Men with Steel Faces
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Otto Brower
Gene Autry
Frankie Darro
Lester "smiley" Burnette
Betsy King Ross
Dorothy Christie
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Gene Autry supports his ranch through the daily radio broadcasts that he produces with his friends Pete and Oscar. Unknown to Gene, his ranch sits atop the buried kingdom of Murania where an entire civilization dwells under the leadership of Queen Tika. At the entrance to the kingdom lies a rich deposit of radium, which an unscrupulous scientist, Professor Beetson, has discovered. Beetson and his men take up residence on the ranch and decide that they must eliminate Gene in order to gain possession of the land. When Beetson frames Gene for the murder of Tom Baxter, the father of his friends Frankie and Betsy Baxter, Betsy helps Gene to escape. While searching for the real murderer, Gene is captured by the soldiers of the Muranian army and taken to their subterranean empire where Argo, the leader of the rebels, saves Gene from the death chamber, and the cowboy escapes to the surface where he discovers that Frankie and Betsy have been trapped in a canyon after discovering the professor's radium deposit. The three make their getaway in the professor's plane, but the aircraft crashes and Betsy and Frankie are taken prisoner by the Muranians. Meanwhile, Oscar and Pete find Gene and descend into the underground empire to save the children. As Argo begins his revolution, Gene joins forces with Queen Tika to rescue Betsy and Frankie. In their haste, the revolutionaires destroy the kingdom with the disintegration ray and as the empire crumbles, Gene, Oscar, Pete, Frankie and Betsy reach the surface. Gene then forces Professor Beetson to confess to Tom Baxter's murder while Frankie, with the knowlege that he has gained in the underground kingdom, invents television and Gene returns to the ranch in time for his two o'clock broadcast.
Cast
Gene Autry
Frankie Darro
Lester "smiley" Burnette
Betsy King Ross
Dorothy Christie
Wheeler Oakman
Charles K. French
Warner Richmond
Frank Glendon
William Moore
Edward Piel Sr.
Jack Carlyle
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This picture was also released as Radio Ranch. The opening credits read "Radio Ranch, a feature version of the serial motion picture Phantom Empire." The film was a condensed reissue of the twelve chapter 1935 Mascot serial Phantom Empire, which featured the role of the singing cowboy that brought Gene Autry to prominence. The serial was promoted with a series of newspaper comic strips also entitled Phantom Empire. Modern sources list these additional credits for the serial: Walter Thompson (film editor); Arthur Kay (musical director); Mack D'Agostino, John T. Coyle, and Ralph M. DeLacy (settings); Ellis Thackery (photographic effects); Iris Burns (costumes); William Bradford (camera); William Whitney (assistant director); Howard Lydecker, Theodore Lydecker and Billy Gilbert (props). Modern sources also add the following actors to the cast of the serial: Frankie Marvin (Frankie); Wally Wales, Fred Burns, Jay Wilsey, Stanley G. Blystone, Richard Talmadge, Frank Ellis, Henry Hall, and Jim Corey (Muranians). The modern sources also list the following songs: "In My Vine Covered Cottage," "Just Come On In," "Uncle Noah's Ark," "I'm Oscar," "Moon-Eye View of the World" and "No Need to Worry," lyrics and music by Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette.
