Remember those moments where the main character finds himself in a difficult or precarious dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation, those thrill-a-minute extravaganzas, those rip-roaring spectacles, swashbuckling and derring-do action, cliff-hanger endings .... that was what Saturday Matinees were made of. Below is a compilation of the 'essence' of this wonderful genre. See also 'Cliff-Hanger Serials'
Four children (the Swallows) on holiday in the Lake District sail on their own to an island and start a war with rival children (the Amazons). In the... Read more
Set in England and Morocco in 1906, Marty Feldman's "remake" mocks all the do-or-die extravaganzas we've known and loved as he portrays Digby, identic... Read more
Daniel Defoe's classic story of survival and heroism takes on a whole new perspective in this action-adventure tour-de-force. Robinson Crusoe is maroo... Read more
Orson Welles is Long John Silver in this 1972 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate tale. Young Jim Hawkins comes into possession of... Read more
Gerry Anderson, the producer of the popular science fiction puppet show "Thunderbirds", produced this live-action sci- fi offering directed by Robert... Read more
In the year 1882, a disparate group of treasure seekers races against time to locate a sunken ship loaded with pearls off the Indonesian coast before... Read more
Robert Wagner, Raquel Welch, and some incompetent European gangsters kidnap an American gangster who they think has a lot of money. Read more
Aka 'Man-eater'. Burt Reynolds plays a tough American smuggler in the Mediterranean hired by what he thinks a scientific expedition. The voyage turns... Read more
Of the many '60s cinema spies who arrived in the wake of James Bond, none cut a finer figure than Italian siren Monica Vitti as jewel thief-turned-sec... Read more