The Phantom Empire is a 1935 American Western serial film directed
by Otto Brower and B. Reeves Eason and starring Gene Autry,
Frankie Darro, and Betsy King Ross. This 12-chapter Mascot
Pictures serial combined the western, musical, and science fiction
genres. The first episode is 30 minutes, the rest about 20 minutes.
The serial film is about a singing cowboy who stumbles upon an
ancient subterranean civilization living beneath his own ranch that
becomes corrupted by unscrupulous greedy speculators from the
surface.

This was Gene Autry's first starring role, playing himself as a singing
cowboy.


Plot

Gene Autry (Gene Autry) is a singing cowboy who runs Radio Ranch,
a dude ranch from which he makes a daily live radio broadcast at
2:00 pm. Gene has two kid sidekicks, Frankie Baxter (Frankie Darro)
and Betsy Baxter (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!" (their motto).

A chance to become 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
buildings, robots, ray-guns, elevator tubes that extend miles from
the surface, and the icy, blonde, evil Queen Tika. On the surface,
criminals led by Professor Beetson plan to invade Murania and
seize its radium wealth, while in Murania, a group of revolutionaries
plots to overthrow Queen Tika.

The inhabitants of Murania are the lost tribe of Mu, who went
underground in the last glacial period 100,000 years ago, and
now live in a fantastically advanced city 25,000 feet below the
surface. They cannot now breathe the air at ground level and
must wear oxygen masks. (Surface dwellers have no trouble
breathing Muranian air.) The Thunder Guard emerges to the
surface world from a cave with a huge rock door that swings
up like a garage door. Both Muranians and Professor Beetson
want to get rid of Autry, so he loses his radio contract and
Radio Ranch is vacated.

Cast

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
Dorothy Christy as Queen Tika, the evil queen of Murania
Wheeler Oakman as Lord Argo, the Muranian High Chancellor
Charles K. French as Mal
Warner Richmond as Rab
J. Frank Glendon as Professor Beetson
Smiley Burnette as Oscar, comic relief
Peter Potter as Pete, comic relief
Edward Peil Sr. as Cooper
Jack Carlyle as Saunders


Soundtrack

"Uncle Noah's Ark" (Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Nick Manoloff) by Gene Autry
"That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine" (Gene Autry, Jimmy Long) by Gene Autry 
"I'm Oscar, I'm Pete" (Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette) by Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, 
"No Need to Worry" (Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette) by the Radio Rangers 
"Uncle Henry" (Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette) by Gene Autry 
"I'm Getting a Moon's Eye View of the World" (Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette) 
"My Cross Eyed Gal" (Gene Autry, Jimmy Long) by the Radio Rangers 
"Just Come On Back" (Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette) by the Radio Rangers 


Chapter titles

The Singing Cowboy
The Thunder Riders
The Lighting Chamber
Phantom Broadcast
Beneath the Earth
Disaster from the Skies
From Death to Life
Jaws of Jeopardy
Prisoner of the Ray
The Rebellion
A Queen in Chains
The End of Murania