The Serial Squadron Cinema Cliffhanger Archive

CLIFFHANGER SERIAL ANTHOLOGY DVDs

Stacks Image 957
The Lost Serial Collection
Featuring Pearl White, Ruth Roland, Eddie Polo, Herbert Rawlinson, and many more

ORDER 2-DVD SET







This special edition features clips, short sequences and even some full-length chapters from 35 extremely rare serials that may be lost forever, except for what you can see here, presented in chronological order.

Complete chapters are included of THE IRON CLAW featuring Pearl White and THE FLAME FIGHTER starring Herbert Rawlinson.

ZUDORA, THE HAZARDS OF HELEN, CAPTAIN KIDD, HAUNTED VALLEY, THE LIGHTNING RAIDER and others are represented by extended action scenes or condensed chapters

Extended scenes from a couple of rare but not completely lost serials, A WOMAN IN GREY and OFFICER 444 in sharp new transfers.

Trailers for ultra-rare titles THE SCARLET ARROW, A FINAL RECKONING, WHISPERING SMITH RIDES and KING OF THE JUNGLE are also included

All the included scenes and chapters are presented as they might have been originally shown, each with a new opening title and music, and no intrusive narration or explanations.

Stills and posters from some of the serials are also included. This is a collection no serial historian or collector can live without. The complete list of serial titles and running times are listed below. A great value -- a massive amount of serial history all in one set!


CONTENTS

_1

SERIAL HEROINES

1912 What Happened to Mary
(Mary Fuller) :24
A brief clip from the first serial ever made. Mary escapes a building by climbing down bedsheets tied together.

1914 The Hazards of Helen (Helen Holmes, Helen Gibson) 5:36
Helen Holmes, first actress to play the role, is tied to the railroad tracks, and imprisoned in a boxcar while robbers try to wreck a train. Helen Gibson stops a speeding car and climbs on top of a moving train to try to stop it.

1914 The Perils of Pauline (Pearl White) 2:50
Pearl is forced to run the gauntlet by Indians who have decided rolling a giant rock behind her as she flees down a hillside would make for a fun afternoon of entertainment.

_2
1914 Zudora (Marguerite Snow) 12:45
Zudora's sweetheart is to be murdered in a torture room by a cult who suspects him of drugging them with a sleeping potion, so she asks her mysterious friend with the giant crystal ball to help her rescue him. The Squadron has subsequently done a more extensive version of this serial. Click the link above to read more about that.

1920 A Woman in Grey (Arline Pretty) 4:42
The heroine is tied up under a threatening hanging-spiked-stone deathtrap. Can the hero find his way through a house of horrors to save her?


SERIALS OF PEARL WHITE

1916 Pearl of the Army (Pearl White) 2:15
Two thrilling action sequences as Pearl battles a relentless villain who is determined to toss her out of a window.

_3
1916 The Iron Claw (Pearl White) (Chapter 7 Complete) 26:04
The mysterious "Laughing Mask" bedevils the Iron Claw and his crooked gang. Tinted and with a new original score by Dr. Grood.

1917 The Fatal Ring (Pearl White) 1:00
Pearl displays an original way to travel between high floors of apartment buildings -- via clothesline.


1919 The Lightning Raider
(Pearl White, Warner Oland) (Scenes from Chapter 1) 10:24
Master thief Pearl plunders artifacts from a museum, then tries to extort more valuable objects from underworld criminal Wu Fang, who, unsurprisingly, doesn't want to share.

1923 Plunder
(Scenes from Chapters 9 and 15) 16:13
In her final serial, Pearl escapes from quicksand, dukes it out hand-to-hand with some guy who chases her down on horseback, and finds treasure.

1924 Terror (The Perils of Paris) :43
This was not a serial but a feature made after Pearl White moved up in the world, but it includes a serial-like rooftop action sequence.


SERIALS OF RUTH ROLAND

1919 The Tiger's Trail (Ruth Roland) :54
Ruth Roland learns why you should always keep your valuable baggage locked up overhead and your window closed while riding in a train.

