Science Fiction Films are usually scientific, visionary, comic-strip-like, and imaginative, and usually visualized through fanciful, imaginative settings, expert film production design, advanced technology gadgets (i.e., robots and spaceships), scientific developments, or by fantastic special effects. Sci-fi films are complete with heroes, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology and gizmos, and unknown and inexplicable forces. Many other SF films feature time travels or fantastic journeys, and are set either on Earth, into outer space, or (most often) into the future time. Quite a few examples of science-fiction cinema owe their origins to writers Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. See also AFI's 10 Top 10 - The Top 10 Science Fiction Films.

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In the 1930s, the most popular films were the low-budget, less-serious, space exploration tales portrayed in the popular, cliff-hanger Saturday matinee serials with the first two science-fiction heroes - Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

Flash GordonSpace-explorer hero Flash Gordon was a fanciful adventure character derived from the Alex Raymond comic strip first published in 1934 (from King Features). The serials 'invented' many familiar technological marvels: anti-gravity belts, laser/ray guns, and spaceships. Universal's serialized sci-fi adventures included:

Download Escapist Serials of the 30s: Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers

Jungle and aviator adventure serials were also popular. Famed animal trainer Clyde Beatty encountered the dangers of the jungles of Africa in Republic's 12-chapter serial The Lost Jungle (1934) and in the 15-episode Darkest Africa (1936). To counter their popularity, Frank (nicknamed 'Bring 'Em Back Alive') Buck starred in Columbia's 15-part The Jungle Menace (1937). One of the best jungle serials was the 15-part Jungle Girl (1941), based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel and starring Frances Gifford (in her sole appearance in a serial). A submarine voyage to the underwater world of Atlantis was featured in the 12-chapter fantasy The Undersea Kingdom (1936).

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The first "Lord of the Jungle" was actor Elmo Lincoln - he started the trend in 1918 during the silent era with Tarzan of the Apes (1918). There were a couple of 1920s Tarzan silent serials: the 15-chapter serial The Adventures of Tarzan (1921) with Elmo Lincoln, the 15-chapter serial Tarzan the Mighty (1928), and the 15-chapter serial Tarzan the Tiger (1929). Others who played Tarzan before Weissmuller were Gene Pollar, P. Dempsey Tabler, Jim Pierce, and Frank Merrill.

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For most of the decade of the 1930s, war films went into decline due to increasing US isolationism, and Hollywood made fewer and fewer of them. Then, in the late 1930s, French filmmaker Jean Renoir attempted to signal a warning about warfare's 'grand illusions' with the classic anti-war film La Grand Illusion (1937), set in a WWI German prison camp in 1916 where an aristocratic French officer faced a dilemma regarding his escape with other POWs. Likewise, Renoir's comedy/farce The Rules of the Game (1939) was an indictment of decadent, morally-bankrupt, self-indulgent French upper-class aristocrats.

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One of the most popular, long-running mystery film series of the late 1930s through the early 40s featured the Saint, a mysterious, sophisticated, and debonair British detective named Simon Templar. The half-crooked sleuth, a rogue-turned crusader for Scotland Yard, was derived from Leslie Charteris' popular crime novels of the late 20s. Eight films (of the nine films) in the 15-year long series were from RKO, with one entry from Republic in 1943. In the first and last Saint films, Louis Hayward played the role of Simon Templar. The other two actors were George Sanders and Hugh Sinclair:

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Although technically a series of 28 films stretching over a period of twelve years (1938-1950), the series of Blondie films somewhat qualifies as a feature-film serial. Columbia Pictures produced this popular and wholesome series of low-budget situation comedies with a blonde character named Blondie Bumstead, after acquiring the film rights to the story.

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The females in film noir were either of two types (or archetypes) - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femmes fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him).

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Cast
Johnny Depp as Frank Tupelo
Angelina Jolie as Elise Clifton-Ward
Paul Bettany as Inspector John Acheson
Timothy Dalton as Chief Inspector Jones
Steven Berkoff as Reginald Shaw
Rufus Sewell as The Englishman
Christian De Sica as Colonnello Lombardi
Alessio Boni as Sergente Cerato
Daniele Pecci as Tenente Narduzzi
Giovanni Guidelli as Tenente Tommassini
Raoul Bova as Conte Filippo Gaggia
Igor Jijikine as Virginsky
Bruno Wolkowitch as Capitaine Courson
Marc Ruchmann as Brigadier Kaiser
Julien Baumgartner as Brigadier Ricuort
François Vincentelli as Brigadier Marion
Shashidhar as Shz
Nino Frassica as Maresciallo Cecchini
Neri Marcorè as the receiver of the hall

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Cast:

Kevin James, Rosario Dawson, Leslie Bibb, Ken Jeong, Donnie Wahlberg, Joe Rogan

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