A serial from the 40s!!!

THE MASTER KEY SERIAL(1945)

This is quite good! Much fun trying to
figure out who the big bad boss is! B+

From IMDb.com:

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. - Mike-764