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The Spider's Web

The Spider's Web
The Spider's Web.jpg
Directed by James W. Horne
Ray Taylor
Produced by Irving Briskin
Jack Fier
Written by Robert E. Kent
George H. Plympton
Basil Dickey
Mart Ramson
Norvell Page (pulp)
Starring Warren Hull
Iris Meredith
Richard Fiske
Kenne Duncan
Forbes Murray
Don Douglas
Marc Lawrence
Music by Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Sidney Cutner
Cinematography Allen G. Siegler
Edited by Richard Fantl
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • October 10, 1938 (1938-10-10)
Running time
15 chapters
Country United States
Language English

The Spider's Web is a 1938 Columbia Pictures movie serial based on the popular pulp magazine character The Spider. The first episode of this 15-chapter serial was double-length and directed by serial and western specialist Ray Taylor and by comedy and serial veteran James W. Horne; it was the fifth of the 57 serials released by Columbia.

The serial was wildly successful when first released in 1938; it was the most popular serial of that year, according to a tally published in The Motion Picture Herald, and was such an exhibitor favorite that Columbia used it to launch a series of reissues in 1947. A sequel, The Spider Returns, was released in 1941; of the Spider's Web principal actors, only Warren Hull and Kenne Duncan returned in their original roles for the sequel.

"The Octopus," a masked crime lord, is bent on crippling America with a wave of terror. He demands tribute from railroad magnates and other captains of industry. Richard Wentworth (Warren Hull), an amateur criminologist who is friendly with the police and is secretly "The Spider," a masked vigilante, is equally determined to destroy the Octopus and his gang. Pleasant and smiling in civilian life, Wentworth is frequently ruthless as The Spider, using his two .45 semi-automatic pistols against any public enemies who attack him.

Wentworth also masquerades as affable underworld lowlife Blinky McQuade. Disguised as McQuade, Wentworth can infiltrate gangland as a hired gun or getaway-car driver and keep current on the mob's illegal activities.

The only people who know Wentworth's various identities are his assistants Jackson (Richard Fiske) and Ram Singh (Kenne Duncan), his butler Jenkins (Don Douglas), and his fiancée Nita (Iris Meredith).

The Octopus was a pulp villain written by Norvell Page, who also wrote most of The Spider pulp novels. He is garbed completely in white and is only ever seen by his henchmen while sitting in his throne-like chair. Unlike the pulps, where The Spider is dressed in an all black cape, mask, suit, and wide-brimmed fedora, in the serial he is garbed in a black suit and fedora, but with white web-like markings on his lightweight cape and full face mask. The serial follows the standard formula of fights, shoot-outs, Wentworth's friends being kidnapped at various times and needing to be rescued. Each chapter ends with The Spider or his friends in deep trouble, often about to be killed, but the effect is spoiled by a trailer for the next episode which follows, showing them rescued and continuing to fight the villains. The secret headquarters of The Octopus is found by The Spider in the final chapter; he has unwittingly given himself away to Wentworth and realizing this, Wentworth must now die; but as The Spider, Wentworth is triumphant in the end, unmasking The Octopus and ending his national reign of terror.


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