Radio Ranch

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Audience Member WOW, this was just so stupid. I love old cheesy Sci-Fi, there’s just something so primitive about their idea of technological advancement. To be clear, I watched the 70 minute “Empire Feature” re-edit of the original serial. I may look at the original serial someday, but that day is not today. Gene Autry plays himself, (as per usual) in his first starring role. The Uncle Noah song and the one about the silver haired dad were pretty good. The story was really dumb though, basically Gene has a contract to do his radio show on this ranch. Really popular show, and his partners kids Frank and Betsy use his show to advertise their Thunder Riders club. The reason they are called that is because whenever they see the real Thunder Riders, they sound like roaring thunder (as they ride their horses). So Frank and Betsy make it their little club. Anyways some dudes are looking for Radium under the ground, but one of the guys knows of some missing people from the lost continent Mu. Who he is more interested in investigating. So in order to desert the land, those dudes try to kill and get rid of Gene Autry, but he survives. Then Gene gets framed for the murder of his partner who (like I said earlier) is the father of Frankie and Betsy. Moving on, Gene thwarts a kidnapping attempt on himself, and kind of leads himself to Murania where he is sentenced to death. The dudes in charge of his execution turn out to be rebels who want to kill the queen and take over. So they decide to learn how to create their own breathing mechanism, since they cannot breathe on the surface of the earth. Using Gene as the resource to research and create the thing, Gene fights back and escapes. Then he gets back before 2:00 to do his little radio show or whatever and bam. Anyways all this happens again, except this time Frankie and Betsy are taken and the Queen helps Gene get them back after learning do the rebels plan. The rebels disintegrator destroys the whole city of Murania as Gene, Betsy, Frankie, and the two guys who helped free them escape. We see some really dated effects of the place disintegrating then we cut to something else. It’s Gene catching the guy responsible for killing his partner, he even gets a confession. Frankie learned how to use the Muranian’s tools to record this event, and saves Gene from a very long prison sentence. All’s well, it ends well. Very poorly acted with some good songs, and cheesy sci-fi that actually somewhat predicts the future, can you think of anything better? 1/5 stars. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 09/27/24 Full Review Audience Member Ignore the poor;y acted cowboy opera. Marvel at the underground city that predicts cell phones, GPS and elevators thousands of feet tall. Not as visionary as "just Imagine," but worth a look. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member mixing singing cowboy westerns with sci-fi= not so much even Autrey is unable to save this hot mess! Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member I use to watch this "cliff hanger series" when I was a kid. The junior thunder riders where fun to watch. Didn't like when Gene Autry was on screen much. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member As a serial, it's a bit long, and pretty cheesy, yet it holds some interest. The singing bits and the subplots did make the films confusing. Decent characters, decent ending. Overall, 30's sci-fi/western fun. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member this is one of the most bizzare things i review on this site,THE PHANTOM EMPIRE is a movie serial that blends elements of a Westren , a musical ,and Sicence fiction in one story line. Visually the western secenes and sci-fi secenes clash drastically with each other. Plot wise it's amazing to think its quite littarley a sci-fi western, Gene Audry (as himself) a cowboy radio star who regualy brodcasts each day at 2pm from radio rach has his life changed for ever when evil scientists who are looking for a hidden kingdom underground frame him for murder, running from the law adury finds himself caputered by the troops of the hidden kingdom called Murainia and is taken miles underground to be executed for bringing to much atteion to the former abanoned ranch which theatens the hidden kingdoms eixisatnce. When Autry is going to be executed by the queen of murainia her lord saves the cowboy for future use in an up comming rebellion. Overall , there is just to much storylines for this serial but the one thing i love about this serial is the Sic-Fi element to it , athough it rips off the look off friz lang's METROPILIS (1927) this serial has robots, T.V's, death ray's , and misslies. for a serial made in 1935 its sci-fi element was at least a good 15 years ahead of its time. Recommendation: DVD collectors get this serial on DVD through VCI entertainemt or BIG SKY VIDEO it makes a nice addtion to any collection. 6/10 Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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