Holt of the Secret Service

HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE became the poster boy for Columbia serials in 1970, after the copyright lapsed and the film became the first of the studio’s cliffhangers to become widely available. This serial single-handedly sealed director James Horne’s reputation for his tongue-in-cheek approach, illogical fight scenes, and devil-may-care style. Horne’s other dizzy serials have since become available, revealing that HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE is actually more restrained than usual for Horne. Something's always happening in this one, and it's such a crazy quilt of action scenes that both the locale and the supporting players actually change two-thirds into the serial – the venues changing according to the available Columbia standing sets -- and certain characters and plot points are forgotten along the way. But most of the action is firmly in the hands of rock-jawed, two-fisted Jack Holt, who makes this serial worth seeing.Holt, the grand old man of Columbia action features since the silent days, had clashed with studio head Harry Cohn, who promptly assigned Holt to this lowbrow serial adventure. Whatever Holt's private feelings were, he gives a professional performance as a Secret Service investigator on the trail of counterfeiters. Posing as an underworld type, he delivers dialogue with a cynical smirk or a disgusted sneer, and he has to be the toughest guy in serials. You'll lose count of the fistfights Holt has during the course of his mission; he usually has to subdue four guys at a time. One of the brawls has the panache of a Popeye the Sailor cartoon, with Holt chopping each guy down with one punch and piling them up on the floor like cordwood! The plot, such as it is, is essentially a running cops-and-robbers chase, as a precious set of engraved counterfeit plates keeps changing hands. Holt is great fun to watch and he dominates every chapter.Jack Holt was no youth at the time (age 52) and required a more mature, worldly vis-a-vis instead of the usual helpless heroine. Evelyn Brent, another former silent-film star, was ideally cast as Holt's associate agent. During the serial they pose as man and wife, sometimes bickering and backtalking, which is a refreshing change for serial heroes (and Holt even has a drunk scene!).Columbia serials often feature many of its resident character actors, but not this time. Producer Larry Darmour avoided casting his usual serial gang in an attempt to give this effort more of a feature-film look. The young Tristram Coffin is the only “name” bad guy of note until he is written out at the two-thirds point. Serial stalwarts Stanley Blystone, George Chesebro, and Stanley Price take over the villainy when the scene shifts to a remote island. Another silent-era Columbia player, Walter McGrail, also steps in at this point.This serial is available from many sources, in variable quality. The Alpha Video version is acceptable as a “budget” DVD-R; each chapter begins abruptly because the Columbia logo has been removed, the picture quality is on the gray side, and the 15 chapters are crammed onto one disc. The two-disc Serial Squadron edition, also on DVD-R, restores the Columbia logo and has better definition and contrast. The VCI edition has two pressed (silver) discs; this is the best version going, with improved gray scale and contrast. All three versions are taken from 16mm Screen Gems television prints.All in all, par for Columbia and above par for Horne, and five hours of fun with Jack Holt.

