The high adventure and elaborate villainy of the Pulps seemed tailor-made for Saturday morning cliffhangers, yet few made the transition into chapter-plays. Tarzan and The Shadow are notable examples, but each were proven commodities in film and radio by the time they thrilled serial audiences. In 1938 The Spider leapt to the screen directly from the pages of his magazine, so strong was his readership.

The Spider's Web (1938)
(Working Title: The Spider -- Master of Men) This surpisingly faithful adaptation of The Spider magazine's characters and body-count is generally thought to be Columbia's finest serial, and one of the best chapter-plays of all time! Through 15 truly action-packed episodes, the picture-perfect cast battles the hooded Octopus, who is bent on destroying the nation's transportation, communication, and utilities systems in order to gain control of them. First chapter released October 22, 1938.

The Spider Returns (1941)
(Working Title: The Return of The Spider) So popular was The Spider's Web that Columbia quickly followed it up with -- well, first The Shadow (1940), a virtual Web retread with Lamont Cranston, but then -- The Spider Returns, a wartime retelling of the first serial with the sabotage-happy Gargoyle doing the masked villainy this time out. Sadly, this is a lesser effort more typical of Columbia's weak serial output under the solo direction of James W. Horne, who "specializes" in misguided knockabout comedy bits. And the recast Nita, Mary Ainslee, is an unwatchable shrew. First chapter released May 9, 1941.