"My favorite serials of the 1930's and 40's" Topic

A "Serial" being defined as a long film devided into chapters with a "cliff hanger" at the end of each chapter. They were in production from the silent film days until the mid 1950's and with the exception of Flash Gordon they were only shown during saturday matinees one chapter per week. I realize that i'm cross posting like mad here, but so many genres were covered in the serials, including science fiction, inter-war and western, that I wanted to hit as many forums as possible where there might be some interest to use these chapter plays as scenario fodder. Here are my favorites in no particular order:

Spy Smasher. Republic 1942
Adventures of Captain Marvel. Republic 1941
The Adventures of Smilin' Jack. Universal. 1942
Flash Gordon. Universal 1936
Fighting Devil Dogs. Republic. 1938
Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc. Republic 1941
The Tiger Woman. Republic 1944
The Masked Marvel. Republic 1943
Adventures of the Flying Cadets. Unviversal 1943
Zorro's Fighting Legion. Republic 1939
Daughter of Don Q. Republic 1946
The Crimson Ghost. Republic 1946
Drums of Fu Manchu. Republic 1939
Daredevils of the Red Circle. Republic 1939
Mysterious Doctor Satan. Republic 1940
The Adventures of Red Ryder. Republic 1940
Haunted Harbor. Republic 1944
Federal Operator 99. Republic 1945
Daredevils of the West. Republic 1943
Secret Service in Darkest Africa. Republic. 1943

If I didn't include one of your favorites, feel free to chime in. (-:

Do you have a good source for them on DVD, Shadow? Or does it take a lot of scrounging?

Great stuff! Wasn't there a Buck Rogers serial starring Buster Crabbe?

> Great stuff! Wasn't there a Buck Rogers serial starring Buster Crabbe?

There was, used the same ships as the Flash Gordon ones. I think there were 3 Flash Gordon serials as well.

Do you have a good source for them on DVD, Shadow? Or does it take a lot of scrounging?

Only The Shadow knows

Wasnt there one based on Atlantis…Cant remember it was called maybe you have already listed it

Undersea Kingdom – it's still a western, even though the city is underwater! Starred Ray Corrigan and Monte Blue.

I like Wheat-Chex(TM)

Here's the Flash Gordon DVD's

link

Hit E-Bay and search for "serials" – there are several sources to choose from.

Buster Crabbe was great as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. Crash Corrigan was cool too. Then there's Commando Cody. Al really good stuff. And great to play while painting.

I loved The Green Hornet Strikes!

"The Phantom Empire' a western starring Gene Autrey.

dAVE

I'm 3/4 through Darkest Africa… Clyde Beatty meets Baru the jungle boy and his pet gorilla, Bonga. Together they seek to rescue Baru's sister from the batmen of Joba.
Great stuff!

There seem to be quite a few available for free viewing here: link

Undersea Kingdom (1936) is one of my favorites.

There are quite a few public domain ones you can watchdownload here

archive.org/post/261365

Youtube has a bunch of them.

My search procedure is:
Look up "Republic Serials" (or some other studio),
Note down a few likely-looking titles
Start searching the web for them.

There's maybe 1 in 4 of the titles are available via Youtube or Archive.org, with a few other scattered serials on other websites.

I like to watch them 1 episode a night, just before heading to bed, so the repeated plot- and scenery-looping doesn't drive me nuts. When I started I tried to watch a few straight through from first episode to last in one sitting – don't bother, kids. It's *much* better to let your brain rest between episodes.

ditto on The Phantom Empire

I remember my old library showing it one episode at a time on saturdays during the movie shows they did for us kids pre start wars/cable tv

Republic serials are the gold standard but there are plenty of others worth watching.

"the Green Hornet Strikes" is really good as Mr Disney says.

No "The Fighting Devil Dogs"? It's available at least in part for free viewing on Youtube.

The fighting Devil Dogs

YouTube link

Fighting Devil Dogs is in The Shadow's initial post.

Undersea Kingdom (1936) is one of my favorites.

I remember seeing this on MST3K…"Hey, it's the undersea kingdom, for you and for me and it's fine!"

> Great stuff! Wasn't there a Buck Rogers serial starring Buster Crabbe?<

>>>There was, used the same ships as the Flash Gordon ones. I think there were 3 Flash Gordon serials as well.<<<

The ships in Buck Rogers were very different than the ones in the Flash Gordon serials.

There were three Flash Gordon serials:

Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe

The 2nd two were OK, but the first one is great! It's so old that it creaks, but the sexual tension is over the top for a serial. When Princess Aura rubs up against Flash you can practically see steam coming out of her ears. (-: The women all wear very sexy harem type costumes and Dale does too. Unfortunately that underlying sexuality disappears with Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars. Dale wears a costume that looks like something your grandmother would wear to a wedding.

Radar Men from the Moom -- archive.org/details/radarmen1
The Phantom Empire -- link
The Undersea Kingdom -- link

BTW: Here is a 100% LEGAL source for many old movies and serials: archive.org
This site includes online streaming and high-quality downloads.

