The Mystery Squadron (Serial) (1933)

One of the better serials. A mystery squadron of fliers led by the Black Ace is attacking a dam that is under construction by Stephen Grey (Lafe McKee) and his daughter Dorothy (Lucile Browne). The foreman Hank Davis (Jack Mulhall) hires his flier friends Fred (Bob Steele) and Jellybean (Guinn Williams) to help protect the mine...

But they soon run into trouble with the fiendish Black Ace and his team of fliers who possess biplanes with flamethrowers! Thanks to hidden panels and rooms seemingly everywhere the Black Ace always seems to be one step ahead and his identity remains a mystery...

It is of course break neck action with plenty of stunts and cliff hangers. The plot may have more holes than the skin of a biplane that has been in combat but the story moves so quickly there isn't time to dwell on it!

The Lost City (Serial) (1935)

Superbly over the top serial sci-fi adventure. Mad scientist Zolok (William Boyd) seeks to conquer the world with electrical impulses sent from his machine in his secret base in deepest darkest Africa. The impulses are sending weather in the rest of the world crazy...

Engineer Bruce Gordon (Kane Richmond) has electrical machines of his own and he detects where the impulses are coming from and heads off to Africa. There he discovers Zolok and his crazy plans as well as his ability to create an army of giant men. Zolok also has a genius scientist (Josef Swickard) and his beautiful daughter (Claudia Dell) captive...

So all the usual ingredients for a sci-fi serial. Plenty of sparks and humming machines (because in the 1930s unless you had arrays of high voltage electricity sparking away it wasn't SCIENCE), endless fights, cliff hangers and re-used sets and costumes. Nothing we haven't seen before but campy, frenetic fun as a 1930s serial should be.

The Phantom Creeps (Serial) (1939)

A frenetic sci-fi horror serial. Dr Zorka (Bela Lugosi) is a mad scientist who wants to conquer the world using various mad science weapons he has invented including a rather bizarre looking robot and a new super-explosive made from a meteorite. The US government want his inventions for themselves but Zorka has other ideas...

So begins a crazy cat and mouse game as the FBI in the form of Captain West (Robert Kent) and a plucky young reporter (Dorothy Arnold) try and find out exactly what is going on and stop Zorka selling his inventions to foreign powers. The action comes thick and fast via regular cliff hangers including crashing planes (several), exploding electricity pylons and toxic chemicals.

Naturally it doesn't make a huge amount of sense and stock footage is liberally used, the exploding Hindenburg. The serial also seems to throw every sci-fi horror trope imaginable into the mix including invisibility. It is total nonsense but also total fun.

Radar Men from the Moon (1952) (Serial)

Commando Cody (George Wallace) wears a rocket suit and also flies a rocket ship. In this exciting serial he is sent to the moon where the evil Retik (Roy Barcroft) plans to conquer Earth using his advanced atomic weapons. Although as usual with these kind of things, for all that high-tech advancement nothing can defeat good old American fisticuffs (as Captain Kirk proved later on, only his fists could save the universe).

As this is a serial (of twelve parts) of course it is fast moving and basically a series of action set pieces with cliffhangers. Can Cody escape being blown up or melted by lava? Find out next week!

Radar Men from the Moon reused a lot of footage from earlier serials. The rocket suit scenes for example were reused from King of the Rocketmen. Visually though this serial is a treat, spaceships with fins, laboratories fill of sparking equipment and mysterious dials. Most of the action is a series of somewhat lower-tech punch-ups though.

Dick Tracy's G-Men (Serial) (1939)

Classic action serial starring Ralph Byrd as the top detective (though for some reason he is now in the FBI)...

The leader of a gang of spies Zarnoff (Irving Pichel) manages to escape his own execution thanks to a rare and exotic drug and continues his plan to blow up an ammunition convoy using a robot controlled bomb.

Tracy manages to foil his plan but Zarnoff remains on the loose and determined to wreak havoc and avenge himself on Tracy.

As it is a serial (and thus originally shown in short chunks of around fifteen minutes each) the action is fast moving with regular cliff hangers. The need for regular cliff hangers does make the plot a bit contrived and repetitive of course when watched in a single chunk.

It is a bit of a strange Dick Tracy story - in fact it is hardly Dick Tracy at all in many ways. There is no Tess Truehart in this tale for example but he does have a secretary called Gwen (Jennifer Jones).

Flash Gordon (Serial) (1936)

Classic serial action (in fact in many ways the classic serial) as Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe) and Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) travel to the world of the evil Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton) which is travelling towards Earth...

The planet Mongo is inhabited by various warring factions including the Hawkmen and Lionmen but Ming rules over all. Flash, Dale and scientist Dr Zarkov (Frank Shannon) have a series of adventures in the crazy world, and as its a serial there are many cliffhangers.

It is just so much fun, and sparking space ships. Of course it is also rather simplistic but that doesn't matter as its thrills a minute and has so much charm and energy.

Princess Aura (Priscilla Lawson) is endlessly scheming to get Flash for herself but he only has eyes for Dale of course... To be honest that's just one of many things that doesn't really make much sense in the cold light of day but that is exactly the wrong way to approach this romp.