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Serial Films are some of the earliest forms of film
during the silent era through to the 1950s, often episodic in form (usually with
12-15 parts) and simplistic in plot, that were shown over a period of weeks or
years. The multi-part films consisted of episodes that could be anywhere between
fifteen and twenty minutes in length. The segments were presented one chapter at
a time in weekly installments over the course of time. Serials were usually
included during the shorts projected in a neighborhood movie theatre, offered
before the feature film, B-western, or Saturday afternoon 'kiddie' matinee. They
were often scheduled along with lots of cartoons, newsreels, other two-reelers,
and theatrical trailers/previews.
Serials would generally include attractive heroines, action heroes, and villains
(the Scorpion, the Dragon, and the Spider, to name a few) in melodramatic
sequences that often ended with a suspenseful (and manipulative) cliffhanger
ending - that promised to be continued the next week
to bring the ticket-buying audience back for more. The heroes and heroines would
courageously fight for justice and honor, and the diabolical villains with evil
devices would struggle against them. Action sequences would predominate with
chases, jumps off buildings or trains, terrifying falls, narrow escapes,
fist-fights, close calls and hair-raising situations, and other exciting,
death-defying stunts, involving runaway trains, fires, sawmills, other natural
disasters, and explosions. In all serials, the truth was often exaggerated or
stretched in order to keep the hero alive from week to
week.
read more at:http://www.filmsite.org/serialfilms.html
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Serials in Europe:
Les Vampires - 1915There was a parallel tradition of serials both in the United
States and in Europe. In Europe, the motion picture serial was a close relative
to today's TV series, with longer, self-contained episodes or segments. France,
with pioneering auteur director Louis Feuillade, provided several magnificent
chapter plays, including the five-part Fantomas (1913-France), the influential
10-part masterpiece Les Vampires (1915-France) with Musidora as villainous Irma
Vep, the 12-episode Judex (1916-France), and Tih Minh (1918-France). Germany
contributed the popular six-episode silent serial Homunculus (1916-Germany).
Also, in the 1920s, Fritz Lang made the following two silent films in two-parts:
the crime thriller Dr. Mabuse (1922-23), and Die Nibelungen (1924) (in two
parts: Siegfried, and Kriemhilds Rache, aka Kriemhilde's Revenge)
The Earliest US Serials:
The first American serial was the 12-reel What Happened to Mary? (1912), a
production of Thomas A. Edison's Company, that starred Mary Fuller (the first
true serial queen), and was released concurrently with the serial story "What
Happened to Mary?" in McClure's "Ladies' World" Magazine. The series was
followed with the six-episode Who Will Marry Mary? (1913), and with another
twelve episode series, The Active Life of Dolly of the Dailies (1914).
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