Continuing our weekly feature "Video Friday"...
faces off against The Shadow
!Well, sorta...
The villain of this episode, gangster Glen Connors, is played by Victor Jory, who portrayed The Shadow in the 1940 movie serial
based on both the pulp
and radio show
!Connors is impersonating millionaire recluse Charles Delaclare, and slowly draining his assets.
Britt Reid wants to expose Connors/Delaclare, not only because Connors evaded the law by faking his own death and replacing Delaclare, but Connors was part of a conspiracy that framed Reid's father years ago!
Side notes:
The frame-up of Reid's father is never pursued beyond this episode. Was dear old Dad the 1940s Green Hornet? We'll never know...
The idea of the villain replacing a reclusive millionaire is later used in the film version of Diamonds are Forever
.The idea of fighting a flock of frogmen (say that five times fast) was probably inspired by the box-office success of the then-current James Bond flick Thunderball
! Lenore "Casey" Case, played by the lovely Wende Wagner, finally gets serious screen time in this episode as she does some investigating for Reid, but gets caught by Connors' henchmen. As clever as she is beautiful, she keeps herself alive by bluffing the criminals until The Hornet can rescue her!
For the first time we see The Hornet change from his costume to civilian garb in the back seat of the Black Beauty. He does this a couple of times during the show's run to appear as both Reid and The Hornet to criminals within a short time-frame.
This is the first appearance of Barbara Babcock (Hill Street Blues
) as Elaine Carey, a competitor with Casey for Britt Reid's affections. Barbara performed on the original Star Trek
five times (twice on-screen, three times doing voiceovers), each time as a different character!While the '60s tv series is not yet available on official dvd, it is available on YouTube.
Here's the FIFTH broadcast episode "The Frog is a Deadly Weapon" in three segments.
Enjoy.
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