Tuesday, April 30, 2024

The Shadow by James Patterson and Brian Stitts (2021)

 


Choices were made. Now I am a fan of the Shadow so I have to admit I was a little perplexed by some of the choices made here.

I get Conde Naste's choice to reboot The Shadow (and Doc Savage). I get why they chose James Patterson (and friends) as the writer(s).

Patterson as a brand is much like the old school pulp writers churning out stories.

Now I get those choices. Others not so much.  Now some choices were external to the book.

Sanctum had a long running reprint program of the Shadow and was approaching the end of those reprints, when Conde Naste told them the licence was expiring, Sanctum upped production and asked for a little extra time to get the last couple of issues out.  Conde Naste said no and the reprints remain incomplete.

Now this seems like a move to upset the fans, it does nothing to make the faithful look favourably on this new book.

But hey this was all external to the book itself and wasn’t the authors fault and I shouldn’t judge the final product because of corporate Argy bargy.

So I found a cheap copy at a book sale and grabbed it. I went in with an open mind.

(When telling this to my wife she says “Yeah I can see the fraction of a millimetre you have your mind open.”)

So I read the book and choices were made in the making of the book.

Now the book opens with Lamont Cranston meeting Margo Lane for dinner – both have news. Lamont is going to propose and Margo is pregnant. Then Shiwan Khan poisons them. Lamont races and has both of them put into suspended animation.

Ok we want to get The Shadow out of the 1930s/40s and that’s a way to do it.  Hey it worked for Sherlock Holmes three times. (The Return of Sherlock Holmes(1987), Sherlock Holmes Returns (1992) and Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (1999-2001)).

I get that but we don’t see the Shadow in action in the 1930s. If I was not aware of who/what the Shadow was I’d be in the dark, we’re told a few times that he was a detective but we aren’t shown that.  Why take the Shadow off the board in 1937?

That’s when the radio program started. The pulp series had been running since 1931 and the Shadow was been the narrator of The Detective Story hour in 1930. But his arguably most famous incarnation that formed the basis of this version of the Shadow is sort of wiped off the board.

(There is a scene later where Lamont says that he never dressed like the pulp version and he thought it odd that the radio show revealed his real name.)

The story then jumps ahead 150 years to 2037. We are introduced to Maddy Gomes who is about to turn 18 and receive her inheritance. Now Maddy is named in this will not her grandmother or her parents.  Maddy can do the Jedi mind trick and control people.

Her parts are told in first person and Lamont and Margot’s in third person which can be a little distracting.

Oh yeah The Shadow’s history is changed no longer is he a World War One ace, he and Shiwan Khan are ten thousand year old monks trained in mystic arts.  This kinda ruins the whole Shiwan Khan is the descendant of Genghis Khan (1162-1227) that is the character’s thing.

Also Lamont suddenly gets new abilities like throwing fireballs and shapeshifting into a cat and wall.  Shiwan can also shapeshift, he becomes a runaway bus at one point.

The plot has Maddy waking up Lamont exploring the world where World Leader Gizmonde rules with an iron fist and the poor are getting poorer.  And there is an EEEEVIL!!!! Plan to poison large groups of people with food.

Maddy wakes up Margo and the three of them try to stop Gizmonde who we discover is Shiwan Khan.

Maddy gets trained by Lamont and can turn herself invisible.

Margo doesn’t mention that she was pregnant until the end of the adventure assuming that she had lost the baby, which is possible but you’ve been in status for 150 years unaging pretty sure the baby would be too.

Or we discover that she had the baby, How? Who knows?

That female baby grew up and had a baby and so on and so forth until Maddy.  Yep she’s their multiple great granddaughter.

I didn’t get any of the choices made to change things – it felt like Patterson and Stitts had novel about Maddy fighting the man in a dystopia and shoehorned the Shadow update very badly.  There were times I wanted to fling the book across the room, the choices made were so confusing and mind boggling – it was like it wanted to have its cake and eat it too.

I tried, I really wanted some enjoyable new Shadow adventures but this ain’t it.  There’s second book “Circle of Death” but I don’t think I’ll be reading that one anytime soon.


And really neither cover sets the world on fire.



Saturday, April 20, 2024

The Crow (1994) Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson

 


With the forthcoming release of the reboot/remake thirty years later, it seemed like a good time to rewatch the original from 1994.