1920 Ruth of the Rockies (Ruth Roland) :55
Ruth has a hell of a day when some nasty person without any apparent provocation tries to set her on fire, drop her through a trap door, and float her toward a big dangerous water wheel.

1921 White Eagle (Ruth Roland) :25
Ruth shows you how to catch a plane, serial style.

_4
1922 The Timber Queen (Ruth Roland) :42
Ruth, who apparently never walks anyplace if she can travel more creatively, crosses a canyon suspended on a wire.

1923 Haunted Valley
(Ruth Roland) (Abridged version of Chapter 6) 8:51
Not that sharp of a transfer here but a new score, sound effects and a surprisingly engaging story in this chapter as crooks apply highly inventive, original and terrifying schemes to try to eliminate their enemies and take over the Valley.


LEADING MEN

1921 Hurricane Hutch (Trailer) 2:23
Daredevil Charles Hutchison displays his formidable diving, climbing, jumping, and heroine-saving talents.

_5
1922 Captain Kidd (Eddie Polo) (Scenes from Chapters 2 and 11) 8:47
One of few surviving examples of a once-prolific serial king's work. First, Captain Kidd and his pirates in a shipboard battle, then, a thrilling modern-day fire sequence as Eddie tries to rescue a lady from a burning building. I'm assuming that this serial included action in both the past and the present; otherwise this scene must be from another Polo serial. It's still exciting though, no matter where it originated.

_6
1925 The Flame Fighter (Trailer, Scenes from conclusion of Chapter 2, Chapter 3 complete) 18:11
Herbert Rawlinson in a featured role as a fireman in this genuinely action-packed serial. We have the trailer, the cliffhanger from Chapter 2, and complete Chapter 3 here to show you.


1926 Officer 444
5:04
Ben Wilson disguses himself as a crook to try to infiltrate the Frog's gang, and chaos ensues.

1927 Return of the Riddle Rider (Trailer) 1:03
William Desmond in the sequel to a popular serial that won him recognition.

1928 The Mystery Rider (Trailer) 1:50
William Desmond vs. a black-caped and clawed villain.


MORE PERILS

_7
1916 The Shielding Shadow :40
Some days you ought to have just stayed in bed, as Ralph Kellard discovers here in an amazing special effects scene.

1920 The Third Eye :17
A quick stunt by the heroine.

1923 The Steel Trail
1:33
A few exciting train stunts.

1924 The Fast Express :23
Brief train fight-stunt featuring the cowboy hero.


1927
King of the Jungle (Trailer) 2:21
Elmo Lincoln, in pith helmet as opposed to furs, can be glimpsed in this jungle serial trailer.

1927 The Man Without a Face (Walter Miller) :58
The "Man" does not appear in this clip but one of his deadly devices of destruction does.

1927 Whispering Smith Rides (Trailer) 2:59
A lightning-fast-paced Western, adapted from a popular novel of the time.

_8
1928 A Final Reckoning (Trailer) 1:17
An apparently villainous masked Zorro-like character uses a whip to subdue his enemy.

_9
1928 The Haunted Island (Trailer) 1:49
A wide variety of surprisingly action-packed clips from a serial we wish wasn't lost, including a gorilla capturing a lady and carrying her across a high roof, an alligator pit fight, raging fires, and pirate swordplay!

The Scarlet Arrow (Trailer) 1:27
Francis X. Bushman in a Mountie serial with a Painted Stallion-like arrow motif going on.

1928 The Terrible People :27
Walter Miller gets the rug pulled out from underneath him. With this kind of poor hospitality, no wonder they call them terrible people.

1929 Queen of the Northwoods 1:37
Ruffians in an airplane drop bombs on Walter Miller and Ethlyne Clair, ruining their afternoon in their canoe, then the bizarrely costumed "Wolf Devil" harasses Ethlyne at home, chasing her upstairs and out the window above a pack of angry dogs.

Order DVD: (2-DVD set)
Black & White & color tinted video, silent with music soundtracks, some slideshows before scenes and chapters.