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* HumanGuineaPig: Kirby volunteers to test the antidote for hypnotrene. Luckily it doesn't kill him, and it also allows him to remember all that happened, including the location of Anthony Waldron's lair.
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* {{Anticlimax}}: The ending is surprisingly abrupt. Anthony Waldron is aboard the getaway submarine when Weatherby steps out of the shadows and reveals himself as Mr. M. Cut to a scene with Shirley and Grant on a plane, and Grant dropping two bombs from the plane onto the submarine. The submarine blows up and sinks. The whole sequence lasts less than a minute.
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* TheDogWasTheMastermind: Weatherby, the meek, timid lawyer, is revealed in the last episode to be Mr. M.
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* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: In the last episode, when Shirley explains to Marina and Grandma Waldron her theory that Anthony Waldron is both alive and is Mr. M, Marina asks if she's told Grant Farrell. When an unsuspecting Shirley says nope, she's told nobody, Marina pulls a gun.
* HumanGuineaPig: Kirby volunteers to test the antidote for hypnotrene. Luckily it doesn't kill him, and it also allows him to remember all that happened, including the location of Anthony Waldron's lair.
* HumanGuineaPig: Kirby volunteers to test the antidote for hypnotrene. Luckily it doesn't kill him, and it also allows him to remember all that happened, including the location of Anthony Waldron's lair.
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* TheReveal: The last episode includes the (howlingly obvious) reveals that Weatherby, Mrs. Waldron's lawyer, is Mr. M.
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* CrashCourseLanding: In episode 11, after Waldron shoots Kirby Walsh and parachutes out of the plane, Shirley takes the controls and Grant tries to talk her down. The {{Cliffhanger}} has Shirley flying right at some power lines that come out of the fog as she's making her final approach to the runway.
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* PlotHole: It's never explained just how the bad guy found out about Anthony Waldron's plans, or for that matter, how he even found out that Anthony Waldron wasn't really dead.
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* PlotHole: It's never explained just how the bad guy found out about Anthony Waldron's plans, or for that matter, how he even found out that Anthony Waldron wasn't really dead. This continues throughout the series, as Mr. M displays omniscient knowledge of both what Waldron's up to and what the good guys are up to.
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* ChekhovsGun: Grandma Waldron falls down and cuts her head in episode 11, and one of the good guys dabs the cut with a handkerchief. Sure enough, when Anthony Waldron figures out in episode 12 that the police can test that blood and will find hypnotrene, he has to make a quick exit.
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* GoingByTheMatchbook: It turns out that the key Grant and Shirley found at the end of episode 11 conveniently has the name of the bank stamped on it.
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* StockFootage: As with most film serials of the day, stock footage was often used where big expensive sequences would have been required. Sometimes it matches up pretty well, and sometimes it matches up quite badly, like in episode 11 where the stock footage of a burning building collapsing doesn't match up at all with the building Grant Farrell entered and where he and a couple of mooks are fighting.
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* DullSurprise: The cabbie in episode 2 who barely blinks when bad guys are chasing him on an isolated mountain road and firing bullets at his cab. When they finally force him off the road all he can say is "What's the big idea?"
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* DullSurprise: DullSurprise:
** The cabbie in episode 2 who barely blinks when bad guys are chasing him on an isolated mountain road and firing bullets at his cab. When they finally force him off the road all he can say is "What's the bigidea?"idea?"
** Grant Farrell is shot at the end of episode 8. As he's trying to get up at the beginning of episode 9, another cop rushes over and says "Take it easy, Grant. Bullet wounds can be serious."
** The cabbie in episode 2 who barely blinks when bad guys are chasing him on an isolated mountain road and firing bullets at his cab. When they finally force him off the road all he can say is "What's the big
** Grant Farrell is shot at the end of episode 8. As he's trying to get up at the beginning of episode 9, another cop rushes over and says "Take it easy, Grant. Bullet wounds can be serious."
