The Purple Monster Strikes

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The Purple Monster Strikes
Directed by	Spencer Gordon Bennet Fred C. Brannon
Produced by	Ronald Davidson
Written by	Royal Cole Albert DeMond Basil Dickey Lynn Perkins Joseph Poland Barney Sarecky
Starring	Dennis Moore Linda Stirling Roy Barcroft James Craven Bud Geary John Davidson
Cinematography	Bud Thackery
Distributed by	Republic Pictures
Release date(s)	1945
Running time	15 chapters (209 min)
IMDb profile

The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) is a Republic Movie serial.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Chapter titles 4 Trivia 5 Stunts & Effects 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

Late one night while astronomer Dr Cyrus Layton works on his new airplane design in his observatory, he gets three surprises. The first is seeing what he thinks is a meteor landing in the far distance. The second surprise, he goes to take a look at the meteor and discovers that it is actually a spaceship with a still living pilot inside. The pilot emerges from the spaceship and explains to Layton that he is from the planet Mars.

Mistakenly thinking the alien to be friendly, Layton takes him back to the observatory. There Layton gets his third and final surpise. The Martian, who calls himself The Purple Monster, wishes to see the designs for the airplane/spaceship that Layton was working on. The astronomer/engineer proudly shows the alien the designs. It is then that the alien explains that he is really here to steal the designs, build one of the spaceships for himself, fly back to Mars, have his people build a fleet of these spaceships and invade the Earth. When Dr. Layton objects to this plan, The Martian kills him with a Martian weapon. The alien then transforms into a ghost and takes over Dr Layton's body. This enables him to fool the astronomer's niece Sheila and criminologist Craig Foster, both of whom work for the same scientific foundation as Dr Layton. The foundation is also resposible for commissioning the spaceship project in the first place.

Posing as Dr. Layton also enables the Martian to witness the unrelated attempt of an Earth gangster named Garrett to also try to steal Layton's spaceship design. The Martian convinces Garrett and his henchmen to aid in the invasion plot. With the criminals' aid the alien begins building the spaceship. However, in spite of the Martian's best efforts at pretending to be Dr Layton, Craig Foster and Sheila Layton begin to get wise to what is happening. A long series of action scenes ensue as the pair try to figure out what the alien is doing on Earth and put a stop to it. In time the alien even calls the Emperor of Mars for aid and a female Martian, named Marcia, is sent earthward. In the long run she is not much help.

The story ends with Craig Foster using a separated component of the spaceship, a device to destroy meteors, to destroy the alien spaceship, with the Martians inside it, when they try to leave Earth. This ends the Martian threat.

[edit] Cast

Dennis Moore as Craig Foster
Linda Stirling as Sheila Layton
Roy Barcroft as The Purple Monster
James Craven as Dr Cyrus Layton
Bud Geary as Hodge Garrett (Henchman)
Mary Moore as Marcia
John Davidson as Emperor of Mars
Joe Whitehead as Carl Stewart

[edit] Chapter titles

1. The Man in the Meteor
2. The Time Trap
3. Flaming Avalanche
4. The Lethal Pit
5. Death on the Beam
6. The Demon Killer
7. The Evil Eye
8. Descending Doom
9. The Living Dead
10. House of Horror
11. Menace From Mars
12. Perilous Plunge
13. Fiery Shroud
14. The Fatal Trail
15. Take-Off To Destruction

[edit] Trivia

• The name of the aircraft that is intended to travel to Mars is always called the "jet plane". This startles technically minded people because a jet aircraft cannot do that. However, jets were new at the time the series was made and Universal Studios' serial Flash Gordon had the copyright on the word "rocketship" for use in serials and their featurizations.

[edit] Stunts & Effects

Dale Van Sickel as Craig Foster (doubling Dennis Moore)
Babe DeFreest as Sheila Layton (doubling Linda Stirling)
Fred Graham as The Purple Monster (doubling Roy Barcroft)
Tom Steele as Hodge Garrett (doubling Bud Geary)
Polly Burson as Marcia (doubling Mary Moore)
John Daheim
Bud Geary
Carey Loftin
Cliff Lyons
Henry Wills

Special Effects by the Lydecker brothers

[edit] References

• Republic Pictures Home video vhs tape, The Purple Monster Strikes
• Science Fiction The Illustrated Encyclopedia by John Clute DK Publications copyright 1995 pg 259
• The Encyclopedia of Super Villains by Jeff Rovin Facts on file copyright 1987 pg 282
• The Purple Monster Strikes at the Internet Movie Database

[edit] External links

• The Purple Monster Strikes at the Internet Movie Database
• The Serial Squadron

Preceded by Federal Operator 99 (1945)

Republic Serial The Purple Monster Strikes (1945)

Succeeded by The Phantom Rider (1946)