An annual three-month series of 16mm screenings, showing weekly episodes of a classic movie serial paired with classic (but secret) feature films.

Spy Smasher (1942, 12 episodes) is widely considered the best serial ever made. A freelance agent assumes a secret identity to fight a series of Nazi plots led by a master spy known only as The Mask. Based on a popular comic book of the time, filming began just two weeks after Pearl Harbor — and you can feel it. With breakneck pacing, surprising plot twists, cinematography well above the serial average, and some of the best action scenes of the decade, legendary serial director William Witney outdid himself and made a finely-honed cliffhanger that truly remains in a class by itself.

“Spy Smasher emerges in a class by itself, the foremost cliffhanger example of a whole school of Hollywood filmmaking in the '40s that gloried in matchless pure entertainment.” - Jim Harmon & Donald F. Glut, The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury (1973).

“Perhaps one of the best serials of all time because of its stunning cliffhangers and unique innovations to the serial form.” - Grant Tracey, “Spy Smasher,” Images: A Journal of Film and Popular Culture (Issue 4, July 1997)

Our secret feature films followed monthly themes: Classic Comedies, Serial Heroes & Heroines, and Fantasy and Adventure.

February concluded with a special program devoted to the silent serials, with a short documentary, rare trailers, and full episodes of The Hazards of Helen (1914) starring Helen Holmes, The Exploits of Elaine (1914) with Pearl White, and Trail of the Octopus (1919).