The Phantom Empire

I watched it again the other night, this time with friends.

It was as wonderfully silly as I remembered.

Note: it is possible to watch it all in one night by fast-forwarding through the songs and plot summaries. I don't really recommend doing so, however. Something is lost when the songs are gone, and it's still quite a marathon.

If possible, give yourself at least two nights, preferably more. It is a serial, after all (On the other hand, something is gained by watching it with other people; compromises are sometimes necessary).

There is a lovely article about it here. I particularly enjoyed the history of the robots--I had already fallen in love with them & decided that I simply must have one. Now, I may have to go find the other two movies they "star" in:

Despite all the time and effort that went into creating Murania, the filmmakers chose not to construct their own robots. In fact, the robots were purchased from the Western Costume Company, a Hollywood institution that began supplying wardrobes to the film industry as early as 1912. The robots, which were primarily made out of cardboard, had been used previously in the Joan Crawford and Clarke Gable musical Dancing Lady (1933), where they were shown infringing upon Crawford’s personal freedoms.

Unlike other films that used robots as menacing villains or easy cannon fodder, the robots in The Phantom Empire were shown helping the citizens of Murania: they operated machinery, forged iron, opened doors, stood guard, and did other manual labor. As Queen Tika asks in the film, “Is that not better than living on the surface; mechanical men doing all the labor?” (The robots survived The Phantom Empire shoot and made a third screen appearance years later in the Columbia serial Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere (1951).)

Phantom Empire, A Second Entry

A 1935 black and white TV show. It has:

Horses
A singing cowboy
An underground empire
Robots
An imperious queen
A treacherous high chancellor
Evil Scientists
An unsolved murder
Capable sidekicks
Comical sidekicks
Singing
An airplane
Advanced technoglogy
Multiple plots
And did I mention the singing cowboy? Or his horses?

Good stuff!


Didn't play out quite the way I expected--for one thing, there were more plotlines and less singing than anticipated. It is a pity no one has done anything about the sound being so fuzzy [Edit: I see that there is a remastered version available; it just isn't the one Netflix sends out]. Any fan of old Westerns, old SF shows, or both really should watch it.

And I'm feeling quite disappointed because no one nearby seems to have Cliffhangers available for rental/borrowing: Not Netflix, not any of the four libraries I have cards for. Alas!

The Phantom Empire

You have to love a series where the question "Will Gene Autry make it back to the ranch in time for his 2PM radio broadcast is of equal importance to the questions "Who killed Dad?", "Will the evil scientists succeed in their schemes?" and "Will the alien empire succeed in kidnapping Autry?"*

I'm about halfway through, and I won't get to see the rest until the second disk comes in.

*It's only fair to add that my brother's reply to this is "You do?"