Current Events > It's interesting how influential yet forgotten film serials are.

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Flash Gordon film serials offer sword fights in space, an evil space emperor, a big hairy animal-man sidekick, a bearded mentor, a beautiful woman who is captured and placed in a space bikini, her overweight captor with penchants for laughter and trapdoors, and locations such as a desert planet, a frozen planet, a city in the clouds, and a forest planet inhabited by little people.



Darth Vader's costume is partly taken from The Lighting, primary adversary of The Fighting Devil Dogs. And the scene in which the primitive ewoks mistake a robot for a god is taken from the Buck Rogers film serial.

Sticking with George Lucas, Indiana Jones had a healthy influence from film serials as well. The whip came directly from Zorro's Fighting Legion as does the scene where the bad guys threaten to burn a woman's face with a hot fireplace poker. The fact that Indy never loses his hat in a fight is also a nod to film serials in general. Characters who wore hats -- of which there were several -- weren't allowed to lose them lest it create a continuity error in editing.

Stan Lee credited The Spider as an influence on Spider-Man. The Spider's adversary is The Octopus. And while he fights for the good of the people, he's constantly dogged by a police chief who considers him to be a masked criminal no better than the ones he fights.



I get that it's a very old medium. It predates television and was more or less killed off by the ability to watch TV shows in the home. But it's funny to me how they could be completely forgotten about despite influencing works that are popular still today.

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Star Wars also heavily, heavily ripped off John Carter of Mars.

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I'm still mildly surprised that there hasn't been a Hollywood push for a campy modern take at a Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers this past decade with Star Wars and Star Trek both having gotten modern treatments. I know that there isn't a modern following for them, but I'd imagine that there might be an audience still.

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So uh

What is a film serial
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Timohtep posted...

So uh

What is a film serial

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_film

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K181 posted...

I'm still mildly surprised that there hasn't been a Hollywood push for a campy modern take at a Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers this past decade with Star Wars and Star Trek both having gotten modern treatments. I know that there isn't a modern following for them, but I'd imagine that there might be an audience still.

The main demographic would be 60 year olds that heard about them from their dad that watched them 20 years prior.

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Timohtep posted...

So uh

What is a film serial

Basically a TV episode they'd play before a movie. They'd end on cliffhangers and you'd have to go to the theater the next week if you wanted to see how the hero solved that problem.


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Timohtep posted...

So uh

What is a film serial

Just a series of movies with a continuing protag and a loose connection of history.

*I thought a lot of them were actual movies as well?

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Alteres posted...

Just a series of movies with a continuing protag and a loose connection of history.

*I thought a lot of them were actual movies as well?

They were broken up into 12 to 15 individual "chapters" (episodes) -- all save for the last of which ended on a cliffhanger.

Many of the film serials were later re-edited into films. For example, Undersea Kingdom (3 hours and 45 minutes) was shortened into the feature length Sharad of Atlantis (1 hour and 40 minutes) which was shown on television.

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So what I'm seeing, is that film serials were just TV shows before TVs were commonplace in the home.

Episodic storylines, cliffhanger endings to get people to watch more. That's just a TV show but in a theater >_>
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Timohtep posted...

So what I'm seeing, is that film serials were just TV shows before TVs were commonplace in the home.

Episodic storylines, cliffhanger endings to get people to watch more. That's just a TV show but in a theater >_>

You nailed it.

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That kind of artistic influence (in this case, with directors/filmmakers) is just commonplace though with pretty much every artistic genre. Specialist creators in a field are actually going to research their craft and will be indebted to what they naturally like.

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Timohtep posted...

So what I'm seeing, is that film serials were just TV shows before TVs were commonplace in the home.

Episodic storylines, cliffhanger endings to get people to watch more. That's just a TV show but in a theater >_>

Kind of. They only tended to be 15-20 minutes long though. They'd play them with a newsreel, cartoon, and a feature or two.

Also one of the big influences of serials is the structure and episode labeling of Star Wars. If you went to see a movie but hadn't seen the previous chapters, you'd get a brief recap and then be thrown into the action in the middle of the story.

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pikachupwnage posted...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_film

So basically TV before there was TV.

