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Cliffhanger: A pictorial history of the motion picture serial
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 16, 2020
Republic Pictures Corporation (66), Columbia Pictures Corporation (57), Universal Pictures (69), Mascot Pictures (24) and various independent companies (15) produced 207 serials between 1929 and 1956 and Alan G. Barbour in this engrossing, all-embracing and profusely illustrated history of the genre covers almost all of them.
It all began with Mascot Pictures' 'King of the Kongo', star Walter Miller, and Universal Pictures' 'Ace of Scotland Yard', star Crauford Kent, both silent and part-talkie serials released in 1929. These were modest offerings but set a trend that began slowly but very quickly caught on so that by 1935 there were 107 examples of the exciting movie serial in circulation.
Alan Barbour suggests that some are very definitely third-rate, although probably at the time they were seen as most exciting (most certainly by myself), particularly as each episode ended with a cliffhanger. There was water shooting down a tunnel threatening to drown the heroes, spiked ceilings gradually lowering to skewer the heroes, cars crashing over cliffs with the heroes trapped within, fires that threatened to engulf everyone within the vicinity and plenty of other thrills. And - believe it or not (we couldn't) - everyone who was threatened escaped unharmed!
And also, the author reveals that endings were often recycled to appear in later serials where the heroes were suddenly dressed according to an earlier plot so that there would be no chance of a lack of continuity. Although he did point out that when some of the serials were later turned into feature films, the audience would often see the same actor dying four times in different guises! It was quite different from when the audience only saw one chapter each week and had no way of checking back on an earlier episode. I do, however, remember seeing a car careering over a cliff with the driver (obviously a dummy) trapped inside and then when the following episode appeared he had dived out of the door prior to the car reaching the edge of the cliff. On our way out of the cinema we would be screaming, 'He didn't do that, he was inside in the previous episode', which had been encapsulated in brief before the current episode was shown.
In the serials there was a seemingly endless parade of grotesquely-clad and disguised scoundrels with laboratories full of death-dealing gadgetry as well as the clean-living heroes who fought against evil, all of which endeared the genre to audiences, who returned week after week to see how the story unfolded.
There was also the one man who epitomised the serial - Buster Crabbe. He played a variety of roles but his most notable was that of Flash Gordon. He appeared in three series as Flash and in later life spent much time visiting conventions to tell his story of life in the serial pictures.
He was not alone in making his name in serials, there were many others who the author gives due credit to and many of them went on to become B-movie and even bigger stars in their own right. For instance, Mickey Rooney was a young boy in 'The Lost Jungle', a youthful John Wayne appeared in 'The Shadow of the Eagle' and Boris Karloff received fifth billing in 'Key of the Wild'. Interestingly, after Karloff had later played Frankenstein when the serial was reissued he had moved up to top billing! Rod Cameron, B-movie great, was a particular favourite of mine.
Alan Barbour presents us with a most readable and very well researched book that, to those of us of an age, also has a touch of nostalgia in bringing back Saturday matinees when we sat and cheered when the hero appeared, perhaps riding a white horse, and booed when the villains made their appearance. One such cowboy hero I well remember is Buck Jones, riding his horse Silver (hurrah!), but what I didn't know was that he had been killed in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in 1942.
With the advent of television the movie serial died out in the mid-1950s (although we were watching them for a few years after that - and probably didn't realise that they were a good few years old by then) but do join us next week for the next exciting episode!
It all began with Mascot Pictures' 'King of the Kongo', star Walter Miller, and Universal Pictures' 'Ace of Scotland Yard', star Crauford Kent, both silent and part-talkie serials released in 1929. These were modest offerings but set a trend that began slowly but very quickly caught on so that by 1935 there were 107 examples of the exciting movie serial in circulation.
Alan Barbour suggests that some are very definitely third-rate, although probably at the time they were seen as most exciting (most certainly by myself), particularly as each episode ended with a cliffhanger. There was water shooting down a tunnel threatening to drown the heroes, spiked ceilings gradually lowering to skewer the heroes, cars crashing over cliffs with the heroes trapped within, fires that threatened to engulf everyone within the vicinity and plenty of other thrills. And - believe it or not (we couldn't) - everyone who was threatened escaped unharmed!
And also, the author reveals that endings were often recycled to appear in later serials where the heroes were suddenly dressed according to an earlier plot so that there would be no chance of a lack of continuity. Although he did point out that when some of the serials were later turned into feature films, the audience would often see the same actor dying four times in different guises! It was quite different from when the audience only saw one chapter each week and had no way of checking back on an earlier episode. I do, however, remember seeing a car careering over a cliff with the driver (obviously a dummy) trapped inside and then when the following episode appeared he had dived out of the door prior to the car reaching the edge of the cliff. On our way out of the cinema we would be screaming, 'He didn't do that, he was inside in the previous episode', which had been encapsulated in brief before the current episode was shown.
In the serials there was a seemingly endless parade of grotesquely-clad and disguised scoundrels with laboratories full of death-dealing gadgetry as well as the clean-living heroes who fought against evil, all of which endeared the genre to audiences, who returned week after week to see how the story unfolded.
There was also the one man who epitomised the serial - Buster Crabbe. He played a variety of roles but his most notable was that of Flash Gordon. He appeared in three series as Flash and in later life spent much time visiting conventions to tell his story of life in the serial pictures.
He was not alone in making his name in serials, there were many others who the author gives due credit to and many of them went on to become B-movie and even bigger stars in their own right. For instance, Mickey Rooney was a young boy in 'The Lost Jungle', a youthful John Wayne appeared in 'The Shadow of the Eagle' and Boris Karloff received fifth billing in 'Key of the Wild'. Interestingly, after Karloff had later played Frankenstein when the serial was reissued he had moved up to top billing! Rod Cameron, B-movie great, was a particular favourite of mine.
Alan Barbour presents us with a most readable and very well researched book that, to those of us of an age, also has a touch of nostalgia in bringing back Saturday matinees when we sat and cheered when the hero appeared, perhaps riding a white horse, and booed when the villains made their appearance. One such cowboy hero I well remember is Buck Jones, riding his horse Silver (hurrah!), but what I didn't know was that he had been killed in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in 1942.
With the advent of television the movie serial died out in the mid-1950s (although we were watching them for a few years after that - and probably didn't realise that they were a good few years old by then) but do join us next week for the next exciting episode!
May 1, 2011
Barbour's book (probably not the definitive on the subject of the classic movie serials) is an outstanding reference compendium and source guide for cinema's golden age. The edition clearly outlines an entire host of serials that appeared on the silver screen during the motion picture business's infancy, and the author even goes to great length (where the information is available) to credit the serials various inspirations throughout the ensuing years. Additionally (a great pleasure for this movie viewer), CLIFFHANGER is replete with black and white photos (excellent reproductions from the original negatives) of major characters and serials from this vintage era. A truly wonderful and inspiring book, penned clearly by an author with a love of the subject material.
March 8, 2008
Barbour was THEE expert on serials for years, this is one of the best books he wrote on the subject.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews