CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

bkoganbing Through 12 chapters Gene Autry has to fight two sets of villains and keep his radio contract calling for broadcasts from the Melody Ranch in The Phantom Empire. Not easy since he nor anyone else suspects that there's a lost Atlantis type civilization 20,000 plus feet below the surface of Melody Ranch. To begin with Gene is framed for the murder of his partner by phony professor J. Frank Glendon. His partner's kids Frankie Darro and Betsy King Ross believe him and stick with him throughout the serial. So do a pair of less than helpful sidekicks Smiley Burnette and Peter Potter.The Professor is after radium which he has reason to believe there is a huge deposit on the Melody Ranch. Little does he or anyone else suspect that there's an underground city called Murania run on the nuclear power this stuff has. It's ruled by Queen Dorothy Christy and she's got a traitorous chancellor in Wheeler Oakman looking to undermine her rule. She's also got access to the surface world with her troop of Thunder Riders who take a really big elevator up and down and then ride around looking for presumably supplies that they can't get down below. They're a mysterious bunch and Darro and Ross have seen them and have formed a junior Thunder Riders club.That elevator was really the most ridiculous part of the film. These people are taking 20,000 mile trips in a matter of minutes and no one's ears even pop, let alone getting one bad case of 'the bends'.If this all sounds ridiculous believe me it's even more so when you see it on the big or small screen. But unlike most of the movie serials of the day at least we get a few songs from Gene Autry including the one that launched his career in country music, That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine.I'm not one to pass judgment really because I think movie serials in general are ridiculous. It's a genre form that thankfully is gone. But Gene Autry got a career out of this one.

Daniel Richardson This was the first serial that I ever saw. I saw the big clunky robots on the cover and thought to myself "You know what? I have yet to see an old sci-fi movie with those big clunky robots in it." I always wanted to. So I bought a box set which also included "Undersea Kingdom". Now I had no idea who Gene Autry was or that this wasn't completely a sci-fi serial. I didn't know it was partially a western as well. But when I watched it I was pleasantly surprised. I mean it's not great but it's worth seeing. Now I will warn you that the first chapter or so is slow, but then it picks up. Now it's not an edge of your seat thriller however, it does have some exciting moments. Another thing is I can't believe how complex it is. I'm not saying it's confusing or anything, but there are many different story lines and side stories going at once. It's really layers upon layers. So in closing if you get a chance, give it a shot. It's not bad at all.

richardjstanford A classic by anybody's standard! Never before and never since has there ever been such a combination of Western, musical, SciFi, comedy and adventure. Truly imaginative. Gene Autry's first starring vehicle. It predates Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and all the other SciFi serials of the '30s and '40s. And it was no doubt the reason Republic Pictures stuck to the SciFi theme in most of their serial through to the end of their existence. Has to be seen to be believed. An inside joke appeared in Gene Autry's 1941 feature "Sierra Sue" wherein character actress Dorothy Christy, who plays Queen Tika in this serial, says to Autry "I have the feeling we have met somewhere before. Maybe in another world". A true must see for film historians and fan of all ages. Great fun!

Edwin McBride This movie would be a classic of its type, if there were anything else in its type. The ostensibly peaceful underground kingdom of Murania actually exists on the slave labor of robots, who are planning a revolt. Periodically, the Muranians dress as "Thunder Riders" and after rocketing to the surface, come out of a cave to terrorize the Surface People (us). But they can't terrorize a gang of kids known as the "Junior Thunder Riders", whose motto is "To the Rescue!" They shout this while wearing buckets on their heads, in imitation of the gas masks of the Muranians. Mendacious scientists have detected radium beneath the surface of Gene Autry's ranch, but they don't know that the radium is coming from an underground kingdom. The scientists keep kidnapping Gene so that he won't make it to his weekly radio show and hence won't get the paycheck that he depends on to make his mortgage payment. The mortgage payment is the engine that actually keeps all these balls in the air, and as in all good westerns, the bankers are the real villains. Gene is so cool as he handles the Thunder Riders, evil scientists, mendacious bankers, cruel but oddly flirty Queen Tika, and surprisingly clumsy robots, while always having time for a kind word to the Junior Thunder Riders and Smiley Burnett. You can tell that he lives by the Cowboy Code.