Tue 24 Dec 2024
A TV Episode Review: THE GREEN HORNET “The Silent Gun.”
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[8] Comments
THE GREEN HORNET “The Silent Gun.” ABC, 09 Sep 1966 (Season One, Episode One.) Van Williams (Britt Reid / The Green Hornet), Bruce Lee (Kato), Wende Wagner (Lenore Case), Lloyd Gough (Mike Axford), Walter Brooke (D.A. Frank Scanlon). Based on the long-running radio series created by George W. Trendle. Directed by Leslie H. Martinson.
I remember waiting for a long time with a lot of anticipation for this series to begin, so I’m rather sure I was among those in the viewing audience with it finally came on the air. (It finally came to fruition by the tremendous success the Batman series had at the time.)
I was disappointed then, and now. Before watching this first episode again after spotting it on YouTube earlier this month, I never turned it on again and did my best to forget it. (Without going into details, may I say I succeeded rather well at that, as I remembered none of the details.)
For those of you younger than I, and perhaps totally unfamiliar with the show, here’s the opening bit of narration for the TV series:
This first episode does all right in introducing the characters, but the story itself, is well, to put it bluntly, is pure dreck. It has to do with a new gun in town, one the works silently and without a flash. Two opposing gangs of mobsters in town want their hands on it, and it’s up to The Green Hornet and Kato to act as would-be go-betweens to foil the aspirations of each.
And that’s it. They succeed, thanks to the smash-’em-up contributions of the Black Beauty (see the narration segment above), with nary a twist or interesting point to be made of any kind. I kid you not.
December 25th, 2024 at 1:18 am
The Green Hornet must always be seen and presented as a direct descendant of The Lone Ranger. I seldom missed a radio episode of either.Never the televison.
December 25th, 2024 at 1:30 pm
Absolutely right. In Old Time Radio days, HORNET was indeed a direct descendant of THE LONE RANGER. It was a bit more adult oriented, though, with lots of episodes involving extortion rackets and corruption in city hall, which generally meant the stories went right over kids’ heads.
Mine at least, not that it mattered, really.
December 25th, 2024 at 1:57 pm
re @ #1 indeed so. Nice bit of finesse when Trendle connected the two together. The Hornet’s grandfather? Grand-Uncle? Something like that. Reid never mentions any details.
I’ve been sampling the radio series a lot this past year. It’s climbing higher in my esteem.
The audio plots are hardly intricate but somehow –unlike TV –it doesn’t seem to matter. The pace never flags no matter how staid or suburban some of the components were.
There was a trite “beauty parlor racket” episode, and there was a yawn-worthy “wedding ring racket” installment. A “nylon hosiery” racket. Not exactly setting the police blotter on fire.
But as “Missah Britt” reminds Kato, freshly-returned-home G.I.’s are being preyed on “and its up to the Sentinel to stamp out” (..”rather than that yellow rag, The Chronicle”).
Trendle’s Hornet villains were never lurid or technological like this ‘silent gun’ thing; never like the foes of Cranston/Superman/Batman who frequently posed some rival power threatening to eclipse the hero.
Britt Reid’s adversaries were simply, ‘rackets’; (or sometimes ‘foreign spies’) but never any “wizardly” elements.
He outwits dopey, furtive stooges scamming local gas stations or streetcar companies. Occasional ‘city councilman’ or ‘factory owner’ mastermind. Again: the simplicity of it all, somehow just works.
Maybe the serial’s b.g. music helps too. Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaik, Berlioz, Grieg –versus –whatever canned stuff they used on TV.
BTW, secretary Lenore Case originally was never aware of her boss’ double-life. She, Ed Lowry (the Sentinel’s best man), buffoonish police reporter Mike Axford, and southern-drawling shutterbug ‘Clicker’ Binnie –for my money, these characters harmonize better than Kent, Lane, & Olson. My favorite metro desk news staff ever, I should say.
Ah well. Good clean fun. The Ranger and the Hornet are tutelary deities for all of us in today’s chaotic world.
December 25th, 2024 at 2:20 pm
Six Texas Rangers were shot from ambush by the Cavendish gang. Tonto came along, and saw the men badly wounded and dying, but John survived, and in the recovery state inquired about the others. Tonto’s reply: All dead, you, lone ranger. Oneof the others was John’s brother Tom wh had a son Dan going to school back east.
Dan built a publishing empire in New York through his paper The Daily Sentinel. His son was Britt Reid, The Green Hornet. Like his uncle he did not kill had a superior means of transportation, and also a faithful companion of another race.
The opening of both shows was grand. The Green Hornets went like this.
‘He hunts the biggest of all game, public enemies who try to destroy our America.’
Sadly, that would not fly today.
December 25th, 2024 at 10:40 pm
I just ran the episodes that is up, and unsophisticated but watchable is what I saw. I would have Cast a Gable clone as Britt Reid, probably James Craig. Check him out in The Human Comedy, he is the guy. This is a modest production with obvious almost childish casting, although one of the criminals is called Trump, and that I did not like at all.The sophistication of the radio episodes stands the test of time.
December 25th, 2024 at 11:31 pm
Radio rulez! Never suffers noticeable mediocrity in acting, casting, photography, or directing. Top value-per-second all -’round. Our ears discriminate quality more finely than do our eyes.
I feel the superb sophistication of radio plays relies on the ability to deliver a story simply and uncomplicated. It hovers right on the point of your nerve-endings.
December 26th, 2024 at 12:02 am
By this point James Craig’s heavy drinking would have made a weekly television series risky and Williams had two series under his belt (BOURBON ST. BEAT and the more successful SURFSIDE SIX) so was a natural if uninspired choice. Craig earlier would have been a good Reid though.
GH is watchable, sometimes fun, and at least they stayed away from the BIFF! BAM! POW! excess of the sister series BATMAN.
Honestly the radio episodes aren’t that much better in terms of plot, things just play differently on radio. The Hornet battling gangsters and racketeers weekly in the 40’s was an easier sell than in the mid to late 60’s.
As for the Lone Ranger, there is no way they would have paid for the rights to introduce that angle any more than the comic book or serials could.
My controversial two cents is, here, as in most things, I found Bruce Lee incredibly overrated save as an athlete and minor personality. I know the legend and the cult, and given time maybe he could have lived up to it, but to me he is always more a what might have been than what was. He brings energy and intelligence to Kato (so did Keye Luke who was also better than Gordon Jones and Warren Hull) and provides the best stunts in the series, and maybe he could have led a better series if they found one for him but I don’t think he particularly elevated this or LONGSTREET by mere presence. At best his presence is a footnote to racial casting on the small and big screen.
And no, I don’t find his movies that great (I liked ENTER THE DRAGON, don’t get me wrong), though they showed potential with better budgets and better writing.
December 28th, 2024 at 4:34 pm
Thank you for telling us about this.
Just watched it and really enjoyed it.
Loved the secret passages.
And the rich color design. A 60’s speciality.