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* PreviouslyOn: Episodes usually have characters giving some sort of recap, like in episode 1-6, where a uniformed police officer explains to Chief Blair everything that went down in the last episode, about Parker and the "electronic ear".
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* PocketProtector: Episode 9 reveals that the bullet a mind-controlled Kirby Walsh fired at Grant was stopped by the cigarette lighter in Grant's coat pocket.
* PreviouslyOn: Episodes usually have characters giving some sort of recap, like in episode1-6, 6, where a uniformed police officer explains to Chief Blair everything that went down in the last episode, about Parker and the "electronic ear".
* PreviouslyOn: Episodes usually have characters giving some sort of recap, like in episode
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* DangerTakesABackseat: In episode 8 Weatherby is driving away after refusing to represent Shrag the {{Mook}}, when another one of Mr. M's mooks rises up from the backseat of Weatherby's car and points a gun at him.
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* ThisPageWillSelfDestruct: The bad guys don't even get any warning! They get a letter from Mr. M. Anthony Waldron has just read the message, then smugly says that they can compare the handwriting to that of everyone they know to figure out who is Mr. M. Then the letter bursts into flames.
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* LondonEnglandSyndrome: A shot of the Capitol dome is used in episode 7 to signal "Washington" when Castleton from DC calls Capt. Blair for an update (and a PreviouslyOn).
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* {{Cliffhanger}}: Every episode ends with a suspenseful cliffhanger in which the heroes are in peril, in classic film serial fashion.
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* PlotHole: It's never explained just how the bad guy found out about Anthony Waldron's plans, or for that matter, how he even found out that Anthony Waldron wasn't really dead.
* PreviouslyOn: Episodes usually have characters giving some sort of recap, like in episode 1-6, where a uniformed police officer explains to Chief Blair everything that went down in the last episode, about Parker and the "electronic ear".
* PreviouslyOn: Episodes usually have characters giving some sort of recap, like in episode 1-6, where a uniformed police officer explains to Chief Blair everything that went down in the last episode, about Parker and the "electronic ear".
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* BluffTheEavesdropper: Played with. The good guys discover an IncrediblyObviousBug in Grant's room in Episode 4. They choose to use it to misdirect Mr. M's minions to a trap. However, Waldron is clever enough to send one of his operatives concealed in a packing crate. The guy inside the crate hears Grant's man discussing the trap, so he gets out of the crate, jabs the man with hypnotrene, and turns him into a hypno-slave to set a trap for Grant.
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Plot stuff happens, and eventually the bad guys kidnap a James Farrell, who was working with Dr. Kittredge. The good guys are represented by Detective Kirby Walsh, James Farrell's brother Grant, and insurance investigatior Shirley Clinton. There was no "Mr. M" tag on Kittredge, but our heroes match the chemical found in Kittredge's body to the chemical that killed Mr. M's three victims.
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Plot stuff happens, and eventually the bad guys kidnap a James Farrell, who was working with Dr. Kittredge. The good guys are represented by Detective Kirby Walsh, James Farrell's brother Grant, a government agent, and insurance investigatior Shirley Clinton. There was no "Mr. M" tag on Kittredge, but our heroes match the chemical found in Kittredge's body to the chemical that killed Mr. M's three victims.
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* HumanShield: A mook gets away from Grant in episode 3 by grabbing Brewster the scientist and using him as a human shield while crawling out a window.
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* NeutralFemale: Grant and a mook are fighting at the Chandler Oil refinery in episode 3. What is Shirley doing? Standing off to the side looking concerned, of course. So basically she deserves it when she's chucked into a closet after the mook knocks Grant out.
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* DullSurprise: The cabbie in episode 2 who barely blinks when bad guys are chasing him on an isolated mountain road and firing bullets at his cab. When they finally force him off the road all he can say is "What's the big idea?"
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* TapOnTheHead
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* TapOnTheHeadTapOnTheHead: A mind-controlled James Farrell knocks out his brother Grant at the end of the first episode by whacking him with a lug wrench. Not only does that not crush Grant's skull like an eggshell, he's back on his feet moments later, struggling with his brother.
