The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues

Rating:
Summary: Ted Baxter and Mr. Grant: the secret history revealed
Review: As a fan of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I could not help but be amused by the coincidental facts that the main character initially uses the assumed name of Ted Baxter and ends up working with an investigator named Mr. Grant. Luckily, The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues has a little more going for it than this ironic coincidence. As the movie begins, a fisherman is pulled into the water by some monstrous sea creature. When his radioactive remains wash up on the beach, Ted Baxter is there to find him (though I'm not sure why he was walking along the beach in a suit). He seeks out the head of the oceanography college, and eventually he confesses that he is actually Ted Stevens, author of two important but controversial books on the use of heavy water for atomic purposes and radiation-induced mutation. He undertakes a diving expedition off the coast and comes across a huge source of dangerous uranium-induced radioactivity and a monstrous creature seemingly guarding it; from his own limited experimentation, he knows this dangerous, obviously man-made threat must be destroyed. The scientist is paranoid about his work, which brings him under suspicion. Also under suspicion are the scientist's secretary and assistant. As the movie progresses, we see the phantom kill a few more people, watch Stevens woo the daughter of the scientist he is investigating, watch in amazement as the scientist changes his jacket an inordinate number of times, and wait for something to happen - this effort is in vain, for the most part. There are a couple of good explosions near the end, but the conclusion holds no real surprises whatsoever.

The title implies that the phantom originally comes from some place 10,000 leagues under the sea; actually, all of the underwater action seems to take place a couple of hundred yards offshore. The divers we watch every so often exploring the ocean floor have the remarkable knack to come up to the surface exactly beside their boat, no matter how far away from it they have traveled. As for the phantom, I thought he was portrayed rather well; he certainly looks like something one would want to avoid beneath the ocean waters, and the moviemakers wisely show him standing still for the most part. This movie is your typical 1950s underwater monster adventure, offering little to delight but little to disappoint the audience. In other words, it's not bad - but it's not good, either.

Rating:
Summary: Phantom is so bad it's almost good
Review: Dr. Taylor arrives at a beach to investigate the death cause by a sea monster, the Phantom from 10,000 Leagues. This sea monster is protecting/guarding an underwater deposit of uranium ore. I think the sea monster is a mutation, created by Dr. Whalen, and is a cross between a number of different sea creatures - but what? Eventually, Dr. Whalen destroys the monster and himself in an explosion.

The movie is not very good, there are no special effects, and sea monster is even less convincing. I have had the movie on VHS for a number of years and just recently purchase it on DVD. The quality on DVD is no different than that of the VHS version. There is something about movies like this that makes me pull it from the back of my library and watch it every 6 months or so.

Rating:
Summary: Death rays, sea monsters, and murder by spear gun...
Review: Okay, I certainly had no illusions of grandeur when I popped this one into the DVD player, and neither should you. The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues? A more apt title would be the Guy in the Cheap Monster Suit From 20 Feet (or 0.00109730 Leagues, if you want to get technical)...

The film, directed by Dan Milner and presented by Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson (hence the incredibly cheapness of the entire affair) stars Kent Taylor, who also starred as Boston Blackie in the television series of the same name along with various cinematic wonders as The Crawling Hand (1963), Brides of Blood (1968), Satan's Sadists (1969), The Mighty Gorga (1969), and Brain of Blood (1972). The film also stars Cathy Downs, who later appeared in films like The She Creature (1956), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), and Missile to the Moon (1958), Michael Whalen (who also appeared with Ms. Downs in Missile to the Moon, Rodney Bell, Phillip Pine, Vivi Janess, and Pierce Lyden as Andy, the janitor.

The film opens with a fisherman casting a net off a small dingy, I guess, to catch some fish. Underneath the boat we see a man in a somewhat elaborate, yet highly unresponsive, monster suit. He pushes some on the bottom of the boat, and this causes the man to let out a feeble yell and fall into the water. The creature then proceeds to...the best way I could describe this is to say the creature began having relationship with the man in the water. I suppose it was meant to look like it was attacking the fisherman, but it surely didn't...anyway, the next scene shows the fisherman's corpse and his dingy on the beach, and we meet out main character, Dr. Ted Stevens (Taylor), or, as he's calling himself Ted Baxter, for reasons of his own for now, discovers the body. As the good doctor is looking over the body, government man William Grant (Bell), or Mr. Grant as he's known throughout the film, arrives and starts questioning Ted Baxter about what he's doing. Ted Baxter? Mr. Grant? I know, I know...if characters named Mary Richards and Murray Slaughter show up, we got us a full blown episode of The Mary Tyler Moore show...anyway, it appears the fisherman died of burns produced by exposure to radiation. So the pre-martial activities with the sea serpent were just salt in the wound? Bleeech...

