Serial Week: The Phantom

Welcome back to Serial Week were we are not looking to profile into the psyche of a killer. Yeah I know it just doesn't sound interesting now, but how about another guy in tights? Huh? You seem to like those. Based on the comic strip created by Lee Falk. This character has managed short stories, novelizations, cartoons, video games and even a theme park. Many tremble for the might of his majestic purple clad terror on bullies and criminals and his inherent jungle powers. This is The Phantom.

Many of you have commented on my tights.  Stop that.

So glossing over the 1996 Robert Evans produced film The Phantom which...kinda a stinker but still superior to the Dick Tracy flick, our costume clad crimefighter operated out of Bangalla, a completely fictional country. Our hero made his way to the comic strip in February 17, 1936. There is a tale of a Ghost Who Walks, an indestructible being that guards the innocent, devotes his time into disrupting criminals' lives and dispenses justice.

Hailing from Columbia Pictures, our cliffhanger serial stars The Phantom (Tom Tyler of Stagecoach, The Talk of the Town, Clancy of the Mounted, Adventures of Captain Marvel, Border Vigilantes and She Tore a Yellow Ribbon) as his second superhero role as he was Captain Marvel as well and brother this guy is built. Getting his start in Tinseltown as a movie extra and stuntman, at 6'1" his weight-lifter build and strong jaw landed him many a role and the serials were no different. With him at his side his faithful wolf (German Shepard for safety reasons), Devil.

The "tribes" are shockingly enough in red face.

Our fifteen parter opens with a expedition to rediscover the Lost City of Zoloz...yes it is spelled Zoloz. Guess Ziox was taken for The Final Sacrifice...oh Rowsdower.  Ahem, moving on, the location of the city can only be found of seven separate pieces of ivory, three of which are in Professor Davidson's possession. His partner, Doctor Bremmer intends to use the lost city as a secret airbase for his country that didn't seem important enough to name. All hail my nationality of on unknown origin!

The Phantom steps in but Doctor Bremmer is able to dispatch him off this mortal coil but as the legacy hero goes, one will step in for the other, The Phantom's son Geoffrey Prescott takes on the mantle of the Phantom to not only avenge his father but to do right by the innocent that need his help.

Not unlike Batman or Pulp book hero Doc Savage, The Phantom does not possess superhuman powers but must rely on his wits, strength, skill with a .45 and his reputation as a profound badass.

Well Dave, you have jungle fever. I'm writing you a prescription for more cowbell.

My take on the serial? Given the less than stellar creation of the 96 Phantom I found this to be a tight script, well balanced cast and frankly I didn't want to go head to head with this guy. He moved like a boxer. The elder Phantom was barrel chested and about in his 70s and yet he looked like he could curb stomp a few guys. Tyler as the younger Phantom moves like a boxer and a guy that has been in more than a few street fights in real life so yeah I was impressed. His line delivery was a bit wooden but so was Gary Cooper's and not many complained about him. Jeanne Bates' performance of Diane Palmer comes off adventurous, sassy without the sneers and arrogance of Kristy Swanson's performance in the 96 film. She had feisty behavior, verve and a decent heart where her man was concerned.

Any Phantom fan would easily enjoy this serial, so give it the once over. Sorry 2010 fans but no biker helmets.

Oh?  I look younger?  Well my ectoplasm was feeling generous.

Robert Evans Week: The Phantom

Well hello my readers and welcome to Day 5 of Robert Evans Week.  Well we have seen some great successes by Evans, a less than stellar musical according to some critics and by God we need to end this week on a good old fashioned pulp strip hero.  Yes, when you have the director of Operation Dumbo Drop, Free Will and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles at the command, you know you are in good hands.  Ladies, be honest.  A well built man clad in purple tights, sporting mighty pecs and twin holstered Colt 45s is really a deep seeded fantasy, isn't it?      Perhaps not.  This is The Phantom.

Nobody move, see?!

The Phantom: I've wore it all my life.  For protection.  I never really understood what that meant until right now.
Drax: Ha! What a cheap jungle spoiler!




From 1936 to 1999, Lee Falk created a costumed crimefighter that hailed from the far reaches of Africa as a myth or legend known only as the Phantom or the Ghost Who Walks.  With control from director Simon Wincer (Homicide, D.A.R.Y.L., Lonesome Dove, Quigley Down Under, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man and  Free Willy) and scribbled by writer Jeffery Boam (The Lost Boys, Lethal Weapon 2, Lethal Weapon 3, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) starts the tale of heroism from his ancestor 400 years prior whose ship was attacked by pirates.  Washed ashore on a remote African island Bengalla, the tribesmen taught the boy the ways of the jungle and to stand up again piracy and wrong doings.

Must be the sequel to Bound.

Where he got the fabrics and synthetics for his outfit?  Eh, not relevant.  1938, Kit Walker/Phantom (Billy Zane of Back to the Future, Critters, Back to the Future II, Sniper, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight,  Titanic and Vlad) sees strangers in his adopted lands searching for an ancient power, One of the legendary Skulls of Touganda  that will create a force that man is not wise enough to harness with proper intent.

 Meanwhile in New York, Investigative reporter Diana Palmer (Kristy Swanson of Hot Shots!, Highway to Hell, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Chase, Silence and Living Death) on assignment for her uncle Dave Palmer (Bill Smitrovich of Bodily Harm, Nick of Time, Independence Day, Ghosts of Mississippi, Millennium, Air Force One and Futuresport) owner of the Tribune Newspaper is looking into a local "robber baron" businessman Xander Drax (Treat Williams of The Eagle Has Landed, Dead Heat, Good Advice, Deep Rising, The Devil's Own, Venomous and The Circle) and his supposed links to a piracy organization called the Sengh Brotherhood.  

Travelling away on a Pan Am clipper, Diana's flight is interrupted by a sultry squadron of... well... bi-plane pirates lead by femme fatale Sala (Catherine Zeta-Jones of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Blue Juice, Catherine the Great, The Mask of Zorro, Entrapment, Traffic, Chicago, The Terminal, Rock of Ages and RED 2).  Within a moment's notice our hero listening in on the radio rushes to save his former girlfriend Diana (Yeah, I know the cliche') and brings her back to the Ghost's Lair, discovers they are on the same case and dismisses her due to her sex and frailty and blah blah blah misogynistic tendencies.

Can the Phantom stop Drax from taking over the world with his elite cadre of bumbling buffoons and mystic skulls?  Will he admit his feelings for Diana?  Does he have to sublet his lair if he moves to New York permanently?

Now just a few bits of trivia for you.  The "Palmer Mansion" during the cocktail party of movers and shakers scene was in fact Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion.  Prior to Wincer, Both Joe Dante and Joel Schumacher were considered for the directing job.   Most of the interior shots clearly have the look of a sound stage and the cameras caught the edges in a few of the shots.  The motorcycle cops are riding around on Indians made in the 40's while the film takes place in the 30's. I noticed the clipper had an a/c unit in it and that would be historically inaccurate but it sure beats roasting your cast in Thailand.

A rock 'em, sock 'em action film that is fast paced, blue screened in parts and decent enough story arc overall.  Still an enjoyable movie in spite of some of the cheesy dialogue but hell you adapted it from a comic strip from the 30's.

 Bruce Campbell and Dolph Lundgren were also considered for the part of the Phantom and frankly "Gimme some sugar, baby" or "I will break you." coming out of that purple costume just... not instilling fear in the hearts of the cowardly or superstitious.  I know this for a fact.  I asked Batman.

Your soul.. is mine!