Serials and Cliffhangers in Color and Sepia

Amateur criminologist Richard Wentworth, formerly the masked vigilante, the Spider, brings his former alter ego out of retirement for 15 action-packed chapters to help his old friend, police commissioner Kirk, battle a dangerous, power-obsessed maniac called the Gargoyle. This mysterious crime lord and his henchmen threaten the world with acts of sabotage and wholesale murder in an effort to wreck the National security of the United States. The evil and masked "Gargoyle" is sabotaging all of America's industrial plants. It is up to the Spider to save the country.

This 1940 15-chapter serial was based on Edgar Wallace's 1923 novel The Green Archer, which had previously been adapted into the silent serial of the same name in 1925 by Pathé Exchange. It starts with a struggle over the huge Bellamy estate, that ended with Michael Bellamy accused of murder and killed on the way to prison. His brother, Abel Bellamy, takes control of the estate for his own nefarious plans. Bellamy is using the Garr Castle on it as a base for his jewelry-theft ring, and he kidnaps his brother's wife to keep things quiet. Insurance investigator Spike Holland enters the case, and Bellamy continually dispatches his resident gang to do away with him. Detective Thompson, representing the law, is seldom of any help. Meanwhile, the estate's fabled "Green Archer", a masked, leotard-clad marksman, steals silently through Garr Castle and the estate grounds, confounding the enemy forces.

A crime fighter known as The Spider battles a villain called The Octopus, who is out to sabotage America and install his own government. The masked crime lord, is bent on crippling America with a wave of terror. He demands tribute from railroad magnates and other captains of industry. Richard Wentworth, an amateur criminologist who is friendly with the police and is secretly "The Spider," a masked vigilante, is equally determined to destroy the Octopus and his gang. Pleasant and smiling in civilian life, Wentworth is frequently ruthless as The Spider, using his two .45 semi-automatic pistols against any public enemies who attack him. The Spider uses a knotted rope to swing about. Wentworth also masquerades as affable underworld lowlife Blinky McQuade. Disguised as McQuade, Wentworth can infiltrate gangland as a hired gun or getaway-car driver and keep current on the mob's illegal activities. The only people who know Wentworth's various identities are his assistants Jackson and Ram Singh, his butler Jenkins, and his fiancée Nita. The Octopus was a pulp villain written by Norvell Page, who also wrote most of The Spider pulp novels. He is garbed completely in white and is only ever seen by his henchmen while sitting in his throne-like chair. Unlike the pulps, where The Spider is dressed in an all black cape, mask, suit, and wide-brimmed fedora, in the serial he is garbed in a black suit and fedora, but with white web-like markings on his lightweight cape and full face mask. The serial follows the standard formula of fights, shoot-outs, Wentworth's friends being kidnapped at various times and needing to be rescued. Each chapter ends with The Spider or his friends in deep trouble, often about to be killed, but the effect is spoiled by a trailer for the next episode which follows, showing them rescued and continuing to fight the villains. The secret headquarters of The Octopus is found by The Spider in the final chapter; he has unwittingly given himself away to Wentworth and realizing this, Wentworth must now die; but as The Spider, Wentworth is triumphant in the end, unmasking The Octopus and ending his national reign of terror. During the serial The Spider uses his web line a number of times to get out of trouble. Commissioner Kirk (changed from Kirkpatrick in the pulps) suspects that Wentworth is The Spider during one chapter. The Octopus' gang, like their boss, wear robes when they gather together in his presence. The Octopus ruthlessly executes all who failed him; in case of trouble, The Octopus always uses a false arm and hand, which allowed him to conceal a pistol in his real hand hidden beneath his robes.

The third DICK TRACY serial features an international spy, Zarnoff, in the employ of "The Three Powers" (presumably a fictionalized reference to the Axis) who has been captured by Dick Tracy at the start of the serial, tried and sentenced to death. However, through the use of a rare drug embedded by his agents in the evening newspaper, he escapes from the gas chamber. His men pick up his "corpse" by ambushing the hearse and administering another counter-drug. He continues his espionage plans, while taking the opportunity of revenge on Tracy.

