Stoo
Well-known member
It's common knowledge that the Indiana Jones films pay homage to Saturday matinée serials. The fact that they served as the primary inspiration is always bandied about here at The Raven yet, oddly, there is no thread dedicated specifically to them.
Most Indy fans only mention the Republic serials and I can't help wonder if the reason is because they are simply repeating what they've read/heard without actually being familiar with these classics, themselves. While the Republic output was often superior to the rest, they weren't the only company to crank them out. Universal made the most (more than double the amount of Republic)! There were also Columbia, Mascot (which was later absorbed into Republic) and various others including the famous, Pathé.
The earliest cliffhangers date back to the 1910s and their "golden age" is undoubtedly the '30s & '40s but with the advent of home television, their production trickled to a halt in the mid-1950s. Some of the titles were often edited down and repackaged as movies for TV in the late '50s and 1960s while the originals were occasionally shown in chapter format at matinée theatres until, at least, the early '70s.
As for my own, personal experience, the only serial I can recall seeing at a cinema was in 1972 before a re-release of an old, "Lassie" movie. It was an episode of "The Iron Claw" and, being very young at the time, the villain gave me nightmares! While growing up, TV programmes such as "Matinee at the Bijou" and "Magic Shadows" would often show cliffhangers and then later, in the early '90s, I started to rent & buy them on VHS. The creation of the Silver Screen Channel in the 2000s was a blessing because the ones they show are usually quite obscure.
My top favourite is 1942's, "Perils of Nyoka" (a.k.a. "Nyoka and the Tigermen") with "Zorro Rides Again" and "Zorro's Fighting Legion" trailing closely behind in 2nd & 3rd place.
So, what I would like to know is...
Who else likes old cliffhangers?
Which serials have you seen?
Which titles (or genres) are your favourites?
Which ones are you interested in seeing?
If you don't care for them, why not?
Most Indy fans only mention the Republic serials and I can't help wonder if the reason is because they are simply repeating what they've read/heard without actually being familiar with these classics, themselves. While the Republic output was often superior to the rest, they weren't the only company to crank them out. Universal made the most (more than double the amount of Republic)! There were also Columbia, Mascot (which was later absorbed into Republic) and various others including the famous, Pathé.
The earliest cliffhangers date back to the 1910s and their "golden age" is undoubtedly the '30s & '40s but with the advent of home television, their production trickled to a halt in the mid-1950s. Some of the titles were often edited down and repackaged as movies for TV in the late '50s and 1960s while the originals were occasionally shown in chapter format at matinée theatres until, at least, the early '70s.
As for my own, personal experience, the only serial I can recall seeing at a cinema was in 1972 before a re-release of an old, "Lassie" movie. It was an episode of "The Iron Claw" and, being very young at the time, the villain gave me nightmares! While growing up, TV programmes such as "Matinee at the Bijou" and "Magic Shadows" would often show cliffhangers and then later, in the early '90s, I started to rent & buy them on VHS. The creation of the Silver Screen Channel in the 2000s was a blessing because the ones they show are usually quite obscure.
My top favourite is 1942's, "Perils of Nyoka" (a.k.a. "Nyoka and the Tigermen") with "Zorro Rides Again" and "Zorro's Fighting Legion" trailing closely behind in 2nd & 3rd place.
So, what I would like to know is...
Who else likes old cliffhangers?
Which serials have you seen?
Which titles (or genres) are your favourites?
Which ones are you interested in seeing?
If you don't care for them, why not?