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* IdiotBall: In the second episode Anthony and the Lamonts get another message from Mr. M, regarding the reward that they have just arranged to offer. At that moment only five people know about the reward: Anthony, the Lamont siblings, Mrs. Waldron who hardly counts as she is whacked out on hypnotrene, and Mr. Weatherby, Grandma Waldron's friendly family lawyer. Instead of drawing the obvious conclusion, Anthony and the Lamonts assume that Mr. M must be a mind reader.
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* TapOnTheHead
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[[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/15c222e1_199a_4eae_b89c_0f1ed9d5b860.jpeg]]
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''The Mysterious Mr. M'' is a 13-episode 1946 film serial from Universal Pictures.
The police are finding corpses with tags indicating that they have been killed by a "Mr. M." The three bodies they have discovered at the start of the story have all been killed by a "brain paralysis chemical". That chemical turns out to be "hypnotrene", a drug developed by a bad guy named Anthony Waldron. Waldron, who is incorrectly believed to be dead, has invented the "Mr. M" persona in an effort to confuse the police.
While the police are chasing Mr. M, Waldron is after his real goal, a submarine engine that doesn't use batteries and so can allow submarines to stay submerged for long periods. Waldron kidnaps Dr. Kittredge, the inventor (who beat Hyman Rickover to the punch by a few years), and uses the drug to get him to reveal where the plans are. Unfortunately for the bad guys, Dr. Kittredge dies of a heart attack after he's shot up with hypnotrene.
Plot stuff happens, and eventually the bad guys kidnap a James Farrell, who was working with Dr. Kittredge. The good guys are represented by Detective Kirby Walsh, James Farrell's brother Grant, and insurance investigatior Shirley Clinton. There was no "Mr. M" tag on Kittredge, but our heroes match the chemical found in Kittredge's body to the chemical that killed Mr. M's three victims.
Meanwhile, Anthony Waldron is hiding out in a basement lair in his grandmother Cornelia's mansion. He and his partners in crime, siblings Derek and Marina Lamont, believe they can use James Farrell to discover the hiding place of the plans for the submarine engine. But they get a nasty surprise at the end of the first episode, when they receive a phonograph message from--Mr. M. Someone, it seems, has assumed the identity of Anthony Waldron's fictional bad guy.
137th and last serial produced by Universal Pictures.
----
!!Tropes:
* AsYouKnow: Tons of this in the first episode, as characters lay out their relationship to each other. At least it's justified when Mr. M's phonograph recording tells Waldron how Waldron didn't die in Africa, but came back with the chemicals that make hypnotrene--this is how Mr. M proves he knows what Waldron's up to.
* BookcasePassage: A button causes the fireplace in the Waldron mansion to swing open, revealing a staircase that leads to Anthony Waldron's underground lair.
* BoobyTrap: The bad guys' plans are complicated in the first episode when a booby trap in the safe destroys Kittridge's entire Precision Tool Works, killing one {{Mook}} and, more importantly, destroying the plans. Luckily they still have the lead to Nord Manufacturing and James Farrell.
* CallingCard: Anthony Waldron's efforts to confuse the police include leaving a tag that says "Mr. M" around the necks of the people he kills off.
* TheFaceless: Only the back of Mr. M's face is revealed when he's seen calling in the death threat to Cornelia Waldron. This sets up the twist at the end of the first episode when Anthony Waldron gets a message from someone who has assumed the identity of Mr. M.
* FilmSerial: Very popular in the 1930s and 1940s; this was the last of many made by Universal.
* GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks: Waldron has the standard rack full of exotic large flasks and beakers, in the lab where he produces hypnotrene.
* MacGuffin: An engine that can power submarines underwater.
* MasqueradingAsTheUnseen: Anthony Waldron makes up the identity of Mr. M to confuse the cops, only to be greeted at the end of the first episode with a message from someone calling himself Mr. M, who takes command of the operation.