The story progresses, and we learn that a professor of a local university, Professor King (Whalen) is working on some secret project, one of great interest to his secretary Ethel Hall (Janiss) and the professor's opportunistic assistant George Thomas (Pine), both whom he doesn't trust, for good reason. We also meet the professor's daughter, Lois (Downs), who really has no other purpose in the movie other than looking good and being a romantic foil for Taylor's character. Apparently the fisherman who turned up charbroiled wasn't the first victim, and the locals have concocted a story about a phantom(?!) haunting the cove, taking people. What is this, a Scooby Doo mystery? And what's Dr. Stevens role in this story? Turns out, as an expert in atomics and `death ray' technology (I kid you not), he was assigned to investigate, but no one told Mr. Grant, who is also looking into the matter. Apparently Professor King has developed a way to mutate normal sea creatures into monsters, and now one is guarding and feeding off a fissure of uranium within the cove, and killing anyone who comes near it. Also, it seems the Professor's assistant George Thomas is working with some unknown group to steal the Professor's plans, whatever the heck they are, and get paid big time. As for the Professor's secretary Ethel, well, she's just nosey, and we all know what happens to nosey secretaries, right? They get shot with a spear gun in the back. Oops...I give too much away...oh man, this is too good...who's the killer running around shooting a spear gun at people? It's no big mystery, as the culprit is highly moronic...I mean, a spear gun? Anyway, this mess of a movie shambles along, some more people die, people commit acts of idiocy, and the whole thing gets resolved about twenty minutes later than it should have, filling out the 80 minute run time.

The whole film is just so very cheap...the cardboard sets, clunky and unwieldy expository dialogue, utterly inane characters, and the complete predictability of the plot. It may seem like I've given things away in my review, but I really haven't, as you'll see most of what I talked about coming long before it does...

The print here looks really shoddy, being washed out, grainy, and just all around generally poor. Is there a better source print out there? Perhaps, but who's going to bother finding it? Retromedia does provide a good amount of extras for its' release including Drive-In Antics featuring Fred Olen Ray and Miss Kim (there is a bit o' nudity here, so don't let the kiddies watch), intermission spots, the kind you used to see in theaters and drive ins spouting the virtues of the snack bar and removing the speaker from your car window before leaving the drive-in, a still gallery for the film, Drive-In Antics bloopers/outtakes, and a whole slew of trailers of highly dubious films like the one on this disc along with trailers for Beast of the Yellow Night (1971), Curse of the Vampires (1971), Invasion of the Blood Farmers (1972), Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988), Fatal Justice (1993), Evil Spawn (1987), and Scalps (1983). I guess if I take one thing away from this film it's if you're going to choose a weapon to murder someone, a spear gun probably shouldn't be your first choice. I mean, if you miss, it just takes too long to reload, and you completely lose the element of surprise. There are several releases of this film out there, so features subject to change.

Cookieman108

Rating:
Summary: Death rays, sea monsters, and murder by spear gun...
Review: Okay, I certainly had no illusions of grandeur when I popped this one into the DVD player, and neither should you. The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues? A more apt title would be the Guy in the Cheap Monster Suit From 20 Feet (or 0.00109730 Leagues, if you want to get technical)...

The film, directed by Dan Milner and presented by Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson (hence the incredibly cheapness of the entire affair) stars Kent Taylor, who also starred as Boston Blackie in the television series of the same name along with various cinematic wonders as The Crawling Hand (1963), Brides of Blood (1968), Satan's Sadists (1969), The Mighty Gorga (1969), and Brain of Blood (1972). The film also stars Cathy Downs, who later appeared in films like The She Creature (1956), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), and Missile to the Moon (1958), Michael Whalen (who also appeared with Ms. Downs in Missile to the Moon, Rodney Bell, Phillip Pine, Vivi Janess, and Pierce Lyden as Andy, the janitor.

The film opens with a fisherman casting a net off a small dingy, I guess, to catch some fish. Underneath the boat we see a man in a somewhat elaborate, yet highly unresponsive, monster suit. He pushes some on the bottom of the boat, and this causes the man to let out a feeble yell and fall into the water. The creature then proceeds to...the best way I could describe this is to say the creature began having relationship with the man in the water. I suppose it was meant to look like it was attacking the fisherman, but it surely didn't...anyway, the next scene shows the fisherman's corpse and his dingy on the beach, and we meet out main character, Dr. Ted Stevens (Taylor), or, as he's calling himself Ted Baxter, for reasons of his own for now, discovers the body. As the good doctor is looking over the body, government man William Grant (Bell), or Mr. Grant as he's known throughout the film, arrives and starts questioning Ted Baxter about what he's doing. Ted Baxter? Mr. Grant? I know, I know...if characters named Mary Richards and Murray Slaughter show up, we got us a full blown episode of The Mary Tyler Moore show...anyway, it appears the fisherman died of burns produced by exposure to radiation. So the pre-martial activities with the sea serpent were just salt in the wound? Bleeech...