It’s a movie that must grapple with a tragic legacy – indeed the new movie has had to contend with that legacy with comments made about the memory of Brandon Lee, who tragically died during filming, just a few scenes short of finishing the movie.

Don’t get me wrong, the 1994 Crow is a good movie but had Brandon Lee lived would it be as highly rated? (A similar sentiment for Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight after his death).

Brandon’s death at 28, tied into his family legacy – his father Bruce Lee also having died young (32). There are parallels between Brandon’s death and the posthumous Game of Death starring his father, both were completed using stand-ins.  Bruce’s character fakes his death through a firearms accident on a movie set – the exact scenario of Brandon’s death.

The sequel The Crow: City of Angels (1996) had to grapple with that legacy – it felt like it was scared to stray too far from the original lest it offended the fans of the original.  And every sequel since has done the same. Even the TV series Crow Stairway to Heaven – just retold and expanded the first movie.  Let us not speak of The Crow Salvation and The Crow Wicked Prayer. 

The crows with crow/raven pun surnames – Draven (d raven – the Raven) is subtle but Ashe Corvin, Alex Corvis and Jimmy Cuervo stretch the gag too far – and all had to have the mime makeup.

Indeed, the stories behind these continuations hint at what might have been – a Rob Zombie director Crow film, castings I mean Wicked Prayer had David Boreanaz and Danny Trejo in the cast and used neither as the Crow electing to have Edward Furlong in the title role (no disrespect to Furlong but he just didn’t have any presence as the Crow). 

A more horror focussed film, a dark Western were touted.  The reboot was to star Jason Mamoa, then creative differences caused him to drop out. 

Look at me, nearly 400 words deep and I have barely touched the film itself.

The Crow is a dark gothic brooding affair that deals with the resurrection of Eric Draven to avenge the murders of him and his fiancĂ©. 

Lee is great in the title role, a man cruelly ripped from the woman he loved on the day before their wedding and returned to life a year later to avenge those deaths.

Ernie Hudson as the good cop willing to investigate on his own despite the threat of demotion has just the right mix of world weariness and drive for justice.  Even taking over from Shelly and Eric in looking out for young Sarah.

Michael Wincott, as Top Dollar plays man who is bored of his own violation of society’s norms that he casually sleeps with his half sister, killing another sexual partner and railing against the normalisation of his transgressions having started Devil’s night. The Crow offers him a challenge.

Top-dollar and his crew are just fun to watch, high as a kite and dealing with a revenge zombie who can’t be killed.  “You can’t be you! I killed you!” one declares, another presumes the Crow is a drug hallucination. 

Skank’s rambling retelling of T-Bird’s death is a darkly humorous bit, with Top Dollar suggesting they record him talking and play it back at half speed. 

But Eric is not just a revenge zombie, he finds Sarah’s mother Darlah and using crow magic gets her clean and tells her to look after her daughter. 

Perhaps the moral of the film comes from Eric himself “it can’t rain all the time” The darkness must be tempered with the light.

The movie is full of stunning dark visuals and the special effects stand up really well for being 30 years old.

It’s movie I enjoy watching every now and then. 



Wednesday, March 27, 2024

The Life and Times of Dominic Fortune.

 


 

The Chronology.

C1915

 David Jerome Fortunov is born in New York. He later adopts the name Dominic Fortune. (Taken from S.H.I.E.L.D no11 where it is said that Fortune is 100 years old)

1920

Steve Rogers born.

1931 Davey Fortunov rescues Stevie Rogers from a gang of bullies (Marvel Super-Heroes #3)

1932-1935 The Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay takes place.  Fortune flies three tours for both sides, working for the winning Paraguay side at the end of the war. (Dominic Fortune: It Can Happen Here and Now #1)

1936



Dominic Fortune: It Can Happen Here and Now 1-4 

Fortune returns to the States and is hired to bodyguard three actors at the 1936 Olympics, he discovers a plot to overthrow the United States government. (Dominic Fortune: It Can Happen Here and Now #2&3)

Columbus Day 1936 (October 12)

Fortune manages to stop the coup. (Dominic Fortune: It Can Happen Here and Now #4)

March 31 – May 1937

Astonishing Tales: Dominic Fortune.1-6 

Fortune is hired by Amanda Maclain to investigate the death of her sister. 

The crash of the Hindenberg is mentioned in issue #4.

