Starring Bela Lugosi, Joan Barclay, George Pembroke, Clayton Moore, Robert Frazer
Directed by William Nigh
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
Double agents engaging in sabotage of America's industries are stalked down one-by-one by a mysterious assassin, who leaves a Japanese dagger by each body.
One of the films on Lugosi's contract with low-budget Monogram Pictures, this is more a propaganda piece than a horror film, but Lugosi is fun to watch as the assassin, almost gleefully disposing of his victims, and delivering grim warnings to those trying to learn too much about him. The plot's a bit far-fetched, but although there's pretty much only standard camera setups on display, the film certainly moves along well enough, and delivers a nice hook in keeping us from seeing exactly what's happened to Pembroke until the movie's final moments. Barclay and future Lone Ranger Moore are interesting enough as Lugosi's main supporting players, and I was relieved that the script largely steered clear of racial stereotypes, but there is some blatantly sexist commentary in the script that took me by surprise, even for a film of this era.
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