For a small taste of this great
DVD,
watch the preview below.
The Phantom Empire, starring Gene Autry the Singing Cowboy, was a
12 chapter 1935 Mascot serial that combined the western, musical,
and science fiction genres. This was Gene Autry's first starring
role, playing himself as a singing cowboy. The serial was directed
by Otto Brower and B. Reeves Eason, and produced by Nat Levine. The
stories were written by Wallace MacDonald, Gerald Geraghty, Hy
Freedman
John Rathmell, Armand Schaefer, and Maurice Geraghty. The serial was
distributed by Mascot Pictures.
The cast of characters included:
Gene Autry as Gene Autry, singing cowboy at the Radio Ranch
Frankie Darro as Frankie Baxter, one of Gene's sidekicks
Betsy King Ross as Betsy Baxter, one of Gene's sidekicks. Ross was
an experienced rodeo performer and was billed as the "World's
Champion Trick Rider".
Dorothy Christy as Queen Tika, evil queen of Murania
Wheeler Oakman as Lord Argo, the Muranian High Chancellor and leader
of the rebels
Charles K. French as Mal
Warner Richmond as Rab
J. Frank Glendon as Professor Beetson, villainous scientist after
the land's Radium deposits
Smiley Burnette as Oscar, comic relief
Peter Potter as Pete, comic relief
Edward Peil Sr. as Cooper
Jack Carlyle as Saunders
The twelve chapter titles were:
1. The Singing Cowboy
2. The Thunder Riders
3. The Lighting Chamber
4. Phantom Broadcast
5. Beneath the Earth
6. Disaster from the Skies
7. From Death the Life
8. Jaws of Jeopardy
9. Prisoner of the Ray
10. The Rebellion
11. The Queen in Chains
12. The End of Murania
Gene Autry plays a singing cowboy of the same name, who runs Radio
Ranch, a dude ranch from which he makes a daily live radio broadcast
at 2pm. This is a "modern" cowboy story, with planes and more. Gene
has two kid sidekicks, Frankie Darro and Betsy King Ross, who lead a
club, the "Junior Thunder Riders," in which the kids play at being
armored knights of an unknown civilization, the mysterious Thunder
Riders who make a sound like thunder when they ride. The kids,
dressing up in capes and water-bucket helmets, play at riding "to
the rescue!" (to quote their motto).
The plot thickens and a chance to be real heroes occurs when Betsy,
Frankie and Gene are kidnapped by the real Thunder Riders, from the
super-scientific underground empire of Murania, complete with
towering skyscrapers, robots, ray-guns, elevators tubes that extend
miles from the surface, and an icy, evil blonde Queen Tika. On the
surface, a group of crooks under Professor Beetson plan to invade
Murania and seize its radium wealth, while in Murania, a group of
revolutionaries plot to overthrow Queen Tika.
The inhabitants of Murania are the lost tribe of Mu and went below
the surface in the Ice Age, 100,000 years ago and now live in a
fantastically advanced city 20,000 or 25,000 feet underground and
cannot now breathe the air at ground level so must wear masks. Gene
Autry however has no trouble breathing their air. The Thunder Guard
(Riders) emerge into the surface world from a cave where a huge rock
door opens upwards, remindful of Ali Baba. Both Muranians and
Professor Beetson's team want to get rid of Autry so he loses his
radio contract and Radio Ranch becomes vacant.
So gather the family, the snacks (popcorn, Goobers, Good n’ Plenty
or your favorite treat) and take yourself back to those Saturday
afternoons when you went to the movies to see the “next episode” of
your favorite Saturday matinee serial before the movie. Enjoy a good
ole western that not only gives you Gene Autry’s great singing voice
but some science fiction too. You have twelve jam packed episodes of
The Phantom Empire and over four hours that will keep you and your
family coming back for more.
We want to thank Wikipedia for some of the background
information on this show.
For a small taste of this great DVD, watch the
preview below. This is reduced both in size and quality to make it easier
to view on line. Enjoy!
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Production Notes
Source
Material:
Please note that the
DVDs/CDs whether video or audio are produced with the original film
footage or audio stock. We have deliberately left in all the slight
imperfections which adds to the nostalgia, charm and wonder of these
vintage DVDs and old time radio shows. All are compiled from public
domain sources.
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then packaged in full size DVD cases for easy storage with your other
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CD style or slim line cases.
Video
DVDs:
The DVDs are designed to
play on all home and computer DVD players, they are region free, NTSC
productions. We use only high quality DVD media to maximize
compatibility. The vast majority of DVD players work fine with our DVD
discs. Still, there are some that may experience problems, this
compatibility issue does exist for a small percentage of older DVD
players in use today.
Radio
Show CDs & DVDs:
The MP3 CDs and DVDs are
playable on any computer with a DVD/CD drive and an MP3 player such as
Window Media Player. The CDs will also play in CD players which accept
MP3 files. This includes both home and auto players. Also, we've found
that many DVD players will play MP3 files. The individual episode
files have been left accessible so that they can be transferred to
portable devices or CDs for your convenience.
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the rare case of a shipping problem; and most importantly, YOU have a
means of knowing that your purchase has been mailed and YOU can also
track it. All DVDs come in DVD cases, just like you get at the store.
We do not use plastic CD style or slim line cases.
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for any reason you are not satisfied with the item, just return it in
as new condition for a full refund of the purchase price. (S&H is not
refundable.)
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