Undersea Kingdom

This serial is just howlingly fantastic. Bonkers and almost pornographic in its butch antics. I used to show this in a cinema in the 1970s and the audience would just go berserk. As the credits started they would almost scream the roof off...the title comes on over a shot of a phallic submarine entering a seaweed encrusted cave. Our hero, "Crash" DOES only wear his fish-scale pattern underpants with a cape and big silver boots....and a very groovy helmet with a big fin. There is a lot of leftover BEN HUR and NOAHS ARK props to be seen from silent epics pressed into squeaky service at Republic for their first sci fi serial spectacular and I am sure this was a big fat hit with the kids in its day as it was 50 years later. A exact remake of the 1935 Mascot Pictures serial PHANTOM EMPIRE inherited when Republic absorbed Mascot, This one even has the tin can robots and a big metal Volkswagen they hoon around in. Wait until you see the part when Crash is tied spread eagle on the bonnet and his pubic hair is showing..A real crown pleaser if ever there was!. A must for every collection.

UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936 Republic) starring Ray "Crash" Corrigan and produced by the immortal Nat Levine (truly the "King Of The Cliffhanger Poverty Row Black And White Serial Producers) is without a doubt the very best science fiction/ action movie serial ever made, and other serials of fame (Flash Gordon, Mysterious Dr. Satan, King Of The Rocketmen) don't even come close.

Part of the reason is simply money. Republic Pictures was newly organized and expanded in 1936, and the production of UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936 Republic) starring Ray "Crash" Corrigan" and produced by Nat Levine was a beginning effort to position Republic Pictures at the top of the independent movie production operations in Hollywood serving independent theaters and theater chains worldwide with "product" not tied to the "major" movie studios such as MGM and Paramount which owned large chains of captive movie houses bound to show movies made by parent movie studios (it is stated in movie histories that as much as 94% of movie box office receipt income during the "Golden Age" of big Hollywood chain movie house connected studios were invested in the huge movie house real estate holdings of chains owned by Loews, Paramount, Warner Brothers, RKO, etc.).

Republic Pictures bought up Mascot Studios and other "low end" "poverty row" movie studios which produced cheap cowboy and other potboiler movies (also serials, some very good), and created sort of a "twilight zone" movie studio operation in which "product" was not quite as expensive and glossy as the "big studio" movies (MGM, Paramount, etc.), but which was better than the old "poverty row" movie potboiler products had been in the early 1930's (when John Wayne and others of cowboy fame got their start).

Republic's UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936 Republic) serial starring Ray "Crash" Corrigan was a very successful effort to create a classy, expensively made, tasteful serial with high standards of casting and script creation, and wonderful attention paid to special effects, science fiction innovations (television, submarine travel, "ray guns," and robots, etc. etc.

Unlike other serials of fame, large numbers of background actors of great skill were used. Charriots probably from the BEN HUR extravaganza of 1925 (only 10 years before) were used, and high speed chariot racing is seen in the serial, and is breathtaking.

The attention to innovation in the script, and the fact that traditional, old time, sappy "love interest" is avoided almost completely are all to the credit of the creators of this great example of science fiction/ action cinema. There is no effort in UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936 Republic) to include major female character or "love interest," or jealous daughters of evil emperors, or a girlfriend for the hero who tails along after "her man" with no role other than that of sex object for both her boyfriend and his major male enemies (the worst part of the famous FLASH GORDON [1935] serial is the "Dale Arden" character played by pretty but bass voiced Jean Rogers who is far less curvy than her major female competitor for Flash Gordon....played by wonderfully curvy Pricilla Lawson, who was also a much better actress in the 1935 serial of fame.....a serial far less expensively and well made, and far less well acted and written than UNDERSEA KINGDOM [1936]).

UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936 Republic) starring Ray "Crash" Corrigan and produced by Nat Levine (see Levine's many other serials of fame, including my favorite, THE WHISPERING SHADOW [1934 Mascot] starring Bela Lugosi) is the best and most expensively made movie science fiction/ action serial ever made, and should be in every movie enthusiast's personal collection (cheap VHS cassette versions are presently...2011...available from Amazon.Com for truly tiny money...buy one!).

