The Phantom Empire | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | |
Written by |
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Produced by | Nat Levine |
Starring | |
Cinematography | |
Edited by | |
Music by | Hugo Riesenfeld |
Distributed by | Mascot Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 245 minutes (12 chapters)[Note 1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $75,000[1][2] |
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.[1] This 12-chapter Mascot Pictures serial combined the Western, musical and science-fiction genres.[3][4] The duration of the first episode is 30 minutes, while that of the rest is 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. In 1940, a 70-minute feature film edited from the serial was released under the titles Radio Ranch or Men with Steel Faces. This was Gene Autry's first starring role, playing himself as a singing cowboy.[5] It is considered to be the first science-fiction Western.[4]
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