Classic Cliffhangers

Serials can be both entertaining and informative. It is exactly those same two goals we hope to achieve with this second volume of Classic Cliffhangers. The goal of the book is to entertain as well as encourage audiences to be entertained by movie serials. Lord knows, that s what they were made for. But this book will also inform about the people on both sides of the camera, as well as the producers who hired them and the world in which all this happened. These are movie serials. It s OK to appreciate their art and laugh at their lunacy. Not all the laughs were intended, but that shouldn t stop us. This isn t grimly serious business. Most of the serials were made for a young Saturday matinee audience, who were much less sophisticated than the savvy film fan of today. There is something wrong if we can t laugh, as well as nod our heads in appreciation, at what these skilled professionals have accomplished, often under very trying conditions and with ridiculously low budgets.