The Spider Returns
The Spider returns to battle the Gargoyle in a 1941 serial sequel.
The Spider Returns is a 1941 Columbia movie serial consisting of 15 chapters, based on the pulp magazine character The Spider. It was the fourteenth serial out of 57 produced by Columbia and serves as a sequel to their 1938 serial The Spider's Web. The first chapter runs 32 minutes, and the remaining 14 are each about 17 minutes long.
The story follows amateur criminologist Richard Wentworth, who formerly operated as the masked vigilante The Spider. He brings his alter ego out of retirement to assist his friend, police commissioner Kirk, in stopping a dangerous, power-hungry criminal known as the Gargoyle. This mysterious crime lord and his henchmen threaten national security through acts of sabotage and murder. Wentworth’s identity is known only to his close circle: his girlfriend Nita, his assistants Jackson and Ram Singh, and his butler Jenkins. In addition to appearing as The Spider, Wentworth also disguises himself as the affable lowlife Blinky McQuade to gather information from the underworld.
The stunt performers included Chuck Hamilton, George Magrill, Ken Terrell, and Dale Van Sickel.
Columbia used the original serial *The Spider's Web* as a template for many of its early serials, featuring a daring hero and his assistants in disguises battling an exotic, secretive villain. In *The Spider Returns*, the Gargoyle wears robes reminiscent of Flash Gordon’s nemesis Ming the Merciless. Both serials gave the Spider a distinctive costume: a black cape and head mask over-printed with a white spider’s web pattern, paired with a plain black fedora. This made the screen version look more like a traditional superhero and less like The Shadow, another pulp hero Columbia had adapted.
James W. Horne, who co-directed the 1938 serial with Ray Taylor, directed this sequel alone. By 1941, Horne was known for tongue-in-cheek melodramatics, ludicrous fight scenes where the hero defeats six or more men, and ridiculous machines. Some action fans dismiss *The Spider Returns* as inferior, but others consider it one of Horne’s best and a worthy sequel. The Spider does take on multiple henchmen at once, but he doesn’t always win cleanly. Horne keeps the action fairly straight until the last chapter, which includes obvious humor, such as two exhausted henchmen swinging weakly at each other and collapsing.
The screenplay follows a typical serial formula with fistfights, gun
- Release Year
- 1941
- Studio
- Columbia Pictures
- Chapters
- 15
- Director
- James W. Horne
- Lead Actor
- Warren Hull
- Serial Number
- 14th of 57 Columbia serials
- Running Time
- First episode 32 minutes; others approx. 17 minutes each
Lore & Background
The Spider Returns was directed solely by James W. Horne, who had co-directed the 1938 serial The Spider's Web with Ray Taylor. By this time, Horne was filling his serials with tongue-in-cheek melodramatics, ludicrous fight scenes in which the hero fights six or more men and wins, and ridiculous-looking machines. The action-filled screenplay employs a typical serial formula of fistfights, gun battles, explosions, car chases, secret weapons, death traps, and hairbreadth escapes as the Gargoyle tries to steal top secret plans. The Spider serials are unique in that the Spider is also sought by the police with the same vigor that he is sought by criminals. One difference from the first serial is that the police are not aware that Wentworth goes undercover in disguise as petty criminal Blinky McQuade and do not knowingly cooperate with him in that guise.
Reader's Guide
The Spider Returns is often considered by action fans as an inferior serial, but others regard it as one of Horne's best and a worthy sequel. The serial features a dramatic wardrobe enhancement to the Spider's original magazine appearance: his simple black cape and head mask are over-printed with a white spider's web pattern and matched with his usual plain black fedora. This striking addition gave the silver screen Spider an appearance more like that of a traditional superhero. Only three of the main participants from The Spider's Web (Warren Hull, Kenne Duncan, and Dave O'Brien) appear in this sequel. When Columbia began reissuing old serials in 1947, The Spider's Web and The Spider Returns were the first two to be revived. Although not released in the UK as a serial, a feature version of about 80 minutes running time appeared there in 1943.
Did You Know?
- The Spider Returns was the fourteenth of 57 serials released by Columbia Pictures.
- The Gargoyle's robes were noted as resembling those worn by Flash Gordon's nemesis Ming the Merciless.
- Dave O'Brien, who performed stunts in The Spider's Web, appears as a full-fledged second lead playing Wentworth's assistant Jackson.
- A feature version of about 80 minutes running time was released in the UK in 1943, though the serial itself was not released there.
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