The Serial Squadron Cinema Cliffhanger Archive
AVIATION, WAR & SPY SERIALS
(Republic, 30 Chapters)
Rod Cameron, Duncan Renaldo, Joan Marsh, Lionel Royce, Nino Pipitone, D: Spencer Bennet, William Witney
Contains the complete restored editions of both Secret Service in Darkest Africa and G-Men vs. the Black Dragon featuring Rod Cameron (doubled by stunt man Tom Steele) as WWII US Agent Rex Bennett.
DVD Contents: 4-DVD Set, 2 Complete serials, 30 episodes
Special Features: Trailer for G-Men vs. the Black Dragon, re-release trailer for Secret Service
Order 2-Dual-Layer DVD Set
(Two serials complete on 2 disks, full quality)
✦✦✦✦ (Republic, 15 Chapters)
Featuring
Rod Cameron as Rex Bennett
Joan Marsh as Janet Blake
Duncan Renaldo as Capt. Pierre LaSalle
Lionel Royce as Baron von Rommler/Sultan Abou Ben Ali
Directed by: Spencer Bennet
In Casablanca, North Africa, US secret agent Rex Bennett is pitted against Nazis who infiltrate Sultan About Ben Ali's palace and replace him with impostor Baron von Rommler. With support from his friends Capt. Pierre la Salle of the French resistance and agent Janet Blake, Bennett takes on what seems like all the Nazis and munitions dumps in Africa to try and defeat the Axis spies and rescue the Sultan. Stunning fight choreography and double-danger-level cliffhangers highlight this thrill-a-minute Republic serial made at the studio's peak, which is jam-packed with blazing, explosive action.
Transfer Quality: Excellent, stabilized; audio also excellent, restored & enhanced. A "like new" restoration with powerful sound, highly recommended
DVD Contents: Complete serial, re-release trailer
Order Dual-Layer DVD
(Entire serial on 1 disk, full quality)
✦✦✦+ (Republic, 15 Chapters)
Featuring Rod Cameron as Rex Bennett
Roland Got as Chang Sing,
Constance Worth as Vivian Marsh
Nino Piptone as Haruchi
Noel Cravat as Ranga, George J. Lewis as Lugo
D: Spencer Bennet, William Witney
Japanese master spy Oyama Haruchi ships himself to the US in an ancient sarcophagus and attempts to destabilize the US from within, by sabotaging planes using flammable paint, and other sinister devices. American secret agent Rex Bennett, chinese agent Chang Sing, and British spy Vivian Marsh attempt to take Haruchi's gang down and near-constant violence ensues. Like Secret Service in Darkest Africa, this serial is also jam-packed with classic Republic-style stunt fights and moves at a lightning pace. Adapted from content prepared as a sequel to Drums of Fu Manchu.
Transfer Quality: Excellent with some graininess in day-for-night scenes; stabilized credits & otherwise where necessary, sound enhanced & strengthened
DVD Contents: 2-DVD Set, Complete serial
Special Features: Theatrical Trailer
Order 2-DVD Set
(1958, 36 Episodes packaged in three 2-DVD sets)
Featuring Dean Fredericks as Steve Canyon
DVD sets produced and restored by John Ellis
All 36 of the half-hour episodes of the classic 1958 NBC TV series (plus an unaired pilot film), featuring the famed comic strip hero created by Milton Caniff
Original network promos and commercials are preserved and appear in each episode. Commentary tracks on over 30 episodes by various guest stars and a PDF of an unproduced script are also included.
EXTERNAL LINK: Click here to order Volumes 1-3
"The quality of the DVD's of this show are nothing short of outstanding. They have been meticulously restored to their original glory, as well as the original commercials and promos that were of the time. A real trip back to the late 1950's." -- Amazon reviewer Mark Costa
✦✦✦+ (Republic, 12 Chapters)
Featuring
Sammy Baugh as Ranger Tom King
Duncan Renaldo as Sgt. Pedro Garcia
Neil "Commissioner Gordon" Hamilton
When mysterious foreigners using a zeppelin as a command post kill quarterback Tom King's father, he teams with Sgt. Pedro Garcia of the Mexican police to avenge the murder and put a stop to the "fifth columnist's" plans for sabotage and destruction. An action-packed classic serial originally conceived as a vehicle for Roy Rogers.
Transfer Quality: Excellent, stabilized, with restored picture and audio
DVD Contents: Complete serial
Order Dual-Layer DVD
(Entire serial on 1 disk, full quality)
✦✦✦ (Mascot, 12 Chapters)
Bob Steele, Guinn Williams, Jack Mulhall D: Colbert Clark/Howard
Near San Juan, New Mexico, a mysterious aviator known as the Black Ace and his squadron of phantom flame-throwing planes threatens to destroy a dam construction project and it's up to flying aces Fred Cromwell and Bill "Jelly Bean" Cook to track down the Mystery Squadron, infiltrate their mountain hideout and discover the true identity of the Black Ace before it's too late.