The fourth DICK TRACY serial has Dick Tracy and his allies find themselves up against a villain known as The Ghost, with the impossible ability of becoming invisible. America's greatest detective hurls defiance into the shadows of the Underworld in his search for murderous criminals who threaten New York's destruction.

Dr. John Meredith, ashamed at the crime spree of his evil twin brother, Bradley, travels with his daughter, Nyoka, to Africa. There his skills as a doctor displace Shamba, the resident witch doctor of the Masamba. Years later, Slick Latimer and Bradley Meredith arrive looking for a local diamond mine and team up with the disgruntled Shamba. Bradley kills his brother John and takes his place. They also bring along Jack Stanton and Curly Rogers, who promptly join Nyoka in trying to stop the villains.

The concluding six chapters of FLASH GORDON; these are: ********8. "Tournament of Death"--Dr. Zarkov saves the Hawkmen's city in the sky from falling, earning Flash and his friends King Vultan's gratitude. Ming insists that Flash fight a tournament of death against a masked opponent, revealed to be Barin, and then against a vicious orangopoid. *********9. "Fighting the Fire Dragon"--Flash survives the tournament with Aura's help, after she discovers the weak point of the orangopoid. Still determined to win Flash, Aura has him drugged to make him lose his memory. **********10. "The Unseen Peril"---Flash recovers his memory. Ming is determined to have Flash executed. ***********11. "In the Claws of the Tigron"--Zarkov invents a machine that makes Flash invisible. Flash torments Ming and his guards. Barin hides Dale in the catacombs, but Aura has her tracked by a tigron. ************12. "Trapped in the Turret"---Aura realizes the error of her ways, and falls in love with Barin. She tries to help Flash and his friends to return to Earth — but Ming plots to kill them. *************13. "Rocketing to Earth"---Ming orders that the Earth people be caught and killed, but Flash and his friends escape from the Emperor's clutches, and Ming is apparently killed in the flames of the "sacred temple of the Great God Tao". Flash, Dale and Zarkov make a triumphant return to Earth.

A mysterious villain who calls himself the Dragon is attempting to prevent International Airways from beginning service in Mongolia, in order to protect the secret of the mountain of jade for himself.[1] The serial features a dungeon in the nearby monastery, the kidnapping of an archeologist who stumbles onto the secret, his daughter's attempts to rescue him with Ace's help, a death ray the Dragon uses on the airline pilots, a radio system by which The Dragon communicates with his henchmen via the rotation of Buddhist prayer wheels (each transmission concluding "The Dragon commands!"), and a squadron of his own fighter planes.

Several plot elements bring the characters together in search (and pursuit) of the Guatemalan idol known as The Green Goddess: Tarzan's friend D'Arnot has crash landed in the region and is in the hands of a lost tribe of jungle natives; Major Martling is leading an expedition to find the fabled artefact for a powerful explosives formula hidden within it; Ula Vale's fiancé died in an earlier expedition to rescue the artefact for its archaeological benefit, and so she starts one of her own in his honour; and Raglan has been sent by Hiram Powers, Ula's lawyer, to steal the valuable idol for himself. In addition to containing the explosives formula, the idol also holds a fortune in jewels. Tarzan, Ula and Major Martling locate the lost city containing the idol and rescue D'Arnot from the natives who worship it in the 70-minute-long first episode. However, Raglan escapes with the Green Goddess and heads through the jungle for the coast. Tarzan and the others pursue him across the jungle, encountering many perils, including recapture by the natives to whom the idol belonged. The adventures end out at sea, where, during a hurricane, they are able to permanently secure the idol while Raglan is killed by another of Powers's agents because of his failures. The murderer perishes when the ship sinks. Returning to Greystoke Manor in England with Tarzan, Ula consigns the explosives formula to fire in the final episode, where she and Tarzan also recount several adventures from the first part of the serial to an assembled party of friends and colleagues.

