The Phantom Empire and the birth of the scfi-western genre

The Phantom Empire was a TV serial filmed in 1934, starring the actor-singer Gene Autry, totaling 12 episodes of about 20 minutes each (except episode 1, which was 30 minutes). In 1940, a 70-minute feature film (now in the public domain) edited from the serial was released under the titles Radio Ranch or Men with Steel Faces.

Story:
Gene Autry is a singing cowboy who runs Radio Ranch. Gene has two kid sidekicks, Frankie and Betsy, who play at being armored knights of a civilization they call the Thunder Riders.

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 led by Lord Argo plots to overthrow Queen Tika. In the end, Gene saves the Queen and locks Argo and his men in the room with the death ray which gets out of control. Even with the end of Murania being imminent, the Queen refuses to leave.

However, Gene and the others escape back to the surface.
This ain't Cowboys and Aliens, nor Firefly, but this film marks the birth of the scfi-western genre. The story idea is due to Wallace MacDonald, a Canadian actor, writer and producer.

For more info, see
* wikipedia
* imdb
* archive.org

Here is a 51 minute version of that 70 minute film (most of the singing was cut and the action sped up slightly):

Phantom Empire (1935) from wdj on Vimeo.

This video includes music by
Rye Smugglers - Chili Con Karma - Crystal Bodies
* http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/rye-smugglers-chili-con-karma
Amiranu - Painting The Sky - The Rainbow God
* http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/amiranu-painting-the-sky
Eternal Bliss - Full-OM - 2CB
* http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/eternal-bliss-full-om
Mantra Flow - Behind The Shadow - Pyschedelic Epiphany
* http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/mantra-flow-behind-the-shadow
BlackStarrFinale - Auryn - Nothing
* http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/blackstarrfinale-auryn
Trinodia - Deceive My Eyes - The Omega Point (VA)
* http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/the-omega-point

All these except Trinodia's track are released under a cc-by-nc-sa Creative Commons license for noncommercial usage. Trinodia (Daniel Endstrom) has kindly given me his permission by email to include his track. In general, it is licensed cc-by-nc-nd.