Hooray! Tonight we finally have a winner! I took a little time with my research this evening and found a new public domain list, on which there were titles of many unseen films. One of these was "The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues" (1955), which struck me as a melodious re-wording of "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms", released two years earlier. I'd seen "Beast" and it delivered the goods big time, featuring a Gigantic Sea Monster created from models, using stop motion photography. Just now on Wikipedia I am reading that the movie grossed five million bucks, huge money in 1953, and that it directly influenced the famous "Godzilla". It was so good that when I saw "Phantom" on my newly discovered movie list, I decided to give it a try. After all, the ingredients sound similar : you've got Phantom/Fathom, you've got 10,000/20,000, and you've got Leagues/Beast, although the latter combination haven't much to do with one another save their vowel sounds. But, it all works out, and rather ingeniously I might add.
Okay, so as the movie starts, a fisherman washes up dead on the beach in Santa Monica. His body is found by Dr. Ted Stevens (Kent Taylor), who just happens to be strolling the shore in the middle of the night. Moments later, he is joined by a "Mr. Grant" (Rodney Bell) from the Department of Defense. Grant asks Stevens what he's doing there : "Oh, I'm just a beachcomber".
Stevens is not just a beachcomber; in fact he's a renowned physicist, but Mr. Grant doesn't know that yet. In turn, Dr. Stevens is curious about why the Department of Defense would be interested in a deceased fisherman : "Sorry, that's classified".
The two men are interrupted by a third party, a young man skulking about on the bluffs, holding what appears to be a harpoon gun. When Stevens climbs up for a closer look, the man runs away. The next day, the coroner reports the fisherman's cause of death - radiation burns - so Dr. Stevens goes to visit Professor King (Michael Whalen) of the College of Oceanography. It must be noted here that we've encountered a lot of oceanographers of late, call it The Motif of the Week! At any rate, both men are previously aware of one another. Stevens knows King is the expert of experts on marine biology, and a talented physicist in his own right, while King for his part recognises Stevens from the cover of a book he's been reading. "Why, you're Ted Stevens! I've followed your work for years"!
Stevens : "Yes, I know. I've followed your career as well. I've come to ask you about that fisherman who washed ashore last night. He died of radiation burns. You know every square inch of this area. Are you aware of any underwater deposits of rare elements........uranium, say"? The question makes Professor King nervous. "Well.......no I don't, actually".
Dr. Stevens then lowers the boom : "Professor, you may or may not know this, but that fisherman was not the first person to turn up dead here. Three others have also died from radiation poisoning in the past month, right here on this beach. There's got to be something in or under the water that's causing it. Now, you say you've followed my work. Then you're aware that I generated the first chain reaction using heavy water, and......"
King cuts him off : "Yes.......you invented a Death Ray". He says this in hushed tones.
Stevens : "That's what they called it, yes, but it was never developed. You, however, have been trying ever since to replicate it"!
King : "How did you know"?
Stevens : "Oh......we've got our little secrets".
This is me talking now. I'd better do some 'splainin. You see, like Mr. Grant from the Defense Department, Dr. Stevens has been sent by Washington. He's been working undercover to avoid causing panic, but he did once invent a so-called Death Ray that worked by placing a critical mass of uranium into "heavy" water. The result was deadly enough to wipe out anything that came in contact with the ray, an actual ray of light shining from the uranium source. Stevens, a humanitarian, destroyed his invention, which even the Pentagon agreed was Too Evil To Use. But they co-opted Dr. Stevens, who's been working in secret ever since, to prevent the Death Ray from being re-created by some less-altruistic soul........like Professor King, perhaps?
"Oh no......I would never harm another human being"!
"But you do admit to advancing my invention"?
"Yes.....yes.........but only to experiment with marine life! I've.....I've tried to reverse the process, to use the radiation for healing"!
Isn't that always the case with these guys? They mean well, but you know how that usually works out.
So what you've got at this point are four dead fisherman, all from radiation burns. You've got Dr. Stevens, the inventor of the original Death Ray, investigating Professor King, who admits to having built one himself. It's located at the bottom of Santa Monica Bay, close enough for a scuba team to recover, but there are two problems involved. The first is that there is a Huge Creature rumored to be guarding the area around the Death Ray. We know the rumor is true because we've seen the Creature at the beginning of the movie. But Professor King won't admit it exists.
Stevens : "Are you saying there's no truth to the rumors, that it's nothing but a Phantom"?
King : "I know of no such Creature. My goodness, we're scientists Dr. Stevens! Would you believe the word of some superstitious locals"? King is trying to misdirect, when in truth he knows all about the Creature. He knows it's no Phantom because he created it. But Dr. Stevens can't prove it at this point, and all he wants to do is remove the Death Ray from the ocean. Get the scuba gear ready.
This brings us to our second problem : If the Phantom is from 10,000 Leagues, as claimed in the title, then how could they possibly scuba dive to find him? I just Googled it, and a League is stated to be 4 kilometers in depth (about 2.5 miles). That means he's approximately 25,000 miles below the surface, which - even if you could suba down that far - you still couldn't do it because you'd go through the ocean floor and come out on the other side of the world. The diameter of the Earth is 8,000 miles, so if you scubaed down 10,000 leagues, you'd come out on the other side and end up 17,000 miles into Outer Space.
I'm pretty sure you can't scuba dive in Outer Space (not 100% sure but reasonably certain), but anyhow, that's the Second Problem with the attempt at a Scuba Recovery Operation to remove the Death Ray from the ocean floor.
I''m severely confused now. Lemme take a break.
Okay, feeling much better. Let's resume.
While the scuba search gets underway, a subplot ensues involving the harpoon slinging man from the beginning of the picture. He turns out to be an assistant to Professor King and an ambitious one at that. He knows of the Professor's Death Ray and wants to recover it for himself, to sell to the Commies. You see, his girlfriend (Helene Stanton) is a Russian spy (pronounced Roosh-ian) in the mode of Boris and Natasha. She's got him over a barrel to deliver the Ray or it's splitsville, and he'll be kaput in the bargain. Harpoon Guy is thus doing everything he can to get into Professor King's locked laboratory, to discover the location of the Death Ray, so he can dive down and recover it himself. In this regard, he enlists the help of King's secretary (Vivi Janiss), a sneaky sort who's always eavesdropping on King's conversations. She will finally be recruited by Mr. Grant of the Defense Department to catch Harpoon Guy in a ruse, which will enable Grant to stop the Russian spy ring.
Did I mention this film has one heck of a plot? See, this is what we keep talking about. This is how you weave together a great script! There's even time for a romance between Dr. Stevens and Cathy Downs, who plays the Professor's daughter. You could even call it the centerpiece of the story, as Downs acts as a mediating influence between her father, whom she loves and trusts, and Dr. Stevens, who she's falling in love with but who doesn't trust her Dad.
"The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues" scores high on every level. It has a professional look, good widescreen camera work & lighting, good sci-fi acting, and an Incredible Rubber Suited Monster that will.........(all together now!) : Scare the living bejeezus out of you! Most of all, it's got a great, great script and a well developed plot that has multiple threads and characters. It has all the attributes of a first-run theatrical release, in the B-Movie sense, and the print was perfect, too. I'm gonna give it Two Big Thumbs Up and place it in the Top Ten of the thirty or so public domain films we've watched thus far. Highly recommended! //////
That's all I know for now. I'm gonna go for a CSUN walk, then come back and do a little more research, make sure I've got my 10,000 Leagues straight (on that score I've got some questions for Jules Verne, too). I trust all is well and if so, I will see you back here later tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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