5/5 Undersea Kingdom serial
  by Sir Squirrel (Alabama U.S.A.)
Real good copy Of Republic's first serial after Mascot Studio
merged with one or two other studios to form Republic and was produced by Nat Levine who was the producer for Mascot. If you have a copy of Clyde Beatty's serial and look close
at the main batman in the same scenes with the evil high priest, you will recognize this same Ray "Crash" Corrigan who
appears in this serial as the hero. Thatnks for the timely delivery.

3/5 groom still waiting at the altar
  by Thomas James Long
as of april 3rd still have not received this undersea kingdom , i look forward to it's arrival though

4/5 Fun romp into the past
  by Henry T Blewer III (Binghamton NY)
This is really a fun video experience. The story is good enough even by todays adventure standards.
I did find the kid a little annoying, but his participation in the series is essential.

5/5 If you loved "Phantom Empire"......
  by Patrick W. Crabtree (Lucasville, OH USA)
This is the same sort of fun stuff as the "Phantom Empire" serial, starring Gene Autry... only this one mostly takes place at the bottom of the ocean.

The hero is Ray "Crash" Corrigan, a revered young U.S. Naval officer who is called in to investigate the cause of a rash of various natural disasters which appear to have happened unexpectedly around the planet. Of course the evil Unga Kahn is literally at the root of the problem in his undersea city. He plans to eventually emerge from his Atlantis and take over the earth after he has brought everyone to their knees by using his ingenious machine which causes the earth to shudder under these various natural disasters.

The whole story evolves into a "sci-fi undersea western" of sorts, complete with horses, chariots, helmeted warriors, rockets, and very cool robots ("Volkites," who gad about with ray guns in a speedy Juggernaut), once Corrigan gets to the scene of the action via submarine. There is a "good faction," the nemesis of Unga Kahn, in the undersea civilization and Corrigan teams up with this group in an effort to overcome the sinister tyrant. Two featured stars whom viewers may connect with include Monte Blue (Unga Kahn) and Lon Chaney, Jr. (as Kahn's minion).

This fine old Republic serial (1936) was originally marketed in two separate volumes (still available), each in its own packaging. Here, you get both discs in one package. The film runs for a total of 230 minutes over 12 chapters.

Of course this one is shot in black-and-white and the aspect is full screen. Yes, it's campy and ludicrous, but I love it!

My highest recommendation to appropriate viewers.

3/5 Crash cheats!
  by Scott Lothrop (Tampa, FL, USA)
I almost gave up on this serial in the first chapter. I thought an undersea kingdom where they're obviously running around under a clear blue sky was ludicrous. But then I realized that Republic almost never produced a really bad serial, and found people saying some good things about it, so I gave it another shot. I decided to take it at face value and treat it like any other science fiction (such as "Flash Gordon"), and it became palatable. I guess Universal's production values in 1936 weren't too good.

Crash Corrigan (1902-1976) was originally a movie stunt man, doubling for Johnny Weissmuller in the "Tarzan" films. Republic gave him the name "Crash" (note the similarity to "Flash.") He became best known for Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" series of Westerns and Monogram's "Range Busters." Crash Corrigan was the first star to appear on a Wheaties box!

Chapter Eight contains probably the biggest cheat in the history of serials. Corrigan is tied onto the Juggernaut, a vehicle that looks like a tank, and goes crashing through closed gates, wood splintering and flying everywhere, no possibility the hero could live through it. In Chapter Nine the resolution is that someone actually opened the gate just before the vehicle would have crashed it!

Monte Blue, a veteran character actor, is fine as the evil dictator Unga Khan (I'm surprised they didn't go all out and call him Unga Bunga). William Farnum, another familiar bad guy, is the high priest Sharad. Montague Shaw, who seems to appear in every serial during this period, is Professor Norton, and Lee Van Atta his young son Billy. Smiley Burnett is there for comic relief and doesn't succeed, but fortunately he isn't around very much. Lon Chaney, Jr. played lots of small henchman parts in those days.