1937

“Ghoul of My Dreams” Hulk! #22 

“Moo over Manhattan” Hulk! #23 

Fortune stops an assassination planned by Baron Von Strucker

Christmas 1937

“Slay Bells” Hulk! #25 

Fortune encounters The Silhouette (Lamar Canfield), his girlfriend Margo Payne and assistant Harry while preventing the assassination of the British Ambassador.

1938


“The Power Broker Resolution” Marvel Preview #2
.

March 1938

“The Messiah in the Saddle Resolution” Marvel Super Action #1 

Spring 1938

“The Big Top Barter Resolution” Marvel Premiere #56 

Fortune helps Dum-Dum Dugan when he is swindled out of his circus.

Dugan would later become a Howling Commando and agent of SHIELD with Nick Fury.

1940

Steve Rogers watches news reel footage of Dominic Fortune and realises that it is Davey Fortunov.

Fortunov is asked to be the first test subject for Project Rebirth but is rejected due to his gambling and being Jewish.

Steve is selected as his replacement and Fortune rescues him from a Nazi kidnapping attempt. (Marvel Super-Heroes #3)

 

1940

Fortune and Sabbath Raven are separated in the Nazi invasion of Holland. (referenced in Web of Spiderman #71)

 

1942

Fortune mentions seeing Namor in 1942. (Reference in Avengers 1959 #4)

1959

New Avengers 10-13

Nick Fury recruits Dum-Dum Dugan, Dominic Fortune, Victor Creed (Sabretooth), Namora, Sergei Kravenoff (Kraven the Hunter), Ulysses Bloodstone, Ernst Sablinova (Silver Sable) as a strikeforce known as Avengers 1959 to hunt for fugitive Nazis and discovers that a fake Red Skull has created their own fake Captain America. (I am ignoring the modern day part of the story)

1959

The Avengers 1959

The Avengers 1959 are reformed with Dominic Fortune, Victor Creed (Sabretooth), Namora, Sergei Kravenoff (Kraven the Hunter), and the Blonde Phantom (Louise Grant) to battle a Nazi sorcerer. Man-Gorilla of Agents of ATLAS appears and a reference is made Jimmy Woo.

1981

Marvel Team Up #120

Spiderman teams up with an older Dominic Fortune to fight Turner D. Century.  Reference is made to Spider-Woman.

As Spiderman, Dominic Fortune, and Spiderwoman all have independent links to CU it seems likely that this crossover took place.  Fortune is appropriately aged as a man active in the 1930s.

Web of Spiderman #10

Spiderman and Fortune crossover again.

1985



Iron Man #212-213

Dominic Fortune encounters Iron Man and is believed dead.  Fortune’s son Jerry briefly becomes the new Dominic Fortune before his death but his father returns to the mantle.


1985


Web of Spiderman #71-72

When seeking to avenge the death of his son, Fortune encounters Spiderman and Silver Sable (Silvija Sablinova).

1990

Dominic Fortune again encounters Captain America (Marvel Superheroes #3)

 

2005



Sable & Fortune

Silver Sable retires from the Wild Pack and works with a man calling himself Dominic Fortune.

(This would be 20 years after her meeting with Fortune in 1985, presuming that she was around 20 then she would be in her 40s now)

(When this Dominic introduces himself Sable says like the “Dominic Fortune? As in brigand, adventurer? Circa 1930? That Dominic Fortune? The years have been kind.” Fortune responds “You might say that” He does not bring up their earlier encounter and changes the subject.  It is also mentioned that he is not a good fighter unlike the original.

 

2008

Vanguard

Dominic Fortune is part of a clandestine team known as Vanguard with Blade, Micromax, Yelena Belova, and Retcon. 

The Thing appears and they encounter Colonel America, an attempt to recreate Captain America but his abilities are too strong.

 

2010

Hawkeye and Mockingbird

Dominic Fortune is one of members of the World Counterterrorism Agency with Mockingbird, Hawkeye, Twitchy, Bangs and London. They battle the Slade family of Phantom Riders and the mercenary known as Crossfire.  Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes appear as does Luke Cage.

 

It is stated the Fortune can heal quickly and at the end of the story Fortune reveals that he is the original who some point in the decade before drank a variant of the Super Soldier serum which rejuvenated him with memory loss before he grew the moustache and recalled his life.

