The Serial Squadron Cinema Cliffhanger Archive
Serial Squadron HYBRID BLU-RAYS
Great Squadron restorations burned on Blu-Ray disks
for higher image and audio quality
IMPORTANT: It is necessary though to have a player which have a built-in protocol which will allow access this disk format for Hybrid Blu-Rays to load properly. The Sony BDP-s3100 Sony BDP-s390, Sony BDP-1200 and Sony BDP-s5390 will all play these Blu-Rays and are available on eBay for about $30. Reportedly ONN portable model 100009768 will also play the hybrids without any difficulty. Some Playstation players will also work. Vizio players may load the disks as data disks.
Some Samsung players will load the disk menus and play the disks without any difficulty but some other Samsungs will sometimes load the hybrid disks as data disks, which means tracks will show up on and be playable from icons on the internal Blu-Ray player menu. If your Samsung player loads the disk as a data disk, you may be able to access the menu by clicking the MENU button on your remote after the disk loads then making the selection LOAD ALL FORMATS then clicking on the icon that says VIDEO TS.
Some Panasonic and Oppo desktop players may not have a built-in protocol to access the menus and are not recommended for use with these disks. On any player, however, there may be a menu which will say something like "Load All Formats" and allows access to the format.
If in doubt, and you want something that will play the hybrid disks for sure, order a Sony BDP-s3100 from eBay and hook it up into your system. You won't be sorry if you do.
THE ROCKETMAN COLLECTION
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
Featuring Tristram Coffin, George Wallace, Roy Barcroft and Judd Holdren
THREE COMPLETE SERIALS
KING OF THE ROCKET MEN
RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON
ZOMBIES OF THE
STRATOSPHERE
Jeff King dons the helmet and rocket pack and becomes the flying superhero called Rocketman, then Commando Cody of Cody Labs takes them over and journeys to the Moon to stop Retik, Ruler of the Moon from plundering Earth, then Larry Martin uses them in his fight against invaders from Mars.
Influenced by: Bulletman, for whom the original story in the first serial was written.
Influenced: Iron Man, The Rocketeer
View Online Video: Chapter 3
IN PRODUCTION
THE SPIDER'S WEB
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
(1938, 15 Chapters)
Starring Warren Hull, Iris Meredith and The Octopus
D: Ray Taylor, James Horne
The mysterious white-robed Octopus raids one industry after another in a systematic grab for power. The Spider, a masked vigilante who looks upon the underworld as his own private shooting gallery, is feared by criminals and civilians alike. When these two powerful figures fight to destroy each other, the result is bloody mayhem. An exciting pulp story come to life, packed with non-stop action.
Influenced: All pulp-avenger-style serials and films which followed, including the Darkman series, and the Spider-man comic book (in which another web-costumed character also swung on lines between buildings in the city and had an arch enemy named Octopus!) The Spider was the first costumed pulp character to appear on a movie screen.
Transfer Quality: From 16mm; transfer quality excellent, very sharp picture, stabilized, exposure-corrected, with normalized and noise-reduced audio. Blu-Ray conversion improves motion and tone smoothness and sharpness. BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE OF THIS TITLE.
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DRUMS OF FU MANCHU
HYBRID BLU-RAY UPGRADE
✦✦✦✦ (15 Chapters)
Featuring Henry Brandon and Robert Kellard Directed by William Witney and John English
A dacoit knife that nearly misses British investigator Nayland Smith's head tips him off that megalomaniac Fu Manchu and his evil Si Fan society are in California. Fu desires a scroll which will lead him to the tomb of Genghis Khan (whose sacred scepter will, he says, help him conquer Asia), and kidnaps Dr. Parker, a scientist who knows its location. The scientist's son and Dr. Petrie go in search of him, and Fu Manchu leaves no stone unturned as he terrorizes and destroys his enemies with poison darts, booby traps, assassins, ancient torture devices, and unseen, ominous drums which are a warning of impending doom.
Transfer Quality: Excellent, from Jack Mathis' original print-down from Republic Pictures' negative, mostly stable, excellent sharpness and grey tones. The Blu-Ray upgrade offers smoother motion, clearer picture and sound, and smoother and sharper image quality.
Blu-Ray Contents: Complete serial
Special Features: Introduction by Fu Manchu author William P. Maynard
PROJECT COMPLETE
Available Now
THE LONE RANGER (1938)
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
✦✦✦✦ (15 Chapters)
Featuring Lee Powell and Herman Brix
The incomparable Serial Squadron restoration of this long-unseen key serial which was a blockbuster success on its original release. The first appearance of the "origin of the Lone Ranger," and the prototype in many ways for the TV series. Upgrade to Blu-Ray for smoother motion and sharper picture.
