Federal Operator 99 review

“Sophistication” isn’t a word one hears applied to serials very often.  Federal Operator 99 aims for sophistication and surprisingly hits the mark more often than not. 

It’s not a uniformly smooth attempt and the rough spots are noticeable, but for the least expensive of Republic’s three serials in 1945 (and lordy, were Manhunt Of Mystery Island and The Purple Monster Strikes inexpensive!) Federal Operator 99 is solid entertainment. 

Let’s start with the script, often the least sophisticated element of a serial. This time instead of Wild West adventures or sci-fi thrills Republic writers Albert DeMond, Basil Dickey, Jesse Duffy, and Joseph Poland under the guidance of studio story editor Ronald Davidson focused instead on a very human scale criminal enterprise, led by a colorful / complex / conflicted crime lord, Jim Belmont (George J. Lewis) with a penchant for fine art and piano concertos. 

Belmont is no typical Republic supervillain but a very human — albeit murderously eccentric — criminal. All of his plots are plausible and doable. Conquer the world? Hell, no.  Steal jewels then double cross when paid a ransom?  Oh, yeah. 

That alone is a refreshing change of pace for a serial of this era. 

His opposite number is our eponymous Federal Operator 99, Jerry Blake (Marten Lamont).  Serial leads (other than costumed heroes) tend to be played as just regular folks; the audience appeal is that we like to think we would be just as heroic under similar circumstances.

99, in contrast, is presented as debonair and dashing, super competent and equally as cunning as his quarry, and speaking with a faint English accent.  It’s not much of an exaggeration to say he’s a prototype of another JB with a number:  007. 

And speaking of JBs, notice how both hero and villain share the same initials as well as equal expertise in their respective fields, and a taste for the finer things in life. “Avoid giving your characters similar names” is one of the fundamental rules of genre fiction, and for Davidson’s tribe of scribes to give both the same initials indicates they were quite consciously trying to link the two on some level. 

One of the best things about this serial is 99 is not a reactive hero, waiting for Belmont to strike so he can pursue him, but is actively trying to trick Belmont and lure him out into the open where Blake’s team can arrest him. 

Despite this, Lamont comes across as a rather lacklustre leading man, while Lewis’ screen charisma is so strong we’re disconcerted to find ourselves actually rooting for him at numerous points in the story! Republic missed a bet by not swapping their two leads; it would have made for a far more dynamic story line.  

The script doesn’t help much, either.  While it’s always hard to tell who wrote what parts of any serial, one of the writers here clearly had a much better grasp on what they were trying to achieve and it reflects in good dialog and strong scenes. 

Other writers give us the equivalent of juvenilia with their unimaginative flat declarative sentences, the single biggest drawback of this serial. 

While she ended up a Republic Western heroine under both this name and Adriana Booth, Lorna Gray as Rita Parker is two lethal steps up from the typical supporting villainess.  She’s not decorative arm candy but a willing and ready partner to Belmont’s crimes.  

Of her counterpart among the good guys, let’s be generous and say Helen Talbot as Joyce Kingston is fetchingly cute and enunciates all her lines quite clearly. It’s not uncommon for serial stars, especially the ladies, to be tied up at some point in the proceedings but Ms Talbot is restrained so often and in such a wide variety that it’s clear somebody in the production had an affinity for this sort of thing.  She also spends an inordinate amount of time being driven about in the trunk of various automobiles. 

You do the best with what you’ve got and I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if this applies to Ms Talbot or the production. 

The automobiles bring up an interesting point re Federal Operator 99’s meager budget. The serial uses a lot of stock footage and to disguise the fact some of it is well over a decade old, the script draws attention to certain cars being earlier models and not the more contemporary ones seen elsewhere. 

Likewise, nobody changes clothes unless it’s to match stock footage; this is especially noticeable for Gray and Talbot. 

Federal Operator 99 has a very lean look to it, past the opening chapters (typically used to sell the serial to theaters) there’s never more than four characters on camera at any time. Those familiar with Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley will spot many landmarks and familiar streets. The production does enjoy a bigger feel than other Republic serials of the era, and I think this is because they managed to use a number of sets left standing after feature films finished production.  

Where the serial really shines is in the direction. As typical of the era, more than one director handled that chore.  Usually studios had one director for dialog scenes and another for action, or one for interiors and another for exteriors, but Federal Operator 99 has three (!):  Wallace Grissell, a film editor who became a director presumably because he knew how to intercut stock footage well; the legendary Spencer Gordon Bennet, who directed more serials than anyone; and Yakima “Just stay in the chariot and we’ll see you win the race, Chuck” Canutt, who handled the action scenes and boy, howdy! did somebody make the right call there!  Federal Operator 99 is crammed with chair splintering / table flipping action from crotch to sternum, Canutt’s philosophy being no self respecting hero should ever walk through a door when he can dive headfirst through a window, gun blazing. 

If I didn’t know better, I’d think chapter four was originally shot in 3D based on the amazing number of objects and human bodies Canutt sends hurtling straight at the camera. 

The cliffhangers are good, better than most comparable serials, and there’s nary a cheater in the bunch. The Lydecker brothers round things off with a superlative display of exploding miniatures. 

Serials are noted for their casual use of violence, but Federal Operator 99 is significantly more gruesome than most. 99 meets Kingston — elaborately bound and gagged in a closet, no less — right after shooting and killing one of Belmont’s men; the two then have a cheery conversation about what to do next despite the fact there’s a corpse laying literally at their feet!  Various underlings and innocent bystanders get shot in the back or stomach, Belmont is freed in an expertly staged train rescue where a cohort as an afterthought casually shoots and kills the escorting agent, a woman screams off camera as Parker tortures her with a cigarette lighter, a criminal dies twitching under a hail of bullets, one bloodied mortally wounded minion takes a minute to heroically crawl to a detonator because how else are we going to get a satisfying Lydecker ka-boom?, and Belmont himself makes his on camera hard goodbye by plunging four stories to solid concrete.  

The gruesomeness brings up two plot points that raise questions for me:  First Belmont has a phone conversation with an unseen spy in Washington then discusses with his cohorts the spy by name and how vital he is to their organization…and we never reference said spy again; next Belmont mentions four members of his former partner‘s gang by their names, gives a brief run down on each, mentions how they might know where the hidden loot from a bullion robbery is…and in the next cut Blake is reading a newspaper story about how the four were brutally tortured and mutilated before being executed gangland style. 

Say wha — ?  I’m guessing Federal Operator 99 was originally conceived as a 15 chapter serial only to be truncated to 12 in preproduction (Manhunt Of Mystery Island and The Purple Monster Strikes were Republic’s last two 15 chapter serials, everything after that was either 12 or 13 chapters). Rather than waste more time and money rewriting the script, they just whacked out three chapters worth of material but didn’t change the dialog. 

The gruesomeness of Federal Operator 99, and its more realistic scale and script make me wonder if it didn’t start life as a development for a Dick Tracy or Rex Barton serial; the format certainly fits both. 

Not the best serial Republic ever made, but better than most. 

© Buzz Dixon