Much more can and should be said about UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936 Republic) including details best of all water heater robots who were mobile thanks to their flexible accordion style legs, much better than the inferior stiff pole metal legs of the water heater robot (only one) in THE MYSTERIOUS DR. Satan (1942 Republic). An entire book can and should be written about robots depicted in 1930's and 1940's movie serials.

I plan to write a book soon titled VALLEY OF THE CLIFFHANGERS about the history and best examples of high quality movie serials, a cinema art form which extended way back in time during silent movie days before the World War I era, and continued into the early 1950's.

I was a little boy in Baltimore, Maryland USA and attended the weekly Saturday morning children's movie show programs at Baltimore, Maryland USA's now closed WAVERLY THEATRE located on Greenmount Avenue near the corner of 33rd St. (now a retail shoe store). I first saw UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936 Republic) in the early 1950's along with KING OF THE ROCKETMAN, and DON WINSLOW OF THE COAST GUARD and many other re-cycled serials shown at the Waverly along with "B" westerns of fame, mostly from Republic Pictures which provided movie programming to independent movie houses like the WAVERLY THEATRE and specialized in Saturday morning and afternoon children's cowboy movies, serials, and short subjects.

I've been interested in USA action cinema all my life, but the very best action movies I ever saw were the ones shown in the early 1950's at Baltimore, Maryland USA's WAVERLY THREATRE. And the very best movie serial I ever saw at the WAVERY THEATRE was UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936 Republic) starring Ray "Crash" Corrigan and produced by the wonderful Nat Levine, "King Of The Movie Serial Producers."

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Written Sept. 10, 2011 by David Roger "Tex" Allen, SAG Actor, Columbia PA USA.

Written by Tex Allen, SAG-AFTRA movie actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for more information about Tex Allen.

Tex Allen's email address is TexAllen@Rocketmail.Com.

See Tex Allen Movie Credits, Biography, and 2012 photos at WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen. See other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: "http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments" (paste this address into your URL Browser)

Athlete, navy-man, and overall übermensch 'Crash Corrigan' (stuntman Ray Corrigan, who subsequently went by Ray 'Crash' Corrigan in films and TV work), along with intrepid 'girl-reporter' Diana (Lois Wilde), young sidekick Billy (Lee Van Atta), avuncular boffin Professor Norton (C. Montague Shaw), and comic-relief buddies Briny and Salty (Smiley Burnette and Frankie Marvin) travel by rocket-propelled submarine to the lost continent of Atlanta, where they are immediately caught up in a war between the evil despot Unga Khan (Monte Blue, stealing cues from Flash Gordon's faux-Asian arch-enemy Ming the Merciless) and his black-robed henchmen (including Lon Chaney Jr.) and good-guy Sharad (William Farnam) and his white-robed followers (for a 'nice guy' Sharad seems ruthless enough when presiding over blood-sports in the Atlantean coliseum). Everyone's near reverence for Crash gets a bit smarmy after a while (or in Billy's case a bit creepy), especially considering the hero's outfits occasionally border on campy-outrageousness (skimpy fish-scale briefs and a head-piece sporting a prominent fin) but the stuntman and gorilla-imitator turned actor acquits himself pretty well as a cunning, quick-fisted, and resourceful hero (the rest of the cast are functional and nondescript). The Republic serial is very similar to Mascot's popular 'Phantom Empire' 12-parter (1935) starring Gene Autry: both feature a technologically advanced 'lost' kingdom in political ferment, incredible 'scientific gadgetry' including ray-guns, mechanical men, 'flying torpedoes', and viewing machines (that can see anywhere, no camera needed), and both chapterplays conclude apocalyptically which oddly don't seem to bother the heroes, who are now safe on the Earth's surface. As depression-era serials go, 'Underwater Kingdom' is typical, and 'OK'. The storyline is simplistic, there are numerous unacceptable implausibilities (Billy can pilot one of the Unga Khan's flying machines!?), characters seem to inexplicably know the names of things (such as 'vol-planes' 'volkite' robots) when first encountered, and several of the cliff-hanger resolutions are 'cheats' (the 'before' and the 'after' footage don't match). Not surprisingly, production frugality is evident, notably in frequently repeated scenes (when the submarine ascends, bubbles are sucked back into the engines) but some investment and imagination went into the fearsome 'Juggernaut' (I like the sound it made) and the lumbering volkites (goofy but much less ridiculous than the behatted tinmen menacing Gene Autry in the Phantom Empire. More interesting as history than as entertainment but fans of vintage sic-fi should enjoy it in a smug, eye-rolling way (as I did).

