El fantasma

This serial has been panned by critics,but I found it to be one of the better efforts from Columbia Pictures,who often tended to make light of its efforts.Tom Tyler plays the Phantom and looks great in the Phantom costume.The plot is simple;Finding a lost city.Two different factions search for the city for different reasons,one good and one bad.From a technical standpoint,I found it to have good production values.On the down side,the villians,in general,tend to overact,but i've seen that in many Columbia serials.There is good rear projection work,and music by Lee Zahler is ok.."Breezy" Eason directs his cast in a capable manner,and supporting cast is good.Summary: good effort from Columbia. On tape and DVD. DVD has extra features.I can't compare the two mediums since I haven't viewed the tape.

This serial has a lot of action and good excitement, and Tom Tyler is very likeable as the Phantom. He is the best thing about the serial. The supporting as is good, including a small army of the villain's henchmen! Another plus about this serial is the super-intelligent German Shepherd dog, Devil, the Phantom's loyal--and invaluable--associate and friend. Among the supporting cast, the professor's niece was attractive and did a good job. I thought the professor himself gave a somewhat weak performance: he seemed so old, he was almost decrepit, in my view, and not very sharp mentally somehow. If you like serials with a jungle setting, you will enjoy this one.

...from Columbia Pictures and director B. Reeves Eason. Tom Tyler stars as Godfrey Prescott, who discovers at the film's start that he has inherited the mantle of the Phantom, "The Ghost Who Walks", a reputedly immortal jungle protector dwelling in a forbidden, skull-shaped cave in Africa. The natives ascribe all sorts of mystical powers to the Phantom, but he's in fact just a mortal man, well trained in the fighting arts, who cultivates an air of mystery so as to terrify potential adversaries. His immortal reputation comes from the Phantom costume and title being passed from lookalike father to son for hundreds of years, leading the natives to believe that it has been the same being for centuries.

Soon after becoming the Phantom, Godfrey has to battle a sinister group of criminals led by Dr. Bremmer (Kenneth MacDonald) who are after the location of a legendary hidden city that is said to hold unimaginable treasure. Also featuring Jeanne Bates, Frank Shannon, Ernie Adams, Robert Barron, Anthony Caruso, George Chesebro, I. Stanford Jolley, Kermit Maynard, Anthony Warde, Jay Silverheels, Iron Eyes Cody, Ray Corrigan as Brutus the Gorilla, and Ace the Wonder Dog as Devil.

The Phantom is an important figure in the history of the superhero. He was the first one to wear the stereotypical tights costume one associates with the genre. He's basically a combination of the Shadow and Tarzan, but he's proven very popular around the world, with the comic strip still being run in newspapers over 80 years after its debut. So it's no surprise that he'd be the inspiration for a serial during this period. Tom Tyler, who had starred in The Adventures of Captain Marvel in 1941, gets to star again as the hero, and while his dialogue delivery is clunky, he throws great punches, made more amusing since his skull-shaped signet ring leaves skull impressions in his enemies' faces.

Most of this plays like the standard jungle adventure movie, with stock jungle footage, and lots of animal battles. The Phantom fights a lion, a tiger, an alligator, and a guy in a gorilla costume. There are also a lot of superstitious natives, although they are a point of confusion. I wasn't sure for awhile where this was supposed to be set. I know it's a fictional land, but it's supposed to be in Africa. However, all of the natives look white or Native American, and they dress in a silly mix of Polynesian and African tribal looks. It just adds to the B movie charm, and this is one of the more enjoyable serials.

Chapter 11of the VCI DVD had degraded so much that the sound was completely lost. The DVD producers opted to dub the dialogue, adding some unintended humor.

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

For me as a young boy in the early 1950's going to the flicks on a Saturday arvo with my siblings was my introduction to the wonderful world of show biz and entertainment. Although watching much G rated fun I didn't see this serial but watching it now has helped me relive those times. The Phantom comic was and has been my favorite comic from that same era and this serial closely follows the iconography of those stories and now feel a glow of gratitude for the effort put in by all involved, especially Tom Tyler who made a great Phantom. Sure this is no masterpiece but boy is it entertaining.