Product Details

• Actors: Classic Serials
• Directors: Various
• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 12
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Digital 1 Stop
• DVD Release Date: July 27, 2004
• Run Time: 2885 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001HAGW4
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #33,453 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

About the Actor
Contents: The Hurricane Express: 12 Episodes Starring: John Wayne
A crazed killer is out to destroy the railroad. He’s aboard the world’s fastest train, the Hurricane Express, ready to kill anyone who stands in the way of his fiendish plan.

The Lost City: 12 Episodes Starring: William "Stage" Boyd
Meet Dr. Zolok, an evil genius who seeks to rule the world with inventions that control the weather and turn men into giant zombies, not to mention his fiendish death ray.

The New Adventures of Tarzan: 12 Episodes Starring: Herman Brix
Tarzan joins a group of explorers looking for a mystical totem named "The Green Goddess."

Ace Drummond 13 Episodes Starring: John "Dusty" King
Globe-trotting G-Man, Ace Drummond, is bound for remote Mongolia where a mysterious character known as The Dragon has stopped construction of an airport.

The Phantom Creeps: 12 Episodes Starring: Bela Lugosi
Mad Scientist, Dr. Zorka, has invented a device to render people invisible as well as a giant Robot and mechanical spiders.

Shadow of the Eagle: 13 Episodes Starring: John Wayne
A major corporation is receiving unusual threats written in the sky by a mystery pilot known only as The Eagle.

SOS Coast Guard: 12 Episodes Starring: Bela Lugosi
The inimitable Bela Lugosi stars as the crazy Dr. Boroff, who has slipped into the country to obtain the ingredients for a lethal disintegration gas.

The Three Musketeers: 12 Episodes Starring: John Wayne
John Wayne stars as Tom Wayne, an adventurer who rescues his three friends Clancy, Renard and Schmidt from imprisonment in the Arabian desert.

Undersea Kingdom: 12 Episodes Starring: Ray "Crash" Corrigan
An undersea despot from the lost city of Atlantis surfaces with a deadly array of killer robots and lethal death rays with plans of world domination. Zorro’s Fighting Legion: 12 Episodes Starring: Reed Hadley
The tyrannical Don Del Oro is out to dominate all of Mexico. Only Zorro, the masked avenger, can stop him.

The Clutching Hand: 12 Episodes Starring: Jack Mulhall
Jack Mulhall stars as ace detective Craig Kennedy who is hot on the trail of the Clutching Hand, a villain who has absconded with a secret formula that transmutes base metal to gold.

Dick Tracy: 15 Episodes Starring: Ralph Byrd
In this thrilling serial, Dick Tracy is pitted against the fiendish Lame One and his Spider Armada. Our hero must face a deadly sound disintegrator...and more.

Product Description
Return to a bygone era where adults and children alike sat breathlessly at the Saturday morning matinee watching their heroes battling impossible odds... hearts racing at the cliffhanger endings.Now you don’t have to wait until next week to see what happens next. TreeLine Films has assembled 12 of the greatest thrilling serials comprising over 150 episodes on 12 DVDs.

Doctor Zolok unleashes giant zombies and a fiendish death ray in Lost City. Crazy scientist, Dr. Zorka, goes one better with an invisibility ray, mechanical spiders and a giant robot in The Phantom Creeps..

A crazed killer has taken over the world’s fastest train and only John Wayne can stop him in Hurricane Express. The Duke stars as ace pilot Craig McCoy who is hot on the trail of a shadowy villain named "The Eagle" in, you guessed it, The Shadow of the Eagle.

Calling All Detectives.Meet Ace Drummond, globe-trotting G-Man bound for Mongolia on the trail of a villain known only as "The Dragon" in Ace Drummond. The heroic Dick Tracy pursues the villainous "The Lame One" and his "Spider Armada" in Dick Tracy. Jack Mulhall stars as ace detective Craig Kennedy who is out for justice in The Clutching Hand.

