Excellent espionage last night in "David Harding, Counterspy"(1950), based on a radio show of the same name and told in flashback by the man himself, as played by Howard St. John. Harding is the no-nonsense chief of a never named counterintelligence agency that resembles the CIA or OSS. It's wartime. Someone is stealing secrets from the Molina Manufacturing Plant in San Diego, which makes torpedoes for the Navy, and - doggone it all! - the torps are now failing at an alarming rate because of faulty machining. Damn those torpedoes! (You knew I had to work that in). Some interesting technical details are presented here, such as: if a part is machined even one millionth of an inch imprecisely, it can cause failure. Who knew that machinists, or their tools, were capable of millionth-of-an-inch precision? There's brief stock footage inside the plant, with torpedoes coming off the assembly line.
Chief Harding orders 55 hidden cameras to be installed at every angle, not only on the assembly floor but in offices, hallways, and the effort pays off. A draftsman is captured on film adjusting his hearing aid, which Harding suspects may be a spy camera. Turns out it's not, but his suspicion leads to another discovery. The case gathers steam when a Navy Captain named Iverson (not shown onscreen) is found dead in bed from a cigarette fire. Harding believes he was murdered because he'd discovered the spy ring. He assigns Lt. Commander "Jerry Baldwin" (Willard Parker), a friend of Iverson's, to replace him and investigate undercover. To create a romantic triangle, the filmmakers include the deceased man's wife as Commander Baldwin's love interest. She becomes his secretary at Molina.
The hearing aid guy is still the main suspect, until Baldwin has reason to target someone else. What really makes this film top notch is the realistic portrayal of counterintelligence tactics, including the covert tailing of suspects, the "protection" of friendlies, and the advanced technology available even in 1950. They've got infrared lighting to "invisibly" see inside buildings, a forerunner of thermal-based night vision.
All kinds of shadowy characters flit in and out, including an irritable bartender specializing in watered-down drinks and a gate-crashing shirt salesman. How did he get onto Defense Department property?
The whole show revolves around Chief Harding, who only has to push a button on his intercom to have any number of assistants appear at a moment's notice. There are stakeouts, car chases, and punchouts (of course). This may be one of the top five "jam packed" scripts for a 70 minuter. It's so packed, that one break-in by the enemy spies, at a military brig at San Diego Naval Air Station, just "happens" with no explanation or prior context. You kind of have to let it float; it's one bump in an otherwise seamless shcript. Great stuff overall and realistic, as mentioned. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "David Harding, Counterspy". The picture is very good. ////
The previous night we began another chapter serial, "The Invisible Monster"(1950), in which a megalomaniacal "Phantom Ruler" (Stanley Price) has recruited a group of untraceable foreigners to form an "invisible" army. The men have been brought to America for their expertise, in locksmithing, electrical engineering, radiology, metallurgy, you get the idea. They assemble in an underground lab at the direction of a henchman. Wondering who (and where) the boss is, an empty chair is shown behind a table, except...it's not empty! A Voice is heard from the chair: "Do not worry, gentlemen. I am here, your Phantom Ruler. I am not really invisible." He then appears, after a spotlight is turned off, wearing an all black leotard with a fencing hood w/facial netting. We barely see his face as he explains how the invisibility works. "I've invented a coating for my suit that renders me invisible under the infrared light. As you can see, I'm a real human being, but I appear invisible, and you will too, as my army."
The first thing The Phantom does is have his army rob a bank, after getting the locksmith a job there. He's apparently got some good connections in the real world because they hire the guy on his suggestion, then the guy picks the lock and they steal the money to finance further chaos. Special Agent "Lane Carson" (Richard Webb) and his capable Gal Friday "Carol Richards" (Aline Towne), who's way ahead of him in the investigation, chase the gang to a mansion in Woodland Hills (it looks like its off Mulholland). Punchouts ensue - fistfights are the bread and butter of serials - and, as usual, they go on too long, but there's a ton of good stuff here. Plucky Carol Rogers, a reporter, can handle her own in a shootout, or a car chase, and she bails out Agent Carson again and again. If he started out a chauvinist, he's now glad she's got his back.
It seems The Phantom and his Invisible Army have much bigger plans than robbing banks, but we'll have to wait for Chapter Two to find out. So far, it rates Two Bigs but that could easily increase to Two Huge if the plot develops as expected. We haven't had a bad Republic serial yet and most have been great. The picture on this one is razor sharp, and it's highly recommended. ////
That's all for this eve. We'll get back to 1989 soon, because it's kind of like doing homework for our next book, but in other writing news, in between working on the final drafts of my two current books (as mentioned in the last blog), I'm also editing a short story I wrote in 2009. It's about 35 pages long. I'm thinking about putting it up on Amazon, maybe just for 5 bucks (or less), just to introduce myself. I really need an adviser about all this stuff, how to get started publishing, and I have several more short stories totaling about 150 pages, also written in 2009 before I became Pearl's caregiver, that are going to be combined and expanded upon for my fourth book. This is what I want to do now - write - and I've got it all scheduled in advance. By mentioning it, I'm forcing myself to "put up or shut up", in other words to get the doggone things out into the world or risk making it an "all talk" proposition. Writing is the easy part. Editing is slightly harder, and - for me - the publishing will be the hardest, simply because I don't have a head for business, or the knowledge of how it's done. Anyhow - short stories, come and get 'em.
My blogging music tonight is "Low" by David Bowie. My late night is Handel's Agrippina Opera. I hope you're having a nice week and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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