The Night of the Steel Assassin - Recap

In a California port town, a cloaked man goes to a ship's chandler store owned by R.L. Gilbert. He tries the door and Gilbert tells him that he's closed for the night. The cloaked man smashes his fist through the door and throws back the bolt. Gilbert doesn't recognize him at first, given the steel plate that covers part of his face, but finally realizes that he's Colonel Torres, and is surprised that he recovered. Torres explains that he's now a superior man, steel and wire running through his body, but blames Gilbert and others in their squad for his painful journey. Torres wants the chandler's life. The shop owner grabs a pike and demands to know what he's done, and Torres says that he's killed five members of the squad in the last year and Gilbert will be the sixth. Gilbert reveals that he sent a message to his niece warning her that he might be next, before he tries to stab Torres. Torres easily snaps the pike, grabs Gilbert, and strangles him.



Jim West arrives and sees Torres standing over Gilbert’s corpse, and attacks him. Torres' steel-reinforced body is proof against both hand-to-hand attacks and bullets, and he implacably advances on the Secret Service agent. Jim finally uses a smoke pellet to drive off Torres, who flees into the night.

Later at the Wanderer, Jim and Artie try to figure out why anyone would want Gilbert dead. They get a telegraph from the President demanding to know their progress, and they try to locate Gilbert's niece, Nina. She has left her Eastern boarding school and they realize she's going to her uncle's shop. They go back and find Nina going through her uncle's belongings, and explain they're investigating her uncle's death for the Army. Nina insists that there is a conspiracy plot and shows them a photo of Gilbert's cadre that he sent her. Six of the junior officers are dead and only two are left. One of the men in the photo is Ulysses S. Grant, and Jim figures that the President is at risk. The agents plan to go to see Dr. Meyer, the physician who served with the regiment, and find out what he knows about Gilbert and the others. Nina informs them that she's going to see the former Lt. Torres, who has a villa on the Mexican border.



At the villa three days later, Nina arrives by carriage and knocks at the door. She demands to see Torres, and the servant, Maria, initially refuses. Torres tells Maria to let Nina in, while the carriage driver departs without waiting. Torres addresses Nina through a hidden panel and says he'll be down shortly. Meanwhile, Jim rides up and stops the driver, demanding to know where Nina is. At gunpoint, the driver directs Jim down the road, and then draws a knife as he rides past. Jim spins and shoots him and then continues on his way.

Artie goes to see Dr. Meyer, who admits that he performed the operations but says Torres designed the implants that Meyer inserted. Meyer claims that Torres should have died after the explosion, and after each operation. Artie confirms that Torres was on duty the night that the arsenal blew up. Meyer explains that Torres was in constant agony and sedatives had no effect, so he learned to use auto-hypnosis to divorce himself from pain. Torres walked Meyer through the operations, which converted half of his body into metal.

Torres comes down to see Nina, who isn't shocked by his appearance since she knew he was injured. He apologizes for Maria's behavior, explaining that she was his governess when he was a child, and she remains protective. Nina explains that she is studying for a doctorate in psychology. She then asks Torres about the deaths of the six cadre members. Torres remarks that her life is dry and dull, and suggests she learn to seize the joy in life. He brings up the topic of mental regression and uses a spinning lamp to hypnotize her.

Jim rides up to the villa and scales the wall.

Torres tells Nina that she will revert to childhood and gratify every wish without indulging in serious thought. He tells her to laugh. She resists initially, but soon she starts giggling.



Jim uses a knife to jimmy the bolt on a cellar window. It sets off a silent alarm, warning Torres. He escorts the laughing Nina out. Meanwhile, Maria confronts Jim and tells him that Torres and Nina are gone. When he insists on investigating further, three of Torres' thugs attack him. Jim make short work of them and Maria invites him to search the villa, but Jim draws a gun on one of the thugs and demands Torres' location.

