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)
