Serious about Serials

One of the many hobbies that I've cultured over the year is a love for 1940's movie serials. In fact, it's one of the things I've been doing with my father-in-law, Glenn Richards, over the last fifteen years. Every time we get together, we try to watch a chapter of one of these movie serials, or an episode of the 1950's Adventures of Superman television show.

Let me caution you in advance... watching movie serials is not for everyone. It's like base jumping or climbing Mount Everest, there must be training and preparation on your part before you just jump in. You can not just grab a DVD of a movie serial, pop it in the player, and watch the whole thing.



Movie serials are another American institution that died awhile ago. If you don't already know, movie serials are comprised of about twelve to fifteen short 'chapters', and theaters would play one chapter every week before the start of a movie. It was a way to score repeat business. But as with many other things, our entertainment habits have changed so much that the need for these serials doesn't exist anymore. The serials morphed into television, and that was all she wrote.
The great thing about serials is what they would do to get you to come back to the theater the following week. They always ended in imminent danger or perceived certain death for the main hero. Audiences would come back the following week to see how this was resolved. This formula wouldn't exactly work with romance or drama, but colorful heroes of the western, science fiction, or super-hero variety? Perfection.


One of the more famous anecdotes about serials within my particular culture, whether true or not, involves Hugh Hefner. Apparently in the sixties he used to show the Batman serial week after week in his famous private theater. His guests would cheer the heroes and boo the villains and just have a great time with the sheer camp of it all. Some Hollywood suits found out about it, and ended up giving us the Adam West Batman TV show.



The first live action appearance of many comic book super-heroes were in these serials. Superman, Batman, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Spy Smasher, the Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and others.


I've talked before about how you have to approach older entertainment with an eye towards the era in which it was produced. That's why I say watching serials just isn't for everyone. I try to imagine my buddies Larry and Steve sitting down in front of a serial. I don't see it happening. Scott and Mario, however, would be able to enjoy it for what it was. If you're judging the material from within the time it was produced, the fight scenes, stunts, and costumes go from being cheesy to glorious examples of the era.



Also, there's the idea of what the movie going experience was back then. We have no frame of reference even close in comparison today. In the 1940's, most of the public did not have television. They went to the theater, payed about a nickel or a dime, and got to sit for several cartoons, a newsreel, a serial, and the movie. They didn't have to leave when the feature was done, they could hang out and watch it again. The theaters weren't run down and poorly maintained. And buying a popcorn was reasonably priced, especially back then. The experience of it is completely incomparable to anything we have today.

I've said my piece about serials, but I want to go on and talk about some of the specific ones I've seen.





The Adventures of Captain Marvel serial is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest serials ever made. Tom Tyler's Captain Marvel costume was great. The serial's weren't always very faithful to the source material, but Captain Marvel's basic concept of a boy becoming a man with super powers to fight crime was so elemental that everything just feels right.





Remember what I said about the serial's not always being faithful to the original source material? The Captain America serial is ridiculous. There's no shield, no Bucky, and generally no sense being made at all with this one. So naturally, I thought it was great.


While having no Joker, Penguin, or Riddler, the Batman serial is actually one of the ones closest to the source material. Although Robin's a little older, the Batcave is pretty bare, as is the Batmobile, and the ears are all wrong. Magnificent, but wrong.





Spy Smasher was a very popular 1940's hero published by Fawcett Comics, the creators of Captain Marvel. This serial has the best stunts I've ever seen from this era.





We're in the middle of watching the Blackhawk serial now. Back then, Blackhawk was published by Quality Comics and was I think their only movie serial offering. Blackhawk works best in the middle of World War II, fighting Nazis. In the serial he operates in California fighting gangsters. So... sigh. Budget cuts.








One of the best serials I've seen is called Undersea Kingdom. Famous wrestler 'Crash' Corrigan takes a submarine ride and ends up kicking major butt in the lost kingdom of Atlantis. And the helmets they wear! Glorious.





The Phantom Empire has to be seen to be believed. Wikipedia describes it as a mix of musical, western, and science fiction. Singing cowboy Gene Autry fights alien invaders. I loved every minute of it.


They made a Blackhawk serial. Awesome. The costume is accurate. Awesome. There are flying scenes. Awesome. The teacup? Wow. Blackhawk sipping tea out of that teacup. I could have done without that. To make matters worse, actor Kirk Alyn goes on to play Superman in other serials. So it's fair to torture yourself by thinking it's Superman dressed as Blackhawk sipping tea out of that teacup.


Thanks,
DCD