View Online Video: Chapter 3
Transfer Quality: Excellent with some occasional graininess, from 16mm, audio noise-reduced
DVD Contents: 2-DVD Set, Complete serial
Special Features: Amazing aviation stunt sequence from silent film
Order 2-DVD Set
✦✦✦ (Mascot, 12 Chapters)
Grant Withers, Adrian Morris D: B. Reeves Eason
The Tiger Shark is the nemesis of the two non-coms of The Fighting Marines, willing even to take on the Navy Dept. for possession of Halfway Island.
View Online Video: Chapter 1
Transfer Quality: Newly remastered on a Rank Cintel from an original print.
DVD Contents: 2 DVD set, black and white, with illustrated menus, chapter selection buttons, and scene markers within chapters.
Special Features: Theatrical trailer
Newsreel from 1938 featuring serial hero Sammy Baugh playing football, and a "real-life" Rocket-man!
"Puddle Pranks," a Flip the Frog cartoon by Ub Iwerks
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✦✦✦ (Wharton, 15 Chapters)
Irene Castle, Warner Oland, Milton Sills
D: The Whartons, J. Jaccard
Patria Channing, heiress to a fortune and a munitions factory, and Secret Service agent Donald Parr defend New York from invasion by the Japanese, as led by master spy Baron Huroki. (Oland’s first Asian character role) Reshoots and revisions were made to the serial when Woodrow Wilson suggested the invaders be identified as Mexican so as not to antagonize Japan, and in latter episodes the setting was changed to the American West. Milton Sills is the hero of the story, playing a US Secret Service agent. The serial also features Mike Rale, who played the sinister Master of the Black Order in The Mysteries of Myra, as Huroki’s assistant Kato. Screen action takes place around Cayuga Lake and other recognizable Ithaca, New York locations.
View Online Video: Existing Chapters & Slideshow
Transfer Quality: Excellent/Good, from 2 different prints
DVD Contents: Restored episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10; about 75 minutes; 2-DVD set, color tinted and with new musical score
Special Features: 6 1/2 minute Photo Gallery of ads & over 75 Stills & Behind the Scenes Shots
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The Great Air Mystery
✦✦+ (Universal, 12 Chapters)
Clark Williams, Jean Rogers, Noah Beery Jr. D: Ray Taylor
Tommy and pals fly to Nazil Island in the Pacific to help a group of honest businesspeople protect oil reserves from takeover. They get assistance from an undercover reporter and from a masked mystery pilot called both the Eagle and El Condor.
Transfer Quality: Excellent, digital transfer from excellent quality original 16mm print; audio restored
DVD Contents: Complete serial
Special Features: Serial Trailers
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✦✦✦ (13 Chapters)
Dennis Moore, Milburn Stone D: Ray Taylor
In the pre-World War II United States, a Nazi espionage ring--each member possessing a key to a headquarters control device--takes direction from an unseen leader, The Master Key. The focus of their efforts is Professor Henderson’s Orotron device, which can extract gold from sea water. Federal agent Tom Brant heads a spy-fighting trio that includes police detective Jack Ryan and reporter Janet Lowe. Who is The Master Key? An unknown foe or a false friend in disguise? You’ll have to wait until the final chapter (13) to find out for sure!
Transfer Quality: Very good, from 16mm
DVD Contents: 2-DVD set, black and white, complete serial
Special Features: National Anthem by Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, World War II Introduction: "The Rise of the Axis" (which sets the stage for the action to follow
Cartoon: “Daffy the Commando”
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World War II On the Air
Double Audio DVD Set
With “flip-over” cover insert; 2 DVDs in 1 case
INCLUDES:
African Adventures 4 Episodes, 1:56
Bold Venture 8 Episodes, 3:29
Dangerous Assignment 20 Episodes, 9:35
Escape 10 Episodes, 4:50
SERIALS
The Ghost Corps 26 Episodes, 2 serials 5:48
Jungle Jim Serial: The Bat Woman 22 Episodes 5:28
Jungle Jim Serial: The Tiger’s Claw 43 Episodes 10:49
Master of Mystery 7 Episode Serial 1:33
Moon Over Africa 26 Episode Serial 5:05
Omar, the Wizard of Persia 12 Episode Serial 2:53
Order 2-Audio DVD Set
A very interesting and historically valuable collection of radio broadcasts from the World War II years, arranged in order of original broadcast, by date.
A wide variety of types of broadcast is included -- news broadcasts and announcements, speeches by Churchill and FDR, dramatic stories such as the series Words At War, movie dramatizations, and even Nazi propaganda broadcasts.
Programs include:
Words at War (series), Wings of the Navy
Buck Privates, Pearl Harbor coverage, I Wanted Wings,
The Fighting 69th, Hitler's Children, Wake Island,
In Which We Serve, Bathysphere, Flight for Freedom, Guadalcanal Diary, D-Day Invasion coverage,
The Pied Piper, and Destroyer.
This is authentic World War II history from beginning to end, 1938-1946, in a compact package; original broadcasts as heard on the air by those who were there. Highly recommended for educators as well as casual listeners.
You get both the Exotic Adventure and World War II Audio DVDs in the double DVD set.