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| The serial that started it all for me |
Back in December of 1988, I walked into a Movies Unlimited store, went over to the section marked serials and decided to rent one out called Nyoka and the Tigermen. I had heard about serials during the decade as a fan of the Indiana Jones movies, which I was told were modeled on the old cliffhangers. But I had never watched one. This particular serial was a jungle adventure, which was something I dug back in the day, so I figured why not? Over the course of the next 3 days, I watched all 15 chapters. It was, I had decided, a pleasant diversion and I finally got to see where the idea for my favorite movie series came from.
A month or so later I was in Movies Unlimited again and decided to check out another serial. I picked one called Mysterious Doctor Satan. Besides having a great title, it had a guy in a goofy mask on it's cover and an even goofier looking robot so I thought it might be fun. Oh, it was. When I picked a third serial a couple of months after that it was because it was considered one of the best of all time. That serial, Daredevils of the Red Circle, was the serial that hooked me on the format for good. By the summer of 1989 I was trying to write my own serial. That script, a 12 chapter affair called The Dark Avenger, has yet to be made by me. Next summer is 30 years since the commencement of that script, so maybe.
A little history lesson for the uninitiated.
The first part talking serial was released in 1929 from Mascot Pictures. King of the Kongo starred Boris Karloff as it's villain and had two sound sequences per chapter. Recorded on a special disc that played in synchronization with the film, most of the sound discs are gone now, though you can find two scenes on YouTube with the sound intact. Universal was the only other hold over from the silent era to continue to make serials and they in fact released their first all talking serial in 1930, a not very good western called The Indians Are Coming. There were some fairly bad independent serials released in the early 1930s as well. Then Mascot became part of a merger to form Republic Pictures in 1936 and serial history was changed.
While the first four Republics are pretty rough around the edges--as a matter of fact I happen to hate their second serial Undersea Kingdom--they picked up the pace with their fifth serial, 1937's Dick Tracy. Director William Witney started later that year with The Painted Stallion and began to turn the serial into a true art form. Witney's style of filming fight scenes where one move was a single camera shot influenced many other directors over the years. You can even see the Witney style in the fight between OO7 and Red Grant in From Russia, With Love.
Columbia entered serial production in 1937 with Jungle Menace starring famous wild animal trainer Frank Buck. Why not? Republic's first serial was also a jungle serial with Buck's rival Clyde Beatty. Serials got better as the 30s wore on until some incredible stuff came along during the war years. All three major serial producing serials were at the top of their game in the early 1940s, even if some of the wartime serials may make the PC crowd cringe today with their depictions of Japanese agents. But that's a discussion for another time.
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| Still considered the greatest serial ever |
The end of the Second World War saw budgets being slashed. Universal jumped ship in 1947. Republic and Columbia toughed it out into the 1950s but by then most of the really good serial actors had either retired, gotten too old, or died. Instead audiences were treated to stock footage laden chapters with actors who were hired more for their resemblance to a stuntman than any actual acting ability. TV had caught fire around this time, too, with youngsters able to watch shows like The Lone Ranger every week for free. And so between TV, the non-existent budgets, and a general refusal to evolve--no serials were ever made in color at a time that movies were moving more into color--the serial died a sad and depressing death. The last couple of years, it was as if nobody even tried anymore. Republic called it quits in 1955 with lousy mystery serial that forgot to have any suspects called King of the Carnival. Columbia, the last one in, was the last one out with an equally forgettable western called Blazing the Overland Trail. You can tell how bad this one is by the fact that even the villain sounds bored with it.
There were a few jabs after that. The most famous is a four chapter silent spoof known as Captain Celluloid Vs. the Film Pirates. The Return of the Copperhead was a 12 chapter serial allegedly shot in the 1970s but never released or edited, though a pretty unimpressive trailer exists. I entered the fray with a 12 chapter serial in 2001 that I called King of the Park Rangers. I wrote it over a few days in 1999, initially as a joke. Since there were quite a few Republics with the title King of the... where the lead male was named King, I said I was going to do the same, but make King a woman! 17 months of filming later, King of the Park Rangers was released. It still sells a few copies here and there all these years later, too! 2006 saw another spoof serial made, Monarch of the Moon. A second serial from the same company was announced but never made. I gave serials a second shot in 2008 with a mystery serial that I called The Dangers of Deborah. There was another low budget four chapter serial being made called Thirty Second Doom, but to the best of my knowledge, it was never completed.