The story progresses, and we learn that a professor of a local university, Professor King (Whalen) is working on some secret project, one of great interest to his secretary Ethel Hall (Janiss) and the professor's opportunistic assistant George Thomas (Pine), both whom he doesn't trust, for good reason. We also meet the professor's daughter, Lois (Downs), who really has no other purpose in the movie other than looking good and being a romantic foil for Taylor's character. Apparently the fisherman who turned up charbroiled wasn't the first victim, and the locals have concocted a story about a phantom(?!) haunting the cove, taking people. What is this, a Scooby Doo mystery? And what's Dr. Stevens role in this story? Turns out, as an expert in atomics and 'death ray' technology (I kid you not), he was assigned to investigate, but no one told Mr. Grant, who is also looking into the matter. Apparently Professor King has developed a way to mutate normal sea creatures into monsters, and now one is guarding and feeding off a fissure of uranium within the cove, and killing anyone who comes near it. Also, it seems the Professor's assistant George Thomas is working with some unknown group to steal the Professor's plans, whatever the heck they are, and get paid big time. As for the Professor's secretary Ethel, well, she's just nosey, and we all know what happens to nosey secretaries, right? They get shot with a spear gun in the back. Oops...I give too much away...oh man, this is too good...who's the killer running around shooting a spear gun at people? It's no big mystery, as the culprit is highly moronic...I mean, a spear gun? Anyway, this mess of a movie shambles along, some more people die, people commit acts of idiocy, and the whole thing gets resolved about twenty minutes later than it should have, filling out the 80 minute run time.

The whole film is just so very cheap...the cardboard sets, clunky and unwieldy expository dialogue, utterly inane characters, and the complete predictability of the plot. It may seem like I've given things away in my review, but I really haven't, as you'll see most of what I talked about coming long before it does...

The print here looks really shoddy, being washed out, grainy, and just all around generally poor. Is there a better source print out there? Perhaps, but who's going to bother finding it? Retromedia does provide a good amount of extras for its' release including Drive-In Antics featuring Fred Olen Ray and Miss Kim (there is a bit o' nudity here, so don't let the kiddies watch), intermission spots, the kind you used to see in theaters and drive ins spouting the virtues of the snack bar and removing the speaker from your car window before leaving the drive-in, a still gallery for the film, Drive-In Antics bloopers/outtakes, and a whole slew of trailers of highly dubious films like the one on this disc along with trailers for Beast of the Yellow Night (1971), Curse of the Vampires (1971), Invasion of the Blood Farmers (1972), Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988), Fatal Justice (1993), Evil Spawn (1987), and Scalps (1983). I guess if I take one thing away from this film it's if you're going to choose a weapon to murder someone, a spear gun probably shouldn't be your first choice. I mean, if you miss, it just takes too long to reload, and you completely lose the element of surprise. There are several releases of this film out there, so features subject to change.

Cookieman108

Rating:
Summary: Movie not so hot to start with; DVD finishes it off
Review: Phantom from 10,000 Leagues is not a great movie. It's not even a great bad movie. It's really for cheesy 50s ARC/AIP SF completists only. The movie is below-average low-budget 50s dreck; talky and slow-moving, with few laughs, and very little 'face time' for the monster. The human drama is only slightly compelling and the infrequently spotted "phantom" looks like a big paper milk carton with teeth and claws. Or something. Buy the cool-looking poster instead. Makes Monster from the Ocean Floor seem breezy and action-packed in comparison. The only good thing you can say about this flick is that apparently the Milner brothers made enough cash off of it to finance their magnum opus, From Hell It Came. I wish THAT movie would come out on DVD!
Of course if the disc transfer and extras were good enough, 50s trashcore fans like us would have to get this for the library anyway, right? Unfortunately, this DVD is definitely subpar. To start off, the transfer is fair to mediocre at best. It really looks like it was mastered from an EP mode VHS tape, or recorded off-air from a UHF station, using a loop antenna. Very flat, very grainy/fuzzy; not as bad as a Madacy disc, but close. It's actually hard to tell if it's the print or the transfer that's to blame 'cause it's just so bad overall. And in a really tacky move, to say the least, the otherwise presumably G-rated disc includes several trailers featuring frontal nudity and softcore sex scenes. Not that junior is pestering you to see this movie or anything, but questionable nonetheless. But you're not going to buy this disc anyway; I guarantee you will be disappointed for the money. I would advise waiting for Image or Rhino to get around to putting this out unless you absolutely have to see it. (When I realized that Fred Olen Ray was involved in this DVD, it all started to make sense.)

