The Phantom

I just read all of the other reviews to verify my premise, which turned out to be true. They all take the position that this movie is pretty awful on many levels. Well, sure it is since it is obviously a spoof and a send-up. Taking it seriously is a preposterous mistake of judgment. For whatever reason the director chose to go beyond all the limits and that is what gives him away. Maybe just to have fun, maybe to get even with the studio for some transgression, could have been anything. Like it or hate it as you choose but take a chill pill and recognize that your leg has been properly pulled!

I would think that for the people of 1931, this would be quite a movie. The beginning (as many have already stated), was quite exciting - even by today's standards. Then the movie drags a bit.

But my reason for writing this review is only to add that the eclectic cast is worth watching. You can see the obvious influence of the silent era in their expressions and actions/reactions.

But to me, Lucy (played by Violet Knights) almost steals the show. She seems to me a very funny actress. I hope to get to see her in something else some time. However, I suspect this is probably her crowning achievement as an actress, as she made less than ten talking pictures, and was only credited in two of them. I know her acting is overboard, but her expressions and manners are worth the watching of this movie to me. Without her, I would probably give this movie only one or two stars.

The strange Swede (William Jackie?) is also a great comic in this, his only credited role (according to IMDb).

If you like unusual characters, I think this is definitely a movie worth a watch. Don't expect a great story - as others have mentioned, the plot is a bit over-used. But the cast to me is not a disappointment.

Here's a film from the early sound era. This one, I'm pretty sure, was from good old Poverty Row, purveyors of wads of borderline unwatchable dreck from the olden days. This one was a little bit better than most of these cheapo programme filler efforts, as it has just enough interest to get it over the line but don't get me wrong, this is ropey stuff in many respects. It tells the tale of a prison break, where a convict escapes (in an impressively dangerous looking bit of stunt work involving being lifted on a bit of rope attached to a plane, from a speeding train), soon after this a mysterious villain called The Phantom begins a terror campaign. To a large extent, this is one of those tried and tested old dark house movies, which were a staple of many a low budget pot-boiler in the 30's. To this end, we have a large cast of characters in a big house, with secret passages, a cloaked villain and a cowardly maid (and chaffuer) - i.e. Aside from having a man in a gorilla suit, this features typical nonsense which many of these films have. But there's enough oddball extras to keep this interesting enough, like the creepy bellhop, with the bizarre accent. Its really not bad, as these types of old school Poverty Row efforts go.

This is another movie that I had never heard until I was working my way through the horror movie releases from 1931 from Letterboxd. This one intrigued me with the title as it reminded me of the hero serial/film that came out. I did read the synopsis to this one before seeing it as I was trying to find something to pair up. It doesn't make the greatest double feature for my Odyssey through the Ones, but it will work. The synopsis I'm referring to is a group of people are stalked by a masked killer in an old mansion.

We start this movie off in a prison. It appears that a criminal going by the nickname of The Phantom (Sheldon Lewis) is to be executed that day. The warden is talking to a reporter about this and they're alerted a plane is flying low over the building again. We then see The Phantom scales the wall, jumps to a train and the plane picks him up to make his escape.

The Phantom then sends a warning to the district attorney, John Hampton (Wilfred Lucas). He wants to meet him at his house that night to kill him. John agrees and the police are going to send men over. A police sergeant of Pat Collins (Tom O'Brien) is the one assigned here.

John's daughter is also alerted to this. She is a reporter for a local newspaper for the event section. Her name is Ruth (Allen Ray) and she is dating another reporter of Dick Mallory (Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams). Her boss though is in love with her, Sam Crandall (Niles Welch). He expresses how he feels and she tells him she is going to marry Dick. They are just hoping he gets a promotion, which falls on Sam. He has to decide what he will do here.

All of these people converge on John Hampton's home that night. Also included are his maid, Lucy (Violet Knights), who is jumpy and she is seeing the chauffeur, Shorty (Bobby Dunn), who is much in the same vein as her. The Phantom sneaks into the house along with another guy who makes a demand of John without introducing himself. This becomes a wild night to figure out who The Phantom really is and capture him before he kills anyone. Their search will lead him to a local asylum ran by Dr. Weldon (William Gould) and us getting to meet the odd Oscar (William Jackie).

