Motion Pictures Please help me find 1940s movie serial

I've been trying to find the name of a serial I saw in the early 50s. Setting looked like California in the early 40s and the city was Summerville. Handsome young leading man and attractive young lady maybe a newspaper reporter. Looking for a mastermind who was sabotaging the city. One dramatic scene was a tunnel in the city under a river (like New York or Boston on the right coast) deliberately flooded with the two protagonists right in the middle. Filmed like a Republic serial but can't reference. Any chance you might recognize it? Sincere thanks in advance. Lucas

 

Naked City or Peter Gunn? HRP

 

I think they were from the late '50's or early '60's.

 

Z06-LITE is right. Besides, these were TV shows and not a feature movie add-on. Serial I'm looking for is early 1940s beginning WWII period. Of course the "dashing young detective (or agent) with beautiful companion" theme has been around for decades and is still going on today even in an exotic setting like Avatar.

 

Interesting user name……

 

Seems like a big data base, but you can search it, maybe it's in there...?

https://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?genre=Serial&decade=1940&perpage=10

 

Something to do with Clark Kent and Lois Lane?

 

You might try this....28 minutes in.

 

Could you explain what you mean by "movie serial"? I am unfamiliar with the term.

 

Think Op means Series a tv show ,
(Name)
But could be Movie serial number

 

Weren’t soap operas called serials as well?
Seems either way it’s worded, it was a “more than once” thing.

 

Movie serials predate television and were a device to encourage movie patrons to return to the theater every week so as not to miss an episode. Each episode would typically end with a "cliff hanger" scene, much like the season finale episodes on TV shows. They were various lengths - up to about half an hour long and the entire series would have ten or so episodes. (SWAG). They were usually shown after the news and announcements and before the feature film. I saw this serial in the mid 1950s and it was probably filmed in the early 1940s. I have checked quite a few movie serial data bases without success so I'm counting on the collective wisdom and experience of HAMBers.
Whoa, ding - ding. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Thank you, Joe Blow! Looking forward to watching the entire serial. The tunnel sequence is great. Sorry about Summerville. It was Granville. At least I was right about the HAMB coming through. INCREDIBLE.

 

Libenter

 

Thanks for the definition of movie serials, I was thinking that I did not think there was Series on tv back then considering Majority all did not have a TV, Going to movie must been a big treat / thing , to this day , myself only been 3-4 times

 

Depending on the night, you had the movie serial, or dinner ware give aways too. Ate alot of chicken dinners off of the old Ventian movie house thursday nite give aways...

 

I appreciate you taking the time to explain the term

 

I watched it...need episode 3 on.

 

I'm not sure which movie serial you're trying to find, but the original Green Hornet and Commando Cody and Radar Men From The Moon had some really cool cars and other vehicles.

 

Thanks to all. Been trying to find this serial literally for decades and obsessing over it. Knew the HAMB would come through and boy - did it ever! Oddly enough, I never got any better info on my 40 Mercury despite it's being fairly recognizable.
Have you seen my 40 Mercury custom convertible?

 

...YES, it was a big deal back then, before the advent of TV. Much like baseball was a huge pastime for people before video games and all of the other social distractions came along. Newspapers, the same, now dying a slow death due to everyone getting their news on the internet or in real time by other means. Kinda sad, really................Of course this was all before my time, mind you...

 

Yeah, we need closure...episode 3 to wrap up the loose ends. Who got the girl?

 

I was born in 1946 and can remember going to Saturday afternoon movies in the mid '50's. Most of the Serials back then were science fiction or cowboy related. The price of admission at my neighborhood theater on Saturday afternoon was $.15 and I had a dime left over for popcorn out of my $.25 weekly allowance. Those were the best times.

 

Back then we also had 'Serials' on the radio. You had to tune in each week to see if the good guys survived the dastardly deeds of the bad guys at the close of last week's episode.

Edit: Some radio serials that I remember........
The Lone Ranger
The Shadow (mystery)
Little Orphan Annie
Daddy Ringtail (kid's program)

 

Good stuff, my mom used to tell me about “radio time” I don’t recall the shows that were played, but her folks and two brothers would huddle around the radio after dinner and listen in.
Heck, as a kid I thought colored TV was the best new thing.

 

I was born in Chicago in 1946. In 1951, my dad was transferred to Albany, Ga. A small town in southwest Georgia. We had a tv in Chicago because there were some tv stations there. In Albany, no tv stations. Nearest in Atlanta about 200 miles away. Once our neighbors found out we had a tv, we became very popular. Of course all we got on the screen was "snow". The neighbors didn't understand and thought a "white out" snow storm was being televised. I might add, the tv was a blond wood cabinet with about a 14 inch screen and weighed over 100 pounds.

 

For me, my grandma would give us each $1. We would ride the bus downtown, get some candy at the five and dime (and sneak it in), buy a movie ticket, and still have change left for a Coke. Don't forget to ask for a transfer when you get off the bus or you were walking home!

 

i'm just so curious as to how "joe" knew to figure that!!?? e.s.p. or?

 

You forgot to mention that those old TVs were also steam powered back then.

 

I saw it too. When I was a kid, in the early sixties, there was a Saturday morning movies program for kids during the school year. Parents would purchase season tickets and every Saturday morning dump their kids off at the theater....crumb crunchers running wild everywhere....total chaos. Before movies like Old Yeller, they would show old Republic Serials. Remembered this one but was thinking it was a Dick Tracy, which had a similar tunnel scene. Looked up the Dick Tracy episode and this one also popped up - which I recognized as the right one...aaand now you know...the rest of the story.

 

In the late sixties a “second run” theatre in Vancouver brought back the serial idea for a couple of years, old Super,pman stuff as I recall. Around the same time I discovered Jack Cullen and his “Owl Prowl” on CKNW. It started at 10 PM and went til midnight I believe. The first hour he played archival tape of interviews he had with Sinatra, Crosby, all the big names who came to Vancouver and some he had made in Palm Springs. The second hour was Radio Replay with “The Shadow”, “Inner Sanctum”, and a ton of other theatre of the mind stuff. Excellent old stuff. Later I bought copies of radio shows on tape and played them through a ‘40ish looking radio that could play tapes as well. My introduction to “serials”.