Non-fiction > Cliffhanger Serials

Pulse Pounding... Thrills, Spills and Chills...
Thrilling, Thundering and Throbbing...
Breathless, Breakneck Adventure!

These were the terms and tag lines used to announce the weekly serial episode to an anxious crowd of fans each Saturday afternoon. These 20 minute chapter plays, lasting 12 to 15 episodes, were intended to warm up the audience for the big budget, feature movie but have long outlived many of the features in terms of popularity. Each week the hero would find himself at the closing moments in a life or death cliff hanger struggle, which of course would not be resolved until next week’s episode.

Featured Titles

    Blood 'n' Thunder's Cliffhanger Classics by Ed Hulse

The great movie serials of yesteryear are covered in 20 informative essays culled from the pages of BLOOD 'N' THUNDER, the premier journal of adventure, mystery and melodrama in American popular culture of the early 20th century. There are no gushy fanboy puff-pieces in this book; each essay is undergirded with solid research and, in many cases, interviews with the actors, writers and directors involved.

Genre: Cliffhanger Serials

    Classic Cliffhangers: Volume 1, 1914-1940 by Hank Davis

Even today, movie serials continue to enchant movie fans. The innocence, energy and undeniable skill that permeate every reel of these chapter plays is a tribute to the true pioneers of gorilla filmmaking make em fast, make em as good as possible with as little as possible, and make em fun.

Genre: Cliffhanger Serials

    Distressed Damsels and Masked Marauders: Cliffhanger Serials of the Silent-Movie Era by Ed Hulse

Author and film historian Ed Hulse, the editor of publisher of BLOOD 'N' THUNDER magazine, opens the book with a 25,000-word overview of this unique film form, debunking old myths and putting the silent serial in its proper historical context.

Genre: Cliffhanger Serials

    Handsome Heroes and Vicious Villains: More Cliffhanger Serials of the Silent-Movie Era by Ed Hulse

Ed Hulse's history of the silent-era movie serial covers the "chapter plays" released by such companies as Universal, Vitagraph, Mutual, Paramount, Arrow, Mascot, Rayart, and members of the Edison Trust.

Genre: Cliffhanger Serials

    Science Fiction Serials by Roy Kinnard

A Critical Filmography of the 31 Hard SF Cliffhangers; With an Appendix of the 37 Serials with Slight SF Content. Usually ignored or casually dismissed in genre histories are the serials, the low-budget chapterplays exhibited as Saturday matinee fare and targeted almost exclusively at children. Lacking stars and top-notch writers or directors, the serials went largely unnoticed and unacknowledged by either critics or by the film industry.

Genre: Cliffhanger Serials