Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Phantom Serial!


Whew! What a ride that was.

The Phantom serial from Columbia is a rockem-sockem movie for sure. This 15-chapter play offers up a Phantom pretty close to the Lee Falk original. They play with the identity a bit though that is quickly abandoned after the first chapter, and we don't get to see Avenger. Devil is clearly a dog and not a wolf, but I'll allow for that.

I have no idea where this is set. The jungle of the Phantom here seems to be occupied by natives from central casting and not from any specific ethnic region. The animals range from crocodiles to lions to tigers to gorillas so that doesn't narrow it down. In point of fact this jungle seems just as fanciful as does the printed one elaborated over the years by Falk and his collaborators.

The plot is pretty simple. A professor played by Frank (Dr.Zarkhov) Shannon wants to find the lost city of Zoloz for purely scientific reasons. His daughter Diana (not Palmer) is along for the ride as well as her gold-digging boyfriend. The Phantom was going too but news of his father's death changes his plans and he becomes the new Phantom before our very eyes. His lack of experience is a plot element from time to time. Also on hand are treasure hunters and a gang of saboteurs who apparently already know where Zoloz is and plan a hidden airbase for the location so they try to stop the expedition. The uber-villain played by Kenneth MacDonald is called Dr.Brimmer and he's outstanding in the role, a slimy and cold character through and through.

There's lots of traps, some pretty illogical, but a good variety. The Phantom gets dropped into a tiger trap, a well, a bog, and gets blown up several times to boot. He always finds a way out of course. Tom Tyler as the Phantom is pretty good and this serial has some of the best fisticuffs of any Columbia serial I've seen. Tyler really knows how to perform an uppercut for the camera. They look dynamic and painful.

All in all this is a good serial. The dvd I watched also featured some images of classic comic book covers and photos from the production. Of particular note is a commentary by Max Allan Collins for Chapter 1. Chapter 11 has some new voices added because of damage to the print over time. It's a brief fix and doesn't hurt the flow of the story, though the voices do give the goings-on a bit of humor.

This is a great bit of entertainment. I highly recommend it.

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