ABSTRACT
The European attempt to break into the American markets and Europe’s confrontation with Hollywood’s hegemony has been well researched.2 I will, however, be looking at the imported European fi lm products from the viewpoint of seriality, something that will provide a different perspective of fi lm form and fi lm use in America. Out of the more than 100 European features that according to Anthony Guzman were released in America in 1921-1923 (with half of these released by major fi lm companies), only the small number of six productions were originally serial productions (fi ve of them released by large companies).3 However, these were usually the most expensive and impressive productions that had already received some attention in the American press when they were fi rst distributed in Europe. Also, because it is not well known that serials were frequently used in foreign fi lm-producing countries such as Germany or France or that some of the imported productions were once serials, the omission of serials in the distribution of European productions in America is seldom recognized by fi lm scholars.
