(click on image for more thrilling detail)
Pictured above is the collection of chapter serials
that THE FUTURIST! currently owns.
What are Chapter Serials?
They were regular Saturday afternoon
(or weekend)
movie theater features that provided thrills, chills
and outlandish cliffhanging perils for juvenile afternoon
matinee audiences in the late 1930s, 40s and early 1950s.
Most were based on comic strip or comic book heroes and were
produced by Republic, Universal and Columbia Pictures Studios.
Unfortunately, most are quite racist ...
but, one must consider the era in history in which they were created.
They run about 16-20 mins for each chapter
(the 1st chapter is about 30 mins.)
and end with a death defying, breath taking cliff hanger
wherein the hero/heroine is about to meet their demise.
Movie-goers were then asked to return the following weekend
to see how the hero escaped death and continued to pursue the villains.
THE FUTURIST! loves these historical artifacts of
old movie going days gone by.
They feature incredible bad acting, awful special effects,
repetitive badly staged fight scenes and bad dialogue.
They are utterly fantastic!
Each Saturday, THE FUTURIST! tries to watch one chapter
of a serial before another feature in his own personal
Thimble Theater.
Thimble Theater is a small room in his home secreted below
ground level where movies are projected on an 80 inch diagonal
screen from an Epson DVD movie projector.
Sound is provided by a 5.1 surround system produced by Sony.
TERRY AND THE PIRATES is the current serial
being watched in Thimble Theater.
It is about to end in one week.
Next up:
KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED
THE FUTURIST! can't wait!
2 comments:
Class! That's a great selection of serials. Like I said before, I only have Judex. Watching an episode before a film each weekend is a good way to get through them. I couldn't bring myself to watch more than two...
Serials can be a bit tedious and should never be watched in large hunks. You would start to hate yourself. It's best to view them as intended ... one chapter at a time with a week in between. Plus some of he racism and political incorrectness can be funny, but too much gets alarming.
Post a Comment