"cliff-hanger"

Christopher Philippo toff at MAC.COM
Wed Jan 22 16:31:09 UTC 2014


On Jan 22, 2014, at 8:33 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> <<Cliffhanger>> (1993) starring Sylvester Stallone.
[…]
> (For reference only. Ain't seen it; ain't gonna. Don’t cotton to draft dodgers.)

Was he? http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=75;t=001240;p=0  I recall the film being sort of fun, with John Lithgow chewing the scenery.  However, certainly there’s better uses for one’s time.

While most early uses of “cliffhanger” appear to be in reference to serial films, there’s some exceptions (though they may have had specifically western serials in mind), e.g.:

“‘cliff hangers,’ the Hollywood term for a Western”
“Gold Mining Site Is Locale of ‘Westerns’; ‘Henry Goes Arizona’ Latest to Be Filmed in La Placerita Canyon.” Syracuse Herald Journal. December 18, 1939: 20 col 1.

“Any mystery thriller is a ‘creeper,’ and a western thriller is either a ‘cliff hanger’ or a ‘horse opera.’”
“People Talk in Word-Saving Gibberish in Film Colony.” Utica Observer Dispatch. July 16, 1936: 8 col 3.

"Gibson is outspoken in his ideas of 'what is wrong with Westerns.'  He wants to eliminate the wild, cliff-hanging antics of most horse operas and replace them with story material that comes closer to present-day facts, for one thing.”
Fine, Henry M. "Ride 'em, Cowboy! Hoot Gibson Portrays West So a Westerner Can Recognize It." Screen & Radio Weekly. July 28, 1935. 13.

http://www.serialsquadron.com might be able to help find uses of cliffhanger and cliffhanging going back further than 1931.  It might turn up in old fan publications or radio shows they could have.  They might be able to identify serial episodes with literal cliffhanger endings, should that be of interest.

With respect to tweaking the definition “A serial film in which each episode ends in a desperate situation; hence, any story, play, etc., in which suspense is a main concern”, it seems to me “cliffhanger” refers to both (1) a type of ending and (2) a serial characterized by that type of ending.  However, as Jonathan Lighter wrote, “any story, play, etc., in which suspense is a main concern” seems overbroad.

North by Northwest has suspense and some literal cliffhanging, but no cliffhanger ending and as such the term doesn’t seem apt.  Suspenseful films might instead be “nail-biters” or what some call “seat-grippers”, which could refer to audience members needing to hold onto their seats not to fall off because of sitting on their edge, or to anxiety provoking a desire to leave mixed with not daring to leave for fear of missing anything.

There’s also “cliffhang” and “cliffhung” (and somewhere, I’d guess, "cliffhangs”):

“Elieen learned to cliffhang her audience in her venerable suds opera"
O'Brian, Jack. "Out On Limb Department: Choices For Tony Awards." Herald Statesman [Yonkers, NY]. March 23, 1971: 7 col 3.

"'It looks like another cliffhanger [...] The buyers 'cliffhung' in 1978, 1979 and 1980 and this year doesn't appear to be an exception, as it's shaping up now'" Bauder, Donald C. "Registers will jingle merrily." Tonawanda News. November 11, 1981: 4.

Christopher K. Philippo

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