Biography
One of the giants in the action serial genre, screenwriter Basil Dickey had learned this special craft from the very best, collaborating with the legendary George B. Seitz on such genre classics as
The Perils of Pauline (1914) and
The Exploits of Elaine (1914), both starring
Pearl White, the undisputed queen of the cliffhangers. On his own, Dickey penned the 15 episodes of
Beatrice Fairfax (1915) and embarked on one of the longest serial writing careers in history. Working for nearly all the major cliffhanger producers, Dickey's oeuvre would include Universal's Flash Gordon serials and many of Republic Pictures' finer examples of the genre. In between his work on chapterplays, Dickey found time to write B-Westerns and even authored a 1920 book on screenwriting, Successful Scenarios: A Course in Picture Play Writing. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide