Saturday, January 26, 2013 from 11am to 11pm
The American Serial: 1914-1944
155 Freeman Street, Brooklyn
During the height of theatrical exhibition, from the mid-1910s through the early 1950s, film serials were a key element of the moviegoing experience, although today they are all but forgotten. One of the precursors to television’s episodic programming, serials told stories over the course of four or more months, doled out in weekly installments of roughly twenty minutes each. Before feature films, audiences would be treated to that week’s “chapter play,” along with a newsreel, previews, and other short subjects. Cheaply-made and action-packed, the serials served up cinematic equivalents of literary pulp mainstays—westerns, crime thrillers, science fiction, jungle adventures, occult horror, military tales—not infrequently blending elements from different genres together into a heady mix of lurid fantasy, complete with death-defying stunts, melodramatic acting, and ingeniously cut-rate special effects. Every episode began with a quick recap of the last, and typically ended with a cliffhanger, leaving the hero or heroine at a precarious moment of impending doom at the hands of a criminal mastermind, mad scientist, or diabolical mystic, promising that the narrative would be “CONTINUED NEXT WEEK!”
To inaugurate our 2013 calendar, Light Industry presents a non-stop, all-day marathon of American serials, from the silent era through their golden age in the 30s and 40s. For our event, one episode from each serial will be screened, in chronological order; the program as a whole becomes a breakneck recapitulation of Hollywood history, one that chronicles the evolution of popular film form through some of its most enthralling and chimerical products.
The Perils of Pauline (1914)
The Exploits of Elaine (1914)
The Hazards of Helen (1914)
The Iron Claw (1916)
The Trail of the Octopus (1919)
A Woman in Gray (1919)
The Adventures of Tarzan (1921)
The Leather Pushers (1922)
The Power God (1925)
The Flame Fighter (1925)
Nick Carter, Detective (1927)
Fearless, The Wonder Dog (1928)
The Shadow of the Eagle (1932)
The Whispering Shadow (1933)
The Lost Jungle (1934)
The Return of Chandu (1934)
The Adventures of Rex & Rinty (1935)
The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935)
The Fighting Marines (1935)
The Miracle Rider (1935)
The Undersea Kingdom (1936)
King of Jungleland (aka Darkest Africa) (1936)
Ace Drummond (1936)
Dick Tracy (1937)
Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939)
Zorro's Fighting Legion (1939)
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940)
The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)
Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc. (1941)
Don Winslow of the Navy (1942)
The Masked Marvel (1943)
The Desert Hawk (1944)
All films shown on 16mm.
Tickets - $7, all-you-can-watch, available at door. Stop in for an hour, come and go, or stay all day.
Please note: seating is limited. First-come, first-served. Box office opens at 10:30am.