Undersea Kingdom

Movie
Original title	Undersea Kingdom
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1936
length	226 minutes
Rod
Director	B. Reeves Eason Joseph Kane
script	John Rathmell Maurice Geraghty Oliver Drake
production	Nat Levine for Republic Pictures
music	Harry Gray
camera	William Nobles , Edgar Lyons
occupation
Ray Corrigan : Crash Corrigan, US Navy officer C. Montague Shaw : Professor Norton Lee Van Atta : Bill Norton, Professor Norton's son Louis Wilde : Diana Compton Booth Howard : Ditmar Monte Blue : Unga Khan William Farnum : Sharad Frankie Marvin : Salty Lon Chaney junior : Hakur Lane Chandler : Darius Jack Mulhall : Lieutenant Andrews Ralph Holmes : Martos Ernie Smith : Gourck Lloyd Whitlock : Captain Clinton David Horsley : Sentry Kenneth Lawton : Marine Doctor Raymond Hatton : Gas pon Rube Schaeffer : Magna

Undersea Kingdom is a 12-piece American science fiction - Fantasy - Serial of 1936. A two-part 80-minute feature film compilation in 1953 under the title Unga Khan, the Lord of Atlantis also in West German cinemas listed (Part 1: The sunken continent , part 2: the tower of destruction ). In 1966, a 100-minute television version was made in the USA under the title Sharad of Atlantis .

action

Professor Norton measured earthquakes and concluded that they could only have been caused by force waves from the Atlanteans . Norton travels to Atlantis in his rocket submarine with his son Billy, the naval officer Crash, the journalist Diana and the mechanic Joe .

In the underwater area under a metal dome, there is a highly developed technology with magnetic , disintegrator and atomic beams , armored cars (the Juggernaut ), rocket planes and robots . However, there is war in Atlantis ; the deposed high priest Sharad fights against the new ruler Unga Khan, who in turn wants to rule the whole world with a death ray. Crash allies with Sharad and at the last moment prevents Unga Khan from subjugating North America with his ray .

Production background

The production was a response to the Universal Pictures series Flash Gordon from the same year, but was realized with a much lower cost of animation and was one of the cheapest Republic productions ever.

criticism

“As in all series of the time, the focus here is on action. With the gun is not shilly long and certainly not asked for logic. "

- Hahn / Jansen : Lexicon of Science Fiction Films , p. 943

"Despite all the hype," The Undersea Kingdom "is regarded today as an enjoyable, if somewhat bizarre serial ... There are lots of extras wearing costumes and as many as 20 horseback riders on screen at once ... There are a lot of electrical special effects on display as well ... Surprisingly, the serial's use of miniature props is substandard. "

- Davis : Classic Cliffhangers , pp. 140f.

Lore

The serial is edited as a DVD and freely available in the Internet Archive . A German DVD version was released in February 2016.

See also

• The Phantom Empire

literature

• Unga Khan, the Lord of Atlantis , in: Ronald M. Hahn / Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 2000 films from 1902 to today , vol. 2, 7th edition Munich (Heyne) 1997, p. 942f. ISBN 3-453-11860-X
• The Undersea Kingdom , in: Hank Davis: Classic Cliffhangers. Volume 1 1914-1940 , Baltimore, MD (Luminary Press) 2007, pp. 140-143. ISBN 9781887664769

Web links

Commons : Undersea Kingdom  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Undersea Kingdom in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Undersea Kingdom on bmovies.de (information, posters and posters)
• German-language trailer for Unga Khan - Lord of Atlantis on youtube.com