Title: Undersea Kingdom
Chapters: 12
Company: Republic Pictures
Release Date: 1936

Cast: Ray "Crash" Corrigan
Lois Wilde
Monte Blue
William Farum
C. Montague Shaw
Lee Van Atta
Lon Chaney, Jr.

Plot: Professor Norton (Shaw) detects signals following a distructive earthquake and crews a super, rocket-powerd submarine to explore their source at the bottom of the ocean. Among the crew are Lieutenant Crash Corrigan, he-manish naval officer; Diana Compton (Wilde), go-getting reporter; and Billy Norton (Atta), Dr. Norton's young son who sneaks onboard. While tracking the signals, the crew discoveres the undersea kindom of Atlantis, and a war between the white-robed troops of High Priest Sharad (Farnum) and the black-robed forces of evil tyrant Unga Khan (Blue).

This was Republic's second serial and it was created as a response to Universal's very successful Flash Gordon serial. You easily can see similarities: futuristic crafts and settings, interesting costumes and action garb (scaled Submariner shorts), and even the name "Crash" was given to Ray Corrigan to make him sound like "Flash" Gordon.

It's an odd combination of Sci-Fi and Swords and Sandals. Atlantic is a domed city large enough to house two warring kingdoms. You never get a great look at the sky, but somehow the ancient Atlantians managed to build a giant structure around their island before it gradually sunk into the sea (better than moving someplace else, I guess). But they do have night and day, somehow (artificial lightning on a timer?), and some trees manage to grow there yet. Most of the troops ride horses or chariots, but Unga Khan also has the Juggernaut, which is a speedy battering-ram tank. His other toys include a missile launcher, a flying craft, and a small army of robot "Volkites," operated by remote control. Oddly enough, apart from being employeed as muscle, the Volites are often remotely-controlled to throw various switches. I guess this is more flexible than just remotely-controlling the actual switches.


(One of these robots makes it into a later serial, "The Mysterious Dr. Satan.")

I was not overly impressed with most of the cliff hangers in this one (Republic still hadn't quite gotten the formula down to a science yet), but I did enjoy the one where Crash was tied to the front of the Juggernaut and was going to be used to ram down the front gates unless the city surrendered. That was fun.


A few of the chapter resolutions, including that one, border on "cheats," though, and the peril-filled moments aren't quite as they appeared the week earlier. I guess the producers were relying upon kids not remembering clearly enough what had happened.

The oddest thing about this serial is probably--after it was completed--someone must have decided that it didn't have enough comedy in it. So , two new characters, Briny Deep (Smiley Burnette) and Salty (Frankie Marvin) were spliced into the film as part of Profesor Norton's submarine crew. They have no direct interaction with the rest of the characters and serve no useful role whatsoever. In an opening scene, when the main characters are approaching the kingdoms in Atlantis, someone asks (in a distance shot overdub) about Salty and Briny, and the Professor says, "Don't worry. They'll catch up as soon as they catch Sinbad the parrot." Instead, the two are captured by the black robes and put to work in the stables. Later they escape and managed to get back on board before the sub leaves Atlantis. None of the regular characters ever mention them after that one overdub.


Much of the serial is a back and forth affair between the two kingdoms as members of the crew are captured and freed, items that Khan needs to destroy the surface world are retrieved, lost, and restrived again, and the good Professor is turned evil in the early goings through one of Khan's scientific inventions. After that point, Professor Norton is working for the baddies. But one of Khan's best soldiers turns trader and joins up with Crash instead, so it kind of balances out.

I'm hoping Briny and Salty get their own spin-off series.

Oh, Lord, no.
They should be edited from the movie, and whatever the original dialog was in that
scene where they are mentioned by the main characters needs to be restored.

Wow... Smiley Burnette was the engineer on Petticoat Junction.

Yep. He also had a decent, and integrated role, in the Dick Tracy serial I
just watched last week. He was still kind of annoying in that one, but at
least he served a purpose. He was teamed up "again" with Lee Van Atta.
The boy, who played Norton's son in this one, was playing "Junior" in that
one. He was about a year older.

Well, they both were, I guess.

ROCKET POWERED submarine!

"the submarine will crush like the shell of an eeegggggg!"

Such acting.

I own this one. I haven't finished it, but I liked it on some cheesy level.

"C" listers at best. If it helps, he was killed in the first episode.

Cheese is a very fine level to reach.

Was he crushed like an eggshell?

Nope, but that would have been sweet.

What happened to the Professor? Is he still bad?

Saved near the end of the serial. Yay!

Costume design is awesome.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured a couple chapters of Undersea Kingdom on their show and had great fun mocking it.I watched the whole serial and also enjoyed laughing at it and feeling patronizing towards the audiences of 1936:"How unsophisticated they were",I thought.Then I remembered two recent movies featuring giant robots that transform into cars and trucks.Glass houses,for sure.

I had a feeling Kid Nemo would like an undersea based serial.

Heh.

And who wouldn't?