PROJECT COMPLETE
Available Now
LINDA STIRLING
2-SERIAL SET
THE TIGER WOMAN/
THE BLACK WHIP
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
Featuring Linda Stirling, Allan Lane, George J. Lewis
Contains both full serials, THE TIGER WOMAN and ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP, with original trailers, featuring the fan-favorite heroine, on one BR disk.
In The Tiger Woman Linda is a jungle goddess who engineer Allan Lane tries to protect from destructive white men who want to plunder the riches and oil in her South American kingdom, and in Zorro's Black Whip she plays the first female costumed Zorro-style masked avenger of the movies.
Also includes a mini-documentary about stunt woman Helen Thurston, the "Face Behind the Mask" in Zorro's Black Whip and a Linda Stirling Bio and slideshow.
Upgrade to Blu-Ray for smoother motion and sharper picture.
PROJECT COMPLETE
Available Now
THE REX BENNETT COLLECTION
HYBRID BLU-RAY UPGRADE
(30 Chapters)
Featuring ROD CAMERON
Directed by William Witney and John English
The complete serials
SECRET SERVICE IN DARKEST AFRICA and
G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON
Both on the same Blu-Ray disk
An inexhaustible one-man army takes on Nazis in Africa and Japanese spies in two wildly action-packed serials.
PROJECT COMPLETE
Available Now
PERILS OF NYOKA
HYBRID BLU-RAY UPGRADE
✦✦✦✦ (15 Chapters)
Featuring Kay Aldridge, Clayton Moore and Adrian Booth
Directed by William Witney
The great exotic adventure serial in superb quality, the best available.
PROJECT COMPLETE
Available Now
NEW RESTORED EDITION
THE PERILS OF PAULINE
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
Featuring Pearl White, Crane Wilbur and Paul Panzer
All existing content newly transferred, restored, stabilized and scored, with a complete episode guide video and documentary about the serial and later projects it influenced. A comprehensive and amazing new edition of the serial that started it all, with appropriate new intertitles as well. Highly recommended.
PROJECT COMPLETE
Available Now
DAREDEVILS OF
THE WEST
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
The amazing long-lost Republic serial now available, only from the Squadron!
(Republic, 12 Chapters)
Featuring Allan Lane, Kay Aldridge and Robert Frazer
D: John English
Cavalryman-on-special-assignment Duke Cameron offers to help lovely June Foster build a stage line through the Comanche Strip after her father is slain in a wagon train attack masterminded by crooked land baron Martin Dexter. Dexter and his henchmen Ward and Turner, and crooked lawyer Silas Higby relentlessly conspire and attack Cameron and Foster, who are forced to try and survive an exploding runaway stagecoach, a flaming prison, powder kegs in a runaway mine car, a plunge into a vat of flaming alcohol, being shot at the edge of a cliff, and tied up and thrown into a covered wagon to be set on fire.
A fantastic, stunt-filled cliffhanger filled with wild, berserk action which even includes "the two Tontos," Chief Thunder Cloud and Jay Silverheels together in one scene.
A few once-missing sections of audio have been re-created with music, sound effects and dubbing of the original dialogue by Rick Deacon (as Duke Cameron), Eric Stedman (as Dexter) and Allyson Malandra (as June Foster).
Transfer Quality: Excellent, super-sharp picture, very high quality. Blu-Ray conversion improves motion and tone smoothness and sharpness.
PROJECT COMPLETE
Order now
THE HOPE DIAMOND MYSTERY
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
Featuring Boris Karloff, Grace Darmond and George Chesebro
A very dark story about the curse of the Hope Diamond, with introductory openings by one of its real-life former owners.
Death and terror follow in the path of the terrible jewel as it passes through many hands in two different ages.
This serial was Boris Karloff's first major film role and his part in it, the apparently immortal high priest Dakar who searches for the stolen jewel through the ages, foreshadows his character in THE MUMMY.
Upgrade to Blu-Ray for smoother motion and sharper picture.
PROJECT COMPLETE
Available Now
BLAKE OF SCOTLAND YARD
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
Featuring Ralph Byrd and Herbert Rawlinson
Restored edition of an extremely rare early sound crime/mystery serial complete with the future Dick Tracy as hero and a masked villain called the Scorpion. Original print was complete but worn and scratchy in places. This restoration is entirely stabilized and viewing it on Blu-Ray is a big improvement over the highly compressed DL-DVD version. Very sharp.
