RADIO RANCH aka Men With Steel Faces (1935) Gene Autry & Frankie Darro | Western, Sci-Fi | B&W

Radio Ranch is a 1940 American Western / Sci-Fi film directed by Otto Brower and B. Reeves Eason and starring Gene Autry, Frankie Darro, and Betsy King Ross. This 70-minute feature film edited from the 1935 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. It is considered to be the first science-fiction Western.

SYNOPSIS
Gene Autry, a singing cowboy who runs Radio Ranch, a dude ranch known for its daily live radio broadcasts, embarks on a thrilling adventure when he and his young sidekicks, Frankie and Betsy Baxter, are kidnapped by the Thunder Riders. These mysterious riders hail from Murania, an advanced underground empire ruled by the icy and evil Queen Tika.

Murania, hidden 25,000 feet beneath the earth's surface, is home to the descendants of the lost tribe of Mu, who relocated underground during the last glacial period. They live in a fantastically advanced city filled with towering buildings, robots, ray-guns, and advanced television. Surface dwellers can breathe Muranian air without trouble, but Muranians need oxygen masks to survive on the surface.

As Gene and the kids navigate the dangers and wonders of Murania, they uncover plots by both Professor Beetson, a surface criminal intent on invading Murania for its radium wealth, and Lord Argo, a Muranian noble plotting to overthrow Queen Tika. With time running out and threats closing in from all sides, Gene must use his wits and courage to save both Radio Ranch and the hidden empire of Murania.

CAST & CREW
Gene Autry as Gene Autry, singing cowboy at the Radio Ranch
Frankie Darro as Frankie Baxter, one of Gene's sidekicks
Betsy King Ross as Betsy Baxter, one of Gene's sidekicks
Dorothy Christy as Queen Tika, the evil queen of Murania
Wheeler Oakman as Lord Argo, the Muranian High Chancellor and leader of the rebels
Charles K. French as Mal
Warner Richmond as Rab
J. Frank Glendon as Professor Beetson, the villainous scientist after the land's radium deposits
Smiley Burnette as Oscar, comic relief
Peter Potter as Pete, comic relief
Edward Peil Sr. as Cooper
Jack Carlyle as Saunders

Directed by Otto Brower, B. Reeves Eason
Written by Wallace MacDonald, Gerald Geraghty, Hy Freedman, Maurice Geraghty
Produced by Nat Levine
Cinematography Ernest Miller, William Nobles
Edited by Walter Thompson
Music by Hugo Riesenfeld
Distributed by Mascot Pictures
Release date May 2, 1940
Running time 70 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $75,000

NOTES
The 1979 television series Cliffhangers, which attempted to recreate the old movie serial feel by showing three serial chapters in each episode, included a serial titled "The Secret Empire", a pastiche of The Phantom Empire. Events in the underground empire were shown in color, but events on the surface were "in glorious black and white". Stock footage from the serial and other serials was used in the animated series Muppet Babies.

Fred Olen Ray in 1988 filmed a movie called The Phantom Empire about treasure hunters braving a cavern system populated by troglodytes and other subterranean hazards to finally encounter an underground lost civilization. The movie makes reference to the serial and was itself in the end credits planned to have sequels that never were produced.

Alejandro Pérez Cervantes' short story collection, Murania, was inspired by the aesthetic of Murania and the lost continent of Mu as depicted in the film. It received the 2006 Julio Torri national award for short fiction in Mexico.

The web series The Sam Plenty Cavalcade of Action Show Plus Singing! was inspired by the serial.

The UK Channel 4 show Exploitica lampooned the serial, adding comedic sound effects, thought bubbles and captions to each episode.

The serial was a childhood favorite of comic strip writer Tom Batiuk, and in tribute has been frequently referenced in his strips Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft, predominantly as the favorite film of Crankshaft character Jeff Murdoch. Most notably, one 2020 storyline in Funky saw Jeff and his grandson seeking refuge from a wildfire in the cave used for the film as the entrance to Murania, where they imagine being rescued by the Thunder Riders and taken into the city.