Offering #1: EARLY SERIALS AND LINKS TO PUBLISHING
THE GENTLEMAN THIEF VERSUS THE CONSULTING DETECTIVE
The first serial, ARSENE LUPIN CONTRE SHERLOCK HOLMES was reportedly produced in Germany in 1910. It surprisingly featured two important popular fictional characters, the British consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, and the French gentleman thief, Arsene Lupin. It was based on short stories by Arsene Lupin's creator, Maurice Leblanc, and collected into a novel entitled ARSENE LUPIN VERSUS HERLOCK SHOLMES. In his book, LeBlanc mildly parodied Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, renamed Herlock Sholmes. In the film serial, the German producers used the real name SHERLOCK HOLMES, since Germany had different and less stringent copyright laws. Nothing exists of the serial except the consolation of a copy of the English translation of the 1910, found below.
HEROINES AND HAZARDS
In the United States, the serial came because of product tie-ins, adaptations, and franchises, much like many of today's movies and television shows. Their appearance in the silent era was in conjunction with serial stories appearing in newspapers and weekly magazines. These stories were collected into three novels, WHAT HAPPENED TO MARY, THE ADVENTURES OF KATHLEEN, and THE PERILS OF PAULINE, all found below. The plots of many of the first serials, such as The Perils of Pauline, consisted of a mystery or menace that placed the heroine in danger week after week, in episodes or chapters usually lasting about 15 to 20 minutes. A full chapterplay in the silent era usually lasted from about 10 to 20 chapters ( one, The Hazards of Helen, lasted over 119 chapters). Some were more like series than serials with full episodes without cliffhangers. Women were their main characters and many serial endings elicited situational conundrums rather than physical cliffhangers. In general, chapterplays of the silent era were more complex and sophisticated in their plots and characters than sound serials because they had an audience of adults as well as youngsters.