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| Flash Gordon |
When I started watching serials 30 years back, I had no idea what type of influence they would have on me. I certainly never planned to watch them all. But for a few silent serials, I have watched them all. Or at least all that exist. The good, the bad, and the what the hell did I just watch? I had read about them before watching them and foolishly allowed the opinions of others to influence my thoughts on the format early on. Indeed, to hear some writers and fans talk, there's only 66 good serials, those being the 66 that Republic released. Stuff and nonsense says I. Republic had plenty of stinkers and the other studios had plenty of good ones. Flash Gordon wasn't made by Republic. It was an Universal serial and remains one of the best serials ever made. Batman was made by Columbia in 1943 and it's one of the Caped Crusader's better screen efforts actually.
If I'm being honest, I think the company who made the best adaptations from other sources was probably Universal. The majority of their adaptions are pretty faithful to the source material, Buck Rogers notwithstanding. Then again, had they actually adapted the Buck Rogers strip as it was written, that serial would be banned right about now.
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| He's no Captain America, but she's better than Bucky! |
Republic had a habit of taking the title and then making up whatever they wanted. For instance, their Captain America serial has absolutely nothing to do with Captain America. They changed the character from Army sad sack Steve Rogers and kid sidekick Bucky Barnes to fighting D.A. Grant Gardner and his secretary Gail Richards. Okay, Lorna Gray as Gail was an improvement over Bucky but it still has nothing to do with the strip. As for their Dick Tracy adaptions, well...I'm not convinced Chester Gould actually watched any of them since they tend to be Dick Tracy in name only. Serial fans often moan about Columbia's Superman serials, but at least in those serials, Superman is still Clark Kent and Lois Lane still works for the Daily Planet. Had Republic actually made their Superman serial in 1940, it's anyone's guess what we would have got. Yeah, it might have been good, but it probably wouldn't have really been Superman. Anyway, I like the two Columbia Superman serials even if the flying cartoon Superman is pretty silly. They're fun and that's all that should be required of any serial.
Ironically, the last of the sound serials I had to watch was one of the Republic Dick Tracy serials. The third in the series, Dick Tracy's G-Men, was an entertaining way to go out. Ralph Byrd was playing Tracy for the third time (you could tell when he was playing the character in the 1950s TV show he was sick of it) and he was always a good serial hero. There were a few of the serial regulars popping up in it and Jennifer Jones, at the start of her career, played the thankless role of Tracy's secretary Gwen. There was the usual amount of action and thrilling cliffhangers and William Witney and John English were directing at the top of their game. It seemed appropriate to go out on a Witney serial since he had directed Nyoka.
In between Nyoka and Dick Tracy's G-Men, there were many, many chapter viewings. For a time there was a message board called The Serial Squadron that I would go to and serial fans would gather on to discuss serials until the site owner decided he was more interested in selling serials than allowing discussion of them. There was even a yearly festival called SerialFest where fans would gather to watch serials on the big screen, discuss them, drink, and share a camaraderie. But SerialFest is dead and the Squadron is pretty much non-existent. Then again, a number of fans--some of whom I got to call friend--have died over the years. My best friend, who acted in both my serials, passed away in 2011 when we only had about 10 left to watch. It took me seven years, but I kept my promise to finish them.
And so, 30 years of watching serials has culminated in seeing the last of them. There's a little something bittersweet about the whole experience. 30 years, 219 serials, 2,913 chapters, and more hours than I want to consider. A lot of it was a good time. While it is true that some of it wasn't, I can't say that I regret watching them all. Perhaps one day the missing sound serials will resurface or someone who isn't me will make another serial. Should that day come, I'll be happy to watch. But until then, it was a fun ride while it lasted.
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