Sunday, October 10, 2010

The Phantom Empire (1935)

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"When the ancient continent of Mu sank beneath the ocean, some of its inhabitant survived in caverns beneath the sea. Cowboy singer Gene Autry stumbles upon the civilization, now buried beneath his own Radio Ranch. The Muranians have developed technology and weaponry such as television and ray guns. Their rich supply of radium draws unscrupulous speculators from the surface. The peaceful civilization of the Muranians is corrupted by the greed from above, and it becomes Autry's task to prevent all-out war, ideally without disrupting his regular radio show."

This 12-chapter Mascot serial offered singing cowboy Gene Autry his first starring role, in what has to be one of the most sublimely, surpassingly surrealistic serials ever made. Consider the following--5 or 6 miles underground below the dude ranch owned by Gene is the long-lost superscientific civilization of Murania. Gene has not one but two juvenile sidekicks (Frankie Darrow and Betsy King Ross). Further, Gene has not one but two comical sidekicks (Smiley Burnett and Bill Moore). Gene will lose the ranch unless he shows up every day to do a live radio broadcast of western songs -- so simply being locked in a closet by his enemies (and he has many, both above and below ground-level) will result in an agonizingly suspenseful chapter ending. But there are many exciting chapter endings, including the forever classic situation in which Gene, Betsy and Frankie are left literally hanging from a cliff by their fingertips!



The serial's real focus is on the city of Murania, represented by a surprisingly detailed miniature, and by some great, huge-looking futuristic sets. You can count on the fingers of one hand all the super-scientific future cities we ever got a glimpse of in the early 1950s, either on film or TV, and Murania is at the top of the list. As presided over by the regal Queen Tika (icy blonde Dorothy Christy, who also portrays Stan Laurel's terrifying wife in SONS OF THE DESERT), Murania is a hotbed of cardboard robots, scheming noblemen, mad scientists, and labs full of giant levers, spinning dynamos, gigantic pistons, spheres emitting large sparks, bubbling chemical retorts, flickering gauges, giant rayguns, huge TV screens, welding torches that emit 6-foot flames, and other high-tech wonders. Almost every detail of Murania is surpassingly strange. One aspect that delighted me and my brother when we saw it in the early 1950s is that whenever a recently-dead corpse is returned to life, by the marvelous medical technology of Murania, he speaks incomprehensible words --"The language of the dead," as the chief scientist helpfully explains! (doctors in Murania wear black instead of white surgical outfits!)


For reasons unknown, Murania has an armored cavalry, the "Thunder Riders," who every once in a while take the miles-long elevator trip to the surface and ride around Gene's ranch. And as a wonderful example of how this serial always piles it on, Frankie and Betsy are leaders of a gang of kids who call themselves the "Junior Thunder Riders," and ride around Gene's ranch too, with water-pails on their heads in imitation of knight's helmets! Frankie even has a workshop/lab just as many kids dreamed of having in 1950, where he dabbles with radio and a chemistry set. Above ground, some gangsters plot to seize Murania for its mineral wealth, while in Murania itself, revolutionaries plot the overthrow of Queen Tika, and the last chapters feature a Muranian civil war with large numbers of exotically-costumed extras! This is truly a serial that touches all the bases, each more than once.


In the leading role, Gene Autry is extremely likable and unassuming. The audience cares deeply what happens to him, despite the often absurd goings-on that surround him. For him, it was the auspicious beginning of a long, richly successful movie, radio, TV and recording career. Note too the very subtle chemistry between Gene's character, and Queen Tika. In Gene's later singing westerns, he would win over even the most feisty females just by singing them a little song; probably the serial's only lapse is that he never gets to sing for the Queen!



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