The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1955)

I love this movie so much

Powerful

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

After a strange series of deaths around the water, a team's investigation reveals a strange radioactive deposit has grown a vicious radioactive sea creature and must find a way of curtailing both.This is a fairly enjoyable if somewhat problematic creature feature. One of the better elements here is the fact that the relatively simple plot manages to keep things on line to the point of extremely efficient storytelling where there's no real extraneous side-plots or unnecessary ventures. Whether they're enjoyable pieces is another matter, but the fact that it's so streamlined and straightforward keeps this from really going off into pointless territories like it easily could've gone. The whole film really centers on the discovery of the strange radioactive substance in the cove and how the discovery is tied to the institute nearby, and the drive to find it out makes this move along quite well as the mystery slowly comes into focus. After that, there isn't a whole lot here that really works all that well. Despite staying on focus for the duration of time in regards to the investigation, this doesn't really produce a lot of interesting facets due to enlarged amount of time spent on the extraneous facets of the investigation and the different red herrings throughout the story that go nowhere, seeming only to provide enough time to turn this into a feature-length affair while compensating for the atrocious special effects. Those really are that bad with a laughable monster, utterly ridiculous make-up effects on the victims and a rather clumsy nature to the attack scenes that really make for a confusing time with the stiff, immovable costume never making it seem like there's something to fear in the creature which really takes a lot out of the movie when the few times it's on-screen there's not much worth to it. These elements all conspire to keep this down somewhat.Today's Rating-PG: Violence.

The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues is directed by Dan Milner and written by Dorys Lukather and Lou Rusoff. It stars Kent Taylor, Cathy Downs and Michael Whalen. Music is by Ronald Stein and photography by Brydon Baker.Plot, for what it's worth, sees an amphibian like creature suddenly start killing any unfortunate human being that strays near its lair. And just what is that glowing thing down there? An absolute hack job attempting to cash in on the success of far better films of its ilk that were all the rage in the 1950s. It's the sort of Z grade film that gives the fans of creaky creature features and sci-fi schlockers a bad name. Right off the bat the makers commit a big error by introducing us to the man in the rubber suit straight away, a hopeless creation that's about as scary as the insipid dialogue that litters the production. Dialogue that's delivered by a cast of wooden actors who bring laughs on account of the fact they seem to be taking their roles seriously!Milner's direction accounts to being a number of similar scenes strung together at different intervals, with the creature's appearances being as rare as any suspense is. While the 10,000 Leagues aspect is rendered a big joke since the creature is in water that's only about 5 fathoms deep! I wonder if the makers realised that just one league is 3 nautical miles?!Is it in the "so bad it's good" category? Absolutely not! There's a modicum of science interest involving genetic tests and atomic energy dabblings, but this is lost amongst the laborious pacing as the characters do incredibly dumb things. While somewhat surprisingly Ronald Stein's foreboding music is decent and deserves a better movie. It also has a great title, with awesome poster art to match, but all told it's a major "league" clunker and only makes one cherish even more the likes of Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. 2/10

This DVD release, laughingly from Front Row Entertainment was typical D movie status from the Drive-In movie days of the 50's. Starring many unrecognizable actors with some notable exceptions that went on to do many hours of 60's TV shows. This film was shot on location at Malibu's "Paradise Cove" and on sound stage sets. The Cove was the TV home of Jim Garner's detective "Jim Rockford". Unfortunately this schlock film has none of that charm or suspense. The movie was produced and directed by the Milner brothers and they broke the cardinal first and most important law of low-budget monster movies, "Never show the film's monster to the audience until the very end of the picture!" The film's underwater dwelling half-lion & half-sea serpent is shown in all it's cheapness in the first 1 minute of this film, leaving the audience's interest to drain out of this film like a deflating party balloon. This 'formula' film has a mad small-town scientist, his attractive unmarried daughter, a visiting scientist stranger, many evil henchmen working for the mad scientist, a female international spy and a government police officer. The only plot element that wasn't the usual expected schlock was that this radioactive ocean 'ray' was going to be sold to an evil foreign government by a henchman for money, but that was foiled by the mad scientist, himself due to his guilty conscience. Some not expected hilarious moments were enjoyed by this reviewer when I inspected the film's mad scientist lab/set. Even though the scientist was supposedly working with highly radioactive materials, the scientist's protective suit was really only a fireman's cloth asbestos flame suit. Not much protection there! And also it was funny to see the radioactive experiment area was shielded behind a silly draw-string fabric curtain that was hiding a simple fish-tank. This fish-tank experiment container was made to look very ominous by the phony use of bright lights with an accompanied 'ray' sound effect. This set was ludicrous and looked very cheaply built. It was obviously on little budget. This film was not enjoyable in a bad/odd D movie way, just plain bad. The film went on too long and could have had many endings that were more entertaining than this very predictable one. This is waste of your time to view. Other sea monster D films like "Monster from Piedras Blancas" are better and more enjoyable. See the others.

The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues, huh? It's more like The Phantom from 10 Feet. The "Phantom" is as lame a creature as I've seen recently in a 50s sci-fi/horror movie. No movement to speak of, ridiculous looking, and only threatening if you get within 3 feet – we're not talking The Creature from the Black Lagoon here. And The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues commits one of the most unforgivable sins a bad sci-fi/horror movie can – it eliminates all tension and mystery by showing us a good, clear shot of the monster within the first 15 seconds of the movie. What a huge mistake! And when your monster is this bad, you really need to keep it under-wraps as long as you can. This is "Bad Movie Making 101" type stuff.I'm a fan of 50s sci-fi/horror – even the bad ones. But when I run across one this dull, I've got to be honest and give it the rating it deserves. Actually, "dull" hardly seems strong enough. The paper thin plot is as dull as dishwater. We're promised death rays, but none are forthcoming. We're told of radiation burns, but the bodies are all conveniently face-down. And we're lead to believe that there's a large Oceanography Institute nearby, but all we see is a small office and an even smaller lab. What plot the movie does have takes a backseat to incessant conversations between characters I couldn't have cared less about. Can a movie be completely filled with padding in the form of pointless dialogue? The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues comes close. And what a group of characters! Again, about as dull as you'll run across – a misguided but dull scientist, his clueless and dull daughter, a good but dull scientist/hero, a nosey but dull secretary, a gruff and dull investigator, and an idiotic, homicidal, but ultimately dull lab assistant. I think I'm being generous with my 3/10.Before I end this, there are a few things in The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues that I feel I must comment on:1. The young hero/scientist comes walking out of the ocean and just happens to trip over the only person within sight – the film's female lead. What are the chances of that happening?2. Are we really supposed to believe that the local fishermen, scientists, sightseers, the Oceanography Institute, and everyone else really share the same row boat? Were we not supposed to notice the same boat going out to sea over and over? That little boat sure gets some mileage.3. How convenient is it that all the dead bodies and the aforementioned row boat always seems to wash up on the same spot of beach? Just a lucky coincidence I guess.4. Did anyone else find it odd that the movie's young female lead dresses in the living room? For that matter, did anyone find it odd that the bathroom/shower was that close to the front door? And what about that scene where the hero helps the young heroine with her zipper? Can you say cliché?5. Why the need for a subplot involving foreign spies? Granted, Helene Stanton is about the best thing The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues has going for it, but really, why is she here?