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.

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.

The film starts with Tom Powers (Bogardus) killing someone in a park and walking away. It's not about whether or not he gets away with it – he doesn't – but what happens afterwards. Psychic doctor Stanley Ridges (Paul) believes Powers has the strongest will that the world has known and so is a prime candidate for his experiment. The plan is for Powers to will himself to return after his execution. Uh-oh, guess what….?

The film runs for an hour and so there is never any real time to develop tension, especially given the amount of revenge that Powers and his willpower want to engage in. As a result, it is a matter-of-fact story where this happens and then that happens and things carry along until the end. It's not bad and there are moments of good acting, eg, when Powers is waiting in Death Row and receives an audience with Ridges.

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.