Sketchin’ 73

Released in 1942, Spy Smasher is a serial based on a then very popular comic book series by the same name.  Which goes to show, some of the comic book characters so popular today in film might one day be, for the most part, forgotten.

I personally loved this serial and watched all three and a half hours of it a number of years ago.  It was remarkably brisk, full of adventure/fistfights/car chases and seemed to never let up, even if the story’s logic wasn’t… er… very logical.

One of the more amusing things about watching it in one sitting was that after a while I realized the film’s makers were using the same city blocks for much of their outdoor action, and because the serial was as long as it was, I began to get an understanding of the layout of these city blocks.

So much so that in a later episode, our heroes are filmed from street level rushing out of a building, running down the steps and to a waiting car, then driving away at full speed.  Then they come to a screeching halt before another building and rush out…

Only by that point I knew the building they just arrived at lay directly across the street from the building they emerged from!

Fun times…! 😉