estabansmythe "The Phantom Empire" (1935) is unique in the entire history if cinema. It's "Melody Ranch" meets "Flash Gordon" - and it's a kick.In the olden days (the'70s), it was the perfect entertainment for dropping a hit, taking a hit with a sip (or two...or three) and whoosh, off to the unknown, mysterious Murania, located 20,000 feet beneath Radio Ranch.Radio Ranch's owner, the often bland Gene Autry (who also owned the more famous Melody Ranch...same place) stars with his pal Smiley Burnette (not playing his normal Frog Milhouse role, but nonetheless playing Frog Milhouse)/ Gene also gets some help from teenagers Frankie Darro & Betsy King Ross. It's up to them to stop the evil Muranians from world domination and destruction (what do they care, they're 20,000 feet below the carnage).This gem was directed by reliable silent film and "B" movie journeyman master B. Reeves Eason, who also directed the "Flash Gordon"-inspired serial classics, "The Undersea Kingdom" (1936) which starred the always wonderful Ray "Crash" (named for "Flash") Corrigan (who has a small role here) and "Batmen of Africa" (also in 1936) with real-life wild game catcher Clyde Beatty. Eason helmed a slew of two-reel Oaters starring Gene Autry & Dick Foran before directing a series of rah-rah war films in the early '40s to compliment his turnout of westerns, mysteries & serials. Note: As second unit director of the classic 1925 silent film version of "Ben Hur" with Francis X. Bushman & Ramon Navarro, Eason used 42 cameras to shoot that epic's legendary chariot race; as well as directing the massive burning of Atlanta scene in "Gone With The Wind" (1939)."The Phantom Empire" is virtually never shown. Too bad because it's a fun curio. Perhaps they think it'll start a whole new psychedelic drug epidemic?BTW, there's a new DVD release by VCI that is terrific: crisp picture and sound, no blips, and as far as I can tell, it's complete.

tedg I'm involved in a study of "folding" in film; folding is a matter of overlain or referenced narratives. Sometimes the folding is something only of interest to highbrow specialists, but usually it is a matter of fun.Some folding is a matter of introducing bizarre conventions, and once they enter in one film they promulgate throughout the system. And then through our imagination. So part of my study is looking for examples of folding and most especially the first appearance of specific types.This serial is usually considered an oddball secondrater compared to more famous (if not better) examples. But I am putting it on my list of films that everyone should see before they die. This brief description should indicate why, for those not excited about sitting through five hours of mediocre production.Gene Autry was already a famous radio star before making this. He was the first one to combine hee haw Appalachian folk music with the notion of a western cowboy to create the so-called "singing cowboy." The juxtaposition is amazing if you know the history, and in fact the subsequent history of "country and western" music (now just "country") spins from this one man. But that's all before this.This is his first movie, so they preserved the radio show. Every day at 2:00, Gene (playing himself) must give a show or lose his ranch. The show is live from that "radio ranch," where his ranch helpers play parts in the show. Okay: one simple fold, right? Now add: in producing the show instead of just doing sound effects and voices, the players actually do what they are portraying. Odd. (Another fold.)The purpose of the ranch is to provide a place for kids to do their "ridin and ropin" stuff, and indeed there are kids in attendance who form a secret society called the "thunder riders" after local legends (and experiences) seeing bands of riders inexplicably accompanied by thunder. This gang of kids is at the same time a feature of the story of the radio show, inhabitants of the ranch, and participants in the larger story we'll elaborate in a bit. A feature of the radio show is recruiting kids at home to join the riders in a sort of boy scout affiliation.Gene's ranch happens to sit on a radium deposit. Nuclear fission, even the idea, would be years away but radioactive stuff held a special place in the popular imagination. Needless to say, there is an evil professor and henchmen who want to eliminate Autry so they can get the radium. So far so good.But there is also a subterranean culture under the ranch as well, a huge city at 20,000 feet under, sustained by the radiation and rebellious robots. (Note: this is _before_ "Flash Gordon.") They have all sorts of advanced gadgets including something that gives their evil young queen effective remote vision, providing her with the creation of the movie. They, too, want Autry eliminated. The original "thunder riders" are the special forces of this city who emerge for whatever project is at hand.Thus, science fiction takes to horses and indeed every time some motion is needed as a break from the talking (and singing!) heads, there's a passel of panicky ridin, usually in groups of 20-30, which seems to be the most that can fit in a frame.The serial consists of all the ordinary captures and escapes (always by 2:00!) you might expect. In that sense, the thing is pretty ordinary, excepting that the substance of the radio show and the movie overlap and separate constantly. Its the novelty and complete oddity of the strange framework that makes the thing interesting and important. Film would never be the same after.The framework is clearly a matter of psychotropic hallucination, and indeed you can see the very same folded structure in the similarly drugged out "Tell your Children" written immediately after.If you decide to see it, don't use the DVD (which is technically horrible and is missing key elements), nor the silly movie they edited out of it. The VHS tapes are the thing to seek out.Ted's Evaluation -- 4 of 3: Every cineliterate person should experience this.

