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STUNTS, STARS & LEGENDS - june 2014

 

WHO WAS THAT MASKED MARVEL MAN?

In order to ferret out Sakima, a former Japanese envoy suspected of being responsible for extensive sabotage of war industries (back in the early days of WW-II, Warren Hamilton and Martin Crane enlist the aid of the Masked Marvel.

Crane is secretly in league with Sakima, and they arrange for Hamilton’s murder. The murdered man’s daughter Alice, joins the Masked Marvel and his three aides in a campaign to expose and apprehend Sakima. The Masked Marvel is one of four men ... Bob Barton, Frank Jeffers,Terry Morton and Jim Arnold. He hides his identity beneath a black mask and only Alice knows that he is one of the four investigators.

Sakima’s henchman Mace attempts to carry out an assignment to contaminate plane gasoline with a liquid which will cause the plane to explode in mid-air, but Marvel intervenes and is caught in a flaming truck-load of explosives, escaping at the last moment before the explosion.

Sakima lays plans to intercept a valuable shipment of industrial diamonds, loss of which will seriously cripple defense plants. In spite of heroic opposition put up by the Masked Marvel and his men, Sakima makes off with the diamonds, but finding himself unable to smuggle them out of the country, he uses them to bait a trap to get Marvel in his power. Marvel is momentarily cornered but manges to escape.

Learning that Sakima’s men plan to steal the plans of the city drainage system so that they may lay a bomb in the storm drain under an aircraft plant, the Masked Marvel and his men hasten to the city engineer’s office and overpower Mace while he is in the act of stealing the plans. The bomb almost explodes, but the boys escape in the nick of time.

Sakima pursues his efforts in sabotage, proving himself a deadly adversary to the Masked Marvel until they meet in a furious final struggle for victory.

Stunt Master, Tom Steele wore the mask throughout the Republic Serial more than anyone because he doubled three other characters and played bit part as a Heavy. It was unfortunate that he never received any billing.

In contrast to this, many of Republic Pictures Western Stars in the 40s and early 50s, such as Alan “Rocky” Lane, William “Wild Bill” Elliott, Rex Allen and Monte Hale were selected in part due to their resemblance to Tom Steele who would handle the dangerous action scenes.

Tom Steele was footprinted and inducted into the Hollywood Stuntmen’s Hall of Fame back in 1976 in Palmdale, California.

 

 


Movies Made in Moab

CHILL FACTOR (1998)

Location: Monument Valley, Castle Valley and Highway 128 (River Road).
Chill Factor stars Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Skeet Ulrich. The film centers on two unwitting civilians who are forced to protect a deadly chemical weapon from the hands of terrorists.

Story: Ten years after a covert military experiment on a remote Pacific island went wrong and killed eighteen servicemen and his assistant, Dr. Richard Long (David Paymer) is still trying to forget the havoc and death that his experiment caused.
Living in the small town of Jerome, Montana, Long still conducts scientific experiments at the local base, but far more enjoys his time fly-fishing with Tim Mason (Skeet Ulrich) who works in the local greasy spoon and has a checkered past.
Long’s life changes then ends, when he’s contacted by Colonel Andrew Brynner (Peter Firth), a former military officer who took the blame and served ten years in Leavenworth for Long’s experiment.

Now a free man with a score to settle with the government, Brynner has assembled a team of high-tech terrorists, including an icy woman named Vaughn (Hudson Leick) and plans to steal and then sell “Elvis” - Long’s highly volatile, blue crystal substance - to the highest international bidder, thus having his revenge against the government for covering up its existence, and making him a scapegoat for their handling of the weapon.

Unfortunately for Brynner, Long has already delivered “Elvis” to Tim, along with the directions that the substance must remain below fifty degrees, or it will detonate, and kill everyone within several hundred miles of it.

After Mason and Arlo (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a wisecracking ice cream delivery man, have a run-in with Brynner, they set off en route for Fort Magruder, some ninety miles away. The two don’t get along with each other - Arlo only agrees to transport the substance in his ice cream cream truck because Mason held a gun on him - but they find a common bond in trying to avoid Brynner and his team.

With the help of Colonel Leo Vitelli (Daniel Hugh Kelly), Arlo and Mason try to survive Brynner’s attacks, avoid the local deputy, Pappas (Jim Grimshaw), who’s also hot on their trail, and keep “Elvis” below fifty degrees.

With time running out, and the temperature rising, Arlo and Tim must outwit their pursuers and try to find a way to dispose of the weapon before they’re both killed.

Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Cuba Gooding, Jr. was born in 1968, in the Bronx, New York to the frontman of funk band “The Main Ingredient”. He landed a small role in the TV series “Hill Street Blues” and made his big screen debut in “Coming to America”. Two years later, Gooding played Tre Styles in “Boyz ‘N the Hood” in 1996, he won an Oscar for his supporting role in “Jerry McGuire”.

If interested in learning more about the Hall of Fame, please contact John Hagner (Founder) at 435 260-2160.
email: johnhagner@hotmail.com
Hall of Fame website: www.stuntmen.org

John Hagner (Founder) is also the Artist of the Stars.
His Celebrity Portrait Drawings are available at telephone 435-259-7000,
Mailing address: 50 W. 400 N, Moab, Utah 84532.
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