The Phantom - Serial

"The Phantom" is a 15-chapter 1943 Columbia serial directed by B. Reeves Eason, based on the newspaper feature by Lee Falk. Unlike many such adaptations, this one doesn't stray too far from the original, though it has a few of the problems often seen in serials from Columbia.The Phantom, "The Man Who Never Dies" or "The Ghost Who Walks" rules the jungle, the peace of which has recently been disrupted, and after a long absence The Phantom (Sam Flint) needs to return, calling a meeting of the tribes. The Phantom appears, but a poisoned dart hits him so he cuts his speech short, and vanishes. Knowing he is dying, The Phantom sends a message to his son, Geoffrey Prescott (Tom Tyler) who now has to take over. Geoffrey and his dog Devil (Ace, the wonder dog) have been with Professor Davidson (Frank Shannon), his niece Diana Palmer (Jeanne Bates) and her fiance Byron Anderson (Guy Kingsford) on an expedition to find the lost city of the Zoloz. So far they have found the not-so-lost city of Sai Pana, where the Professor meets Singapore Smith (Joe Devlin), with whom he compares segments of a map made of pieces of ivory. They find one segment is still missing, and Singapore Smith entrusts his pieces to the Professor, planning to steal all of them later. Of interest to Smith is a treasure rumored to be in the lost city. But the local doctor, Max Bremmer (Kenneth MacDonald) works against the Professor and Smith, since he is trying to build a secret airbase at Zoloz, and is in fact responsible for the unrest in the Jungle.Some of the facts of the plot have been incorrectly stated not only in other reviews, but on VCI's package, where Diana is identified as Professor Davidson's daughter and The Phantom as her fiance. Dr. Bremmer is not in search of the segments of the map; he wouldn't be building an airbase at Zoloz if he didn't already know where it was, but he needs a labor force and plans to get it through control of the tribes.We aren't really sure where this jungle is located. The tribesmen look more South American Indian than African, except for Chief Tartar (Dick Curtis) and his men, whose fur-trimmed costumes suggest more northern climates, maybe Siberia or Mongolia. Tartar's gorilla doesn't seem to be credited even at IMDb, though he looks exactly like Ray Corrigan in his "Bonga" suit. The events in Tartar's domain are a world apart from the rest of the action, all too much like something out of a Three Stooges comedy, familiar territory to both Dick Curtis and Kenneth MacDonald. The "Fire Princess," actually a dancer hired by Bremmer named Ruby Dawn (Early Cantrell) in Chapter Nine isn't much better, though at least she is supposed to be a fake. Fortunately this tendency only lasts a couple of chapters fairly late in the serial, and director B. Reeves Eason is a decided asset to the action sequences, which are better than usual from Columbia. The studio backgrounds are a little lacking, especially those for a fight on a suspension bridge, and The Phantom's costume has a lot of wrinkles, though fortunately Tom Tyler looks believable in it. It is helpful that the emphasis is on action, though Tyler does justice to his spoken lines. Jeanne Bates' role is a little limited, only requiring rescue a couple times, but she fits into the plot fairly well. Frank Shannon as her uncle sounds a lot like Dr. Zarkov, for some reason, though he looks enough like an old archaeologist while Kenneth MacDonald is suitably menacing without the excesses often used by Columbia's villains. There are a number of well known serial-movie actors in secondary roles, including Stanley Price as Chief Chota, Ernie Adams, for once a good guy as Rusty Fenton, John Bagni as Moku, and a host of henchmen including George Chesebro, Edmund Cobb, Al Ferguson, I. Stanford Jolley and Kermit Maynard. The music by Lee Zahler is appropriate, better than in many Columbia serials, if not quite up to the "pulse-pounding" scores used by Republic.VCI's edition, # 8268 is on two discs, the image sharp with good gray scale. There are a few visible splices, brief horizontal double-lines that do not affect the sound, though in Chapter Five a different kind of horizontal line is seen, a tape wrinkle scrolling in the upper half of the picture, 10:56 into the chapter for eight frames, a very minor defect. The sound is mostly fine, low in noise, with good frequency response and low distortion by standards of films of the era. Chapter 11 had most of the soundtrack missing, and had to be restored with music from other chapters and actors speaking the lines, mostly of characters in Tartar's domain. While not too disruptive, the substitution is especially noticed in the introduction, where the voice used is not a good match for narrator Knox Manning. The Special Features include "Bios" of Tom Tyler, Jeanne Bates, Kenneth MacDonald and B. Reeves Eason. There is a "comic art" feature with 25 covers of comic books that included The Phantom, and a "photo gallery" with sixteen pictures, plus one daily comic strip that unfortunately is not sharp enough to read. And there is commentary, by Dick Tracy writer Max Allan Collins, presented on an alternate audio track during the first chapter, probably best heard after watching the chapter.This is a good serial with a plot that doesn't seem illogical when watched one chapter at a time, and VCI's excellent print makes it one of the better relases of its kind.

