“Undersea Kingdom” was a 1936 serial starring Ray “Crash” Corrigan. It was released around the same time as the more famous “Flash Gordon” and “Buck Rogers” serials and designed to compete with them. Both the “Flash Gordon” and “Buck Redeemers” serials take place in space, where as the Corrigan “Undersea Kingdom” serials take place in the underwater city of Atlantis. At the time, the underwater was still held much of the same mystery and romance as space travel.

“Undersea Kingdom” is very similar to the “Superman” serial we watched in class. The division of good and evil is very obvious. There is even an adventurous newspaper women who must eventually be saved by the hero. The underwater dwellers in “Undersea Kingdom” were not monstrous like they were in “Superman,” but they were shown taking part in exotic and dangerous rituals. Presumably like the bird-people in “Superman,” the residents of Atlantis evolved these rituals from a lot of time living separated from the rest of society underwater. The underground society in Atlantis seems to have developed a sort of trojan meets space-age culture. The serial shows their excessive technological advancement, for example the evil king can see any part of the world, above or below, though his television. The residents of Atlantis have space ships, airplanes, robots and ray guns. This movie follows the general idea of outsiders from below plotting to destroy the above. This is seen in other formula movies such as “X-Men,” “The Princess Bride,” “The Incredibles” and perhaps every “James Bond” movie ever made.

The underwater then becomes a place where secrets are hidden and evil plots formulated without the world above having any idea. This could stem from the problem of what happens to waste once it is disposed of underground. “C.H.U.D” deals with this issue, showing that once our garbage and unwanted people are disposed of underground they can fester and return to haunt the world above. Corrigan cleans up the underground threat with American values and morals so that the innocent about ground can live in peace.

Much like the movie “The Incredible Petrified World,” this movie deals with science. The expedition is again lead by a scientist, this time he goes underwater with the submarine. Science is shown as a way to save the world by stopping earthquakes, but also as aiding the evil underwater ruler of Atlantis.

The actual, physical descent is also traumatic in “Undersea Kingdom.” The man in charge of operating the submarine goes crazy and sends them far to quickly underwater. They are finally saved from this drop, however, by Corrigan and his sneak child sidekick. The crew in this movie is different from the crews in other movies in that it only takes one man to operate the submarine. He is a very nonessential part of the submarine, in fact the Submarine is magnetically pulled into Atlantis by an outside force.