"Holt of the Secret Service" is a 15-chapter Columbia serial released in 1941, starring Jack Holt and directed by James W. Horne. The screenplay was by Basil Dickey, George Plympton and Wyndham Gittens.The plot involves an attempt by the Secret Service to bust a ring of counterfeiters by having agent Jack Holt infiltrate the gang, posing as an escaped convict named Nick Farrell and aided by his "wife," another agent, Kay Drew (Evelyn Brent). The counterfeiters have abducted a government engraver, John Severn (Ray Parsons) to make plates from which counterfeit bills can be made that are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. The plan is to catch the head of the counterfeiting ring with the plates, but Holt's identity keeps getting discovered.While lacking the polish and pacing of Republic's serials, the writers managed to keep things stirred up pretty well for 15 chapters, and unlike many Columbia serials directed by Horne, the attempts at humor don't overwhelm the plot. The bad guys, while not especially bright, don't seem to be trying to win a prize for bungling. Holt gets into a lot of spurious fist fights with his supposed partners to show how tough he is, but it isn't terribly disruptive, and there aren't any "comic relief" characters. Evelyn Brent does some whining, but it is well-within her role and she gets directly involved in the action. Our heroic pair gets support from Secret Service chief John W. Malloy (C. Montague Shaw) and agent Jim Layton (Edward Hearn). John Ward, as 'Lucky' Arnold, leader of the counterfeiters, is decidedly low-key, but he is supposed to be in the background, and has his underling Quist (Ted Adams) act as the boss. They operate a floating casino, outside the twelve-mile limit, aiding the exchange of bogus for real money. The counterfeit is brought in from their land-based hideout by Ed Valdin (Tristram Coffin). There is a rival gangster, 'Crimp' Evans (Joe McGuinn) and things really get confused in the later chapters when they head to an island run by a would-be dictator named Garrity (Stanley Blystone). Well-known 'B' and serial-movie henchmen abound, including George Chesebro, Guy Kingsford, Pierce Lyden, George Magrill, Jack Perrin, Stanley Price, Constantine Romanoff, Buddy Roosevelt and Dale Van Sickel. That the original plan of using the plates to catch the Big Boss evolves into the more-conventional "who's got the plates?" routine is a little unfortunate, but the chase maintains interest, at least in the usual serial-movie dose of one chapter at a time, with a day or more between them. Lee Zahler's musical score provides good support, more insistent than pulse-pounding, but well matched to the methodical pursuit of the gang by the Secret Service.VCI's edition, # 8411 is on two DVD's, the first of them double-layer, needed to properly fit all 15-chapters of the serial, which run a total of 280 minutes. While sharp enough for normal viewing, a slight softness toward the edges of the screen suggests the film source was a 16mm reduction print, and made for television since "Screen Gems" titles replace the usual ones advertising the next chapter. Knox Manning's spoken "teasers" for the following chapters have "Next Week" rather noisily spliced out of them. The image has good gray scale and is well-framed, without cutting off any of the introductory text, and is clean enough during the chapters. While not much of a problem the opening titles have a little "white dirt" from the negative. VCI used a copy-protection scheme which on some monitors may cause a slight bending at the top of the screen, though it usually isn't noticed except in the titles. The sound is good, with only low-level background noise, though a few chapters have a small amount of flutter and, as with many old Columbia serials, minor distortion, both noticed mostly in low frequency components of the main-title music. The dialogue is clear, with no obvious artifacts from "noise reduction" techniques and free of glitches due to film splices.The "extras" on the first disc are "biographies" of Jack Holt, Evelyn Brent, Tristram Coffin, and James W. Horne, and "Classic Cliffhangers," which is an advertisement for other serials available from VCI, with brief excerpts from trailers superimposed with pictures of VCI's DVD packages. Of far more interest, disc 2 has four full serial movie trailers for Columbia serials "The Secret Code" (1942), Superman" (1948), "The Great Adventures of Captain Kidd" (1953) and "The Vigilante" (1947).This is a good serial for Columbia, with restrained humor, for once, from director James W. Horne. VCI has done an excellent job of transferring it to DVD and making it available at a reasonable price.

Hawk-faced Jack Holt may be the toughest screen good guy of all time. With nerves of steel and fists of iron, Holt takes on crowds of villains and always manages to come out the winner. HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE features 15 chapters of breathtaking action that starts immediately in episode #1 and never lets up for a second!THE STORY:Agent Jack Holt and his partner Evelyn Brent infiltrate a counterfeiting gang that's kidnapped a government engraver and are producing undetectable bogus money.THE CAST;Jack Holt - Jack Holt (aka Nick Farrel)Evelyn Brent - Kay Drew, R49 (aka Mrs. Farrel)C. Montague Shaw - Chief John W. MalloyTristram Coffin - Ed Valdin [Chs. 1-10]John Ward - 'Lucky' ArnoldTed Adams - QuistJoe McGuinn - 'Crimp' EvansEdward Hearn - Agent Jim LaytonTRIVIA:Jack Holt's cinematic career began with a series of silent screen Zane Grey westerns. He was one of the few stars of that era to make a successful transition when "talkies" arrived in the late 1920s.Leads Jack Holt and Evelyn Brent wear the same clothes for all 15 chapters! (Can you say: "major dry cleaning bill"?)Director James Horne previously worked with Laurel & Hardy. He was notorious for injecting humorous moments into serials he supervised..Once considered "lost," the newly restored  SECRET AGENT X-9 (1937)  is one of the finest movie serials of any era.

UNABLE TO VIEW THIS AS THIS WILL NOT PLAY ON MY DVD PLAYER OR BLUE RAY

Boyhood days of Cinema ,cheap to get in and wonder what would happen next week.so siomple to get carried away to follow the story...

Good old story.