The Serial Squadron Cinema Cliffhanger Archive
MYSTERY SERIALS
✦✦✦ (Astra/Pathé, 20 Episodes)
Pearl White, Antonio Moreno D: George B. Seitz
Restored by Eric Stedman
Special thanks to Thunder Rider Kim Deitch and research assistants Ron and Raisa Stephenson for helping to produce this release
When her father is murdered, Pearl, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy inventor, inherits the Waldon fortune, the berserk masked maniac known as The Hooded Terror, who may be one of the spurned Waldon heirs, targets her and lover Harry Gresham for assassination.
View Online Video:
Episode 1: The Hooded Terror
Episode 2: The Tiger's Eye
Episode 3: A Woman's Perfidy
Transfer Quality: Low resolution, digitally stabilized
DVD Contents: 2- DVD set, color-tinted, and with restored opening and closing titles, newly translated intertitles, new musical score and sound effects. Includes the first four chapters much as they were originally released, several chapters which combine the best of the action scenes from the middle of the serial, then the last two chapters present the key material from the last 3 chapters including the complete extended flashback which reveals the masked villain’s identity and horrific origin.
NOTE: This serial will be getting an upgrade to full DVD resolution picture quality soon.
✦✦✦ (15 Chapters)
Victor Jory, Iris Meredith, James Craven D: James W. Horne
A mysterious archer in medieval attire and his imitator—sometimes we don’t know which is which—prowl the grounds of the villain's modern castle while insurance investigator Spike Holland tries to make sense of the whole business. Operating from the castle is a jewel ring run by blackguard Abel Bellamy, who takes over the property after sending his innocent brother to prison for one of the ring's capers. Adapted from the novel by Edgar Wallace
Influenced by: The Green Archer silent serial, of which this was a remake.
Influenced: Green Arrow comic book character, which first appeared shortly after this serial's release.
View Online Video: Chapter 1: Prison Bars Beckon
Transfer Quality: Very good; restored picture & audio DVD Contents: Complete serial
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(Entire serial on 1 disk, full quality)
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Released October 2016
✦✦✦ (Victory, 15 Chapters)
Herbert Rawlinson, Ralph Byrd D: Robert F. Hill
Jerry Sheehan and Hope Mason perfect a death ray that retired Scotland Yard inspector Blake hopes will end wars. When a clawed rogue called the Scorpion makes off with the cumbersome device, "Jimmy" Blake comes out of retirement to catch him through ingenuity, amusing disguises, and plain old fisticuffs. This serial in original form is extremely rare if not impossible to find; this is the best source print of the complete chapter play in existence.
Influenced by: Blake of Scotland Yard silent serial
View Online Video: Chapter 1
Transfer Quality: Sourced from a new high-quality digital transfer of a rare well-worn but original film print from the 1940s, with stabilized and restored picture and audio.
DVD Contents: 2-Disk Collector's Set includes all 15 Chapters, Theatrical trailer
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(Entire serial on 1 disk, full quality)
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Released Feb. 25, 2012
✦✦✦ (Thanhouser, 1914, 9 Episodes)
Marguerite Snow, James Cruze D: Howell Hansell
Young Zudora solves intriguing mysteries at the prompting of her uncle, who poses as a mystic and secretly plots to claim her vast fortune for himself.
Contains the following episodes:
Episode 1: The Mystery of the Spotted Collar
Episode 2: The Mystery of the Sleeping House
Episode 3: The Mystery of the Dutch Cheese Maker
Episode 8: The Fatal Elopement aka The Hypnotic Power of Mr. Chang
Bonus Chapter: The Ventures of Marguerite (Kalem, 1915) Episode 4: The Veiled Priestess featuring Marguerite Courtot, in which an Arab Shiekh attempts to lure a young American heiress into marriage and becoming part of his harem.
A Continuation of: The Million Dollar Mystery
Influenced: The Mysteries of Myra serial; self-contained episode format and storyline abandoned after 9 episodes and continued as The Twenty Million Dollar Mystery.