* MindControlDevice: Hypnotrene, a handy little drug that renders the victims mind-controlled slaves, and leaves them with no memory of what they did when they come out of it. And enough of it can kill.
* SpinningPaper: Newspapers appear in front of the camera announcing things like Mr. M striking again and Dr. Kittridge disappearing.
* TitleDrop: Newspapers start calling the killer "The Mysterious Mr. M".
The police are finding corpses with tags indicating that they have been killed by a "Mr. M." The three bodies they have discovered at the start of the story have all been killed by a "brain paralysis chemical". That chemical turns out to be "hypnotrene", a drug developed by a bad guy named Anthony Waldron. Waldron, who is incorrectly believed to be dead, has invented the "Mr. M" persona in an effort to confuse the police.
While the police are chasing Mr. M, Waldron is after his real goal, a submarine engine that doesn't use batteries and so can allow submarines to stay submerged for long periods. Waldron kidnaps Dr. Kittredge, the inventor (who beat Hyman Rickover to the punch by a few years), and uses the drug to get him to reveal where the plans are. Unfortunately for the bad guys, Dr. Kittredge dies of a heart attack after he's shot up with hypnotrene.
Plot stuff happens, and eventually the bad guys kidnap a James Farrell, who was working with Dr. Kittredge. The good guys are represented by Detective Kirby Walsh, James Farrell's brother Grant, and insurance investigatior Shirley Clinton. There was no "Mr. M" tag on Kittredge, but our heroes match the chemical found in Kittredge's body to the chemical that killed Mr. M's three victims.
Meanwhile, Anthony Waldron is hiding out in a basement lair in his grandmother Cornelia's mansion. He and his partners in crime, siblings Derek and Marina Lamont, believe they can use James Farrell to discover the hiding place of the plans for the submarine engine. But they get a nasty surprise at the end of the first episode, when they receive a phonograph message from--Mr. M. Someone, it seems, has assumed the identity of Anthony Waldron's fictional bad guy.
137th and last serial produced by Universal Pictures.
----
!!Tropes:
* AsYouKnow: Tons of this in the first episode, as characters lay out their relationship to each other. At least it's justified when Mr. M's phonograph recording tells Waldron how Waldron didn't die in Africa, but came back with the chemicals that make hypnotrene--this is how Mr. M proves he knows what Waldron's up to.
* BookcasePassage: A button causes the fireplace in the Waldron mansion to swing open, revealing a staircase that leads to Anthony Waldron's underground lair.
* BoobyTrap: The bad guys' plans are complicated in the first episode when a booby trap in the safe destroys Kittridge's entire Precision Tool Works, killing one {{Mook}} and, more importantly, destroying the plans. Luckily they still have the lead to Nord Manufacturing and James Farrell.
* CallingCard: Anthony Waldron's efforts to confuse the police include leaving a tag that says "Mr. M" around the necks of the people he kills off.
* TheFaceless: Only the back of Mr. M's face is revealed when he's seen calling in the death threat to Cornelia Waldron. This sets up the twist at the end of the first episode when Anthony Waldron gets a message from someone who has assumed the identity of Mr. M.
* FilmSerial: Very popular in the 1930s and 1940s; this was the last of many made by Universal.
* GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks: Waldron has the standard rack full of exotic large flasks and beakers, in the lab where he produces hypnotrene.
* MacGuffin: An engine that can power submarines underwater.
* MasqueradingAsTheUnseen: Anthony Waldron makes up the identity of Mr. M to confuse the cops, only to be greeted at the end of the first episode with a message from someone calling himself Mr. M, who takes command of the operation.
* MindControlDevice: Hypnotrene, a handy little drug that renders the victims mind-controlled slaves, and leaves them with no memory of what they did when they come out of it. And enough of it can kill.
* SpinningPaper: Newspapers appear in front of the camera announcing things like Mr. M striking again and Dr. Kittridge disappearing.
* TitleDrop: Newspapers start calling the killer "The Mysterious Mr. M".
