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In "The Phantom Creeps" (1939), actress Dorothy Arnold plays Jean Drew, a Girl Reporter who helps police uncover the villain's plot. Though little-known to 21st century audiences, Arnold's acting career spanned two decades and led to her meeting and marrying legendary baseball star Joe DiMaggio Jr. The couple divorced shortly after the birth of their son, Joe DiMaggio III; each went on to other marriages. (Di Maggio, you may recall, was famously hitched to Marilyn Monroe for nine months.)
The Girl Reporter was a stock character in early films, perhaps because the profession gave the female in question an excuse to hang out around all the male-dominated action without having to be the victim. Comics fans will remember Lois Lane and Brenda Starr; UEN SciFi Friday viewers can see variants of the Girl Reporter in "The Undersea Kingdom" and "The Petrified World", which are also aired as part of UEN SciFi Friday.
Episodes from serials such as "The Phantom Creeps" were designed to be shown before the main feature of a matinee. To lure audiences back to the next week's show, they would be left in suspense, often with the hero literally hanging off a cliff (hence the term "cliffhanger ending"). In addition to cliffhangers used throughout the serial, a notable feature of "The Phantom Creeps" is the way each episode is introduced with text scrolling at an apparent incline. It is said that this device inspired George Lucas's famous approach for opening each episode of his "Star Wars" trilogy.
UEN-TV will air the 12 episodes over 3 consecutive Fridays.
