Overlooked Movies: The Phantom (1943 Serial)

After last week's comments on the 1996 movie version of The Phantom, I thought I might as well write a little about the serial this week.  There's no trailer on YouTube, but I encourage you to watch Chapter One, embedded below.

I've written before, somewhere or other, about my affection for this serial.  The reason I like it is simple: It's the first thing I remember seeing in a movie theater.  I remember three things: My paternal grandfather took me to whatever movie was showing, the theater was the Palace in Mexia, Texas, and the final scene of the chapter that showed that day was of the Phantom sinking in quicksand (this probably has a lot to do with my theory that quicksand improves any story).  

For 60 years or so I wondered how the Phantom got out of the quicksand.  This isn't an exaggeration; I thought about it fairly often.  so as soon as the serial became available on video, I bought a copy.  Now I know.  If you want to find out, you can watch the whole serial on YouTube.  

The story is pretty simple, and it involves a lost city, another of my very favorite things.  The MacGuffin isn't unlike the one in the movie version, but instead of 3 skulls there are 7 pieces of ivory.  Putting the 7 together will result in a map of the location of the lost city.

Tom Tyler is a suitably athletic Phantom and doesn't have to say much.  He has plenty of fistfights (about one an episode).  There are lots of jungle chases and a great scene on a rope bridge, yet another of my favorite things.  Naturally every chapter ends with a cliffhanger.  It's all great fun.  It's not a Republic serial.  It's from Columbia, but that's okay.  It's great fun all the way if you have an 8-year-old brain, as I apparently do.

Overlooked Movies: The Phantom

I'm just going to say it up front: I love this movie.  I know that nobody else does.  Most people don't even seem to like it.  I can't figure out why.  It's based on the comic strip, and it does everything right (from my point of view).  It's set in the right period (the '30s), and it's based on some of the actual comic strip stories.  It doesn't go over the top with special effects.  It captures the spirit of the old movie serials (and maybe I'll talk about the serial version of The Phantom one of these days).  

It has a great cast, and if you don't think Billy Zane can pull off an authentic hero, you should watch this.  You might change your mind.  Others include Treat Williams chewing the scenery, Patrick McGoohan, Catherine Zeta-Jones (as a female air-pirate!), and Kristy Swanson, for starters.  It has the Skull Cave, Hero (the Phantom's horse), Devil (the Phantom's dog), and the Phantom's cool ring.  It's set both in New York and in the jungle, and both settings look great.

And, yes, there's a plot.  It's an origin story, and there's the usual MacGuffin (or three of them, mystic skulls that will supposedly allow one to rule the world if all three are brought together).  It has action, it has heart, and it's fun from beginning to end.  Or it was for me, if not for anybody else.  Should've been a big hit, should've had many sequels.  Didn't happen, more's the pity.  But that's okay.  I love it, anyway.