The Master Key (1945)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Directors:

Lewis D. Collins
Ray Taylor

Writers:

Jack Natteford (original story) and
Dwight V. Babcock (original story) ...

Release Date:

25 April 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

Government agents battle a gang of Nazis who are trying to use the Orotron machine, which can turn seawater into gold.

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Serial | Secretary | Police Chief | Police Detective

Cast

Milburn Stone	...	Agent Tom Brant
Jan Wiley	...	Janet Lowe
Dennis Moore	...	Detective Lt. Jack Ryan
Addison Richards	...	Gerhard Doenitz, alias Garret Donahue
Byron Foulger	...	Prof. Elwood Henderson
Maris Wrixon	...	Dorothy Newton
Sarah Padden	...	Aggie
George Lynn	...	Herman, chief thug
Russell Hicks	...	Police Chief Michael J. O'Brien
Roland Varno	...	Arnold Hoffman aka Hoff, M-3
Lash La Rue	...	Migsy (street urchin) (as Alfred La Rue)
Jerry Shane	...	Dan, boys' club member
Neyle Morrow	...	Spike, boys' club member (as Neyle Marx)
John Eldredge	...	Walter Stark, council member M-6 [Chs.1-5]

Runtime:

226 min (13 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Universal Pictures

Goofs:

Anachronisms: At the beginning of each chapter, we are told the story is taking place in 1938, but 1939, 1940 and 1941 model automobiles are frequently seen and even used by the principal players on various occasions.

Quotes:

Title Card: This is just a story. Like many good stories, it never happened and never could happen... but let us imagine that it is 1938, somewhere in the United States.

Movie Connections:

Edited from Gang Busters (1942)

M-764 Reporting

Elwood Henderson invents the Orotron, a large device which can extract various minerals and elements in their minute quantities from sea water. Nazi agents (the serial, released in 1945, is set in 1938) plan to use the Orotron in order to obtain enough gold to buy up key American industries for their own use and purpose. Henderson is also taken prisoner by the Nazis, since he has to manufacture the gas tubes in order to make the Orotron work, when the present ones wear out. Government agent Tom Brant, police detective Jack Ryan, and reporter Janet Lowe, team up to find Henderson and round up the agents responsible for his and the Orotron's disappearance, including the Master Key, the unknown head agent of the Nazis in the US. Very good script overcome some of the weak fights in the serial. Many of the cliffhangers are so-so, and at times just look like the writers put them in there from making the chapters run a reel extra. Stone, Moore, & Wiley are all believable as Brant, Ryan, and Lowe respectively. Addison is very villainous Donohue, second Nazi in command. LaRue is as good as he every would be as the leader of Lowe's teenage reporter friends, but Fougler has one of his better roles as Henderson. Great ending to the serial, one of the few that respects the intelligence of the viewer. Rating, based on serials, 8.