Here's another I found there, but haven't watched: The Lost City archive.org/details/lost_city1

And here's Spy Smasher -- link

BTW: If you're interested in a NEW serial, check out THE MERCURY MEN.

mercuryseries.com

I saw this last year on Netflix (did a search for it there right now and it wasn't available). It also pops up on Hulu and Amazon video for $1.99 USD.

This is a fun, retro sci-fi series with good production values and good action. It's definitely working watching.

Flash Gordon conquers the Universe
The Phantom 1943
The Batman 1943
Drums of Fu-Manchu

Most of my favorites have been covered, including Phantom Empire and Undersea Kingdom. There were three Commando Cody serials:

Radar Men from the Moon
Zombies of the Stratosphere
King of the Rocketmen

All are available on DVD, because I have them.

Another good one is Dangers of the Canadian Mounties.

You missed Galloping Ghost with Red Grange, which is often considered the best of the serials because of the excellent cliff hangers. Also Captain Marvel is a terrific serial.

A favorite for my kids was Perils of Nyoka.

While not serials, the Jungle Jim movies have the same style and feel.

Buck

Atom Man Vs. Superman,the original Green Hornet(w/ the radio voiceover of Al Hodge as G.H.),Blackhawk(w/Kirk Alyn)

Hiya Buck (-:

>>>Most of my favorites have been covered, including Phantom Empire and Undersea Kingdom. There were three Commando Cody serials:

Radar Men from the Moon
Zombies of the Stratosphere
King of the Rocketmen<<<

King of the Rocketmen was the first to use the rocket pack, but it was not a Commando Cody serial. The lead character in "King" was "Jeff King" played by Tris Coffin. Even though the rocket pack was a nifty idea and now closely associated with the serials and "pulp" in general, it was produced in 1949, which is very late in the game, so the lead was pretty old and IMHO wasnt as good as Kane Richmond, Allan "Rocky" Lane, Kirk Alyn, Bruce Bennett or any of the other typical serial heroes would have been. I also feel that Mae Clark was much to old to play the "damsel in distress" part usually played by much younger and prettier women like Kay Aldridge and Linda Stirling. So what we have left is the rocket pack as the star of the film, and for me it just wasn't enough.

>>>Another good one is Dangers of the Canadian Mounties.<<<

You're probably referring to Dangers of the Canadian Mounted, which was a pretty decent serial considering that it was produced in 1948 which was late for Republic and past their "golden age". I was pleasantly surprised when I watched it though, and I should watch it again. Thanks for reminding me. (-:

>>>You missed Galloping Ghost with Red Grange, which is often considered the best of the serials because of the excellent cliff hangers.<<<

I never saw it. In fact, considering that it was produced in 1931, and I've found that I don't care for the very early serials, i've never even looked for it. Maybe I should. (-:

>>>Also Captain Marvel is a terrific serial.<<<

No doubt about it. Easily in the top 10.

>>>A favorite for my kids was Perils of Nyoka.<<<

The thing that bothered me about Nyoka was her costume. Couldn't they let her wear the original Nyoka skin that Frances Gifford wore in "Jungle Girl" instead of the sexless outfit that she was stuck with? The fight between Vultura, played by Lorna Gray, and Nyoka would have been the hottest girl fight ever. (-:

>>>While not serials, the Jungle Jim movies have the same style and feel.<<<

I tried, but I couldn't get into the those Sam Katzman "B" films. Much too cheap, and in some cases down right silly, like "Jungle Moon Men".

Nice chatting with you again. We have to meet up sometime. (-:

MMitchell

The serial community should thank you for the link to the "Spy Smasher" serial. Many feel that it's the "Citizen Kane" of serials and IMHO it was the best serial ever produced. My guess is that anyone who doesn't like this one probably won't like serials at all!

Thanks for all the links everyone, I'll start watching!

Just for the sake of clarity I would like to point out that the Internet archive MMitchell posted is the same link I posted earlier and are serials in the public domain and are therefore 100% legal.

Didn't want anyone thinking I had posted a link to a dodgy website :-)

Just finished watching "Spider's Web", "The Spider Returns", and "Federal Agents vs. Underworld, Inc". Loved the fact that Warren Hull actually looked like he was having fun playing the Wentworth part.

And I'm still amazed (being a hat wearer myself) at how the two sides can have a knock-down drag-out fistfight and never lose – or even dent – their fedoras!

jlstuht: Thanks! I hadn't heard of THE SPIDER serials. I'm gonna go hunt them down.