FortuneCookie posted...

Many of the film serials were later re-edited into films. For example, Undersea Kingdom (3 hours and 45 minutes) was shortened into the feature length Sharad of Atlantis (1 hour and 40 minutes) which was shown on television.

HURRY, DIANA!

also the Phantom Creeps, a serial also featured on MST3K was later edited into a movie that was featured on RiffTrax

then there's Batman vs the Wizard, which is all sorts of terrible...

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The Fantomas serial (based on the popular novels of the same era) basically helped to craft the modern concept of the super villain. The Judex serial, from the same director but not based on any source material, played a crucial role in the creation of the super hero in the Shadow or Batman vein, and even predates Zorro. And Les Vampires, made between the two, basically birthed the modern crime thriller, and Musidora's character Irma Vep is arguably the first great female villain in films, and later works draw so much from her.

Also this picture is rad.




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Nearly every hero of the era received at least one film serial. Superman, Batman, Captain America, Captain Marvel (Shazam), Zorro, Judex (silent), Dick Tracy, the Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, the Phantom, the Shadow, the Green Hornet, Tarzan, Red Ryder, etc.

The only notable omissions I can think of are Wonder Woman and Doc Savage. Given the time period, it's not too surprising that Wondy didn't get her own film serial. There were some female action protagonists though such as in The Tiger Woman, Zorro's Black Whip, and Perils of Nyoka.

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I've watched two Batman serials in full, neither were particularly good and they had a lot of racism.

I've started but not finished Les Vampires, a French crime serial. It's very good so far

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https://youtu.be/pAQ3JuXkDkU

Dreamscissors posted...

I've watched two Batman serials in full, neither were particularly good and they had a lot of racism.

I've started but not finished Les Vampires, a French crime serial. It's very good so far

The funny thing about the first Batman serial is that it's technically the reason Batman is still around today. The comics were on the verge of cancellation when a theatrical re-release led to the creation of the 1966 Batman TV series. The rest, as they say, is history.

Substandard quality, racist to the hilt, the reason Batman is around today. <_<

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Trying to remember the name of this one film serial I was planning to watch.

It's about a country music radio host who has to fight for an underground civilisation beneath his ranch, then get back in time to host the radio show.

Sounds crazy but I'm sure it's real

EDIT: Got it, The Phantom Empire

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Dreamscissors posted...

Trying to remember the name of this one film serial I was planning to watch.

It's about a country music radio host who has to fight for an underground civilisation beneath his ranch, then get back in time to host the radio show.

Sounds crazy but I'm sure it's real

Phantom Empire starring Gene Autry

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FortuneCookie posted...

Substandard quality, racist to the hilt, the reason Batman is around today. <_

Yet, the 1949 serial is still somehow the worse one.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Yet, the 1949 serial is still somehow the worse one.

Batman and Robin 1997 > Batman and Robin 1949

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So Lucas just stole that Darth Vader costume huh?

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AlCalavicci posted...

So Lucas just stole that Darth Vader costume huh?

Pretty much. Though the helmet comes from this World War II poster:



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I won't accuse George Lucas of plagiarism because combining elements from unrelated stories is part of the writing process.

But, at the same time, he had a ton of nerve in attempting to sue Battlestar Galactica when 60% of the original Star Wars trilogy's content came from Flash Gordon and other film serials.

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K181 posted...

I'm still mildly surprised that there hasn't been a Hollywood push for a campy modern take at a Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers this past decade with Star Wars and Star Trek both having gotten modern treatments. I know that there isn't a modern following for them, but I'd imagine that there might be an audience still.

I can only imagine them being successful if theyre turned into action comedies sort of like Guardians of the Galaxy.

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Dreamscissors posted...

Trying to remember the name of this one film serial I was planning to watch.

It's about a country music radio host who has to fight for an underground civilisation beneath his ranch, then get back in time to host the radio show.

Sounds crazy but I'm sure it's real

EDIT: Got it, The Phantom Empire

Sounds badass

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FortuneCookie posted...