Republic was certainly best known for serials, but other studios often got into the act. One of these was Columbia Pictures. In truth, Columbia's serials weren't anything to write home about--but there was one exception: the 1943 THE PHANTOM, which cracks along at a memorable pace with an entertaining storyline, some excellent fight choreography, visually interesting set pieces, and a truly fine performance from Tom Tyler in the title role.Tom Tyler (1903-1954) was a handsome, well-built man who played in well over 150 films between 1924 and 1953--but whose final years was marred by rheumatoid arthritis that reduced him to small supporting roles. But he was very much at his peak in 1941 when he appeared in the legendary Republic serial THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL--and no less so for the 1943 THE PHANTOM. Seen today, many serial "super heroes" of the 1930s and 1940s look more than a little chubby in their skin-tight costumes, but not Tyler: he had the body to carry it off, and if his acting chops weren't up to the standards of Hollywood's A-List actors they were perfect for this sort of comic book fun.The story finds the peace of jungle tribes threatened by the evil Dr. Bremmer (Kenneth MacDonald), who seeks to create an airbase for use by an unfriendly country at the long-lost jungle city of Zoloz. But in order to locate the hidden city, Bremmer must obtain "the keys"--pieces of a puzzle-like map--from newly arrived Professor Davidson (Frank Shannon) and his party. Can the Phantom, with the aid of his clever dog Devil, foil Bremmer, protect Davidson, and bring peace to the jungle once more?You better believe it, but before he does there are crocodiles, lions, tigers, a "fire princess," and booby-traps galore to overcome, most of them cleverly imagined and all of them expertly performed. Director B. Reeves Eason keeps everything moving at a sharp pace, and if the dialogue and cinematography are seldom inspired they are never less than entertaining, and there's not a dull moment in all fifteen chapters.Like many serials, THE PHANTOM does adopt certain racial sensibilities that will cause modern viewers to roll their eyes from time to time. It is actually a bit difficult to tell where this film is supposed to be set: at times the script seems to imply Africa, at other times it seems to imply South America, and the "natives" are pretty much clumsy white men in dark make-up who look silly in diaper-like costumes. Even so, the thing goes like a house afire, and if you're interested in the serial genre this is one you can't afford to miss.The VCI DVD edition features a nice commentary by Max Allan Collins on "Chapter One," a handful of biographies, and samples of comic book art and lobby cards; the real plus, however, is the quality of the film itself, which is quite fine--and this in spite of an instance where the soundtrack was lost and had to be re-created by modern actors. The picture quality is very good and the sound is more than adequate. Recommended to serial fans everywhere!GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Here we go again with another classic forties serial. This one has plenty of action and very distinct good guys and bad guys. I'm not spoiling anything when I tell you that in the beginning the old Phantom gets croaked and his son has to take over. After that, the action begins and never lets up. Oh, it's a classic cliff-hanger, believe thee me, but I have to say that it is one of the better ones and it moves right along. It kind of has you wondering if there'll be any bad guys left by the last chapter, but take heart, there are. Throw the disk on your playback, grab a bowl of nosh, pop open a bottle of whatever, kick back in your Lazy-boy or sprawl out on the sofa and enjoy, enjoy.