(A 12-chapter serial shown here in a l00-minute feature version.) Unanimously considered Republic's best serial at the time of production (despite such outstanding Witney-directed predecessors as The Lone Ranger and Daredevils of the Red Circle), Spy Smasher was completed shortly after America's entry into the War, and thus its story of a masked super-hero battling the Axis was topical as well as actionful. Action and stunts still dominate-one twenty-minute section of this feature version is all action and chase with hardly a word uttered-but there's more plot than usual, including the dual-role complication of Spy Smasher having a look-alike brother. Steven Spielberg has already (admittedly) borrowed from many of Witney's best Western and action serials; when he gets around to doing a World War Two superhero adventure, this is the one he'll have to refer to! William K. Everson