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When John Severn (Ray Parsons), the National Mint's best engraver, is
kidnapped & forced to forge money for some mysterious gang, the Secret
Service decide to have their top man, Holt (Jack Holt) under the alias of
ruthless gangster Nick Farrell, infiltrate the gang.That doesn't work out
quite as well though when the gangster whom he has hooked up with, Crimp
Evans (Joe McGuinn) gets caught by the police. So Holt has to be put into
jail too, & let his wife (actually a fellow agent) Kay (Evelyn
Brent) spring them from jail.
But on the way to the gang's hideout, Crimp grows wise to Holt &
Holt has to kill him in some rapids (or so he thinks), but somehow, when
he arrives at the gang's hideout, he gets stuck with Kay, & to not
draw any suspicion, they put on a bickering couple-act in front of
gangleader Valdin (Tristram Coffin) & his men, who grow more &
more suspicious, which Holt usually counters with a fistfight,
successfully putting up a tough guy act.
Eventually though, the hideout is raided by the police & the
engraver freed, but Valden & a few others manage to escape, & it
is decided to not blow Holt's cover but equip him with some sought after
engraving plates & try to hook up witht he gang again, to not only
catch Valden & company but also the gang's real boss ...
Holt manages to infiltrate the gang again alright, but by now Crimp has
resurfaced, very much alive, & whuile he no longer thinks Holt is a
federal agent, he still wants to kill him & get his hands on the
plates.
Holt meanwhile is presented with the boss of the gang, Quist
(Ted Adams), who is really a stand-in for the gang's real boss, Lucky
Arnold (John Ward), who successfully plays the role of a clumsy gambler.
Soon everybody, including Quist, Arnold, Crimp, Holt & Kay', get
their hands on the plates for some time, with the action shifting first to
urban settings, later to the gambling ship Adventure & finally
to Capas Island, a tropical paradise, where Garrity (Stanley Blystone), an
unscrupulous landowner is thrown into the mix as well when he learns about
the plates, & will stop at nothing to get them, he even stages a
natives' revolt to serve his own ends ...
In the end though, one of Garrity's henchmen, Rankin (George Chesebro)
is overcome by his conscience (as he sees Garrity even slaughtering the
natives who help him) & informs the rightful gouvernor of Capas
Island. Everything is resolved when the gangsters accidently blow up the Adventure,
the ship they came with, while the gouvernor sends his troops to arrest
the gangsters & Garrity & his men alike.
Kay & Holt though might marry soon, but this time for real ...
Not that the story of this serial would be particularly new ot offer
anything that hasn't been shown in any number of other serials, but Jack
Holt's porttrayal of the "plenty tough" guy, who answers
everything with a fistfight (& he's the good guy !) does give Holt
of the Secret Service a welcome momentum not often found even within
the usually fast-moving serial world, & Evelyn Brent as his
fast-talking, sharp-tongued pretend wife does give perfect support.
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