LucyCannon I guess you really do have to be under 12 and never seen 1977's "Star Wars" to enjoy this one for what it is when viewing it for the first time. A little like raw cookie dough, it doesn't taste quite right when you're over 30, except in a setting of group intoxication. I also do not recommend seeing more than a few episodes at a single sitting, and there are 12.Gene Autry's old-timey Hollywood Western music, and his bandmates' yokel humor, are the two brightest notes in this cheesy tin-hat sci-fi serial. Everybody wears an exceptionally goofy hat, it seems, except Queen Tika in her relatively sedate tiara; even the silvery robots wear hats. Why the elevator is powered by a robot cranking it rather than being fully automated, perhaps belies the "advanced technology" of the Muranians (although they do have TV, a novelty in 1935). Why the Muranians thunder across the plain en masse on horseback, if they were hoping not to be discovered by surface folk, is another mystery. More baffling still is why the Muranians need breathing apparatus at the surface, while Gene Autry and his buddies need none when they are kidnapped to the underground kingdom. And (*SPOILER WARNING!!*) if the death ray, run amuck, can destroy the entire city, there's nothing stopping it from continuing to destroy everything in the beam's path until it reaches the Earth's surface -- which it doesn't. Note also that Queen Tika is the only female to be seen in this society. They must breed like bees.One of our party also notes that Gene seems to die more often than South Park's Kenny, only to be revived by the next episode. The Junior Thunder Riders, kids modeling themselves on people who at that point in the story are considered villains, look remarkably like the Klansmen riding to the ostensible rescue in "Birth of a Nation." A female championship trick rider is apparently only there to be the young-girl-in-jeopardy.If you are over 21, rent this one with some friends and plenty of beer and popcorn. It deserves to be shared, but do take a break now and then lest you hurt your brain.

qtika I first saw Phantom Empire back in the 1970s when it was included in a local museum series of vintage films. I was totally enthralled by it and the incredible underground world below Gene Autry's "Radio Ranch". (The ranch was the site of weekly broadcasts of great oldtime cowboy music.) I'm more a fan of old cowboy movies than I am of science fiction, but I was really taken by the sci-fi set, with wacky multi-story elevators, ray guns, and metal robots. I was particularly smitten by the beautiful but evil Queen Tika, ruler of Murania, who had a magical spinning circle on the floor which she would visit and ask to show her anything she wished. The wheel would spin, complete with a spiraling graphic, which then turned into a real-time view of -- Gene Autry, of course, and his whereabouts, providing the Muranians the opportunity to capture him. (Seeing the spinning circle reminded me that as a six year old, I conjured up similar powers from spinning circle, and had forgotten all about it. Since then, my alter ego is. . Queen Tika!) I recommend the Phantom Empire series as an experience in true, though "kitschy", entertainment! Sincerely yours, Queen Tika