It's been a while since we've featured a movie serial in this space, so today we're setting the wayback machine for Federal Operator 99 (1945), the twelve-part serial from Republic Pictures. While we might not claim it as hall-of-fame material, we think there's plenty going on in its half-dozen DiD scenes to make it worth our time.

Helen Talbot plays Joyce Kingston, plucky assistant to Marten Lamont's title character in his efforts to take down a nefarious crime lord. Over the course of the storyline, she finds herself bound and gagged in a closet and a laundry hamper, tied up in a barn with a bomb, and even threatened with a giant airplane propellor. As a bonus, Elaine Lange turns up at one point to show us how not to hold out under torture (though all's well that ends well).