All these years later and the classic movie serials are still being enjoyed! The best ones are from the mid 1930s till the late 1940s. Back in those days, you really got your money's worth whilst at the cinema. After the main feature, there would be a short film, a newsreel, a cartoon and a serial episode.

Buster Crabbe and Jean Rogers in Flash Gordon (1936)

This list of great Old Hollywood movies from early 1930s to silent era currently presumed to be lost. `DesperateDesmondSeries1911  `LadyBaffles&DetectiveDuckSeries1915 `HarryLauderSeries1914 `TheAdventuresofHappyHooligan1900 *AliceBeGood1926 Alice&the3Bears1924 AliceFireFighter1926 AliceattheCarnival1927 AliceFireFighter1926 AliceCharmstheFish1926 Alice'sPicnic1927 AliceCutstheIce1926 Alice's3BadEggs1927 AliceFoilsthePirates1924 AliceGetsinDutch1927 Alice'sRodeo1927 AlicetheBeachNut1927 AliceHelpstheRomance1926 AliceHuntinginAfrica1924 AliceinHungerland1922 AliceintheAlps1927 AliceinBigLeague1927 AliceintheKlondike1927 Alice'sAutoRace1927 AlicethePiper1924 Alice'sBrownDerby1926 Alice'sChannelSwim1927 AliceDayatSea1924 AlicetheCollegiate1927 Alice'MedicineShow1927 AlicetheGolfBug1927 AliceKnaughtyKnight1927 AliceMonkeyBusiness1926 BillSeries1914 *AlicetheLumberjack1926 `HearstSeligNewsPictorialSeries `CartoonsInSeries1915 ^ColHeezaLiarSeries `Mike&JakeSeries1913 `Mutt&JeffSeries1911`Animated&MutualWeeklySeries ShortySeries1917-1915-1914 `SweedieSeries1915 Sweedie&theLord1914 SweedietheTroublemaker1914 SweedieCollectsforCharity1914 Sweedie&theHypnotist1914 Sweedie&theDoubleExposure1914 SweedietheSwatter1914 SweedieattheFair1914 Sweedie'sCleanUp1914 SweedieSpringsaSurprise1914 LonesomeLukeSeries1916-1917

Keith Larsen in Son of Belle Starr (1953)

Serials, more specifically known as Movie serials, Film serials or Chapter plays, are short subjects originally shown in theaters in conjunction with a feature film.

They were related to pulp magazine serialized fiction.

Also known as "chapter plays", they were extended motion  pictures broken into a number of segments called "chapters" or "episodes". Each chapter was screened at the same theater for one week and ended with a cliffhanger in which the hero and heroine found themselves in a perilous situation with little apparent chance of escape.

Viewers had to return each week to see the cliffhangers resolved and to follow the continuing story.

Serials were especially popular with children and for many youths in the first half of the 20th century a typical Saturday at the movies included a chapter of at least one serial along with animated cartoons, newsreels, and two feature films.

(Info taken from wikipedia)

Veda Ann Borg and Victor Jory in The Shadow (1940)

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