Review
A woman is tied to a cot, face up, and above her a cement slab almost as long as she is, with a spike imbedded in its center, dangles from a pulley by a rope that is tied to a table nearby. On the table a candle is burning beneath the rope and, strand by strand, the rope is separating until, at last, the final strand is burnt through and snaps. What happens? How does the woman escape not just certain death, but a really bad, closed coffin death? Alas, we will never know, because it is doubtful that anyone still alive remembers ever having seen the 1920 serial, A Woman in Grey, and the only fragment of it that is readily available is that one 4-minute clip from Chapter Nine, which is presented as part of the delightful Serial Squadron release, The Lost Serial Collection (UPC#896058002130, $20); one of many wonderful titles available from The Serial Squadron. The two platter set, running a total of 151 minutes, contains many such moments and thrills, from close to three dozen serials, and is loaded with fabulous and now forgotten stunt work from the days when Hollywood was even more daring than Hong Kong movies in the Nineties. People jump onto and off of trains, dangle from buildings, fall from cliffs, leap from planes and so on, with no wires in sight and no computer graphic capabilities to erase them if there were. Serials are not designed to explore the human condition or build an elaborate emotional fabric, and so a single clip can almost be as entertaining as an entire program, and requires no background knowledge of the characters or narrative to captivate one s attention. Indeed, with the DVD jumping from movie to movie so often, there is no chance of it ever becoming redundant or repetitive. Instead, watching it is like the ultimate form of channel surfing, jumping from one fabulous piece of excitement (or, in the case of Queen of the Northwoods, where the bad guy is called The Wolf Devil and runs around with a dog s head costume, exquisite silliness) to the next. It never gets dull.

The menu design is a little confusing but easy enough to use once you figure out what is happening with it. The program is a mix of fragments and trailers, ranging from 1912 to 1929, with no more than a couple of complete chapters . The only thing lacking in the set is background information of the serials excerpted. Some, such as The Perils of Pauline, are available in more complete forms, while others are undoubtedly lost to the ages except for what has been preserved on the disc. The quality of the image varies from clip to clip, but most are in viable condition. The music is centered and is usually piano, although there are also orchestral passages (our favorite, naturally, is the trailer for The Mystery Rider, starring William Desmond, which is enlivened with a playful version of Ghost Riders in the Sky, scattered sound effects in a few, and what appears to be original audio tracks (but no dialog) from a couple of the later productions. --Douglas Pratt, The DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter

Product Description

This special 2-DVD set features clips, short sequences and chapters from over 30 extremely rare serials that may be lost forever, except for what you can see here. Some clips are very short, featuring usually one special stunt sequence. ZUDORA, THE HAZARDS OF HELEN, CAPTAIN KIDD, HAUNTED VALLEY, THE LIGHTNING RAIDER and others are represented by extended action scenes, and complete chapters are included of THE IRON CLAW featurng Pearl White and THE FLAME FIGHTER starring Herbert Rawlinson. Clips from a couple of rare but not completely lost serials, A WOMAN IN GREY and OFFICER 444 are included too. These scenes and chapters are presented as they might have been originally shown, each with a new opening title and music, and no intrusive narration or explanations. Stills and posters from some of the serials are also included. This is a collection no serial historian or collector can live without. The complete list of serial titles represented is listed below. A great value -- a massive amount of serial history all in one set!

LEADING LADIES

1912 What Happened to Mary (Mary Fuller)
1914 The Hazards of Helen (Helen Holmes, Helen Gibson)
1914 The Perils of Pauline (Pearl White)
1914 Zudora (Marguerite Snow)
1920 A Woman in Grey (Arline Pretty)

SERIALS OF PEARL WHITE

1916 Pearl of the Army (Pearl White)
1916 The Iron Claw (Pearl White) (Chapter 7 Complete)
1917 The Fatal Ring (Pearl White)
1919 The Lightning Raider (Pearl White, Warner Oland) (Scenes from Chapter 1)
1923 Plunder (Scenes from Chapters 9 and 15)
1924 Terror (The Perils of Paris)

SERIALS OF RUTH ROLAND

1919 The Tiger's Trail (Ruth Roland)
1920 Ruth of the Rockies (Ruth Roland)
1921 White Eagle (Ruth Roland)
1922 The Timber Queen (Ruth Roland)
1923 Haunted Valley (Ruth Roland) (Abridged version of Chapter 6)

LEADING MEN

1921 Hurricane Hutch (Trailer)
1922 Captain Kidd (Eddie Polo) (Scenes from Chapters 2 and 11)
1925 The Flame Fighter (Trailer, Scenes from conclusion of Chapter 2, Chapter 3 complete)
1926 Officer 444
1927 Return of the Riddle Rider (Trailer)
1928 The Mystery Rider (Trailer)

MORE PERILS

1916 The Shielding Shadow
1919 The Masked Rider Trailer produced by the Serial Squadron
1920 The Third Eye
1923 The Steel Trail
1924 The Fast Express
1927 King of the Jungle (Trailer)
1927 The Man Without a Face (Walter Miller)
1927 Whispering Smith Rides (Trailer)
1928 A Final Reckoning (Trailer)
1928 The Haunted Island (Trailer)
1928 The Scarlet Arrow (Trailer)
1928 The Terrible People
1929 Queen of the Northwoods