The Exploits of Elaine is a 1914 American film serial in the damsel in distress genre of The Perils of Pauline (1914).
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhanger is hoped to incentivize the audience to return to see how the characters resolve the dilemma.
William Nicholas Selig was a vaudeville performer and pioneer of the American motion picture industry. His stage billing as Colonel Selig would be used for the rest of his career, even as he moved into film production.
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring Tom Mix, Harold Lloyd, Colleen Moore, and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Selig Polyscope also established Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles.
What Happened to Mary is the first serial film made in the United States. Produced by Edison Studios, with screenplays by Horace G. Plympton, and directed by Charles Brabin, the action films starred Mary Fuller.
Kathlyn Williams was an American actress, known for her blonde beauty and daring antics, who performed on stage as well as in early silent film. She began her career onstage in her hometown of Butte, Montana, where she was sponsored by local copper magnate William A. Clark to study acting in New York City. She later appeared in numerous films between 1910 and 1932 before retiring from acting. Williams died of a heart attack in Los Angeles at age 81.
Harold MacGrath was a bestselling and prolific American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. He sometimes completed more than one novel per year for the mass market, covering romance, spies, mystery, and adventure.
The Lost City is an independently made 12 chapter science fiction film serial created and produced in 1935 by Sherman S. Krellberg and directed by Harry Revier.
Francis J. Grandon was an American silent film actor and director who acted in almost 100 films and directed over 100. Frank Grandon's obituary, printed in newspapers from coast-to- coast, called him "the father of movie serial motion pictures" and a mentor to many young film stars.
Roy Watson was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1911 and 1935.
The Million Dollar Mystery is a 23-chapter film serial released in 1914, directed by Howell Hansel, and starring Florence La Badie and James Cruze. It is presumed lost.
The Perils of Pauline is a 1914 American melodrama film serial produced by William Randolph Hearst and released by the Eclectic film company, shown in bi-weekly installments, featuring Pearl White as the title character, an ambitious young heiress with an independent nature and a desire for adventure.
Fantômas is a French silent crime film serial directed by Louis Feuillade, based on the novel of the same name. The five episodes, initially released throughout 1913–14, were restored under the direction of Jacques Champreaux and released in this new form in 2006.
The Adventures of Tarzan (1921) is a 15 chapter movie serial which features the third and final appearance of Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan. The serial was produced by Louis Weiss, written by Robert F. Hill and Lillian Valentine, and directed by Robert F. Hill and Scott Sidney. The first chapter was released on December 1, 1921.
The Carpet from Bagdad is a 1915 American silent adventure film directed by Colin Campbell and based on Harold MacGrath's 1911 eponymous novel. In the story, Horace Wadsworth, one of a gang of criminals also planning a bank robbery in New York, steals the titular prayer rug from its Baghdad mosque. He sells the carpet to antique dealer George Jones to fund the robbery scheme. But the theft places both men and Fortune Chedsoye, the innocent daughter of another conspirator, in danger from the carpet's guardian.
The Count of Monte Cristo is a 1913 silent film adventure directed by Joseph A. Golden and Edwin S. Porter based on Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel of the same name. It starred James O'Neill, a stage actor and father of playwright Eugene O'Neill. James O'Neill had been playing Edmond Dantès most of his adult life and was famous in the role. Daniel Frohman and Adolph Zukor produced together. Edwin S. Porter co-directed with Joseph Golden, though this was probably necessary as Porter also served as the film's cinematographer. The film was released on November 1, 1913.
The Sea Wolf is a lost 1913 American silent adventure film directed by and starring Hobart Bosworth and co-starring Herbert Rawlinson. Based on the 1904 Jack London novel The Sea-Wolf, the production's master negatives were destroyed in the disastrous 1914 vault fire at the Lubin Manufacturing Company, the Philadelphia-based film company that Bosworth contracted to produce theatrical prints of his screen adaptation.
A serial film,film serial, movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, generally advancing weekly, until the series is completed. Usually, each serial involves a single set of characters, protagonistic and antagonistic, involved in a single story, which has been edited into chapters after the fashion of serial fiction and the episodes cannot be shown out of order or as a single or a random collection of short subjects.
Miracles of the Jungle is a 1921 American adventure film serial, directed by James Conway and E. A. Martin, in 15 chapters, starring Ben Hagerty, Wilbur Higby, and Al Ferguson. A co-production by Selig Studios and Warner Bros., it was distributed by the Federated Film Exchanges of America; it originally ran in U.S. theaters between May 24 and August 24, 1921.