View Online Video:
Episode 1: The Mystery of the Spotted Collar
Transfer Quality: OK to excellent among different episodes; stabilized
DVD Contents: 4 Episodes + Bonus chapter, Black and white with color tones & reconstructed missing sections
New musical score & sound effects
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Audio DVD Collection
107 Half-hour Audio Adventures
33 Hours of content
These programs feature Basil Rathbone, Tom Conway, John Stanley and others in the adventures of the most famous sleuth of all time, originally broadcast in the 1930s and 40s. About 30 of the stories are adaptaions from original Conan Doyle stories, including A Scandal in Bohemia, The Speckled Band, The Retired Colourman, etc., and many more are new original adventures. Also included: a brief clip of the celebrated William Gillette performing his famous stage role, discussing the dangers of Professor Moriarty with Watson.
THE STORIES
A Scandal in Bohemia - A Well-Staged Murder - Colonel Warburton's Madness - Death in the North Sea - Immortal Sherlock Holmes (Welles) - In Flanders Fields - King Philip's Golden Salver - Maltree Abbey - Mrs. Warren's Lodger - Murder Beyond the Mountains - Murder by Moonlight - Murder in the Casbah - Murder Under the Big Top - New Year's Eve off the Scilly Islands - Prof. Moriarty and the Diamond Jubilee - Professor Presbury - Queue for Murder - The Accidental Murderess - The Amateur Mendicant Society - The Babbling Butler - The Baconian Cipher - The Blarney Stone - The Book of Tobit - The Bruce-Partington Plans - The Cadaver in the Roman Toga - The Camberwell Poisoners - The Canary Trainer - The Carpathian Horror - The Christmas Bride - The Clue of the Hungry Cat - The Copper Beeches 40 - The Copper Beeches 43 - The Copper Beeches 47 - The Coptic Compass - The Cradle that Rocked Itself - The Darlington Substitution - The Demon Barber - The Devil's Foot 36 - The Devil's Foot 46 - The Disappearing Scientist - The Double Zero - The Dying Detective - The Dying Schoolboys - The Eyes of Mr. Leyton - The Final Problem - The Genuine Guarnarius - The Girl with the Gazelle - The Grand Old Man - The Great Gandolfo - The Guileless Gypsy - The Gunpowder Plot - The Harley Street Murders - The Haunted Bagpipes - The Haunting of Sherlock Holmes - The Headless Monk - The Horseless Carriage - The Indiscretion of Mr. Edwards - The Innocent Murderess - The Iron Box - The Iron Maiden - The Island of Death - The Laughing Lemur - The Limping Ghost - The Lion's Mane - The Living Doll - The Locked Room - The Man with the Twisted Lip - The Manor House - The Mazarin Stone - The Missing Bloodstains - The Missing Heiress - The Murder in Wax - The Night Before Christmas - The Original Hamlet - The Out-of-Date Murder - The Paradol Chamber - The Persecuted Millionaire - The Pointless Robbery - The Purloined Ruby - The Red-Headed League - The Retired Colourman 40 - The Retired Colourman 43 - The Sally Martin - The Second Generation - The Speckled Band 43 - The Speckled Band 45 - The Speckled Band 47 - The Stolen Naval Treaty - The Strange Death of Mrs. Abernathy - The Stuttering Ghost - The Submarine Caves - The Submerged Nobleman - The Sudden Senility - The Tankerville Club Scandal - The Tell-Tale Pigeon Feathers - The Terrifying Cats - The Three Garridebs - The Tolling Bell - The Uneasy Chair - The Unfortunate Tobacconist - The Viennese Strangler - The Waltz of Death - The White Cockerel - The White Elephant - The Wooden Claw - Thor Bridge - Wysteria Lodge
This Audio DVD is included in the Sherlock Holmes/Shadow of Fu Manchu 2-Audio DVD set.
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