I feel that is enough to flesh out the story this movie and get you up to speed with what type of movie we are going to get. What I will start with is that this is short. It runs just over an hour and doesn't waste any time getting into it, which is good. What I found interesting though was that I thought we were going to get an 'Old Dark House' type film and that is how it starts. We actually get 2 of them including the asylum where we have secret passages and what not which I do enjoy.

With this story here, I do think it is lacking some fleshing out of things. I like the idea of The Phantom, him escaping from prison and wanting to get revenge on the district attorney. It is interesting though is that John wasn't the DA when this case was tried, but The Phantom still blames the office. There is an interesting scene with Dick that we get early on into the night where I thought we were going to have to guess who The Phantom really is. Lewis plays the role quite creepy what I like, but the reveal is just a bit abrupt and not really shocking. It also feels a bit like a cheat as well. The movie really wants more to focus on this love triangle between Dick, Ruth and Sam, but Sam really just has to make one decision whether or not to give Dick the promotion or not. It seems they're on the right path to make a deep story, but didn't go far enough with it.

What I will say is that the acting is fine. I can see why Williams has the nickname of Big Boy as he's a tall guy. It does make it hard for us to believe that he's The Phantom though. Ray is solid as his love interest, but they don't flesh out Ruth all that much. Welch is good as the better option for Ruth despite how she feels about Dick. Sam is a solid guy for sure. Aside from that I think the rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed. Lewis as I said was creepy as The Phantom, Knights and Dunn bring some levity to the movie which we got a lot of in this era. I really liked Jackie as Oscar as well in his limited role.

Then really aside from that, it just leaves me the cinematography, effects and soundtrack. For the former, it is fine. Being in early cinema, we are getting static shots. What I will give credit to though is the setting. Both houses are interesting with their secret passages and what not. I'm a sucker for that. This isn't really the type of movie that has effects, but I think the look of The Phantom is creepy. Oscar seems to be abnormally tall as well as slender and how he moves his body was interesting. Then really the soundtrack fit for what was needed. It didn't stand out or hurt the movie for me.

This there really isn't a whole lot to delve into this movie that is where I'm going to leave it. I do think that we have some interesting set ups here, but the movie just doesn't go far enough in fleshing them out. I like the idea of this villain escaping from prison and trying to get revenge. The acting is solid enough. The setting and look of The Phantom are also bright spots. Aside from that, the movie is okay just lacking quite a bit for me to really enjoy this one. For that reason I'd say this is an average movie. There are good and bad aspects on both sides for me so I'm coming in the middle here.

It starts with a prison break with a man about to be electrocuted jumping over the wall onto a moving train and then being picked up by a plane dangling a rope ladder! And that is just the first 5 minutes! Most of this is an "old dark house" style thriller about a mad killer called The Phantom who is out to kill a local district attorney (former D.W. Griffith regular Wilfred Lucas). The D.A.'s daughter (Allene Ray) and her reporter boyfriend (Guinn WIlliams) team up to catch the cloaked maniac and, in the tradition of movies like this, do a much better job than the cops who have surrounded the house. They trail the madman to an insane asylum where nobody, and I mean NOBODY! is playing with a full deck. For a one hour film the plot gets complicated with things like insanity, kidnapping, revenge and even brain transplants. The only thing missing was a gorilla, and if the plot had run another 10 minutes I'll one would have popped up! It all makes sense (well, sort of) at the end when the prison warden shows up to identify the mad killer. (You don't expect ME to reveal who it is, do you?) Also in the cast is The Clutching Hand himself, Sheldon Lewis. In a cap, tall hat and fright wig he is still playing the character he created for the 1916 serial THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE and doing it rather well. Lweis was also the only actor to ever play Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde twice. Once in 1920 in the version filmed on location in New York to compete against the John Barrymore and again in 1929 in a one reel talkie short. Art? No way. Fun? You bet! See this one.