Re: Love the old westerns?

Heynony <> wrote:

> > Gene Autry, you know, weird ones like ... Phantom Empire
>
> A guilty pleasure. Thunder Riders. The Scientific City of Muriania.
> Queen Tika. The truly great B. Reeves Eason.
>
> I first saw it on a local TV staton in NYC when I was five. I'd love to
> have a good print (I shop every few years but it's always the same
> crap).

The DVDs (Alpha, Oldies, or Gotham) are said to be crap quality, and
the VHS quality (VCI two-tape) is much better. The VCI VHS looks and
sounds alright to me.

The cut down version (70 or so minutes, called Radio Ranch) is VHS
only, and comes with Round Up In Texas, and isn't as good looking as the
full VCI serial, but still good. The Alpha Round Up In Texas is good.

I haven't seen the Alpha DVDs, but trusted the bad reviews because I've
seen how bad Alpha can be with their rip-off High School Caesar DVD
which can't even be heard most of the time because of bad quality.

> It was remade maybe 20 years ago as part of a TV series made up of
> three serials, no style at all, though the Vampire segment was OK.

Never heard of it.

Walter Traprock

VCI sells DVDs also.

Jim Reid

"Jim Reid" <> wrote:

> VCI sells DVDs also.

Not of the Phantom Empire, it's out of print VHS only.

Speaking of VCI, you may as well pick up their collection of ten
Edgar Kennedy comedy shorts.

Walter Traprock

Walter Traprock <> wrote:

> Heynony <> wrote:
>
>>> Gene Autry, you know, weird ones like ... Phantom Empire
>> [snip]
>> It was remade maybe 20 years ago as part of a TV series made up of
>> three serials, no style at all, though the Vampire segment was OK.
>
> Never heard of it.

It was a show called CLIFFHANGERS that aired circa 1980. They did a
selection of chapters from three serials, not always starting with
Chapter One. I don't recall how many weeks it ran, but the only one
of the three serials that was reasonably complete was a Dracula story
set in the (then) present day starring Michael Nouri in the title
role. Another one of the serials was a Brenda Starr style adventure
thriller called "Stop Susan Williams". The third was an uncredited
remake (or rip-off) of THE PHANTOM EMPIRE. The gimmick in that
version was that the surface scenes were shot in sepia, and the
underground scenes in color.

-- jayembee

jayembee

Walter Traprock wrote:
> Speaking of VCI, you may as well pick up their collection of ten
> Edgar Kennedy comedy shorts.

Not sure what the future of VCI is going to be. Bill Blair, the founder
and owner died a couple of weeks ago. He was a good guy. I've known him
off and on for about 30 years and saw him last time about 3 years ago
when I stopped at VCI to pick up some old 3/4 tape machines he was
giving to friend of mine in Dallas. He was very friendly and took me on
a tour of his facility. When we went into the shipping room he let me
pick a copy of any DVD I wanted. Unfortunately, I had just bought the
Kennedy/Errol and Somewhere in Dreamland discs. He scolded me for that
and said I should have just called him and he would have sent them to
me. Very nice guy.

Jim Reid

jayembee wrote:

[deletions]

> It was a show called CLIFFHANGERS that aired circa 1980. They did a
> selection of chapters from three serials, not always starting with
> Chapter One. I don't recall how many weeks it ran, but the only one
> of the three serials that was reasonably complete was a Dracula story
> set in the (then) present day starring Michael Nouri in the title
> role. Another one of the serials was a Brenda Starr style adventure
> thriller called "Stop Susan Williams".

The show that gave us Susan Anton (and we gave her right back).

> The third was an uncredited
> remake (or rip-off) of THE PHANTOM EMPIRE. The gimmick in that
> version was that the surface scenes were shot in sepia, and the
> underground scenes in color.

"The Curse of Dracula" and "The Secret Empire" were enjoyable and I was
sorry when "Cliffhangers" got the ax because of them. The "Dracula"
storyline had already closed but "Secret Empire" was simply abandoned.

--
Frank in Seattle
____

Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
"Millennium hand and shrimp."

Frank R.A.J. Maloney