Federal Operator 99 (1945)

Wonderful Movie

Truly Dreadful Film

Just perfect...

i must have seen a different film!!

In it's good days (1937 to 1947), the Republic serials were everything that kids wanted to see in the theaters. A good hero, a dastardly villain, lots of bad guys supporting the second and standing in the way of the first (which means lots of fights) and, eventually, a good or bad girl to show that this was not an all man's territory.Near the end of the good days, they produced this action-packed feature. In the first scene in which the villain appears, there's a murder. In the first scene the hero appears, he rescue the good girl from the clutches of the bad one and kills (in self defense) a thug. And so it starts the fight between both parties; in the evil corner, plotting schemes to gain money by illicit ways... Jim Belmnont and Rita Parker (played by George J. Lewis and Adrian Booth, both had worked in other serials as members of the good party)! And in the corner of the law, trying to stop their plots... Jerry Blake and Joyce Kingston (pity that was Marten Lamont only serial - he did worked in two others serials years before but his roles were so minor that he was uncredited - while Helen Talbot would be the only female interest in 1946's King of the Forest Rangers)!Simple like that. But how they did manage to create inventive cliffhangers between each 'Case' (as the episode are named), to have good fights and tie it all in twelve episodes. One of the best they made!

Federal Operator 99 has some of the best fight and actions scenes from any of the Republic serials of the era. This is an excellent example of using sound stages as "warehouses" with almost no props to stage a two and three level fight scene. Both Tom Steele and Dale Van Sickle are at the height of their athletic ability in this serial that stars a realatively unknown, Marten Lamont. The chapter endings, however, are among some of the weakest and contrived by the Republic studios. It is hard to accept some of them given it is a serial.

This wonderful serial is from the Republic Studios heyday, 1937-1947, full of director Spencer Gordon Bennet's fantastically designed fistfights, and imaginative chapter endings. But the best things about this one are the excellent performances by everyone involved. Marten Lamont, who portrays the title character, gets much "into" his role and gives a much more animated performance than a lot of other serial heroes. I wish he had done more serials, but probably Republic decided that his charming British accent was too out of place. Lamont can be seen in small roles in Alfred Hitchcock's FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT and John Ford's HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY.Helen Talbot, who played in hundreds of Republic B-Westerns opposite stars such as Don "Red" Barry and Allan "Rocky" Lane, is a very likeable heroine, and gets herself into a lot of nasty situations, although she is probably one of the only serial heroines to never get knocked unconcious in the course of the whole serial.As for the bad guys, George J. Lewis gives his greatest serial performance as the suave, urbane, music-loving master criminal Jim Belmont. Although Lewis did lots of other serials, this was his only part as a "brains" heavy, and he gives it everything he's got.Equally impressive is the talented Lorna Grey, as Belmont's henchwoman, Rita Parker. Miss Grey is almost as nasty in her portrayal of Rita as she was as Vultura in NYOKA AND THE TIGERMEN, three years earlier. And yet, in several other serials, she played the heroine, and just recently I saw her in a old Three Stooges short on AMC, as the scatter-brained wife of a wealthy tycoon. Truly a versatile actress!As for the supporting cast, Hal Taliferro, as Belmont's chief gunman, is a typically tough and stupid "action" heavy. Ernie Adams has an entertaning bit as a reporter, and all of Republic's stuntmen pop up as assorted hoods, more than once. But the crowning performances are by Lamont and Lewis, both in brief moments of glory.

Good, solid thriller-diller from Republic. Lamont is effective, but why is this English-accented guy working for the US government? Helen Talbot is GORGEOUS, and Lorna Gray as the bad girl is not far behind. George J. Lewis gets a chance to be the "brains" bad guy, and does it well, but after five or six chapters you get plenty sick of his constantly playing the Moonlight Sonata (don't you know ANYTHING else?). Wally Wales is an adequate lantern-jawed henchman, and all of Republic's best stuntmen show up more than once, usually after being killed off earlier, to bust up the furniture in a slugfest. All in all, a fun romp!