It' is little known that Charles Quigley who plays the professor/criminologist here was the first recurring leading man of Rita Hayworth when she was starring in hour long programmers at Columbia in the late 1930's. They appeared in nearly half a dozen of these little seen films before she went into stardom and he continued on in B films until starring in the serial "The Crimson Ghost" of which this is the edited TV version of. You get all the major parts here minus the ending of the episode and the following week's beginning to where you might be tempted to turn into Kathy Bates in "Misery" where, as Annie Wilkes, she shouted "He never got out of the cockadoody car!"

Certainly there are several instances in this film where you see that possibility, and if you gauge every 15 to 20 minutes, you'll see where the cliffhanger was. Okay Warehouse it's easy to see why audiences were frustrated with cereals because it was often up to 20 weeks of cliffhangers and frustrating conclusions that led to nothing and it took forever to find out what happened to the bad guy. The Crimson Ghost is another one of many masks villains, wearing a skeleton hood as he tries to get a whole of a contraption that he can use to sell to enemy countries.

Linda Stirling and Clayton Moore co-star, with Stirling constantly in danger whether flying a plane controlled by the ghostly masked villain or wearing a mind control neck brace which if removed improperly could cause instant death. So at 100 minutes, you get a lot of action, a lot of it silly and absurd, but it's fun as a time passer and definitely a grab onto the seat nail biter. Expect a lot of red herrings as you wait for the revelation of who the Crimson Ghost is. Even the credits do not reveal who is providing their voice so you do not know even by researching unless you look at plot synopsis. So grin and bear the ridiculous parts and enjoy the fun non-stop action. It's not a brain taxer.

"Cyclotrode X" was originally a movie serial back in 1946. Then, two decades later, they chopped the serial down by one hour and made it into a full-length film. Considering that the serials were never meant to be seen all at once, this idea makes sense because seeing all 11 or 12 or 15 chapters one after another is incredibly boring-- with lots of repetition. This was actually done with a lot of serials and if you insist on watching one (they are all pretty bad actually),this is the way to do it.

This is pretty much what you'd expect--a silly baddie and an indestructible hero. In this case, the baddie is a masked guy who calls himself 'The Crimson Ghost' and it is funny how many of these old serials featured villains wearing elaborate disguises...as if they're headed to a costume party (such as 'The Scorpion' in "The Adventures of Captain Marvel"). The hero is played by Charles Quigly...someone we've never seen much since. His job is to stop The Crimson Ghost from stealing the Cyclotrode X--a top-secret device to prevent nuclear attacks. And, like a typical serial, there is LOTS of action and not a lot of brilliant dialog. And, like most serials, they COULD simply use guns and shoot each other but inexplicably it almost always ends up with Quigley and some baddies getting into fist fights! There are also innumerable shots of folks jumping out of cars just before they careen off the road and explode! One interesting gimmick in the film is that the villain uses mind-control drugs and an exploding necklace to kill his henchmen if they fail him! Overall, it's a silly film--best seen and enjoyed by children and folks who don't mind the mindlessness of a typical serial...and they are incredibly silly.

FYI--The image of The Crimson Ghost was used later as the symbol on The Misfits albums and t-shirts.

I had actually forgotten about this movie. But, how I do not understand, because in the wee hours of the morning over 30 years ago, I was thoroughly amused by this amazingly awful movie. They took an old series of cliffhangers and edited them into what must be simply the worst movie ever created. The acting, if you can call it that, is way beyond pathetic. I am not certain there actually was a director involved and I think they made the lines up as they went along. However, it is the special effects that make this movie one of the all time worst. The Cyclotrode X (okay there must have been a really bad writer involved to have developed this name for such a deadly world threatening machine) is a modern day wonder. It must have taken at least 15 minutes to devise this fiendish device. For the aficionado of truly bad movies, this is a must see.