Sharad of Atlantis (1936)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Deeper than the descriptions

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I will refrain from scoring this one as I only viewed the first two episodes of this serial, however, just the little bit I did see reminded me of Flash Gordon. Atlantis is at war, a warlord of types is causing the land to be in chaos, and he wants to bring us into the fray by causing earthquakes. So a scientist in his rocket submarine along with Crash go to see if they can stop this quakes. Also along is a reporter and an annoying kid, because you can not do anything in these serials without a plucky reporter, kids are optional. This serial looks like a lot of effort was put into making it, to bad the end result appears to be a simple ripoff of an already established franchise. I encountered this serial on MST3K where they did the first two parts of the series before stopping. I wish they had continued as this made for more entertaining riffing than did the movies. I would of also liked to have seen how this series played out. At least they did not leave us hanging as much when they simply stopped showing radar men when it had to be very close to concluding.

I bought this in a box set with "The Phantom Empire". I watched Empire and liked it. First off, these two movies are pretty similar. Each serial has one main hero with a child or children as the sidekicks. Next they each deal with a hidden kingdom (or empire) right under our noses. Each kingdom or empire is destroyed in the end with only the "ones from above" surviving. And finally, each serial uses the "cheat ending" way too much. With that being said, this movie felt more like "The Phantom Empire"-lite. It seemed to move slower than Empire and the story wasn't as good either. Personally I liked Gene Autry better than Crash Corrigan. Now I'm not saying that this movie is bad, it's just not all that good. I gave it an "ok". I've only seen four serials and this ranks number three. If you like old serials, I recommend it. But if your new to the serial genre, I'd try something else.

You've never really seen a series hero run around in tiny shorts until you've seen "Crash" Corrigan in Atlantean battle garb, I can tell you that for free... I've seen several of the old Republic serials over the years, and this one is my favorite. It's got plenty of spectacle and just enough "Flash Gordon" appeal to hold up even now. And the dashing hero (with an amazing physique for an actor from that era) has maybe the best nickname ever: "Crash" Corrigan. Seriously, "Crash" Corrigan!! I ask you, how can you not love it? Another plus: The plot for the series doesn't have the irritating repetition and circularity of some of its rivals: It actually progresses in a linear, well thought out manner and even picks up steam, until all kinds of hell is breaking loose by the last chapter. It's not perfect, of course. Goofy crap abounds. My favorite gaffe is the cliffhanger ending where Crash and his companions are flying in a plane that is shot down ; the plane spirals in to a crash landing. Usually, the film makers will begin the next segment that by repeating the cliffhanger but including a shot that was left out (ie, they all parachuted out or something.) But in this case, they show the plane crashing violently into the ground with enough force to turn everyone on board into puree...and the next scene, Crash just gets up and dusts himself off and wakes everyone else up (and of course, no one else is hurt.) Apparently, "Crash" is so called because he is immune to crashes. Or the plane just crashed on some very soft rocks. On the other hand, "Crash" finally defeats the mad tyrant in the final chapter by doing the only logical thing: Jumping in the the "power room" that powers all of Khan's lethal devices and ripping out the wires. And the Navy then proceeds to blow the tyrants "rocket tower" to bits (yeah, it's stock footage, but it's well integrated stock footage). It's one of the most satisfying bits I've ever seen in a Republic serial. If you can't lay your hands on "Flash Gordon" you might be able to make do with "Crash Corrigan". I wouldn't pay money to see these, but if a collection falls into your hands, you might enjoy it. Or check out the entire serial available for free viewing or download at www.archive.org. (That's where I finally was able to view the last three chapters).

"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.