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Professor Sturgess (Lafe McKee) has developed the most sensational
machine of its time: A device that creates power out of thin air, and that
would at the same time make all of the earth's power fuels (e.g. oil or
coal) futile. This invention is so ingenious that the power cartel wants
to buy it from professor Sturgess, but not to distribute it but to supress
it. As tempted as the professor might be though, he is a good man at heart
and wants his invention to benefit all of humankind, not just himself -
thus no deal ... and thus the power cartel hires supercrook Weston Dore
(Al Ernest Garcia) to convince the professor - or just steal the blasted
thing. Of course, soon enough Dore realizes that the professor's invention
is worth more than the money the power cartel is willing to pay him, and
it could make him the Power God ... In an at first seemingly
unrelated plot, Sturgess's daughter Aileen (Neva Gerber) is in love with
the professor's assistant Jim Thorpe (Ben F.Wilson), a relationship the
professor doesn't approve of - so the two lovebirds elope to get married -
but have an accident that leaves Aileen an amnesiac. In the meantime,
Weston Dore and his men have killed the professor in an effort to get the
machine, but the machine remains safely hidden away - so the only way to
get to it is through Aileen ... and somehow Dore gets his hands on her in
her amnesiac state, has the next justice of peace marry them, and acts as
her caring husband, in order to lure the secret hiding place of the power
generator out of her - but to no avail, she hasn't got the first idea in
her state. In the meantime, Thorpe wants to get her away from Dore's
grasp, but Dore has made her believe that Thorpe is the enemy, so
everything's a bit difficult ... Eventually, Dore loses his cool because
memory just won't return to Aileen, and he puts her into an asylum - from
where Thorpe can finally break her free and make her remember. Eventually,
they return to Aileen's father's estate to fetch the generator - but are
intercepted by Dore's man, who ironically thanks to Thorpe's intervention
finally get their hands on the generator. From now on, all kinds of
fights erupt over the generator, a duplicate of the thing, and the
generator's blueprints break out, and chases ensue by car, by train, by
foot or by boat, and quite regularly, when things get too dangerous,
Aileen and Thorpe are helped by a mysterious Hindu (Chief Eagle Wing), who
acts as a sort-of deus ex machina ... It's only eventually that
Dore's men are cornered by gouvernment men who appear out of nowhere,
while Dore is killed by his own men after it has become known he plans to
abandon them. Only Dore's wife (Ruth Royce) and her brother (Jess Cavin)
are allowed to come out of the thing unscathed because they repent. And
what about the power generator, the very thing so many people risked their
lives for? The gouvernment steps in and orders it to be destroyed,
because it would cost too many jobs in the energy sector. Aileen and
Thorpe are quick to agree, and ironically by destroying the machine, they
do exactly what the power cartel wanted to be achieved in the very
beginning. The gouvernment and the country's power lords working hand in
hand? Isn't it sad how things never change? Thanks to its
sensational title and its science fiction premise, this serial reads a lot
more exciting in writing than it actually is on the screen, where it's
nothing but your usual collection of fights, shoot-outs and chases, with
the central sci-fi-element, the power generator, coming into action only
once, to power a steam engine (really). The main problem with the serial
though is not so much the relative absence of its central ingredience but
the fact that it is not too well-paced, between the action that resolves
last episode's cliffhanger and the action that leads to the next one, too
much plot is featured to pad out each episode'S running time but that
essentially leads to nowhere in particular. In all, no complete
disaster, but there are far better serials around ...
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find The Power God at adultvideouniverse.com