In 1865, Captain Mark Smith of the Confederate Army leads a band of deserters to conquer Texas and rule it as a dictator. In one of his first actions, he captures and assumes the identity of Texas's new Finance Commissioner, Colonel Marcus Jeffries, after having the real man murdered. When a contingent of Texas Rangers enters the territory, Snead, one of Smith's men, leads them into an ambush by Smith's "troopers". The Rangers are apparently wiped out, although one injured survivor is left. The survivor, nursed back to health by Tonto, swears to avenge the massacre and defeat "Colonel Jeffries" and his men. When he is not operating as the Ranger, he appears under an assumed identity as one of a group of Texans resisting Smith's rule. Smith, through a henchman, has narrowed the field of suspects down to five specific members of the resistance. One of these five—Allen King, Bob Stuart, Bert Rogers, Dick Forrest, and Jim Clark—actually is the Ranger, but only Tonto and the other four Texans know which one it is. Together, they operate as an effective team attempting to end Smith's rule.

This western serial has the Riders of Death Valley escaping various perils devised by the evil Wolfe Reade and his pack of outlaws at Panamint, who wish to control mining operations and to lay claim to a fabled lost mine land of Borax.

Scientist Thomas Edmunds (William Desmond) and his daughter Mary (Gloria Shea) attend the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio to find a pilot. They select pilot Bob Raymond (Tom Tyler) from the U.S. Border Patrol, to demonstrate an anti-gravity device called the "Contragrav". At the air meet, Mortimer Crome (LeRoy Mason), a friend of Mary, is his main rival and has his henchman "Skip" (Walter Brennan) sabotage Raymond's aircraft prior to the air race. Raymond crashes but survives. Edmunds' invention is sought after by a gang of smugglers led by Crome who owns the International Import & Export Company, who wants the invention. The inventor has a secret airfield in a desert region. Raymond comes to the inventor's aid, using another of Edwards' inventions, the super plane, the "Phantom." Able to control the aircraft remotely from an underground headquarters, Bob foils Crome's plans. Gloria has become Bob's love interest.AAA

THE ADVENTURES OF REX AND RINTY begins on the island of Sujan, off the coast or eastern Africa, where guarded by jungles, roving beasts and the Sacred Guard, nestles a shrine to a sacred horse, the black Arabian Rex, the God-Horse of Sujan. High Priest Tanaga innocently allows to Americans, Mitchell and Wheeler see the sacred stallion and, with the aid of Martin, they steal the horse and bring it to the United States, where they sell it to Crawford, a wealthy, greedy polo-playing rancher. Crawford attempts to train Rex as a polo horse, but royal Rex (King of the Wild Horses) isn't having any of that, escapes and takes to the open road or, in this case, range. There he teams up with the vagabond dog, Rinty, and they avoid capture by Crawford and his henchmen Jones, Anderson and McDonald. Their activities attract the attention of polo-player Frank Bradley, who befriends the animals and takes them both back to the island of Sujan. Crawford follows and convinces the natives to turn against their God-Horse, and Rex is about to be burned as a sacrifice.

A cartel of American businesses are disturbed by the loss of profits due to Chinese businesses located in Chinatowns in the United States. They hire a pair of Eurasians, Sonya Rokoff and Victor Potel, and their criminal organization to eliminate their competition. They are opposed

Scientist Bruce Gordon comes to a secluded area in Africa after concluding that a series of electrically induced natural disasters had originated from in the area. There he finds the crazed Zolok, last of the Lemurians, in a secret complex inside a mountain in Africa. He also employs huge zombies that he transforms from natives.