 

2011

Widowmaker

These events follow directly after Hawkeye and Mockingbird.  Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Fortune, and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) track down a killer

Fortune mentions meeting Yelena (reference to Vanguard) and claims to be the one and only.  There is no reference to his dying as the super soldier serum degrades and he is fine in battle.

The text refers to him as the 1940s Brigand for hire.

 

2011

New Avengers (present day)

 

 

2015

SHIELD #11 December 2015 writer Mark Waid and art by Howard Chaykin

Dominic Fortune visits SHIELD to get assistance to get his casino back and works with Phil Coulson.

Fortune is a sprightly 100 and mentions working with Nick Fury in 1959.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

SHIELD #11 December 2015

 



Story by Mark Waid and Art by Howard Chaykin.

This series is basically a tie in to the Agents of SHIELD TV Series and the cover promises us a young Dom flirting with Simmons and Melinda May but neither lady appears in the comic and it’s old man Dom again.

Dom turns up to SHIELD’s covert headquarters asking for Nick Fury, who he hung around with in 1959. 

Coulson sees Fortune, and one of the techs mentions that Fortune looks too young to be 100 (as the story is set in 2015 and he was born in 1915) Coulson says there’s a story but it’s above the tech’s paygrade.

Coulson greets Fortune with a similar reverence to how he met Captain America in The Avengers (2012).  When asked what he can do for Dominic, Coulson is told to get Hydra off his boat The Mississippi Queen.  Clearly, Dom had reacquired it after finding Raven but woke up with a headache and the revelation that he had gambled the boat away to Tug Freeland, an internet financial advisor. 

Coulson takes Fortune to the ship in the flying corvette and shows off a very handy suit feature that changes his business suit to a tuxedo. (Q section – borrow this for the next bond film.)  Fortune gives Coulson a bill for his services but Coulson brushes him off.  Which is a nice bit.

They go to the party, there’s some banter with Tug and Dominic then talks to Obsidian Mars also known as Sid.  Tug tries to throw Dom and Coulson off the boat but Dom starts a fight and when everyone is watching, tells Freeland that Coulson is SHIELD.

Coulson is taken below deck and Dom is given a warning. Dom sneaks after Tug and hears their plan – steal all the data from their wealthy guests, use it disrupt the stock market, maybe a little blackmail with the photos.  But Sid says that Tug thinks too small, just blow up the boat killing multiple billionaires, that would throw the market into chaos.  Dom is caught and thrown into the same cell as Coulson.  He tells Coulson that he knows the plan.  He then reveals that when Raven died she left him the Mississippi Queen and he has frittered it all away.  Dom mentions that he used to have a decent pitch but he stopped watching baseball when Bob Feller lost his edge as he couldn’t stand to watch.

Coulson then hits a button on his shirt and calls a SHIELD strike team.  Tug and Sid take off in a helicopter and Dom finds the bomb she planted on his bed.  Dom pitches the explosive and blows up the chopper.

Later, Coulson hands over the title to the Mississippi Queen to Fortune and tells Dom that he has cured him of his romanticising of Dom’s generation.  Dom then toasts a picture of Sabbath Raven.

This is a really nice story for Coulson and would have made a good  episode to give the other actors a break. 

Dominic Fortune was meant to appear in the world of Agents of SHIELD, played by Delroy Lindo in the spin-off Most Wanted working with Mockingbird and Lance Hunter.  That was filmed in 2016 and never released so we are still waiting for Dom to appear in live action.

A fun idea might be a Disney + series with Clint Eastwood as Old Man Dom and Scott Eastwood as the younger Dom splitting episodes with flashbacks. 

For now this is the last appearance of Dom in any fashion but this is comics so never say never.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

The Avengers 1959 Saga

 

The New Avengers 10-13 May 2011- August 2011

Story by Brian Michael Bendis art by Mike Deodato and Howard Chaykin

Guess what?  This isn’t one story but two as we bop between the present and 1959.  (which based on the original Marvel stories were only four years before Hulk, Ant-man, Wasp, The Hulk and Thor created their team of the same name)

Following the adventures of Dominic Fortune as we are here, it’s really only the 1959 part we care about. All we need to know about the present The New Avengers are fighting H.A.M.M.E.R agents and Mockingbird is severely injured all of which are drawn by Mike Deodato.  We flashback to 1959 and Nick Fury with Dum-Dum Dugan form a black ops team with Sabretooth, Namorita, Sergei Kraven, Ulysses Bloodstone, Ernst Sablinova (Silver Sable) and Dominic Fortune.  This black ops team attack a Nazi base in Sweden where Red Skull has been reported to be located.  When the team attacks Skull’s base, a fake Captain America appears.  It appears that the Nazis also wanted their own supersoldier and made a serum as well as the infinity formula, making the recipient super strong, bullet proof and immortal. 1959 members of the Avengers Initiative stop the phony Captain America and retrieve the hybrid serum.

