Film serials
Film serials are a type of short film series that became a popular feature in American theaters by the 1940s. Originating with early examples like Thomas Edison’s "What Happened to Mary" in 1912, the genre gained momentum through the merger of several studios into Republic Pictures, which helped define the serial style of the time. These serials typically consisted of multiple episodes released weekly, often featuring action-adventure themes and characters drawn from comic strips and radio shows. Notably, Republic Pictures produced iconic serials such as "Dick Tracy" and "Captain Marvel," while Universal Studios contributed with titles like "Flash Gordon." During this era, film serials were characterized by male heroes, though characters like Nyoka Meredith from "Jungle Girl" began to challenge that norm by portraying strong female leads.
As the 1940s progressed and television grew in popularity, the demand for film serials declined, leading to the closure of many serial production lines by the mid-1950s. However, the advent of television provided a new avenue for these serials, as they were often repackaged for broadcast. Over the decades, film serials have experienced a resurgence in popularity through DVD sales and nostalgic interest, highlighting their lasting impact on entertainment culture.
Film serials
Feature-length films, almost exclusively action-adventures, divided into single-reel “chapters”
Because film serials were packaged with major-studio feature films in the local theaters, many B-film actors in these chapter plays reached an audience potentially as large as those of Hollywood’s top stars. Drawing from other popular culture media such as radio and comic books helped give film serials a presold audience. Only three studios—Republic, Columbia, and Universal—produced all ninety serials that appeared between 1940 and 1949.
By 1940, the film serial was already a standard part of a theater’s offering in America. While film serials date back to Thomas Alva Edison’s What Happened to Mary (1912), the 1935 merger of several small studios in Hollywood’s “Poverty Row” to form Republic Pictures is generally recognized as the catalyst that formed the serial style of the 1940’s. At that time, the only major (A-picture) studio actively producing serials was Universal Studios, which had been cranking them out since the advent of the talkie in 1929. When Columbia Pictures entered the arena in 1937 with Jungle Menace, starring animal trainer “Bring-’em-back-alive” Frank Buck, the stage was set for the three-studio competition that would characterize the 1940’s serial.
Republic Pictures Serials
Republic had already produced sixteen serials by 1940, mostly Dick Tracy, Zorro, Lone Ranger, and various other adventure titles. The studio’s success with Dick Tracy, and the popularity of Universal’s comic-strip-based serials during the late 1930’s, led Republic to seek comics that it could profitably transfer to the screen. The comic-book superhero was itself only two years old: Superman’s first comic-book appearance was in 1938; early in 1939, the character debuted in the newspapers, and in February, 1940, on radio. Republic negotiated with Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, for a serialized Man of Steel, but when the pair demanded control of the script, Republic turned to another costumed hero, Captain Marvel, in 1941. With Tom Tyler in the title role, the dozen episodes of Adventures of Captain Marvel became Republic’s most popular adventure serial, finishing a close second to Universal’s Flash Gordon series.
The same year, 1941, Republic hit again with Frances Gifford in Jungle Girl. In the early days of the movie serial, during the silent era, female adventurers followed the example of Pearl White in The Perils of Pauline (1914), but once sound came in, film serial heroes tended to be exclusively male—until Republic’s Jungle Girl. Universal and Independent Studios had been producing Tarzan serials since 1929, but the female characters had all been helpless victims for Tarzan to rescue. Jungle Girl’s Nyoka Meredith, played by Gifford, changed all of that. Nyoka hatched the plans to catch the villains, swung from the trees, and rescued the (often male) good guys. The Nyoka character was popular enough for a sequel, but Gifford had moved on to the “A” list at Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO Pictures), then Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Thus, she was replaced in Perils of Nyoka (1942) by Kay Aldridge as the Jungle Girl.
In 1944, another comic-book hero, Captain America, hit big for Republic, but the rest of the decade saw mostly Westerns and G-Men in their serials. Clayton Moore, who would later become television’s Lone Ranger, emerged as a star in Jesse James Rides Again (1947), Adventures of Frank and Jesse James (1948), and Ghost of Zorro (1949).
Universal Studios Serials
Universal, which had dominated the serial market with its Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers science-fiction films (both title characters played by Buster Crabbe), opened the 1940’s with its last Flash serial, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940). The same year, Universal discovered a property that would become an unlikely success in the serials: the Dead End Kids. Samuel Goldwyn had seen these juvenile actors on Broadway in Dead End (pr. 1935) and hired them to do a movie version of the play (1937). MGM sold the boys’ contract to Warner Bros. in 1938, and Universal borrowed them to make three serials, Junior G-Men (1940), Sea Raiders (1941), and Junior G-Men of the Air (1942).
By the middle of the decade, however, Universal knew that the market for serials was drying up. The few dollars a theater was willing to pay for twelve or fifteen episodes were not enough to cover even the low-budget production expenses, and Universal closed down its serials line in 1946.
Columbia Pictures Serials
Columbia began the 1940’s by filming radio’s most popular adventure program, The Shadow, in 1940, then scored with other comic-book successes, The Batman and The Phantom, both in 1943. Tom Taylor, who had been popular as Republic’s Captain Marvel, donned a mask to play the Phantom for Columbia. Other comic and radio characters who became Columbia serials in the 1940’s included Brenda Starr (1945), Hop Harrigan (1946), Jack Armstrong (1947), and, finally, Superman (1948). The Man of Steel did not prove to be worth the wait: production budgets were too small by 1948 to afford the effects necessary to make Superman believable.
Impact
Though the commercial success of television brought the end of the serial era—Republic closed its line in 1955, and Columbia the following year—it also created a new market for the old serials. Television stations repackaged the “chapter plays” as feature-length films or kept the serial format for once-daily or one-weekly segments on children’s shows. The success of the Batman television show in 1965 caused Columbia to rerelease The Batman more than twenty years after it was filmed. Half a century later, DVD sales gave a third life to the great serials of the 1940’s.
Bibliography
Barbour, Alan G. Days of Thrills and Adventure. New York: Macmillan, 1970. An analysis of American film serials from 1929 to 1956, with more than one hundred photos and a complete filmography.
Bifulco, Michael J. Heroes and Villains: Movie Serial Classics. Woodland Hills, Calif.: Bifulco Books, 1989. Detailed synopses of four superhero serials of the 1940’s, along with one hundred frame blow-ups and lobby cards from the films, and an introduction on the nature of the costumed-hero serial.
Cline, William C. Serials-ly Speaking: Essays on Cliffhangers. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1994. Collection of Cline’s columns in the film fan magazine Big Reel between 1984 and 1991, reflecting on the adventure serials of the 1940’s.
Rainey, Buck. Serial Film Stars: A Biographical Dictionary, 1912-1956. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2005. Details on the lives and films of nearly 450 stars in 863 pages.
Zinman, David. Saturday Afternoon at the Bijou. New York: Castle Books, 1973. A thorough treatment of serials, though including some series films that were never issued as installments.