Rating:
Summary: Radioactive Gill-Man meets Ted Baxter and Mr. Grant
Review: Strange deaths near an oceanography school are attributed to a phantom by some of the locals. Various people have come to investigate. What they find is a powerful radiation source on the ocean floor and a bizarre fish-man guarding it.

Intrigue and counter-intrigue mesh until we are not sure who is on what side (except for one character who always seems shady). But in the end, the dangerous radiation source is deactivated and, as in Godzilla, the scientist takes the awful knowledge with him.

This is a basic disk with Play and Scene Selection as the only options.

This is a bad movie. Some would say it was bad enough to be good. My main problem with the lot is that the first victim we see is knocked out of his rowboat. Later, it always seems that getting back into a rowboat is all it take to be safe from the creature.

Despite the obvious plug of the title (taken from Beast From 20,000 Fathoms), the creature is rather disappointing (no Harryhausen effects here). In the early scenes it looks very lion like in the face (complete with mane). The resemblance disappears when seen from the side. Unlike the Creature From The Black Lagoon, this rubber suit does not seem designed for swimming so the actor does not move much underwater (lessening the suspense).

I have to say that this is one I will be watching again even if it is not up to the "bad" standards of other B-Movies.

Rating:
Summary: Radioactive Gill-Man meets Ted Baxter and Mr. Grant
Review: Strange deaths near an oceanography school are attributed to a phantom by some of the locals. Various people have come to investigate. What they find is a powerful radiation source on the ocean floor and a bizarre fish-man guarding it.

Intrigue and counter-intrigue mesh until we are not sure who is on what side (except for one character who always seems shady). But in the end, the dangerous radiation source is deactivated and, as in Godzilla, the scientist takes the awful knowledge with him.

This is a basic disk with Play and Scene Selection as the only options.

This is a bad movie. Some would say it was bad enough to be good. My main problem with the lot is that the first victim we see is knocked out of his rowboat. Later, it always seems that getting back into a rowboat is all it take to be safe from the creature.

Despite the obvious plug of the title (taken from Beast From 20,000 Fathoms), the creature is rather disappointing (no Harryhausen effects here). In the early scenes it looks very lion like in the face (complete with mane). The resemblance disappears when seen from the side. Unlike the Creature From The Black Lagoon, this rubber suit does not seem designed for swimming so the actor does not move much underwater (lessening the suspense).

I have to say that this is one I will be watching again even if it is not up to the "bad" standards of other B-Movies.

Rating:
Summary: Where'd They Dredge This One Up?
Review: The DVD transfer of this film is of the same shockingly bad quality I am beginning to expect from "Alpha Video Classics". Newsflash to those who transfer movies to DVD -- please don't copy VHS to DVD... it really doesn't look that good.

So anyway, it wouldn't matter even if the quality *was* good. This movie is complete dreck. There's very little in here to laugh at or enjoy, and it certainly isn't an interesting picture.

Creature from the Black Lagoon does far better what this film tries (and fails) to do. In fact it takes precisely 10 minutes of viewing time to recognize this film for what it is: a cheap knock-off of Creature from the Black Lagoon which was released 2 years earlier (1954).

The monster suit is so ungainly and poorly designed that the man inside can barely move, and it looks for all the world like he is afraid to swim or move too quickly for fear of his monster head toppling off.

Save yourself the time and money, and don't bother. Try the Creature from the Black Lagoon instead.

Rating:
Summary: Where'd They Dredge This One Up?
Review: The DVD transfer of this film is of the same shockingly bad quality I am beginning to expect from "Alpha Video Classics". Newsflash to those who transfer movies to DVD -- please don't copy VHS to DVD... it really doesn't look that good.

So anyway, it wouldn't matter even if the quality *was* good. This movie is complete dreck. There's very little in here to laugh at or enjoy, and it certainly isn't an interesting picture.

Creature from the Black Lagoon does far better what this film tries (and fails) to do. In fact it takes precisely 10 minutes of viewing time to recognize this film for what it is: a cheap knock-off of Creature from the Black Lagoon which was released 2 years earlier (1954).

The monster suit is so ungainly and poorly designed that the man inside can barely move, and it looks for all the world like he is afraid to swim or move too quickly for fear of his monster head toppling off.

Save yourself the time and money, and don't bother. Try the Creature from the Black Lagoon instead.