Don’t mess with the Coast Guard; Bela Lugosi as Dr. Boroff makes that mistake when he tries to sneak a disintegration ray out of the country in SOS Coast Guard. Mexico’s most famous blade returns to fight injustice in Zorro’s Fighting Legion.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Complete Waste of Money, September 8, 2004

By	Gerald Weishar (North York, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

Do not waste any time or money on this sub-par collection of poor quality (both technical and just bad movies). The film and sound quality are horrible. A little money spent on improving image and sound quality would have gone a long way, but obviously this was not the case. at least a few times, the audio becomes completely inintelligible, and the video quality; well, lets just say it's obvious these are old movies. If you are interested in this type of film, spend a little extra per individual DVD, and pick up some that have been properly reconstructed.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Probably my favorite megapack..., September 10, 2006

By	Devin de Gruyl (Grove City, OH United States) - See all my reviews

The only reason I can't give this a full five stars in because of a quality control issue. I had one disc go bad on me about halfway through one serial - which, annoyingly enough, was the one I bought this set *specifically* for - and start to break up rather badly, to the point it even crashed my DVD player. (A *component* DVD player, mind you, I wasn't watching this on my computer!) Fortunately, I was able to exchange it for another copy that does appear to work without a problem. So, do beware of some bad pressings, though even [...] DVD boxsets can have media issues too, so it's not unique to Treeline/Mill Creek's "shovelware" bargain-bin faire.

That aside, of all the so-called "megapack" offerings of public-domain movies that're out there, this one is probably my personal favorite. They may not be, as an earlier review said, Shakespeare in the Park, but then again they don't pretend to be anything more than what they *are* - schlocky, escapist, and *fun* examples of a bygone era in American filmmaking. This is, in many respects, the essence of what a Saturday afternoon serial was all about - engaging storylines, two-fisted action, capricious plot twists, stock-but-memorable characters, and - of course - the classic cliffhanger endings where you just *had* to come back the following week to see how the hero(es) got out of *this* one. So what if the acting isn't up to snuff in many cases, or the budget is so low they can barely afford more than three different sets overall? Their goal was to keep you coming back to the theater, week after week, to see what would happen next (and, not so incidentally, to buy tickets to see the feature attraction of the afternoon!), and in many cases the serials in this collection did that job and did it very well indeed.

Some of these serials feature characters not unknown even today - Tarzan, Zorro, and Dick Tracy all partake in some rousing adventures. (The Tracy serial is the one I was especially interested in when I picked this up, and it's a fine example of a "gangbuster" crime drama of the 1930s - even if it has shockingly little to do with the comic strip.) Others, such as Undersea Kingdom and The Phantom Creeps, might be familiar to MST3K viewers, as selected episodes from these serials were featured on that show a few times. (Alas, probably the most famous MiSTed serial of all, the Commando Cody epic known as Radar Men from the Moon, is not here.) And three star John Wayne in early-career roles from before he became the icon of American cinema he's revered as today.

"Family-friendly" types take note: These serials were all made in the 1930s and '40s, and as such very little violence is seen aside from some fisticuffs and (non-bloody) shootings. Despite the relative tameness of such scenes, parents may wish to review this material before letting their children watch it. There are also a few racial/ethnic stereotypes that might be considered "unfortunate" today, but that's almost to be expected given the attitudes of the time. Still, it's worth noting.

Each serial in this set is at least 12 episodes in length, with the longest (Dick Tracy) clocking in at 15 chapters. Each individual chapter ranges from 15-25 minutes in duration. You can select a chapter to start at each time you insert the disc, but aside from that there are no special features on the disc, not even scene selection within a particular chapter.

All in all, like many of these PD boxsets, it's an incredible value for the money. The fact these are, for the most part, "dirty" transfers loaded with imperfections ("popping" soundtracks, celluloid dust, washed-out picture, and low recording volume) doesn't really detract from the allure of these sets... and to some people, myself included, they only *add* to the charm, making you feel like you're illicitly watching something Hollywood has deemed unworthy of modernization. Besides, consider how little you paid... I bought my copy for [...], which is less than a dollar per complete serial... over four hours of roller-coaster entertainment. Can't beat that deal!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "see next weeks exciteing chapter", April 20, 2006

By	John D. Page "movie fan" (usa) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

i own most of these sets of mega pack movies and i really like this one a lot. my copy(maybe i just got lucky) is in very nice shape,maybe not the best transfers but no problems like some have reported. these are family friendly and my boys love to watch these old cliffhangers. some are really creaky now but they are all fun. and the price is well worth it to add these old gems to your collection