Despite being born in 1966, I have actually seen about 20 old time movie serials in my time, the ones made in the 1940s and 1950s actually stand the test of time rather well, but this one, dating back to 1936, is just a bit too old for me.

From the first frames, it has 1930s written all over it, from the clothing to the acting to general look of the production.

Being a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea nutcase, I was actually looking forward to seeing some Voyage/Sea-ish submarine miniature effects from the Lydeckers (Howard Lydecker created effects for Voyage/Sea) but The Undersea Kingdom submarine looks ugly.

Then again, one later chapter features a fancy aircraft, flying in daylight, that resembles much later effects that Howard would do for Irwin Allen TV.

Sorry folks, this serial just does not cut it for me, in fact, I destroyed the video tape. Maybe I am just too young for it?

"Undersea Kingdom" could be compared to Universal's popular "Flash Gordon" serial released the same year. Instead of having the story take place in outer space, Republic stages this one at the bottom of the sea in the lost continent of Atlantis complete with a mad man trying to take over the world and a similarly named hero.

Unga Khan (Monte Blue) has harnessed the atom and is causing earthquakes across North America. Scientist Professor Norton (C. Montague Shaw) has invented a ray that will counteract the earthquakes which he believes are coming from the ocean floor,

As luck would have it the ever resourceful Norton has also invented an atomic powered submarine with which he plans to descend to the ocean floor and discover the source of the carnage. He forms a team which includes "Crash" Corrigan (Ray Corrigan) a naval lieutenant and a muscular athlete (who gets to run around without his shirt for most of the story), Diana Compton (Lois Wilde) the ever present newspaper reporter, young Billy (Lee Van Atta) Norton's son, Norton's assistant Joe (John Bradford) and for comic relief Briny (Smiley Burnette) and Salty (Frankie Marvin).

When the sub descends into the ocean it is discovered by Unga Khan who using a tractor beam pulls the crew into the undersea world of Atlantis. There, Crash and the gang discover that there are two warring factions..Khan's Black Robe Guards and the White Robed followers of Sharad (William Farnum). The Black Robes posses a tank-like machine called the Juggernaut and an army of walking garbage can robots called Volkites.

Anyway, to make a long story short, Crash becomes leader of the White Robes' army and Unga Khan captures Professor Norton and alters his mind so that he obeys without question. Khan plans to have Norton produce the priming powder that will ignite the rockets that will propel his tower to the surface and thereby enable him to take control of the world. Well, over the course of the 12 chapters, Crash and the gang escape numerous life threatening situations and ultimately save the world.

This serial is full of contradictions. Firstly, the Black Robes have harnessed the atom, the Volkites and the Juggernaut each possess deadly ray guns yet the soldiers ride in horse drawn chariots or ride horses and fight with swords, and they even have guided missiles. Secondly, Norton's atomic powered submarine is left in the hands of two bumbling assistants? Credibility gap here?

There are some good (and some cheesy) special effects. The two sieges on the White Robe city are well done, although I don't know what good that so-called flame thrower is. The flying craft seems to be going in circles and the "Tower" looks really cheap when it appears on the surface.

A word about the rest of the cast. Boothe Howard and Lon Chaney Jr. (wasted again) play Unga Khan's chief henchmen and Lane Chandler plays Sharad's assistant. In an offbeat bit of casting, Raymond Hatton plays a bad guy and John Merton a good guy. Hatton of course is best remembered as the crusty old sidekick in dozens of "B" westerns. The muscular Merton (sans moustache) was usually cast as a villain. Burnette and Marvin are given little to do and disappear for several chapters at a time.

For Corrigan, this was his first starring role. He would play the lead in Republic's "The Painted Stallion" serial in 1937 as well as, beginning a long run as Tuscon Smith in the long running "Three Mesquiteers" series.