Produced by Republic Pictures, the serial stars Edward Ciannelli, Robert Wilcox, William Newell, C. Montague Shaw, Ella Neal, and Dorothy Herbert.

[2] Henry Brandon was originally intended to play the part of Doctor Satan while wearing a regular devil costume, complete with horns.

[4] Governor Bronson, who raised Bob Wayne from childhood after the death of his parents, is killed at the hands of a world-domination-seeking mad scientist called Doctor Satan.

Bob's father was really an outlaw in the Old West, who fought injustice while wearing a chainmail cowl and leaving small coiled copper snakes as his calling card.

Doctor Satan, meanwhile, requires only a remote control device invented by Professor Scott to complete his army of killer robots and gain all the power and riches he desires.

[8] The Mysterious Doctor Satan serial introduces the updated "Republic robot", described in Phil Hardy's The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction as "charming, rather than frightening".

The studio, however, had neither time nor money to create the new robot before filming was to begin, so Witney was stuck with the "hot water boiler" used in previous Republic serials.

Many people involved in the serial are singled out for praise, but the main one is Ciannelli as Doctor Satan, a character who steals the show from the relatively bland Copperhead.

[11] Ciannelli's performance "in a role so susceptible to overacting and scenery chewing" maintained the "exact balance between a wild-eyed lunatic with dreams of world conquest and the brilliant, gifted man of science that Doctor Satan might have been.