In 1936 the small town of Oelwein, Iowa (thirty miles northeast of Cedar Falls), with a population of nearly eight thousand, boasted two cinemas. On 1 February of that year the local newspaper (the Daily Register) listed the movies that were going to be screened that week. The Grand had a thrice-weekly change in programme that included such notable major studio releases as Anything Goes and Dangerous, while in contrast the Ritz had just one change in programme: which during the second half of the week featured Gene Autry in Melody Trail, supported by an episode of The Roaring West, a Buck Jones serial. Throughout the book the author is keen to emphasize that serials were a mainstay of cinema entertainment and not exclusively the province of children.

Guy Barefoot's book is about an aspect of cinema history that most of us know little about. He includes himself in this category before starting out on this project, writing,

In tracing the genesis of serials back to the beginning of the nineteenth century and its subsequent development in print, one strand of which led to the so called dime novels that were created by teams of writers and produced and distributed weekly, the author draws attention to the nature of the serial as both a cultural and commodity form, long before its take-up by the film industry.

The film serial emerged from the time when films were no longer limited to single-reel length. While multi-reel films during the 1910s allowed audiences to follow narratives during a single sitting, the serial extended the temporal dimension of the narrative to multiple connected sittings. Barefoot maintains that during the latter half of the decade, as the filmgoing habit developed alongside the widespread diffusion of cinemas, serials took on a high profile, referencing production series such as The Perils of Pauline (1916), starring Pearl White. It would appear that as a commercial form, serials, affected by the revolution in entertainment brought about by radio, went into decline during the 1920s and that by the coming of sound only the Columbia, Mascot (merged into Republic in 1936), and Universal studios were producing them.

Barefoot's book focusses on the period from 1930 to the demise of serials as cinematic forms during the mid-1950s. Chapter 2 examines the extent of the audience for this type of film, ranging from the local (Oelwein) to the international, and regularly cross-references with other media forms that took the serial form, such as comics. This is followed by an account of the industrial aspects of serial production and distribution, drawing heavily from Universal's Lost City (1935) and the manner in which Republic, having absorbed Mascot, “streamlined serial filmmaking … while achieving pre-eminence within its specific field” (7). Chapters 4 and 5 examine the films as constructs, investigating and discussing their production, subject, and stylistic values. Universal's The Lost Special (1932) and Jungle Jim (1937), Mascot's The Whispering Shadow (1933), and Republic's Daredevils of the Red Circle are subjected to detailed examination in chapter 5. The book's concluding chapter investigates the legacy of serials and comes to seven specific conclusions ranging from post-1930 serials attracting audiences from across the age range to their contribution to film form – specifically narrative design – during the 1910s when films broke out from the one-reel format.

This book constitutes a seminal achievement. It is extremely well researched with meticulous attention given to trade-journal and industry sources. For knowledge about the serial during the sound period this must be the go-to book. If I had one criticism, though, it would be that for all of the author's persuasion, I am not convinced about the importance of serials in film history, especially once the product design of the feature film had prevailed over the serial, say by 1920. By and large audiences did not go to the cinema primarily to watch serials. A systematic investigation of film programmes would show this. Rather, on 1 February 1936, in small towns like Oelwein, Iowa, as elsewhere, audiences were attracted by feature films.