and t-shirts. The serial itself is so over the top in images and ideas that its become the source of a minor cult and is one of the few non-Flash Gordon serials that my non-serial fan friends know about.

The plot has a scientist creating a machine called a "cyclotrode" which will stop atomic missiles from working. It will also stop other things which is why a skull clad villain known as the Crimson Ghost wants it.

This action filled serial is a great deal of fun thanks to one of the silliest looking villains in movie history. Taking the idea of a masked bad guy and placing it into the realm of camp you can't help but watch the craziness that ensues. The mask looks great but you can't believe anyone would actually listen to a guy in a mask like that. Helping things along is dialog that is unintentionally silly thanks to the passage of time(The heroine is given a diaphragm from which her orders will come). It plays like the old Batman TV show but with better action and with out the knowing wink to the audience. Frankly if it wasn't so unintentionally silly you would never have heard of this serial or seen its iconic villain, even if it was pretty good on its own terms.

Definitely worth a look, after all it isn't often you get to see Clayton "the Lone Ranger" Moore as a bad guy.