L'atleta fantasma

After the Feuillade serials, before Zorro and Superman, with their identities similarly hidden from their squeezes by soppy real life characters, we get this long forgotten post WW1 Turin proto super hero adventure.

Barrel chested Guaita-Ausonia, in a chain mail hood like Republic's Copperhead, defeats the working class nasties to win aristocratic Zara and protect her cursed brooch. We get cliff hangers, a comic reporter, the fire brigade to the rescue and a harlequin painting where the side kicks watch through the eyes.

The film lacks the surreal imagery of Fantômas and the stunts don't match the breath catching ones from the Fairbanks movies, but this is still something that lovers of the trashy end of the spectrum will find fascinating.

Film form is quite slick for the day - matching cuts closer and back, fades and dissolves all quite deft, along with relevant close ups - one of Guaita-Ausonia's bulging bicep.

Jenny Ladimoor (Elsa Zara) is engaged to Harry Audersen (Mario Guaita-Ausonia), for what is to be a marriage of convenience. Jenny isn't enamoured by mild-mannered Harry: she dreams of high adventure and hunky action men, like the mysterious, hooded, muscle-bound crimefighter The Phantom Athlete, whose exciting exploits are regularly reported in the local papers.

When Jenny's wealthy father gives her a valuable antique breast-plate for her birthday, she becomes the target of ruthless criminals who will do anything to get their hands on the treasure. Luckily for Jenny, the Phantom Athlete is always on the scene to rescue her from the villains.

The Phantom Athlete reminds me a lot of Santo, the heroic wrestler of many a Mexican movie, except that he wears a chainmail hood instead of a luchador mask. And like those Santo movies, I found this film rather tedious and not particularly exciting, the repetitive formula quickly becoming tiresome. It's the same thing over and over again - the crooks cooking up a scheme, only to be foiled by the Phantom - with a predictable ending in which the Phantom is unmasked, revealing him to be none other than Harry, much to the delight of Jenny, who finally has the brave hero she wanted.