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		List Price: $19.99		Publisher: VCI Entertainment Salesrank: 13259 Released: 2001-01-30 Theatrical-Release: 1943-12-24
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The Phantom…….
Made in 1943, The Phantom was a classic Columbia Pictures cliffhanger serial that starred Tom Tyler in the leading role. In this serial, Geoffrey Prescott takes over the mantle of The Phantom from his dying father, and must thwart Dr. Max Bremmer’s plans to find the lost city of Zoloz, where the doctor intends to build a hidden airbase. To find Zoloz, the Phantom and Bremmer are both searching for pieces of a map that will lead them to the secret city, which is hidden deep in the jungle. Like most serials of the day, The Phantom has to make his way through many twists and turns in the story before saving the day in the end. Directed by B. Reeves Eason, this is one of the better Columbia Pictures Serials. As you’ve read in other reviews, Columbia wasn’t well known as a great movie serial maker like Republic Pictures was. Nonetheless, it is one of my favorites from back in the day. The serial also features Jeanne Bates as Diana Palmer, and Ace the Wonder Dog as the Phantom’s trusty German shepherd Devil. Like most serials of the day, it lasts over 15 chapters. It’s well worth getting and watching before checking out the 1996 movie starring Billy Zane(which, in my opinion, is just as great). It’s a series I wish filmmakers would make another movie of.

Fun!
The Phantom - Serial Some serials are exciting; others are just plain silly. This one lies in between. It’s the best thing I’ve seen Tom Tyler do. (In Adventures of Captain Marvel he’s pretty much limited to saying “Shazam!” so he can revert to Billy Batson…though why he’d want to is beyond me.)

Who knows where this takes place. It could be Africa; it could be India; it could be Central or South America. There’s one sequence that could be Mongolia. Does it matter? Of course not! It’s silly fun.

The Phantom’s Zone?
Columbia Pictures was infamous for making infamously bad serials. However, through some inexplicable fluke, they made a really great serial in 1943. It was called `The Phantom.’ Here are some of the things that make this serial so good:

1. Tom Tyler in the title role. He projected a strong and quietly heroic screen presence, and was athletic enough to look good in the Phantom suit. He is believable in the fight scenes. Superhero suits look good in comic strips, but usually on the screen they look completely stupid. Tom Tyler, a former champion weight lifter, could pull it off. He was also a decent actor. Totally serious, but never camp or inadvertently goofy. I rate him as being almost as good as Buster Crabbe, as far as serial heroes go. Definitely head and shoulders above Kirk Alyn or either of the poor guys that played Batman in the serials.

2. Good fight scenes.

3. Ace the Wonder Dog, playing `Devil,’ the Phantom’s dog (in the comic strip, Devil was a wolf, but trained wolves were more expensive). All the great heroes each have certain gimmicks, trademarks, special weapons, etc. Such is Devil for the Phantom, and the idea of the hero being aided in a fight by a big dog is a cool idea. Devil definitely makes the fight scenes more interesting and believable here.

4. Good cliff hangers.

5. Staying reasonably faithful to the original source material. Although taking some serious liberties regarding the comic strip from whence it was inspired, this serial still retains the spirit and appeal of the Lee Falk’s creations. Rightly so, the Phantom is a cool character, and should be treated with a little respect.

And now, a short commentary regarding racial stereotypes: in my mind, it has always been problematic that in the comics, the Phantom is an unelected pale-skinned person holding a high degree of authority for a large group of darker-skinned persons. To be fair, the Phantom was created in the 1930’s, when there was a lot of overt racism in the U.S., when Lee Falk and most of his readers wouldn’t have had anyone to point out this inequity. And to be fair, Lee Falk’s representation of African tribes, though entirely fanciful, was much less derogatory than that of Edgar (`Tarzan’) Rice Burroughs or of any mainstream Hollywood movie.

Which brings us back to this serial. While all the action takes place in the jungle, there are no positive indications as to whether this jungle is in Africa, South America, Asia, the Canary Islands, or southern Albania. Nor is there any coherent racial representation regarding the natives of this imaginary region. Many were played by Caucasian actors, some by Native Americans (an unbilled Jay Silverheels played a small role), as well as actors of other ethnicities. Overall, their skin color is not much, if any, darker than the Phantom’s. Also, the characterization of the natives in this serial, while often fitting an unflattering stereotype, is much less offensive than you see in Tarzan and Jungle Jim films of the same era.

All in all, I would recommend this for serial fans, film buffs, and admirers of the the Phantom.

Top-notch serial
I’d read that the director of the Captain Marvel serial thought Tom Tyler was a terrible actor (which is why he said a total of about 12 words the whole time), but this proves him wrong. He’s a very good phantom and this is a good ride.

There are offensive stereotypes, so get ready for the occasional cringe and this is not the Royal Academy in terms of acting or writing, but if you shut down your critical brain for a while, you’ll probably find yourself drawn in–a little like quicksand.

Five Star Phantom
I’m a big Phantom fan so I may be biased but I thought this was great stuff. This took me back to my childhood. I saw the serial when I was a kid in the fifties and it’s still great over 50 years later. They could have made his costume a bit better but apart from that a great adventure. My teenage kids loved this too, which is saying something.

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Tracklisting:
1. Moderato
2. Adagio Sostenuto
3. Allegro Scherzando
4. Prelude No. 4, Op.16 in E Flat Minor
5. Prelude No. 1, Op.12, ‘March’
6. Recital No. 1, Op.44
7. The Love For Three Oranges, Op.33, ‘March’
8. Allegro Molto E Resoluto - Suddeutsche Philharmonie/Alexander Von Pitamic

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