In Singapore, two Marine Lieutenants, Tom Grayson and Frank Corby, uncover the threat of a masked terrorist called the Lightning, who uses an arsenal of powerful lightning-based weaponry in his bid for world conquest. However, the battle becomes personal when the Lightning annihilates the officers' unit and later kills Lt. Grayson's father as he was helping the investigation of the weapon. Now, the marines have dedicated themselves to stopping the Lightning and bringing him to justice.

Francisco Cortez escapes prison after serving fifteen years for the murder of Jim Lester's father. Hunted by a posse, the escaped convict takes refuge in Jim Lester's house. When Lester discovers him, Cortez proclaims his innocence. He lists the names of seven men, one of which is the real killer, the murderer calling himself "The Phantom".

The nefarious Dr. Fu Manchu searches for the keys to the tomb of Genghis Khan, in order to fulfill a prophecy that will enable him to conquer the world, by acquiring the sceptre of Genghis Khan, which will unite the people of Asia under his rule.

Adventurer Jeff Drake sails to a Pacific island in aid of Kelly Walsh, an old friend whose freight line is being sabotaged by a ghost ship . Drake and Walsh's investigation concerns the search for Walter Castell, an escaped convict who stole 5 million dollars in diamonds at the close ofWorld War II. Several other people, including Walsh's sister, all want to go to the island. Drake and his friends encounter multiple dangers when they are attacked by a gang also looking for the stolen diamonds led by the mysterious 'Admiral'.

An undercover police agent, detective Barry, sets out to discover who stole $2 million worth of war bonds is from an unnamed Asian country (undoubtedly China). This is a serial based on the comic strip "Red Barry" by Will Gould.

An evil genius of unknown identity, calling himself "Dr. Vulcan" (heard only as a voice and seen as a mysterious shadow on a brightly lit wall), plots to conquer the world. He needs to first eliminate, one by one, the members of the Science Associates, an organization of America's greatest scientists. After narrowly escaping an attempt on his life by Vulcan, one member of Science Associates, Dr. Millard goes into hiding. He soon outfits another member, Jeff King with an advanced, atomic-powered rocket backpack, attached to a leather jacket with a bullet-shaped, aerodynamic flight helmet, and a ray gun that they had been developing together. Using the flying jacket and helmet and other inventions provided by Dr. Millard, and aided by magazine reporter and photographer Glenda Thomas, Jeff King, as Rocket Man, battles Vulcan and his henchmen. Eventually, Vulcan steals Millard's most dangerous invention, a Sonic Decimator, and uses it to flood, then destroy New York City. The mysterious Dr. Vulcan is eventually unmasked and brought to justice by Jeff King while in his Rocket Man persona.

Galahad, in trying to emulate his father Sir Lancelot, wants to be admitted to the Knights of the Round Table order. When he defeats Sir Bors and Sir Mordred in tournament, King Arthur agrees to knighthood, but only if Galahad can guard Excalibur for one night. Uisnfortunately, during that night the sword is stolen by a mysterious personage known only as the Black Knight. Possession of Excalibur makes the holder invincible and without it the sovereignty of Arthur is endangered. Galahad is refused knighthood until the sword is found. Galahad, aided by Sir Bors, is hindered in his quest by Ulric, the Saxon King, who invades Britain, and by Merlin the magician, who harasses our hero at every turn. Galahad suspects that the Black Knight is a traitor within Camelot who seeks the throne in alliance with the Saxons, while Morgan le Fay, Arthur's half sister and also a magician, helps him fight both Merlin's magic and the Saxons.

The California-Yucatan Railroad, being built for the good of Mexico, is under siege by a gang of terrorists hoping to force its sale; no one can prove their connection to profiteer Marsden. Manuel Vega, aged co-owner, calls in the aid of his nephew James, great-grandson of the original Zorro. Alas, James seems more adept at golf than derring-do; but after he arrives, Zorro rides again! Can one black-clad man on horseback defeat a gang supplied with airplanes and machine guns?