io9
One of the best parts of watching old science fiction serials from the 1930s are the strange title cards that come at the beginning of each installment to remind you about what happened in the last. This is a gallery of those titles from The Phantom Empire, a popular serial starring "singing cowboy" Gene Autry, who fights against the evil Queen Tika. She rules the underground scientific city Murania, which is "far advanced in the use of radio activity."
What's great is how the serial weaves together your basic scifi plot (discovering an advanced underground city ruled by an evil queen) with Autry's status as a radio star who does a daily program with some kids at Radio Ranch. So pop music is in peril as long as Queen Tika wants to get Radio Ranch away from the secret entrance to her city full of "radio activity." Get it? Radio and radio activity don't mix! Plus, an evil professor is also after Radio Ranch because he wants to harness the radium riches of Murania. Every episode usually features a song from Autry, as well as riding tricks from his teen pals in the "Thunder Riders," one of whom was famous for her rodeo skills. Cowboys, science fiction, and radio technology — the perfect combination! Luckily it's available on DVD.
Comments
Why does this remind me of LOL cats?
Hey, they seem funny now, but I'd love it if somehow the serial would make a comeback, especially sci-fi serials.
So it's like "Footloose" meets Styx's "Kilroy Was Here" meets Will Rogers meets the Mr. T cartoon meets "There Will Be Blood" meets "Rustler's Rhapsody" meets "The Golden Compass" meets "Land of the Lost"?
This is so cool! I'm sad that I was not around in the days of the sci-fi serial. I'm also a little sad that I'm mostly stuck in perspective that sees this titles as funny, not totally-awesome and run-home-from-school-so-you-don't-miss-a-minute-of-the-thrilling-conclusion.
Serials should come back. And the ground is perfectly ripe for them. They're putting money into 'webisodes' which look better than serials ever did. They should just blow those up to film size and show a 3 minute ep before big movies. It's not like the corporations who own the webisodes don't own the movies as well.
Hmmm... reminds me of Bioshock.
Great googly-moogly, I remember watching this on PBS's old Matinee at the Bijou show. It was something I definitely looked forward to every week, along with Radar Men from the Moon.
@collinxvii: You really are young! These serials didn't show on TV, they were shown at the theater every Saturday. These look like they're from the days before there was a TV in every home. :)
Kids these days. Why in my day we used to...
Just for the record, these are before my time too. :)
My love of old serials in unhealthy.
Undersea Kingdom for the win!
That's it! The worst movie ever made. Kids on horses with buckets on their heads!... Cardboard robots! Cowboy Music!...WHotwhotwhot whot!
Matinee at the Bijou rocked. It had a cartoon, a short film or newsreel, a serial, and a feature each week.
SPOILER:
In the last installment of The Phantom Empire, a radium gun goes out of control and begins destroying the underground empire. The filmmakers simulate this by melting, not a model of the city, but what appears to be a matte painting laid out on way. Everything just kind of wilts and sags and runs.
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