Batman and Robin 1997 > Batman and Robin 1949

Barely

Shit I kinda wanna get into these things now


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doesn't sound like they were forgotten at all, they just evolved into a better medium that was better to preserve and market, with television shows

also, i highly doubt either of those serials are the first to ever create a black costumed villain followed by white costumed lackeys. and it's very likely that all of their stories are derived from some other art piece, as everything is influenced by everything else.

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Also speaking of old filmed serials, there's a French series (largely made by Russian ex-pats) called La maison du mystre. Its an epic chamber drama series, and quite good. Reading about its reception is funny. Apparently at the time of its release in 1923, critics absolutely and actively hated filmed serials, but this one was so well made that the general consensus among them was begrudging acceptance and acclaim. Its also worth noting that the antagonist of the piece was played by a 30 year old Charles Vanel, who would go on to work for 65 more years in numerous classics, including arguably the cinema's greatest rendition of Inspector Javert in 1934's Les Miserables.

Speaking of the Russians, the Soviet three-part serial Miss Mend is a lot of great fun. Very much influenced by the American adventure and action serials of the time, except the baddies are all counter-revolutionaries and capitalists and whatnot (although, due to the sincere love of American movies on the part of the creators, the heroes are intrepid American reporters), and the danger on display is very much more, well, dangerous, and ahead of its time in some regards. One of the three male leads, also the film's co-director (Boris Barnet), would go on to direct numerous classics of Russian cinema.

Dunno if they're influential, per se, but if you're interested in old film serials as a whole, they're not to be missed, because they're legit great movie series.

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Hasn't George Lucas basically admitted he was ripping off Flash Gordon? Heck, Star Wars was supposed to be a Flash Gordon movie but he couldn't get the rights or something.

Also, the whole serial for Flash Gordon is on Youtube if anyone actually wants to watch it. Here's a fan edit linking all 13 chapters in the 1936 serial together if you want to waste about 4 hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc3n7sMHsnM

IShall_Run_Amok posted...

Also speaking of old filmed serials, there's a French series (largely made by Russian ex-pats) called La maison du mystre. Its an epic chamber drama series, and quite good. Reading about its reception is funny. Apparently at the time of its release in 1923, critics absolutely and actively hated filmed serials, but this one was so well made that the general consensus among them was begrudging acceptance and acclaim. Its also worth noting that the antagonist of the piece was played by a 30 year old Charles Vanel, who would go on to work for 65 more years in numerous classics, including arguably the cinema's greatest rendition of Inspector Javert in 1934's Les Miserables.

Speaking of the Russians, the Soviet three-part serial Miss Mend is a lot of great fun. Very much influenced by the American adventure and action serials of the time, except the baddies are all counter-revolutionaries and capitalists and whatnot (although, due to the sincere love of American movies on the part of the creators, the heroes are intrepid American reporters), and the danger on display is very much more, well, dangerous, and ahead of its time in some regards. One of the three male leads, also the film's co-director (Boris Barnet), would go on to direct numerous classics of Russian cinema.

Dunno if they're influential, per se, but if you're interested in old film serials as a whole, they're not to be missed, because they're legit great movie series.

Very interesting. Still keeping the values of the Soviet Union while having American protagonists as a tribute.

Proto_Spark posted...

Hasn't George Lucas basically admitted he was ripping off Flash Gordon? Heck, Star Wars was supposed to be a Flash Gordon movie but he couldn't get the rights or something.

Pretty much.

Dino De Laurentiis, who held the rights at the time, turned down George Lucas's offer to make a Flash Gordon movie. Then, when he saw what a success the first film was, he went and produced his own Flash Gordon movie.

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FortuneCookie posted...

Very interesting. Still keeping the values of the Soviet Union while having American protagonists as a tribute.

Its also worth noting that the Soviet authorities much preferred the art films of the time (Battleship Potemkin and the like), and weren't too big on Miss Mend, but audiences flocked to see Miss Mend, and other mainstream entertainments, while the art films were mostly specialty releases. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the filmmakers were somewhat forced to keep the values of the Soviet Union, as it were, if they were to get their fun adventure series made at all - pretty sure they, themselves, were still sympathetic to communism, but nobody who's making movies likes the higher ups who tell them how to do their job, whether its Bob Iger, the Production Code, or the Communist Party censors.

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