The Secret Code Daybill Poster Original 1950s Re-Issue Paul Kelly
This 1950's Re-issue Daybill poster is rarely seen (last offered for sale 10 years ago) and was printed by W.E. Smith.
The Secret Code Daybill Poster. The Secret Code (1942) was the 19th serial released by Columbia Pictures but it also enjoyed a released as a feature film overseas (see the Australian cinema Daybill here). The serial features the masked hero "The Black Commando" facing Nazi saboteurs, inspired by Republic Pictures' successful Spy Smasher serial of the same year. Starring in the serial was Paul Kelly as Lt. Dan Barton/Black Commando, Anne Nagel as Jean Ashley and Beal Wong as Quito. The hero, The Black Commando, was patterned after Spy Smasher. Republic's Spy Smasher serial had been released several months before The Secret Code in 1942. Columbia's adverts for The Secret Code included the phrases "Smash spies with the Secret Service" and "Thrill again to spy smashers' biggest chase!" Each chapter ended with a quick lesson in cryptography and a "brief patriotic admonishment" given by Selmer Jackson. Cline describes this as "propaganda in its basic form...delivered in the most effective way possible - by a respected authority figure in the person of one of Hollywood's most credible actors."Anne Nagel and Wade Boteler, two of the stars of the Universal serials The Green Hornet (1940) and The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941) were reunited in this Columbia serial.
