The Phantom Speaks

Review of The Phantom Speaks 1945 by Vivek Maru. This is a paranormal horror film. It is based on the concept of the soul surviving even after death. The movie itself is ahead of its time. Some modern viewers may find the setting of the film not to their taste. However the mid 1940's movie had its own particular charm. I found the background music score inadequate and not suited to the movie. Certain elements of suspense and horror are to be found wanting as this was a heavily censored film because films at that time could not show too much graphic violence and depravity as today's horror movies do.

This film has a moral: play with matches and you will get burnt. This is not a sugar-coated ending type of film as many would expect. The film's ending will haunt you. I consider this movie a rare oddity and one of its kind. A remake of this movie by an intelligent director should appeal to today's generation of viewers.

1945's "The Phantom Speaks" fared no better than other Republic horror films, avoiding the stars utilized by Universal, Monogram, or PRC for contract players with little affinity for the genre. On this occasion, they not only rip off the Karloff-Lugosi vehicle "Black Friday," they actually signed the actor playing the tortured dual role, Stanley Ridges, who yet again is just not himself as he proves unable to resist the impulse to kill. Instead of a college professor granted half the brain of a dead gangster out for revenge, he's a psychic investigator delving into the separation of mind, body, and soul, finding the perfect test subject in a condemned man set to be executed but not finished avenging himself on the people that testified against him to seal his conviction. Once he falls under the dead man's overpowering influence, a gun is used to target the lawyer who failed to get him off, the faithless wife who lied on the witness stand, and the hapless witness who saw him shoot down his wife's lover in the park. During his lucid moments, Ridges has no memory of committing misdeeds and has a devoted housekeeper willing to cover up for him. Richard Arlen gets top billing as a newshound who discovers evidence of the living dead but chooses not to believe it, Tom Powers as the executed killer whose task is not yet finished. If only the climax weren't so similar to "Black Friday," another execution before the usual gathering of expressionless yet eager vultures.

In order to prove his theories about the human spirit, scientist Dr. Paul Renwick (Stanley Ridges) talks to Harvey Bogardus (Tom Powers), a killer on death row who has the will strong enough for him to cross the barrier between the dead and the living. Renwick tells the murderer that he will be in touch after his execution has been carried out.

When Renwick does make contact with Bogardus's spirit, the killer possesses the scientist in order to exact revenge on those who sent him to the electric chair.

This entertaining supernatural thriller does beg the question 'Why didn't Renwick find a strong-willed person with a terminal disease rather than a cold-blooded killer?' but then we wouldn't have much of a film if that had been the case. Accept the rather goofy premise, and there's a lot of fun to be had with this film. That said, The Phantom Speaks was actually banned in Britain at the time, probably thanks to a harrowing scene where a little girl tries to wake up her murdered father and a surprisingly downbeat ending, so maybe not everyone had as much fun with the film as I did.

I just caught up with THE PHANTOM SPEAKS yesterday, and it's one of a group of disturbing, yet riveting hour long thrillers that Republic produced in the mid 1940s, along with such films as VALLEY OF THE ZOMBIES, THE MYSTERIOUS MR. VALENTINE, and THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST; short, evocative, and deeply atmospheric. While Republic's serials dealt in nonstop action, and their Westerns offered up the artificially cheerful spectacle of Roy Roger and family in a seemingly endless series of singing westerns, Republic's hour long programmers are melancholy, paranoid, world weary, and genuinely disturbing. Directed by such superb veterans as Phil Ford, Leslie Selander, and in this case, John English, Republic's "B" films offered the viewer a vision of the world as a vast, bleak, and friendless place, inhabited only the corrupt and powerful, and their unwilling victims. Superb direction by English, with Tom Powers excellent as the ruthless killer, and the ever reliable Stanley Ridges both sympathetic and harrowing as his dupe. Watch for an uncredited Kenne Duncan in the opening scene as Powers's victim. All of these films, needless to say, should be available on DVD.

When the film begins, Harvey Bogardus (Tom Powers) kills a man in cold blood. He's soon captured and executed...swearing vengeance on everyone even up until the end. However, before he was killed a goofy psychic researcher meets with him and talks about trying some experiment to allow his spirit or will to live beyond death. Why he would pick this creep of all people is beyond me but the experiment turns out to work too well. The death man's evil spirit is strong and is able to take over this idiotic professor's mind--compelling him to murder all those he blames for the death sentence. It really makes no sense but seeing the murders done in such a brutal and cold fashion was very entertaining! Plus, despite its goofiness the film is never dull and kept my interest...and made me laugh occasionally and unintentionally. Well worth seeing and reminiscent of some of Bela Lugosi's B films.