If you guessed that Fury busts out the confiscated serum and gives to it to Mockingbird.  Yay! No tie-in to what happened in Hawkeye & Mockingbird though.

It is nice that it ties back to Web of Spiderman 71 & 72 telling us how Fortune met Silver Sable’s father.


 

Avengers 1959 1-5 December 2011-March 2012

Story and Art by Howard Chaykin

The New Avengers story must have done well and/or fired by Chaykin’s creative juices as it came out fairly quickly after that original story.

We open with the first Avengers 1959 team celebrating their success before they go their own ways.  Ernst Sable and Ulyssess Bloodstone are off to the Savage Land for a spot of hunting.  Kraven and Sabretooth have an altercation over Namorita and after shooting Sabretooth, the couple decide that they should leave for their health.

That’s where we flash to Lousie Mason The Domino Lady -  Chaykin has her undercover spying on a rogue Nazi named Skul posing as his girlfriend.  There’s a nice visual that she is in red lingerie and wearing black framed glasses that suggest her red dress – domino mask combo.  (Now I want to do a Domino Lady/Blonde Phantom story).

A group of assassins with a Skull logo try to kill Fury, Namorita, Kraven, Dominic Fortune and Sabretooth and set up diplomatic relations with Wakanda.

Strangely the assassination attempts upset their targets and along with some other intelligence from an Englishman Powell McTeague that Skul is setting up his neo-Nazi attacks from Latveria.  Fury and Blonde Phantom investigate Skul while Fortune, Sabretooth, Kraven and Namorita attack one of Skul’s ships carrying Nazi supervillains Baron Blood and Brain Drain.  Magic Nazi pirates.  What more do I have to say.

McTeague acts and dresses like John Steed, which I guess is a fun nod to The Avengers TV series.

There’s a plot for a Nazi sympathiser to take over America but The Avengers manage to stop him with a little bit of Magic.

It’s a fun tale with several Nazi supervillains as well as magic.  Fortune doesn’t do much which was a surprise.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Hawkeye & Mockingbird 1-6 Widowmaker 1-4 August 2010 to April 2011

 

UGGGGHHHHH I am over Dom 3 let's just do the last two stories in one post.

Written by Jim McCann Art by David Lopez

And Dom 3 is back working for Mockingbird’s World Counterterrorism Agency or WCA for short (get it, get it, WCA like West Coast Avengers that Hawkeye and Mockingbird were members.)

The Phantom Rider is back and there is terrorism with William “Crossfire” Cross.  Ghostly shenanigans occur and Mockingbird is reminded of when she killed the original Phantom Rider in some timey-wimey stuff back in the West Coast Avengers.

Dom’s grown an Errol Flynn moustache which is a nice touch and he has a flirty relationship with Mockingbird.

Issue one has a history of Hawkeye and Mockingbird going back to their first appearances in the 60s and 70s but the story hints that Mockingbird’s debut as The Huntress took place only ten years ago.

This story feels too superhero for Dominic Fortune and with three different teams (Sable/Fortune, Vanguard and now WCA) it feels like there was no real plan for Dom 3.

Dom does a little bit in this series but look at the title of the series – most of the cool stuff has Hawkeye and Mockingbird.

We do have a revelation in issue 6 – that Dom 3 is actually Dom 1, he’d taken the version of the super-soldier serum that Bobbi Morse worked on and turned Ted Sallis into Man-Thing.  He was initially amnesiac and then recovered but the unstable serum is starting to wear off and he wants Bobbi to help him.

I wanted to like this but the whole Dom 3 as a de-aged original Dom just doesn’t work there’s nothing in the earlier appearances to make that work and ugh sliding timescale.

It just feels like things are being thrown at the wall to see what sticks.

Next up is Widowmaker – a cross over with Hawkeye & Mockingbird with Black Widow.


