Ya snooze, ya lose.
For ages I’ve been toying with the idea of taking a look at some of the serials of the 30s and 40s…and while toying was was still as far as I’d gotten, Ken nicked in with his hilarious take on The Green Archer for our Edgar Wallace Roundtable.
Ah, well…
Plenty of early serials called themselves “science fiction”, but a closer look reveals that they were rather action-adventure stories built around the struggle for possession of a “scientific” doo-hickey like a death-ray or a new poison gas, or the repeated kidnapping and rescue of a scientist with a “formula” (who usually spent all his onscreen time protesting that he only intended his death-ray / poison gas to be used for peaceful purposes).
However, they got there eventually…even if the definition of “science” remained just a trifle flexible…
.
.
…in which a lost civilisation located many thousands of feet below the surface of the earth finds its secrets under threat from a trio of unscrupulous scientists seeking to make their fortunes by locating the rich radium deposits which fuel the civilisation’s many marvellous scientific advances.
None of which is nearly so important as that fact that if a singing cowboy doesn’t perform at exactly two o’clock each day, he will break his radio contract, and he and his partner will lose their ranch…
.
.
Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
#1 by Alaric on July 5, 2015 - 10:49 am
Quote
Wonderful review. I really needed that today.
I vaguely remember seeing parts of an episode or two on TV years ago, but I don’t really remember it.
Ah, Mu- Born of a badly-translated (to be kind) Mayan inscription, it lives on in the fringe world, where no bad or discredited idea ever truly dies.
Wouldn’t it have been simpler for the scientists to just destroy Gene’s broadcasting equipment so he wouldn’t be able to live up to his contract?
Y’know, I was thinking about the fact that that television thingy seems to have been by far the Muranians’ greatest technological achievement, when it suddenly hit me- this whole serial is about a war between radio and television!
You’ll have to excuse me now- if I don’t get Gene Autry back to ranch for his Two O’Clock broadcast, he’ll lose radio ranch!
#2 by lyzard on July 5, 2015 - 7:28 pm
Quote
Thanks, Alaric!
Perhaps it took a while for the scientists to grasp that the broadcast was the key factor; clearly they had some strange idea that murder might be more successful in driving people away than a dearth of yodelling.
this whole serial is about a war between radio and television!
It is…and in that respect, the serial comes with a very interesting punchline…
#3 by GalaxyJane on July 5, 2015 - 1:56 pm
Quote
I can remember watching this one play out week by week on the old “Matinee at the Bijou” show. Loved watching it with my dad, whom I now hold responsible for passing on his taste in movies.
#4 by lyzard on July 5, 2015 - 7:29 pm
Quote
I used to watch a lot of serials with my dad, too, though we never got to this one.
#5 by The Rev. on July 9, 2015 - 12:03 am
Quote
That was the name of that show! Thanks, GJ! I knew I’d seen parts of this on PBS as a kid.
I haven’t seen it since, so I really have nothing further to add. I think I’ll mosey over and read the review now.
#6 by Ken on July 6, 2015 - 9:28 pm
Quote
This was sort-of remade as The Secret Empire in the late 1970s, part of the Cliffhangers TV series.
#7 by lyzard on July 7, 2015 - 12:50 am
Quote
Yes, I’ve heard about that, though not seen it – we never got that series here, unfortunately.
And of course like most serials, The Phantom Empire was cut down into movie-form and re-released as {*snicker*} Radio Ranch.
#8 by Alaric on July 7, 2015 - 5:35 pm
Quote
Because the best way to get an audience for a movie about a science fiction high tech lost city is to call the film “Radio Ranch”.
And I’d never heard of Cliffhangers. Must have been during the couple of years when our TV was broken and my parents decided not to get a new one so we’d stop watching so much TV.
#9 by ronald on July 7, 2015 - 8:49 am
Quote
Oh, c’mon, no captions for the screencaps on THIS one? Oh well.
#10 by Richard on July 7, 2015 - 9:08 am
Quote
We can submit our own, and Lyz can pick the best ones!
#11 by lyzard on July 7, 2015 - 9:28 pm
Quote
But the serial intros are self-captioning! Let’s face it, after “Queen Tika considers the radio artist dangerous to Murania” there isn’t much left for me to say.
(And if you’re not persuaded by this line of argument now, just wait for the intro image to the next six chapters!)
#12 by Alaric on July 7, 2015 - 5:34 pm
Quote
Because the best way to get an audience for a movie about a science fiction high tech lost city is to call the film “Radio Ranch”.
And I’d never heard of Cliffhangers. Must have been during the couple of years when our TV was broken and my parents decided not to get a new one so we’d stop watching so much TV.
#13 by lyzard on July 7, 2015 - 9:29 pm
Quote
It makes me wonder how it was edited—surely not to emphasise life on the ranch over Murania!?
#14 by Alaric on July 7, 2015 - 5:37 pm
Quote
Ugh. For some reason, my reply to another post above came out at the end of the thread instead of where it should have been.
#15 by lyzard on July 7, 2015 - 9:25 pm
Quote
There’s a limit to how many replies to replies you can have (I find it frustrating too).
#16 by supersonic man on July 8, 2015 - 2:39 am
Quote
I have an unwatched DVD of this, so for once I decided to forego reading your review until I watched it. Halfway through the opening episode, I’m regretting this. It seems like the sort of thing that’s more fun to read about than to experience. But the young cowgirl is cool.
#17 by lyzard on July 8, 2015 - 4:17 am
Quote
It gets better—the first episode is a bit of a drag (when it’s usually the best part of any serial, crammed with plot, and the later episodes that drag), but then later on we get much more of Murania and the robots and gadgets, etc.
Still…I’m hoping to finish it off this weekend, so you can wait if you like. 🙂
We did very well with the kids in this one, which is another unusual thing about it.
#18 by supersonic man on July 11, 2015 - 3:00 am
Quote
Turned out what I have is just the 70 minute Radio Ranch edit, which leaves things pretty choppy and incoherent sometimes, but does avoid repetitive serialitis.
Lotsa singin, lotsa horses, lotsa undercranked cameras, and lotsa Bronson Canyon. Which, by the way, I hope to visit in person this coming September.
#19 by lyzard on July 12, 2015 - 1:21 am
Quote
70 mins!? Blimey, “choppy” would be the word.
Which, by the way, I hope to visit in person this coming September.
Ooh, how exciting!! Lots of photos, please!
#20 by supersonic man on September 20, 2015 - 2:39 pm
Quote
Pictures (and video) are here: http://bmmb.prophpbb.com/topic7788.html
#21 by RogerBW on July 15, 2015 - 9:17 am
Quote
Decanter of Infinite Harmonicas!
Ah, broadcast radio, justly famed for its ability to pass straight through solid rock.
Clearly, Murania used to be an empire and is now reduced to this one city, but its administration hasn’t yet caught up. (“Go on, you tell her she shouldn’t call herself Empress any more.”)
There’s probably a decent article somewhere in the Ergonomics of Movie Hardware. Particularly those bits of it which require multiple operators.
Tear Gas: just one of the things in this serial which Does Not Work Like That.
Why would anyone want to destroy the universe? Because it’s there!
That rebel must be regarded as a prototype for the Daleks: “My vision is impaired, I cannot see…”
#22 by El Santo on July 15, 2015 - 11:44 am
Quote
That’s just how emperors roll. Constantine XI kept using the title even when his domains barely extended beyond the walls of Constantinople, too.