Favorite Cliffhanger Serials

[Badluck Brody]

Got an idea from working on another thread. So as far as Saturday afternoon cliffhangers go... Which was your favorite??

Now I know that most of us caught them on friday nights after kungfu theater or on Sunday mornings... But they still have em out there.

Let's see I remember Buster Crabb as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. I also remember Rocketman and Zoro on Friday Saturday night after family theater.

Brody

 

[Doctor Strange]

When I was growing up in the sixties, the old serials were standard afternoon TV kiddie fare on the local channels, so I saw many of them. I dearly love all three Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials and his Buck Rodgers too, but I also have a soft spot for:

"Undersea Kingdom" with Ray "Crash" Corrigan - A submarine carrying the usual load of character types (scientist, hero, love interest, comic relief, etc.) finds a civilization at the bottom of the ocean. Great use of Flash Gordon style ray-guns-*and*-cloaks-and-swords setting and those wonderfully clunky old man-in-suit robots.

"The Phantom Empire" with Gene Autry - The ultimate kitchen-sink genre combination! Singing cowboy Autry has to be there in time to make his daily broadcast from his "Radio Ranch" and sing a song or two, but in most episodes he's nearly prevented from doing so by his interactions with "the Lost City of Murania" in a cavern thousands of feet below the ranch, and its hot-for-him queen! Incudes heat rays that melt stuff, the wonders of the "televisor", Autry's death-and-resurrection-by-advanced-technology(!), caped-and-helmeted squads of Muranian "Thunder Riders" who come to surface on horseback, more clunky robots, sidekick kids always getting into trouble, plus standard western characters and plots. A delightfully nutty experience!

Commando Cody (various names for two or three different serials and their spliced-together features, e.g., "Rettick, the Moon Menance") - The *original* "Rocketeer"! Scientist/aviator dons a black flight suit and way-cool helmet and uses a jetpack featuring ultimate simplicity in its chest-plate control panel: two knobs marked "Up/Down" and "Slow/Fast". Fights aliens (with just a revolver) and goes to the Moon (LA's Bronson Canyon!) Excellent flying effects via the model work of the Lydecker brothers, who had previously made Captain Marvel fly.

I also like the two Kirk Alyn Superman serials. I don't think much of the Batman serials, though...

Some fun Web sites on this stuff:

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue04/infocus.htm
http://serialsquadron.8m.com/index.htm
http://members.iquest.net/~taldr/

 

[Badluck Brody]

Good sites!

I also totally agree!

I luv'd the classic sounds of the rayguns, spaceships and especially the crazy scream that people would make when they fell from great hights and into the fire etc.

I also always got a kick out of the same costumes in each one. IE the robot suits!

Brody

 

[The Wolf]

"Daredevils of the Red Circle" is definately one of the best.
I really like "The Masked Marvel". The mystery wasn't who is the villian, it was who is the Masked Marvel?
I prefer serials where the footage from the previous chapter is the same in the next. Many serials had "cheats" like a person getting zapped at the end of one chapter and different footage showing him missing the electricity altogether in the next. A classic ending to old cliffhangers was having a vehicle go over a precipice seemingly with the hero inside and next shows the hero jumping out just before the fall. I saw a cliffhanger where they used that 3 or 4 times!
One srial ( I won't tell the name, in case you haven't seen it) has a plane crashing with the hero on board and next chapter shows him staggering from the wreckage. I love that he didn't jump out, that was the surprise.
I have an okeh selection of serials I've collected over the years. I'm still looking for the first serial based on The Spider pulp.

Thanks for the memories,
The Wolf

 

[zeus36]

Have you seen this list of serials from 1912 to 1955?

http://www.volcano.net/~themaverick/ser-chr.html


I'd love to see some of those from the late 40's and 50's show up on DVD if they ever survived.

 

[jake_fink]

My first post

Hi guys,

My first post here at the lounge, and on one of my favourite things.... SERIALS!

I also love The Phantom Empire and Daredevils of the Red Circle, but my favourite serial is The Mysterious Doctor Satan. Originally intended to be a superman serial featuring a formidable foe and an army of robots it became an all time classsic featuring a formidable foe, one robot and a hero called The Copperhead - basically a dude in a suit who throws a mask on whenever there's trouble. Great fun.

The Adventures of Captain Marvel is considered the epitome of serial-making, and it's a good one too.



(hey, that was easy!)

 

[Badluck Brody]

Good to meet you Jake!!

Sharp Avitar!!

Anyone have any of these classics on tape???

Brody

 

[Michael Mallory]

I was lucky enough to count the late great Tom Steele -- the Masked Marvel himself, and stuntman/stunt coordinator/utility player in nearly ever Republic serial ever made -- as a friend the last couple years of his life, so I have a fondness for "The Masked Marvel." But I think the best serial ever made was Republic's 1943 "Secret Service in Darkest Africa." Tom doubled Rod Cameron in that one and gaffed the action. It's great!

 

[MDFrench]

I'm a big fan of the Kirk Alyn Superman serials as well as Zorro Rides Again and Zorro's Fighting Legion. As cheesy as Don Del Oro is as a villain, I grin like an idiot everytime I see him.

The Hal Roach DVD collection has made a ton of these old serials available on a quality format for great prices.

Yeah, the Batman serials weren't too great - but I still get grins watching them. Anyone ever seen The Shadow serial?

I have reveiwed a few serials at my website, www.frenchbrosreviews.com and will be adding more. Check it out if interested.

Mike

 

[Zach R.]

I see a lot of old serials on DVD, but not at anyplace you'd expect...

I found them at the Dollar Tree of all places.
(I've seen them at every DT I've ever been too, so you should find them easily)

The quality is all right, probably on par with some of the earlier DVDs in the late 90s.

The only ones I could recognized were Superman(the mid 40's toon), Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, and Robin Hood(although I think that was actually a TV series).

 

[The Wolf]

Aw, nuts

Zach, you had me all excited about Dollar Tree, but you're right the Flash Gordon is the television series with Steve Holland (the model for Doc Savage on the paperback covers), the Supermans are the cool Fleisher cartoons, but I haven't seen any serials.
More's the pity.

The Wolf

 

[MDFrench]

The Superman live action serials with Kirk Alyn are every bit as fun as the Fleischer cartoons.