 

Widowmaker 1-4 

Written by Jim McCann (1& 3) Dwayne Swierczynski (2&4) Art by David Lopez (1&3) Manuel Garcia (2&4)

Hawkeye, Mockingbird and Dominic Fortune team up with Natasha Romanov, Black Widow to investigate the death of several spies around the world by Ronin.

Blah, Blah, Blah – looks like we’ve forgotten the revelations from Hawkeye and Mockingbird that were revealed only the month before.  Dom is just there in the background, he tells Natasha that he met another blonde Black Widow, which means that Vangard is continuity with this.  Ugh, I can’t even I’ve over Dom 3– checks comics – thank goodness no more Dom 3 as revitalised classic Dom. Marvel never really seemed to know what to do with the young contemporary Dominic Fortune.  Sable and Fortune started well but the plane started nosediving with the nonsensical Vangard and couldn’t recover with next two mini-series.

So here’s the scenario – Marvel calls me in and says hey Brad we want to do a contemporary Dominic Fortune set in the Marvel universe – what do you want to do?

I say two words Howard Chaykin.  But seriously, here’s the plan we reveal that the new Dominic Fortune is Daniel Fortunov, the son of Jerry Fortunov and the original’s grandson. After the death of Jerry and bringing Wolfgang Von Lundt, the old man moves in to help raise his grandchildren. (To avoid confusion, I will refer to the Dominics by their birthnames – David, Jerry and Daniel)

David trains all his grandchildren to make up for what happened to their father.  The younger Sabbath Raven breaks out of jail and kidnaps young Daniel – David rescues him and Daniel swears he will become the new Dominic Fortune. 

I’d keep Sable and Fortune in continuity and get rid of Vangard, Hawkeye and Mockingbird, and Widowmaker.  I’d give him his own series of miniseries and oneshots that have him troubleshooting.  Have him as the guy the other heroes call when they are stuck  or have to be on the other side of the universe stopping Galactus or some such.  He investigates industrial espionage at Stark Enterprises, bodyguarding family members, bidding against Heroes for Hire for jobs. 

You could make Sabbath II and Silver Sable rivals set them up as the angel and the devil on his shoulder.

Have Old Man Dom serve a similar role to Wildcat mentoring some of the younger members of the hero community as well as Dom III

I know it’s wacky but have a plan for the character.

Next up is two Avengers 1959 stories by Howard Chaykin (thank you Mr Chaykin for coming back) and the final appearance to date of Dominic Fortune.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Dominic Fortune Max 1-4 October 2009 – January 2010

 



Art and story by Howard Chaykin

Hoo boy, Chaykin is back baby!  Inject this right in my veins.  It opens during the Paraguay- Boliva War and Fortune mentions that he has done three tours, two for Paraguay who he is flying for at the end of the war in 1935 (presumably he was in for the entire three years of the war) and with the war ending he is looking for new work.  Dom points out that he is not a patriot and politics, religion or nationality don’t drive him.  He is after the money. 

He met Delatriz Betancourt, also flying for Paraguay and she might have an offer for him. Delatriz, the descendant of Confederate soldiers who moved to South America, is flirty and distracts Dom enough that he gets shot down and parachutes in the hotel pool, which is surrounded by several ladies in various states of undress.  Chaykin is using the adult Max line to his advantage (just as he did in the magazine lines for many of Dom’s original appearances.)

However, that opportunity dries up when Delatriz and her business colleague Malcolm Upshaw discover that Dominic Fortune is Jewish.

However, one of the naked ladies was Heather Fontaine and when Dom gets back to LA, they begin an affair.  Fontaine’s husband, Irwin Oppenheim, a studio executive, hires Dom to baby sit three of his big stars -Jock Madison, Vaughn Lorillard and P.T. Oakley.  (disguised versions of John Carridine, Errol Flynn and, W.C. Fields) when they go to Berlin for the 1936 Olympics. 

Fortune discovers that Upshaw and Delatriz are both working with the Germans and a rogue American army unit to kill the President.  Fortune steals a plane and lands in time to rather forcefully stop the army unit with the plane’s propellor and fight hand to hand with Upshaw saving the President.

This was a great romp with several fun fights and some rather adult scenes and scenarios.  There is a lot of anti-Semitism thrown around but that was not uncommon for the time and it fit with villains who were happy allying themselves with Nazis.