Some of my favorites include ---

> The Great Alaskan Mystery
> The Phantom of the Air
> Mystery Squadron
> The Spider's Web
> Chandu on Magic Island
> The Lost City
> The Three Musketeers (the 1933 FFL Romp)
> Ace Drummond

Check out the Pulp Alley channel on you tube to see these and others. :)

Dave

I like Don Winslow of the Navy

I get my serials from Bigger Buford on eBay auction

or from Serial Squadron serialsquadron.com

I highly recommend The Serial Squadron for the restored "Daredevils of the West". It's one of the best serials that Republic produced during their "golden age" and you'll find many later Republic serials and "B" westerns using stock footage from this serial.

The Batman 1943 had a hilarious running bit in it where Batman & Robin changed into/out of their costumes in the back of the car while Alfred drove them around. Modern Batman is so spoiled with all of his fancy gadgets…. ;-)

Republic released all of the serials that they produced during the their "golden age", which includes all of the Republic serials on my list of favorites, on VCR tapes during the 1980's/90's, and they can be had for 5 to 10 dollars each on EBay now that DVD is the preferred format. They are beautiful 1st generation copies, so if you still use your VCR they are a bargain. Having seen some of the DVD's offered by Cheezy and others, i'm convinced that all they did was to make copies of those tapes onto DVDs. Which means that they probably made master copy DVDs from the tapes and then made copies of the those DVD masters for sale, and it shows. You can do that yourself if you have a good VCR and a DVD recorder, and your copies will look a lot better as they will be a couple of generations higher.

Further to the above post; If you decide to go the VHS route, look for the "Republic Pictures Home Video" logo somewhere on the front of the box. Avoid all others like "Saturday Matinee". I took a quick look on Amazon and there appears to be quite a few used ones for sale at about 10-12 bucks each. Be sure to ask the seller if the serial you want is from Republic Pictures Home Video before ordering or you might end up with a cheap "knock off" copied in SLP. All of the RPHV tapes are two tape sets in SP. Nice collectible looking boxes too.

Ah yes… cliffhanger serials. When I were a youth, the BBC used to screen them during summer school holidays, which was brilliant. I can't add any more to the list of favourites, but I have fond memories of King of Rocket Men, Daredevils Of The Red Circle and Undersea Kingdom, with its awesome metal bin robots. And the interchangeable buzzing spaceships of Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon… ::nostalgic sigh::

It should be noted that Republic re-released "Secret Service In Darkest Africa" as "Manhunt in the African Jungle". They also re-released "The Tiger Woman" as "Perils of the Darkest Jungle". There were no changes to the serials at all. Only the titles were changed. I'm mentioning this because Republic Pictures Home Video issued the serials with the re-release titles and you are more likely to find them from *all* vendors with the re-release titles.

When "Flash Gordon" was leased to television during the 1950's the title was changed to "Space Soldiers" and it's possible that you will find this serial with the television title rather than "Flash Gordon", but they are one and the same.

>>> I have fond memories of King of Rocket Men, Daredevils Of The Red Circle and Undersea Kingdom <<<

"Daredevils" is considered by many to be one of the best serials ever produced and it might be one of my top 10. It stars Herman Brix aka Bruce Bennett ,Charles Quigley, Dave Sharpe. Carole Landis and Charles Middleton (Ming in Flash Gordon). What a cast! Dave Sharp was one of the best stunt men in the serials! Bruce Bennett would later make a bigger name for himself as the hunter in "Treasure Of Sierra Madre". Carol Landis is beautiful and very sexy. And, of course, Charles Middleton is one of the serials best villains. The plot moves along quickly and the stunts are great! Since the story involves three circus daredevils, how can you go wrong? Highly recommended.

The 1935 serial "The Lost City" has been mentioned but really has to be seen to be believed. Astoundingly kooky, it has everything you could want in pulp, including a Lemurian scientist, a (different) mad scientist, his helpless daughter, natives turned into zombie giants, a hunchback, a huge assistant with a "portable" radio, a stalwart hero, lots of sparking electrical stuff, an Arab prince, drunken explorers, spider men, and a white queen of a lost empire, sort of.
Available from Adventures Unlimited and Amazon, it is mandatory pulp watching.

Servo

To fair, I believe that there are two different ways to enjoy serials, and I don't believe that either one is "better" than the other. After all, fun is fun. In one camp, there are those who like a serial to be as over the top as possible, with tin robots, wild weapons and labs, zombies, characters in fright wigs, and bad acting. In other words, "campy" as hell, like "Phantom Empire". (-: In the other camp we have the Republic fans who appreciate well coordinated fist fights, good actors, great miniatures, memorable stunt work, and decent direction. Some of my favorites are actually like long movies divided into chapters. "Haunted Harbor" and "Daughter of Don Q" are two of those. So just to be clear, you won't ever see me recommend a serial like "The Lost City", "Zombies of the Stratosphere", or "Undersea Kingdom", but that doesn't mean that many pulp fans won't like them.

Glad you're OK with some of us liking them!

Serva

LOL! I didn't realize how my post sounded until I re-read it. I really didn't mean to be condescending. I just wanted to point out why many other lists would be entirely different than mine, and that there are many ways to enjoy serials. I deserved that kick in the butt. (-: