Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Daniel Richardson This was the first serial that I ever saw. I saw the big clunky robots on the cover and thought to myself "You know what? I have yet to see an old sci-fi movie with those big clunky robots in it." I always wanted to. So I bought a box set which also included "Undersea Kingdom". Now I had no idea who Gene Autry was or that this wasn't completely a sci-fi serial. I didn't know it was partially a western as well. But when I watched it I was pleasantly surprised. I mean it's not great but it's worth seeing. Now I will warn you that the first chapter or so is slow, but then it picks up. Now it's not an edge of your seat thriller however, it does have some exciting moments. Another thing is I can't believe how complex it is. I'm not saying it's confusing or anything, but there are many different story lines and side stories going at once. It's really layers upon layers. So in closing if you get a chance, give it a shot. It's not bad at all.

classicsoncall My experience of "The Phantom Empire" comes from the two hour movie pieced together from the twelve chapter serial, so admittedly, there is much I didn't get to see. To say that the film is unique is an understatement; where else do you have a Western blending with sci-fi and dating back to 1935? Gene Autry stars in one of his earliest films, hosting a daily broadcast adventure with his Radio Riders. He's also assisted by Frankie and Betsy Baxter (Frankie Darro and Betsy King Ross), who are the young leaders of the National Thunder Riders Association. The group is fashioned along the lines of the Boy Scouts, taking their name from the thundering sound of horses ridden by an underground race called the Muranians. Viewers are also treated to an early pairing of Gene with a very young Smiley Burnette, though his screen time is limited as one of Gene's Radio Ranch singers.As typical with "B" Westerns and serials of the era, the emphasis is on action and danger, here provided by unscrupulous men who invade Gene's ranch because of radium discovered there. Meanwhile underground, the action on the ranch is monitored by Queen Tika of the Muranians (Dorothy Christy), who must protect her stronghold from the people of the surface world, while at the same time fending off a revolutionary advance by one of her ministers, High Chancellor Argo (Wheeler Oakman).Science fiction tangles with science fact at all levels here, and it's a hoot trying to make sense of it. For example, the elevator that transports the Muranians back and forth travels a distance of 25,000 feet in about three seconds, that translates to about 6,000 miles per hour! However there's one very interesting statement made by Queen Tika that proves to be entirely prophetic - "Get the captain of the Thunder Riders on the wireless cell phone!" Before it's all over, Gene escapes from such terrors as the D-Ray Lithium Gun and the Chamber of Death, while impersonating a Muranian himself along the way. He obviously takes his role seriously, pay attention to an early scene when he's shot off his horse; he hangs on to his hat while tumbling all the way down a hillside.If you don't have the patience for the five hour serial, the recently made available DVD from Digiviews offers a reasonable alternative, though purists may not think so. However the gist of the Phantom Empire experience is presented well enough here with acceptable quality, and enough songs by Gene Autry to make your viewing time worthwhile.

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.

richardjstanford A classic by anybody's standard! Never before and never since has there ever been such a combination of Western, musical, SciFi, comedy and adventure. Truly imaginative. Gene Autry's first starring vehicle. It predates Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and all the other SciFi serials of the '30s and '40s. And it was no doubt the reason Republic Pictures stuck to the SciFi theme in most of their serial through to the end of their existence. Has to be seen to be believed. An inside joke appeared in Gene Autry's 1941 feature "Sierra Sue" wherein character actress Dorothy Christy, who plays Queen Tika in this serial, says to Autry "I have the feeling we have met somewhere before. Maybe in another world". A true must see for film historians and fan of all ages. Great fun!