The Serial Squadron Cinema Cliffhanger Archive

JUNGLE CLIFFHANGERS

Stacks Image 1797
Tarzan the Fearless
✦✦✦ (Principal, 12 Chapters)
Buster Crabbe, Jacqueline Wells
D: Robert F. Hill

Young Mary searches for her lost scientist father, who is captive of the high priest in the secret city of Zar, and becomes the object of the affection of two men in her expedition, as well as a legendary ape-man whose interest she returns. Restored to approximate the original form of the serial according to the original script and other references.

View Online Video: Chapter 1: The Dive of Death

DVD Contents: Includes original serial-version opening and end title screens and content including some beyond that which exists in the feature version restored to cliffhanger serial form, with text/still photo summaries of still-missing scenes
Image:
Excellent; B/W with warm and cool tones added to some scenes
Audio: Excellent, restored



Order DVD
Squadron Cart:

Vervante Cart:
Add to CartView Cart
Stacks Image 990
Darkest Africa
✦✦✦ (15 Chapters)
Clyde Beatty, Manuel King, Elaine Shepard
D: B. Reeves Eason

In Republic Pictures' ambitious first serial, animal trainer Clyde Beatty ventures deep into uncharted regions, past the Valley of Lost Souls, and over the Mountains of Despair, to find the lost kingdom of Joba, a bizarre land of mixed-bag technology and antique costuming, and rescue Valerie, sister of Baru, a kid skilled at lion-taming. Trouble is, the Joba natives have established Valerie as a goddess. High priest Dagna calls, with a colossal gong, upon his small army of flying bat-men to thwart the rescue effort. Ray "Crash" Corrigan plays both the Bat-man leader and Bonga the gorilla in the production.
Image Quality is excellent, restored, reel change markings etc. removed
Extras: Original theatrical trailer

Order Dual-Layer DVD

Order 2-DVD Set
Add to CartView Cart




Stacks Image 1823
Adventures of Tarzan
✦✦✦ (Numa/Weiss, 15 Chapter original release, 10 Chapter reissue)
A 10-chapter Serial Squadron re-release adapted from the original 1921 serial
Produced by
Louis Weiss
Directed by
Robert F. Hill
Restored and Designed by Eric Stedman

Featuring
Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan
and Louise Lorraine as Jane
Frank Whitson as Rokoff
George Momberg as Gernot
Lilian Worth as Queen La of Opar

This serial, a national sensation on its original release, has not been seen in serial form for many years. Adapted from the concluding chapters of Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Return of Tarzan, the serial's major players are Tarzan (Elmo Lincoln, in his second and final appearance as Tarzan), Jane, Tarzan's arch enemy Rokoff and Queen La of Opar. Tarzan's companions are Tantor the elephant and two ape friends: a female called Ara and a male (from Opar) named Og. Tarzan, now allied with the French Secret Service, pursues his arch enemy, international criminal and blackmailer Rokoff and his cohort, rogue French officer Gernot, who have come to Africa to plunder its treasures. Rokoff also steals from Tarzan the formula for a deadly gas and lusts after Jane, complicating matters a great deal when he inscribes a map to the treasure room of the lost city of Opar on her back. After many adventures in the desert, jungle, and the city of Sagarone, the entire cast has it out in Opar under the eyes of Queen La, who wants Tarzan to lead her army of wild-men.

Plenty of amazing stunts, earthquakes, fires, and deathtraps in this fast-paced serial involving live lions and other wild animals, and a memorable performance by the amazing vine-swinging, villain-bashing, chest-beating Elmo Lincoln, who had so much fun doing this he was willing to wrestle real lions onstage to promote the serial in 1921. Louise Lorraine was 16 years old at the time of filming. Future Tarzan Frank Merrill appears in a small role in this serial as an Arab raider.

Transfer/Video Quality: A new state-of-the-art digital transfer and reconstruction of one of the most popular serials ever released, in 10 chapters, tinted & scored, with restored footage, title cards & cliffhanger endings, with sound effects as presented in the re-release, and with a new musical score. The beautiful digital transfer is presented in the unique 3-color Malavision toning technique which gives a more natural appearance to scenes by allowing the use of multiple hues in connection to corresponding brightness values without colorization.

DVD Contents:

A 20-minute extended introductory prologue of scenes from
Tarzan of the Apes (1918) and plot summary which sets up the story of the serial (which was actually directly continued from the three previous Tarzan films, Tarzan of the Apes, The Romance of Tarzan and The Revenge of Tarzan, illustrated menus, scene markers within chapters, lobby card & poster reproductions & stills, deleted scenes and stunt performer clips. Two brief scenes (including one which appears to be from the missing chapter 8), which do not resolve or fit into the continuity have been included on the DVD as "deleted scenes."

