During the golden days of radio, gangsters, murderers and enemies of the American way found the going plenty tough on airwaves populated by numerous heroic crimefighters. None was more tenacious than the Green Hornet, who along with his faithful partner and Korean sidekick Kato, brought many of the lawless vermin to justice.

“The Green Hornet” premiered in 1936 and two years later came to the national Mutual network. The adventure series was popular enough to stay on the air through the 1940s, finally signing off in 1952.
It was just the kind of property that Hollywood studios coveted for the weekly cliffhanger serials that flourished in the 1930s, 1940s and part of the 1950s.
Universal struck a deal to twice bring the Hornet to the big screen.

Both serials, “The Green Hornet” (1940) and “The Green Hornet Strikes Again” (1941), have just been released on DVD by VCI Entertainment and the sharp images are quite stunning. That’s because VCI got access to the original 35mm film material from Universal’s vaults.
Among the extras on both are original radio broadcasts.

On screen, the Green Hornet wore a trench coat, a white scarf, a full facial mask decorated with a hornet symbol and a fedora. He also made use of a gas gun that rendered his foes helpless.

Gordon Jones took on the role of Britt Reid/Green Hornet in the first serial, which ran 13 chapters. Whenever he donned the mask, Jones’ voice was dubbed by Al Hodge, who was then playing the character on radio. During the ensuing years, Jones performed in many movies and even played the comic sidekick of Roy Rogers in six of his Westerns. In the 1950s, Hodge gained some measure of fame as TV’s “Captain Video.”
Keye Luke played Kato, the Hornet’s Korean sidekick, who could more than hold his own in a fight and drove the Hornet’s buzzing car Black Beauty.
Luke had played Charlie Chan’s “No. 1 son” Lee in several movies during the 1930s. He went on to a lengthy career in movies and television and is noted for his role of Master Po in the “Kung Fu” TV series.

Warren Hull took on the role of Reid for “The Green Hornet Strikes Again,” which runs 15 chapters.

From a historic perspective, it’s worth noting that the first chapter opens with Reid vacationing in Hawaii. That episode was released in early 1941, the year that concluded with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and plunged America into World War II.
That makes it intriguing to watch Hull and the other actors go through their paces, because you know they had no idea of the earthshaking events that lay ahead.
Hull, who began his career as a singer, made only one other movie after playing the Green Hornet. He found plenty of work on radio during the 1940s and, in the early 1950s, hosted TV’s “Strike It Rich.”
As for The Green Hornet, he and Kato continued to battle criminals in various comic-book adaptations right up through the 1990s. There also was a 26-episode “Green Hornet” TV series in 1966 with Van Williams as Reid and the now-legendary Bruce Lee as Kato.
A Green Hornet feature film is supposed to be released theatrically in 2010. It is hoped that it can match the whirlwind action of the two classic serials.
To order either one or both of the serials go to http://www.vcient.com.