Topic: Movie Serials

[addicted2dvd]

Anyone here a fan of the old time movie serials? You know... those back from the '30s and '40s.. where you would go weekly to the theater to see the next chapter in the serial... used to also be called Cliffhangers as every chapter would end in a cliffhanger where the hero was in serious danger.

A friend of mine on another forum got me hooked on them... I especially like the superhero ones... but collect a few kinds... Here is the movie serials I have in my collection...


   1. Adventures of Captain Marvel
   2. Adventures of the Flying Cadets
   3. Atom Man vs Superman
   4. Batman
   5. Batman and Robin
   6. Buck Rogers
   7. Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere
   8. Dick Tracy
   9. Drums of Fu Manchu
  10. Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
  11. Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers
  12. G-Men vs. The Black Dragon
  13. Gang Busters
  14. The Green Archer
  15. The Green Hornet
  16. Holt of the Secret Service
  17. Jungle Jim
  18. Lost City
  19. Lost City of the Jungle
  20. The Lost Planet
  21. The Master Key
  22. Mysterious Island
  23. The New Adventures of Tarzan
  24. The Painted Stallion
  25. The Phantom
  26. Phantom Creeps
  27. Radar Men from the Moon
  28. The Return of Chandu
  29. S.O.S. Coastguard
  30. Secret Agent X-9 (Serial #1)
  31. Secret Agent X-9 (Serial #2)
  32. The Secret Code
  33. Spy Smasher
  34. Superman
  35. Terry and the Pirates
  36. The Tiger Woman (AKA The Perils of Darkest Jungle)
  37. Undersea Kingdom
  38. The Vigilantes Are Coming
  39. Winners of the West
  40. Zorro Rides Again
  41. Zorro's Black Whip
  42. Zorro's Fighting Legion



The titles I put in BOLD are ones that I haven't watched yet.

[lovemunkey187]

They used to show these on the telly during the school summer holidays when I was a kid. The George Reeves Superman serials were shown as well. Used to love the "special effects" on Flash Gordon.

I can't remember all of the titles but one of my favourites was King Of The Rocket Men

I'm sure that there was one about a kingdom under the sea, but I can't recall the title for it. But I know that it was classic.

[addicted2dvd]

Thanks for the recommendation on King of the Rocket Men... it is on DVD... so is now on my wishlist.

I am always looking for more to check out.

[VibroCount]

My alltime favorite serial is "The Phantom Empire" from 1934. It's sort of a Gene Autry western, but there's a hidden city inhabited by evil "aliens" (Earthlings from the lost continent of Mu) under his Radio Ranch. Colt .45s meet ray guns!

It's kind of a "Plan 9..." film in quality, in the mind-boggling lack of production values & and over-acting as well as sheer wackiness.

[addicted2dvd]

Thanks Cliff... put it on my wishlist.

[addicted2dvd]

My alltime favorite serial is "The Phantom Empire" from 1934. It's sort of a Gene Autry western, but there's a hidden city inhabited by evil "aliens" (Earthlings from the lost continent of Mu) under his Radio Ranch. Colt .45s meet ray guns!

It's kind of a "Plan 9..." film in quality, in the mind-boggling lack of production values & and over-acting as well as sheer wackiness.

Found it in a set of 3 serials... you know anything about the other 2?...

- The Phantom Empire
- Undersea Kingdom
- Radar Men from the Moon

[VibroCount]

Radar Men from the Moon... Commando Cody (Rocket Man) was in three serials, all pretty good. This is the second one. (King of the Rocket Men was first, Zombies of the Stratosphere third.) The production values are non-existant, but the plotting & entertainment value is high.

Undersea Kingdom was an early serial from Republic, with "Crash" Corrigan leading a submarine full of surface people to explore the lost continent of Atlantis. There they find that there are warring factions, Black Robes and White Robes... black being the bad guys, of course. The Black Robes are causing earthquakes, so the surface folks team up with the White Robes to defeat the bad guys.

[addicted2dvd]

Thanks Cliff... sounds like they could be interesting... will be checking them out.

[lovemunkey187]

My alltime favorite serial is "The Phantom Empire" from 1934. It's sort of a Gene Autry western, but there's a hidden city inhabited by evil "aliens" (Earthlings from the lost continent of Mu) under his Radio Ranch. Colt .45s meet ray guns!

It's kind of a "Plan 9..." film in quality, in the mind-boggling lack of production values & and over-acting as well as sheer wackiness.

Found it in a set of 3 serials... you know anything about the other 2?...

- The Phantom Empire
- Undersea Kingdom
- Radar Men from the Moon

FRom where did you order? I could probably be persuaded to order these 

Undersea Kingdom, is the one I was on about

[addicted2dvd]

I haven't ordered them yet... but put them on my Christmas Wishlist I gave my family. But The set is at deepdiscount for $14.10... or you could get just Undersea Kingdom by itself for only $9.97.

[lovemunkey187]

I haven't ordered them yet... but put them on my Christmas Wishlist I gave my family. But The set is at deepdiscount for $14.10... or you could get just Undersea Kingdom by itself for only $9.97.

Thanks Pete.

[addicted2dvd]

I just updated my movie serial list!

   1.  Adventures of Captain Marvel
   2. Adventures of the Flying Cadets
   3. Atom Man vs Superman
   4. Batman
   5. Batman and Robin
   6. Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere
   7. Dick Tracy
   8. Drums of Fu Manchu
   9. Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
  10. Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers
  11. G-Men vs. The Black Dragon
  12. The Green Archer
  13. The Green Hornet
  14. Holt of the Secret Service
  15. Jungle Jim
  16. Lost City
  17. Lost City of the Jungle
  18. The Lost Planet
  19. The New Adventures of Tarzan
  20. The Painted Stallion
  21. The Phantom
  22. Phantom Creeps
  23. Radar Men from the Moon
  24. The Return of Chandu
  25. S.O.S. Coastguard
  26. Spy Smasher
  27. Superman
  28. Undersea Kingdom
  29. The Vigilantes Are Coming
  30. Winners of the West
  31. Zorro Rides Again
  32. Zorro's Black Whip
  33. Zorro's Fighting Legion

The titles I put in BOLD are ones that I haven't watched yet.

Wow! I can't believe I have over 30 movie serials in my collection now!

[Rogmeister]

I was just organizing my serials again and decided to look up serials and came up with this thread.  I don't have as many serials as I used to...I sent Pete some a year or so ago...and I think I threw out a few I had on VHS...but I think I still have the better part of a hundred serials.  I think I have something like 61-65 on DVD and I believe I have a dozen or more on laserdisc format.  For a long while, I was buying them like crazy but I haven't bought any in awhile now.  I wonder if there have been many serial releases in the last year or so? 

[addicted2dvd]

The last ones I remember anyway... were the two Green Hornet releases. But it isn't like I been keeping track or anything.

[Rogmeister]

I guess I'll have to go take a look.  Of course, with some serials you have to really look in obscure places...I have some serials from individuals or just very small independent companies.