The lost jungle : cliffhanger action and Hollywood serials of the 1930s and 1940s / Guy Barefoot.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barefoot, Guy, 1957- author.

Series:

Exeter studies in film history

Exeter Studies in Film History

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--United States--History.

Motion pictures.

United States.

History.

Film serials--History and criticism.

Film serials.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 246 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Exeter : University of Exeter Press, 2017.

Summary:

The Lost Jungle is an examination of serials and their place within the American film industry and American culture. Extending the picture of what was screened during the Great Depression and the Second World War, it looks at Flash Gordon but also at less familiar science fiction, western, jungle and crime serials. It examines the cliffhanger but also other ways in which the serial's episodic form was used to break up the narrative and heighten melodramatic tension. It looks beyond the Saturday matines to investigate the adult as well as child appeal of a form of cinema based on mystery and fast-paced action, challenging the understanding of classical Hollywood as a cinema based on narrative coherence and the stand-alone film. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Serial and the Cliffhanger: Definitions and Origins 11

2 Thursday Night at the Ritz: Exhibition, Audiences and Regulation 40

3 The Economy Chapter 72

4 The Second Chapter, 1930-46 98

5 Four Serials and a Feature, 1932-38 142.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-235) and index.

ISBN:

9780859898874

0859898873

OCLC:

987842791