{"id":20782,"date":"2011-12-06T15:13:03","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T22:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=20782"},"modified":"2020-12-25T20:13:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T03:13:15","slug":"radio-ranch-1935","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=20782","title":{"rendered":"Radio Ranch (1935)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;If we could capture Gene Autry, Radio Ranch would soon become deserted, and the entrance to our underground kingdom would remain forever undiscovered.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Radio-Ranch-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Radio-Ranch-Poster-150x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-20783\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Radio-Ranch-Poster-150x300.jpg 150w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Radio-Ranch-Poster-64x128.jpg 64w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen singing cowboy Gene Autry is kidnapped by inhabitants of a uranium-rich kingdom in the middle of the earth, it&#8217;s up to two of his devoted young radio fans &#8212; Frankie (Frankie Darro) and Betsy (Betsy King Ross) &#8212; to rescue him.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kidnapping<\/li>\n<li>Musicals<\/li>\n<li>Science Fiction<\/li>\n<li>Westerns<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nAs Peary notes, &#8220;lovers of &#8216;B&#8217; westerns and sci-fi serials will get a kick out of this feature, which was condensed from the popular 12-part Mascot serial, <em>The Phantom Empire<\/em>&#8221; (now available in its original episodic form on DVD). <em>Radio Ranch<\/em> offers a truly heady mix of genres and elements (horses! songs! robots! revolutionaries! uranium thieves! an underground death chamber!), and seems squarely designed to appeal to adventure-seeking youngsters of the day. Playing himself, Gene Autry stars as &#8220;a radio singing star who discovers that crooks are trying to get uranium on his land&#8221;, and, &#8220;while running for his life&#8230; happens upon the cave entrance to a futuristic city&#8230; 20,000 feet below his Radio Ranch&#8221;, where he&#8217;s promptly captured and must be rescued by his brave young friends. As you&#8217;d expect, the acting is at the level of grammar school children putting on an after-school performance &#8212; and the costumes and sets aren&#8217;t much more sophisticated (the silly robot costumes were actually re-purposed in a Joan Crawford flick!). Meanwhile, the dialogue is about as basic as can be: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Autry has escaped! You must find him at once and bring him to our rebel headquarters!&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s not exactly scintillating stuff &#8212; but it remains fascinating simply from a historical perspective. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A representative look at 1930s serial films<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Radio-Ranch-Still2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Radio-Ranch-Still2-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-21046\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Radio-Ranch-Still2-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Radio-Ranch-Still2-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Radio-Ranch-Still2-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Radio-Ranch-Still2.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as a classic example of the serial &#8220;kiddie flick&#8221;. Check out <a href=\"http:\/\/moria.co.nz\/sciencefiction\/phantomempire1935serial.htm\">Moria&#8217;s review<\/a> for a nice overview of the genre. As a public domain title, <em>Radio Ranch<\/em> is available for free viewing on www.archive.org. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historical Importance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0026867\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/moria.co.nz\/sciencefiction\/phantomempire1935serial.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/fantasticmoviemusings.com\/2016\/12\/15\/radio-ranch-1940\/\">SciFilm Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;If we could capture Gene Autry, Radio Ranch would soon become deserted, and the entrance to our underground kingdom would remain forever undiscovered.&#8221; Synopsis: When singing cowboy Gene Autry is kidnapped by inhabitants of a uranium-rich kingdom in the middle of the earth, it&#8217;s up to two of his devoted young radio fans &#8212; Frankie (Frankie Darro) and Betsy (Betsy King Ross) &#8212; to rescue him. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Kidnapping Musicals Science Fiction Westerns Response to Peary\u2019s Review:&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=20782\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20782"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59568,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20782\/revisions\/59568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}