History Film / ThePhantomEmpire

''The Phantom Empire'' is a 1935 serial with Music/GeneAutry as "The Singing Cowboy" who discovers an advanced underground civilization with robots and other high tech. Notable for being a mashup of the western, science-fiction and ''musical'' genres.

''The Phantom Empire'' is a 1935 serial with Music/GeneAutry as "The Singing Cowboy" who discovers an advanced underground civilization with robots and other high tech. Notable for being a mashup of the western, science-fiction and ''musical'' genres. Do not mistake it for the 1988 low-budget film of the same name.

* Cliffhanger: At the end of every episode, to make sure kids came back the next week.

* OpportunisticBastard: Professor Beeson, the "villainous scientist" (their words). Not forward-looking enough to be TheChessmaster, he generally just does whatever's handy to screw whomever's between him and his dreams of vast piles of radium today.

''The Phantom Empire'' is a 1935 serial with Music/GeneAutry as "The Singing Cowboy" who discovers an advanced underground civilization with robots and other high tech. Notable for being a mashup of the western, science-fiction and ''musical'' genres.

* ScienceMarchesOn: For it's day, ''The Phantom Empire'' was mostly respectable sci-fi, with an emphasis on television, radio, automation, and radium-powered everything (to which it probably owed a debt to ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars''). Since then, radium isn't nearly as useful as a universal power source as they thought back in 1935.

* NightmareFuel: The "disintegrating atom-smashing ray." The special effect used is a film-based 'melting' that resembles a painting streaking and sliding off a surface on getting wet. This actually looks rather cool for the time (and the serial's low production values). However, it's explicitly stated to be extremely painful. It gets its Nightmare Fuel aspect from the last episode where [[spoiler:it destroys all of Murania: city paintings, civilian extras, robots, and Queen Tika on her throne]]. When applied to the human form it's a pretty intense effect for 1935.

* FridgeLogic: Mr. Baxter gets shot during a scene where the Radio Ranch crew are having a play-gunfight for their radio show. At first they think that this was due to some sort of accident, which leads one to wonder: even if they were firing blanks, ''why would they ever aim at each other if they're just making sound effects for radio?''
** ItMakesSenseInContext: Cowboys, while not as bad as Westerns made them out to be, were still a rowdy bunch who learned by hard knocks and rarely had things like formal firearm safety training (after all, a lot of early cowboy actors like Autry actually ''were'' cowboys and their use of firearms, no matter how dangerous to modern eyes--especially in terms of using them as pointing props--was how they naturally used them in the day). Knowing that ".22 tag" is a real-life thing in particularly backwards parts of Kentucky, it's not outside of the realm of reason for ranch hands to blow off some steam with what they think are just noisemakers. They were also far enough apart that the wadding in the blanks weren't going to hit anyone.

* Ascended Fanboy: The Junior Thunder Riders Club start out as a perfectly reasonable cross between the Scouts and the Gene Autry Fan Club. After a situation forces them to adopt the motto ''"To the rescue!"'' they end up ''regularly'' pulling Autry's fat out of the fire.

* Red Shirt: Mr. Baxter.
* [[SavingTheOrphanage Saving the Farm]]: Radio Ranch and Autry's airtime contract. All of Autry's friends rely on the Ranch for income, and this makes it a convenient target for the bad guys. Professor Beeson wants the Ranch gone so he can search for radium secretly. Queen Tika wants the Ranch gone so it stops attracting people to Thunder Valley and Murania's only connection to the topside.

* [[SaveTheOrphanage Save The Farm]]: Radio Ranch and Autry's airtime contract. All of Autry's friends rely on the Ranch for income, and this makes it a convenient target for the bad guys. Professor Beeson wants the Ranch gone so he can search for radium secretly. Queen Tika wants the Ranch gone so it stops attracting people to Thunder Valley and Murania's only connection to the topside.

* SchizoTech: The entire serial aside, Murania demonstrates this. Robot labor, videophones, teleobservation technology akin to StarTrek viewscreens, atomic cruise missiles, and the royal Thunder Guard riding around on horses and wielding swords. [[spoiler:They eventually get [[RayGun Ray Guns]].]]

* HonorBeforeReason: Gene Autry, once, in the last episode.
* IdealHero: Gene Autry.

''The Phantom Empire'' is a 1935 serial with Music/GeneAutry as "The Singing Cowboy" who discovers an advanced underground civilization with robots and other high tech.

* ActionGirl: Betsy Baxter, considering the time and the fact that she's maybe twelve years old. She rides, ropes, and fights.

* YouFool: As a serial, this gets bandied around a lot. The last time it shows up is both tragic and patently obvious to modern, GenreSavvy audiences [[spoiler:and of course it has to deal with the civilization-destroying disintegrator ray]].

'''''The Phantom Empire''''' is a 1935 serial with Music/GeneAutry as "The Singing Cowboy" who discovers an advanced underground civilization with robots and other high tech.

* ChekovsGun: Common for children's serials of the day, you can bet that if any new element is mentioned, it'll be used as a plot device within five minutes.

* ScienceMarchesOn: For it's day, ''The Phantom Empire'' was mostly respectable sci-fi, with an emphasis on television, radio, automation, and radium-powered everything (to which it probably owed a debt to JohnCarterOfMars). Since then, radium isn't nearly as useful as a universal power source as they thought back in 1935.