Prologue:
Tarzan of the Apes (condensed) 1 The Return of Tarzan 2 City of Gold 3 Stalking Death 4 Flames of Hate 5 The Ivory Tomb 6 The Hidden Foe 7 Dynamite Trail 8 The Jungle's Prey 9 Flaming Arrows 10 The Last Adventure

Special Features: Stills & Memorabilia, Edgar Rice Burroughs Interview, Deleted Scenes, 15-minute promotional episode from Squadron DVD release Beatrice Fairfax

Notes for historians and completists: This serial was originally released at 15 chapters, then re-released later in a condensed 10-chapter version with sound effects. The Squadron DVD is very similar in presentation and feel to the 1929 release, and makes use of all footage known to exist of the serial.

Chapter 1 includes a thorough summary of what-has-gone-before, and material from the original serial's chapter 1
Chapter 2 includes material from original chapters 2 and 3
Chapter 3 includes material from original chapters 4 and 5
Chapter 4 from original chapters 5 and 6
Chapter 5 of the Squadron version, which is quite complete, was chapter 7 in the original.
Chapters 8 and 9 of the 1921 15-chapter version, which apparently no longer exist, were comparatively irrelevant "filler" chapters in which renegade Waziri natives harass Tarzan, tying him to a stake etc. for no particularly important reason. These chapters were a side trip which did not advance the plot and were probably excised from the re-release version for that reason. Anyway, Chapter 6 of the Squadron version contains material from chapters 10 and 11, at which time which the serial gets back on track and moves on with its main story
Chapters 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the Squadron version correspond very closely to chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15 of the original serial

Order Dual-Layer DVD
(Entire serial on 1 disk, full quality)

Order 2-DVD Set
Add to CartView Cart

Stacks Image 1810
The Tarzan Audio Collection

Includes the audio serials:
Tarzan of the Apes
Tarzan and the Diamond of Asher
Tarzan and the Fires of Tohr
and standalone Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle radio programs


Disk 1: Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle
71 Half-hour Adventures, 30 Hours of content

71 Episodes of the further adventures of Tarzan, originally broadcast in the 1950s. These programs are similar in tone to the Ron Ely television programs of the 60s and generally intelligent and entertaining.


Disk 2: The Tarzan Radio Serials
3 Full Audio Adventure Serials, 30 Hours of content

76 episodes of TARZAN OF THE APES (1932) the original story of Tarzan, as scripted by his creator Edgar Rice Burroughs and starring his son-in-law James Pierce and daughter Joan Burroughs, and two more complete serials, THE DIAMOND OF ASHER (1934) and THE FIRES OF TOHR (1936), one never aired. Very good sound quality on all episodes.

Order 2-Audio DVD Set
Add to CartView Cart

Stacks Image 1616
The Call of the Savage
✦✦✦ (Universal, 12 Chapters)
Noah Beery Jr., Dorothy Short, Walter Miller
D: Louis Friedlander

The adventures of Jan of the Jungle, whose parents are murdered by his father’s rival for a secret formula which is still sought by the killer years afterward, and a lost princess of a secret jungle city.

DVD Contents: includes complete serial
Image:
Excellent; B/W, new transfer from 16mm

Order 2-DVD Set
Add to CartView Cart
Stacks Image 1161
The Jungle Princess
✦✦✦ (Warner Bros, 15 Chapters)
George Chesebro, Juanita Hansen
D: E. A. Martin

In Africa, an aviator and his Irish pal rescue a disguised young woman from a cruel slaver and his wild-animal deathtraps and she turns out to be the lost princess of a secret city.

View Online Video:
Episode 1: The Lost Princess

DVD Contents: Includes expansion of feature version into 4-chapter format with cliffhangers
Image:
Excellent; color tinted
Audio: New original musical score by Eric Stedman

Order 2-DVD Set
Add to CartView Cart
Stacks Image 1174
Jungle Menace
✦✦ (Columbia, 15 Acts)
Frank Buck, Charlotte Henry, Wm. Bakewell
D: George Melford/Fraser

When the rubber plantation of Edward Elliott is beset by river pirates, his friend, Frank Hardy, the famed wild animal trapper, hits the jungle to help the planter in his fight.

2-DVD Set includes all 15 "acts."
Image:
Very good; B/W, from 16mm, some damage in Ch. 1
Audio: Very good, restored & hiss-free

Order 2-DVD Set
Add to CartView Cart
Stacks Image 965
The Lost City
✦✦ (Krellberg, 12 Chapters)
Kane Richmond, William Boyd
D: Harry Revier

Pith-helmeted electrical engineer Bruce Gordon and entourage travel to Africa in search of the source of a mysterious magnetic disturbance wreaking havoc on the world. At the 28th meridian, he encounters Zolok, a mad scientist who lives in a gigantic laboratory with a captive scientist and his daughter, a hunchback named Gorzo and enjoys exploiting the local natives who become his giant zombie slaves.

View Online Video: Chapter 2
Stacks Image 1121
Moon Over Africa

The adventures of Professor Anton Edwards, Lorna, Jack Martin and Masai Prince N'Guru in the lost jungles of equatorial Africa. Engrossing audio serial written by Talbot Mundy which includes a bizarre talking skull that laughs and taunts members of the expedition.


1-Audio DVD: includes complete serial and other African adventures
Audio Quality: Excellent