Later, Jim rides into Alta Nuevo where Artie is flirting with a girl. He tells Jim that Grant refuses to hide despite the danger. They fear that arresting Torres wouldn't stop his plan, so Artie says he'll find a way to stop Grant. Jim looks around and spots Torres in a second-story window above a saloon, the Alto Nuevo Palace. He points Torres out to Artie, while Torres smiles and draws the curtain. The two agents go into the saloon and order drinks. Above, Torres watches them and tells his henchman, Lopez, to begin the entertainment early. Saloon girls swing in from the ceiling, and the agents realize that one of them is Nina. Jim figures that Torres has staged it for their benefit, and goes to get Nina while Artie runs interference by claiming Jim is her father, separated from her when she was a very small child, and buying drinks on the house. Torres sends Lopez to stop Artie.

Jim tries to get through to Nina, who has no memory of him and insists on flirting. As Jim tries to escape with her, three costumed men drop from the ceiling to attack him. Jim defeats them but Nina gets away through a door.



In the saloon, Lopez draws a gun on Artie and tells him to go upstairs. Torres hypnotizes him into believing that they need more proof before acting, and explains that the building was once an old prison. He tells Artie to remember that he was delayed in town while learning about the underground dungeons, and he should bring Jim back to investigate. As he sends Artie away, he first takes a needle and jabs it into Artie's shoulder to confirm he's in a hypnotic trance. Artie doesn't react and Torres is satisfied.

At the train, the agents compare notes and Artie confirms that he wasn't hypnotized, but managed to avoid reacting to the pain. Jim figures their best bet is to go into the Palace and let themselves be caught. They go to the dungeons and hear running water, and find Torres and Lopez waiting for them. When Jim tries to fight back, Torres knocks him down the stairs. Lopez chains up the agents and then sends Nina in with whiskey. She says that Torres is busy with his wireless box and she came there on her own. Nina refuses to disobey Torres and help them. Deducing that she might be susceptible to anyone's suggestions, Jim asks her to take a pencil from his vest. He gets her to put it in the lock and press the button, and Artie promises there will be a big light.



Lopez hears the sounds of small explosions and investigates, discovering that the prisoners are gone. Jim and Artie try to get out with Nina, but come to a dead end cavern with an underground river. Torres is waiting for them and pumps gas into the chamber, and they are soon overcome. Artie falls into the water and sinks out of sight, while Jim collapses to the ground as Torres looks on.

That night, Grant arrives in Alto Nuevo. Torres watches from his upstairs window, while Jim is suspended from the ceiling with a view through the window. The ex-colonel manipulates two mounted rockets, disguised as fireworks, using his wireless control. He explains that he is seeking revenge on Grant and the others. They drew cards to see who would guard the munitions dump. Torres drew first, a Jack, but the other men all drew better, convincing Torres that they'd rigged the game. "It should have been one of them," is his bitter lament. He's convinced the town council to have the President's wagon go down the center of town. One rocket is pointed at the President, and the other at Jim. When the mayor finishes his introductory speech, Torres activates the fuses on the rockets, tells Lopez to wait until the first rocket goes off, and then meet him. He explains that the second rocket will fire one minute later.



Once Torres leaves, Jim tells Lopez that Torres has set things up so that both rockets will fire at the same time, eliminating Lopez as a loose end. Lopez panics and runs, and Jim swings himself, kicking the control box and redirecting the first missile toward his window. The first missile fires and Jim swings up above it, and the explosion knocks him free. He pulls free of his bonds and avoids the second missile, while Artie, disguised as Grant, watches from below.



Lopez runs into the dungeons to report to Torres, who kills him for his failure and then leaves through the tunnel to the underground river. He opens the door near the dead end pool only to find Jim waiting for him. Jim tries to close the door on his arm, but Torres easily shoves it back open. The two men struggle and Jim throws Torres into the river. Weighed down by the metal in his body, Torres is unable to maintain a grip on the rocks. Rather than suffer the indignity of a hanging, he refuses Jim's hand and permits himself to sink beneath the water. Artie arrives and removes his disguise, explaining that there was enough headroom for him to escape the pool into the river. Both agents realize that with the metal in his body weighing him down, Torres will not be so lucky.



The real President Grant arrives and addresses the town, while Artie slips away with Torres' hypnosis lamp. Back at the Wanderer, Artie undoes Torres' hypnosis on Nina. She snaps out of it and is shocked to discover that she's wearing a saloon girl's dress. Nina slaps Jim and starts throwing books and glassware at them, convinced they have somehow taken advantage of her, as the Wanderer pulls away.



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