PROJECT COMPLETE
Available Now
JESSE JAMES CLIFFHANGERS
HYBRID BLU-RAY UPGRADE
(25 Chapters)
Featuring Clayton Moore, Linda Stirling and Keith Richards in two complete serials:
JESSE JAMES RIDES AGAIN and
THE JAMES BROTHERS OF MISSOURI
Clayton Moore is commanding in the performance that probably won him the part of the Lone Ranger on TV. A different actor plays Jesse in a second sequel to RIDES AGAIN. Excellent condition.
PROJECT COMPLETE
Available Now
BEATRICE FAIRFAX
HYBRID BLU-RAY UPGRADE
✦✦✦✦ (15 Episodes)
Featuring Grace Darling and Harry Fox
The charming if frequently xenophobic episodic series from 1916 featuring advice to the lovelorn reporter Beatrice Fairfax and her amusingly comical sidekick Jimmy Barton, reporter, shot in Ithaca, New York by the Wharton studio.
Stories range from the whimsical to romantic to tragic; they are sometimes mysteries or action stories as well. An amazing increase in quality in this title from the previous DVD editions; motion, sharpness and audio quality all much improved. Highly recommended, looks and sounds really nice. About 7-8 hours of content.
PROJECT COMPLETE
Available Now
THE PHANTOM EMPIRE
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
Featuring Frankie Darro
and Gene Autry
(Mascot, 12 Chapters)
Directed by Otto Brower, B. Eason
When a radio performer discovers a strange underground city ruled by Queen Tika, who wishes to keep her kingdom secret from the “surface people” she despises, his two bumbling friends, and young Frankie and Betsy and the Thunder Riders Club ride “to the rescue.”
Influenced: Star Wars, The Phantom Menace, The Empire Strikes Back
Transfer Quality: Excellent, wet-gate transfer which minimizes artifacting. Scored with period music from 78s and 1930s music libraries. The Blu-Ray upgrade offers smoother motion, clearer picture and sound, and smoother and sharper image quality.
View Online Video: Chapter 3
PROJECT COMPLETE
ORDER NOW
Shipping Now
"Jan of the Jungle" in
THE CALL OF
THE SAVAGE
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
(1935, 12 Chapters)
Starring NOAH BEERY JR.,
DOROTHY SHORT, HARRY WOODS
and WALTER MILLER
Young Jan's parents are murdered in the jungle by a rival for his parents' secret formula and Jan is still sought by his killers long afterward. He meets up with Mona, who has ties to a lost city, and Borno, who protects her. Both have secrets and in the latter half of the serial the cast discovers the mysterious hidden city and the action speeds up, and deathtraps and intrigue in the castle take over. This is a serial that not a lot of people have seen and doesn't get talked about much because it starts off with a lot of exposition before it peps up. But not a bad one at all. The leading man is a bit pale for a jungle boy but friendly enough and the supporting cast is very good.
Transfer Quality: Rank Cintel transfer From 16mm; very good-excellent; stabilized, exposure-corrected, with normalized and noise-reduced audio. Blu-Ray conversion improves motion and tone smoothness and sharpness.
THE DESERT HAWK
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
(15 Chapters)
Featuring Gilbert Roland and Mona Maris
with Billy Bletcher
Thrilling, epic serial with exotic Arabian setting featuring Gilbert Roland in a dual role as the rightful Caliph of a kingdom and also his evil usurping twin brother. Billy Bletcher (Voice of the Lone Ranger) appears in an amusing role as a comical but quite capable magician. Lots of action and virtually no stock footage, with a solid cast and swordplay too -- destroys the myth that all Columbia serials aren't good. It's tons of fun.
A nice transfer enhanced by light warm and cool color tones as appropriate to indoor and outdoor scenes.
PROJECT COMPLETE
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THE SECRET OF
TREASURE
ISLAND
H-BLU-RAY UPGRADE
(Columbia, 15 Chapters)
Featuring Don Terry, Gwen Gaze and Walter Miller
Directed by Elmer Clifton
When they reach Treasure Island, Larry Kent, who is searching for a missing newspaperman, and Toni Morell, who has half of a treasure map, fall into the hands of Collins, an anything-but-rational master of a strange chateau haunted by a pirate’s ghost. Collins, aka “The Shark,” has the other half of the map and employs a gang of cowled diggers in his search for the treasure. He also has henchmen dressed as pirates, and several skilled "house guests" he has kidnapped for medical or scientific duties.
IN PRODUCTION