So awful it is excellent... so it scores a 5. Please also read the other comments for the startling blend of ingredients to be screamed at in the dizzy 1935 serial spectacular from backyard shed studio MASCOT Pictures. One could almost pass out in a frenzy of 'where do I start' alarm in trying to even begin to describe what I saw.... but here I go.... (oooh! tingles!).... A gang of kid horseback riders with buckets on their heads. A funny farm of single men who - every day at 2pm - sing songs about each other. A secret cave with a glass elevator to a picture of an underground art deco city. Hillbilly inspired robots with tin hats and noses. (noses! why would a robot need a nose?) Big zizzy ray-gun and a torpedo launcher that spits striped flying frankfurters. An evil queen (a real one) still dressed for that nightclub date that never happened. Men in tinsel miniskirts. Tubby old men. Like Uncle Wally. Big screen art deco TVs everywhere... even on a cave wall. .... etc... etc.... all 1934/5 madness. Made before UNDERSEA KINGDOM and made before FLASH GORDON this serial clearly made so much money that Repubic bought Mascot and remade the film immediately using the same sets and storyline. (bummer if you saw both in 1936... what a gyp!) ... and of course, Universal restructured and remade both with a budget and Buster Crabbe and FLASH GORDON history was made. But is it cheap littler Mascot Pictures who got there first and Hollywood me and you are never the same once you get through this entire serial.

"The Phantom Empire" (1935) is unique in the entire history if cinema. It's "Melody Ranch" meets "Flash Gordon" - and it's a kick.In the olden days (the'70s), it was the perfect entertainment for dropping a hit, taking a hit with a sip (or two...or three) and whoosh, off to the unknown, mysterious Murania, located 20,000 feet beneath Radio Ranch.Radio Ranch's owner, the often bland Gene Autry (who also owned the more famous Melody Ranch...same place) stars with his pal Smiley Burnette (not playing his normal Frog Milhouse role, but nonetheless playing Frog Milhouse)/ Gene also gets some help from teenagers Frankie Darro & Betsy King Ross. It's up to them to stop the evil Muranians from world domination and destruction (what do they care, they're 20,000 feet below the carnage).This gem was directed by reliable silent film and "B" movie journeyman master B. Reeves Eason, who also directed the "Flash Gordon"-inspired serial classics, "The Undersea Kingdom" (1936) which starred the always wonderful Ray "Crash" (named for "Flash") Corrigan (who has a small role here) and "Batmen of Africa" (also in 1936) with real-life wild game catcher Clyde Beatty. Eason helmed a slew of two-reel Oaters starring Gene Autry & Dick Foran before directing a series of rah-rah war films in the early '40s to compliment his turnout of westerns, mysteries & serials. Note: As second unit director of the classic 1925 silent film version of "Ben Hur" with Francis X. Bushman & Ramon Navarro, Eason used 42 cameras to shoot that epic's legendary chariot race; as well as directing the massive burning of Atlanta scene in "Gone With The Wind" (1939)."The Phantom Empire" is virtually never shown. Too bad because it's a fun curio. Perhaps they think it'll start a whole new psychedelic drug epidemic?BTW, there's a new DVD release by VCI that is terrific: crisp picture and sound, no blips, and as far as I can tell, it's complete.

This serial is one of the most random films I have ever seem. Turns out that everybody's favorite singing cowboy of the air waves,Gene Autrey, is promoting a ranch that is right near the entrance toa lost city of people who are even worse actors than the ones onthe surface. Autrey does some musical numbers, namely his big,big hit Silver Haired Daddy, the sets and special effects aredazzling at times, supporting cast members put in good efforts. The writing isn't always great, but the premise is enough. If youlike B-Westerns, and if you like Flash Gordan, this is a nicemerging of the two. I advise against the Alpha Video release. Thequality is terrible. It made me think of a piece of Silver HairedDaddy: "It I could erase those lines on your face..."

No, I wasn't 12 in 1935! Try 1955 when this 12 episode serial played on Saturdays in Colorado Springs. I grew up with westerns, with Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Lash Larue, and the rest. I was also acquainted with the science fiction serials and films of the period. Imagine my GLEE when I found out that they had merged the two genres!!!I saw this again recently, and while it has aged a bit in relationship to more modern westerns and SF films, this is indeed a landmark film: The only SF serial in which a major Western cowboy is the star!!!I am amazed that so few people have scored this film in IMDb. Please do yourselves a favor and seek out this one, watch it, enjoy it, and then give it a vote respective of its mark in cinematic history!