Just got to wondering about this earlier today... in terms of years between first and most recent films, total running time and actual number of films, I'd have thought that the Carry On films must be in with a shout for this title. I also wondered about the Japanese Godzilla films, there were quite a few of those.

This is a question for the real movie buffs out there and those with good memories - I don't fit either definition I'm afraid!!!

CaptainD

I wonder if King Kong would count since it has been remade so many times.

Also, Last of the Mohicans has been made many times. I recently saw a silent movie version from the 20's.

Zorro and Tarzan have been around a long time, too.

Vampire movies have been carrying on since the early 1900's. Dracula 2000 is the only recent one that's coming to mind.

I would say James Bond. The Albert Broccoli production of the Bond movies has been churning out stuff for 30 years straight, even inventing new stories when they ran out of the original Ian Fleming stories.

I would have said James Bond too.

As far as I can work out from this webpage, the Carry On films total 31 so far, with teh first being Carry On Sergeant in 1958, the most recent being Carry On Columbus in 1992. There is even a film currently in prodution callde "Carry on London", scheduled for summer 2006 but seemingly put back to 2007 (see this page) starring Vinnie Jones! Oh dear. Or should I say, "oooh Matron"!

So, resuming that comes out in 2007, it will be 32 films spanning 49 years!!! Beat that!

(Fair enough they're not all great or good, or even average - but there's a lot of them!)

CaptaniKnewIWas(MightBe)Right

I hadn't heard of those movies before.

the longest running film character series in English is
probably James Bond, since you can say it has more or less been continuous--same group of producers behind the films etc.

However, include Hong Kong/ChinaAnd by reputable -Tak-Hing Kwan born in 1905, began playing the character Huang Fei-hong in the mid 1940's. He continue playing the characher into the 1980's. A slightly different version of the same character known as Wong Fei Hung has been played by Tak Hing Kwan, Jackie Chan, Jet Li and many others. It's based on the legendary actors portrayals.

Anyway that's most likely the longest running series. One act playing one character for more the 40 years. Other actors playing a character based on him for another 40 or 50 years... Started in the 40's so that's over 60 years.

You might also look at some series that begin in the silent era, and then were done in various ways throughout the years. Unfortunately World War 1 and 2 interupted things quite a bit in Italy, Germany and Great Britain so you have to fudge on possible contenders to longers running series in those cases.

I honostley think it's the Godzilla series. The Big Guy's been around since the early 50's ('54 to be exact) and is still going strong. So it must be the longest running series focusing on a single character.

You have characters like Betty Boop that appeared in silent films all the way up to making appearances in mainstream pop films like Who FRamed Roger Rabbit.

You have famouse Chinese characters spanning back from the silent era to recent Hong Kong films with Jet Li.

Superman and Batman had film serials in the 40s, and continue in film today.

If you narrow it down to a long run series under the aegis of one studio and one set of producers it's probably the James Bond series.

A little broader definition and we're into Chinese/Hong Kong territory which I think trumps Godzilla.

But the old fire-breather has been around in movies since the mid 50's which is sure an impressive run and I'm not gonna pick a fight with him....that's for sure.

Hey Chris - welcome back!

All good points, certainly hadn't thought of Betty Boop!

Of course if you take it to an absolute, Fitz Lang's "Metropolis" was 1927 and the anime remake was 2001... a pretty impressive difference! Wouldn't count as a film series though, of course.

CaptainD