There are mighty strange goings on at Bensonhurst, secluded residence of Anton Benson a miserly recluse and his family including recently released convict Roy, daughter Millie, her husband Simon Leach, Dr. Roy Benson, and conniving brother Culver. All members of the family are searching for a stockpile of gold that Anton had recovered from a sunken Spanish ship, but murdered his way to get for himself. Also searching is the Iron Claw, a masked criminal who is one of the members of the Benson household. The Claw murders Culver and warns the rest of the members of the house that they may be next. Patricia, Anton's niece, works with reporter Bob Lane and photographer Jack Strong to uncover who the Claw is while trying to keep an eye on everyone in the house, as well as gangster Silk Langdon (working with Roy to get the gold) and butler Gyves, who is working hand in hand with Anton in order to grab all the gold for themselves. Its a fun serial, I'll grant that, but it could have been better. Quigley is very good as the hero (Lane) and Sande does pretty well as the semi-comic relief. Bryant seems just to scream a lot throughout the serial. I enjoy Charlie King in just about anything he did, so I won't complain about him as Langdon, and Willis is ever so shifty as Roy. Taylor is way over the top as Anton (James Craven must not have been available) and the other actors I could take or leave. Morton as Casey was a terrible character, but typical of a James Horne production. His direction is better than most of the Columbia serials he directed (also benefited by a good script with good touches of humor) on his own. The Iron Claw's identity isn't too hard to figure out, but he's a good character- always silent, he uses a lot of melodramatic, silent film era-esque motions. The serial does get repetitive after awhile going through one secret passage after another. Rating, based on serials, 7.
Review of The Iron Claw
