Arthur B. Reeve and Craig Kennedy

Arthur Benjamin Reeve (1880-1936) was a prolific writer of popular fiction. His greatest and most lasting character was Craig Kennedy, the scientific detective. Beginning in 1910 and continuing until Reeve’s death, Kennedy, a professor of chemistry at a University in New York City, battled crime with his deductive powers and scientific genius. Less advanced than Sherlock Holmes, but more than Tom Swift, the Kennedy books were popular light reading. Reeve wrote 26 novels about Kennedy’s adventures, taking the character from the more traditional fingerprint and poison hunts of the standard detective to more science fictional realms, including death rays and television.

Craig Kennedy’s adventures are narrated by Walter Jameson, Kennedy’s college roommate and a reporter for the New York Star, a fictional paper. Like Doctor Watson (Sherlock Holmes’s associate), Jameson spends more time fighting crime than writing articles; similarly Kennedy is more likely found on the trail of a murderer than grading papers. They face death countless times, but one villain among the dark pantheon stands out: the Clutching Hand.

The Exploits of Elaine

Note: The following synopses give away major plot points, including the identity of the Clutching Hand.

The motion picture serial is a film divided into chapters, usually shown one chapter per week. In the early 1910’s the serial became a popular attraction in theaters, especially with the invention of the cliffhanger, a dangerous moment begun in one chapter and not resolved until the next. In 1914 a 14-chapter serial, entitled The Exploits of Elaine and produced by Pathe Pictures, first brought Craig Kennedy to the screen, and introduced the Clutching Hand. Wealthy men and corporations are being robbed by the Clutching Hand. Murders are committed. Among the unfortunate victims is Taylor Dodge, a wealthy insurance magnate. His daughter Elaine, with the help of Craig Kennedy, Jameson and Perry Bennett, the Dodge family lawyer, work to defeat the Clutching Hand’s malicious schemes. Time after time Elaine is threatened, and her life, along with Kennedy’s, remain in danger so long as the Clutching Hand is at large. Romance blossoms between Craig and Elaine, an unusual event in the Kennedy series.

In the end, the trap closes in, and Perry Bennett, trusted lawyer and suitor for Elaine’s affections, is revealed to be the Clutching Hand. Though the family friend as villain quickly became a cliché in serials, in those days it came as a shock to audiences. The Clutching Hand appeared in a mask consisting of a handkerchief tied over the lower part of his face, and his trademark hand, also setting a new trend; masked villains also became commonplace. Imagine the reaction as Perry Bennett, alone in a room with Elaine, and realizing that his plans were about to be discovered, contorted his hand and crept up on Elaine, revealed in his true colors at last. But he is not brought to justice; instead he escapes and is placed in a state of suspended animation, to await another battle with Craig Kennedy.

The film starred Pearl White, one of the greatest actresses in silent serials, as Elaine. Arnold Daly played Craig Kennedy, though his near middle-aged countenance and bald head made him look more like a father figure than a paramour. Creighton Hale played Jameson. Sheldon Lewis played the Clutching Hand/Perry Bennett. The directors were Louis Gasnier and George B. Seitz.

The film was written by Arthur B. Reeve and Charles W. Goddard, chief writer for the Pathe serial department. How much Goddard may have contributed to the plot is not clear; Reeve novelized the serial under the same title, with sole credit as author.

The New Exploits of Elaine

The Exploits was quite a success, and a direct sequel, entitled The New Exploits of Elaine, was produced. The story consists of a search for the Clutching Hand’s hidden loot. There is no suggestion of returning the booty to its rightful owners; it’s finders keepers all the way. This serial and its sequel, The Romance of Elaine, which has nothing to do with the Clutching Hand, were novelized together in one book , under the latter title.

The Clutching Hand

For his last Craig Kennedy novel, published in 1934, Reeve decided to revive his most famous villain. The late Count Gironda was a talented inventor; besides perfecting his television apparatus, he was rumored to have created a device that produces synthetic gold which, as an added bonus, ‘destroys electricity’. Despite the obvious appeal of the latter device to criminal masterminds, it is the patents to the Gironda television that are the target of underworld activity. Kennedy and Jameson join in the case, assisted by a government man, Gordon Gaunt.

The Countess Gironda is unable to cope with the threats; she is under the influence of two suspicious Eastern mystics, Tsang and his pupil, Ling. Verna Gironda, the daughter of the family, is at a loss what to do. Judge Cromwell and several other associates of the Count’s are driven mad by poison, in a scene reminiscent of the Sherlock Holmes story, The Devil’s Foot. The Count’s secretary, Shirley McMillan, is brutally murdered. Both Shirley and the Count’s corpses are mutilated, the tongue cut out of them both.

Why the Gironda gold-making process is not more important is a mystery. Jameson endures a three-chapter long drug-induced dream in which he imagines the near-apocalyptic consequences of such a machine. Financial markets collapse; electricity is disrupted, bringing modern society to a halt. The plot also comes to a halt until Jameson revives.

And the Clutching Hand? He is a secondary character, and , at the end, not the culprit. Though he threatens Kennedy and others, he never meets up with them, and is still at large at the close. Though Reeve quotes from The Exploits of Elaine to explain how Perry Bennett had survived to rise again, there seems some doubt on Kennedy’s part as to the Clutching Hand’s identity. Several times the Clutching Hand is referred to as the ‘Crime Master’, perhaps an indication that Reeve had not set out to write a Clutching Hand story at all, but had revised the book later. Sales of Reeve’s books had been declining, and the sadly lower quality of The Clutching Hand provides ample reason for that fall.

The Clutching Hand - the serial

In 1936 a 15-chapter movie serial was produced by Stage and Screen Productions, a small company that briefly produced serials. The Clutching Hand borrowed elements and characters from the same-named novel, but revised the plot heavily.

Doctor Gironda has developed a formula to produce synthetic gold. Before he can demonstrate this process to his associates (including Judge Cromwell), he is abducted, along with the formula. The search is on, as Kennedy and Jameson, along with Gordon Gaunt, try to track down the missing doctor. They find out that the Clutching Hand is behind it, though Perry Bennett never seems to enter the picture. Who is the Clutching Hand? Can Kennedy stop him?

Verna Gironda, who appears to be Jameson’s girlfriend, is little help. Shirley McMillan provides what information she can, and manages to live through the story. Mrs. Gironda is under the influence of two mystics, Hamik and Ali, but they turn out to be phonies, two thieves who were hoping to get their hands on Mrs. Gironda’s jewels.

And the Clutching Hand is. . . Doctor Gironda himself. Verna is his step-daughter, and he had embezzled money from her trust fund. It was his hope that by spreading news of his gold formula, his company’s stock would rise, allowing him to make a killing in the stock market and flee with a fortune. But, the Doctor was attacked by a fellow scientist, and part of the gold formula stolen from him. Worse, the formula itself is fake. Terrified lest his plans be found out, Doctor Gironda faked his own kidnapping, and, in the guise of the Clutching Hand, used his vast criminal organization to try and find the missing formula. So there was no gold formula, and Doctor Gironda was not kidnapped. The note of anticlimax is evident, though the serial does manage to tie together plot threads better than the book.

The melodramatic style of filming approaches camp in its use of meaningful close-ups and unsubtle music. Comedian Ernie Kovacs once parodied the serial on television in the 1950's.

Jack Mulhall made a dapper Craig Kennedy, while Rex Lease played Jameson. Robert Frazer played Doctor Gironda, though the Clutching Hand was never seen except as a shadow, and his voice was dubbed by some other actor. Gordon Gaunt was played by former silent serial star William Farnum. The director was Albert Herman.