Great Movie Serials

by Jim Harmon, Donald F. Glut

First published in 1973. Movie Serials Their Sound and Fury, invites you to take a nostalgic trip back to Saturday afternoon and remember your local cinema anytime from 1030 to the 1950s. Thrill once again to the spine-tingling adventures of Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Perils of Pauline, and all the other super-heroes and arch-villians of by-gone days.

424 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

James Judson Harmon, aka Jim Harmon (born 1933), was an American short story author and popular culture historian who has written extensively about the Golden Age of Radio. He sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Judson Grey, and occasionally he was labeled Mr. Nostalgia.

Reviews

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2.5 stars) I have, over that past 10 years or so, become a fan of the classic-era serials, and I'm beginning to look for books on that topic. This one is mighty disappointing. On the plus side, the authors have clearly seen a lot of these movies and, as this was written in the pre-home video era, I'm impressed how much they remembered about them. But unfortunately, plot summaries are pretty much all you'll find in this book. There is little context given for the genre, and the careers of the more prolific stars are barely mentioned. Instead, in a book with chapters based on genre, the movie is summarized in sometime numbing detail. Some of the summaries are way too long (six pages or more), and some are very short. There are some plates of photos, but more would have been welcome. This is out of print and I was able to find it through inter-library loan. I would not recommend buying an expensive used copy of this.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for serial fans