FORGOTTEN FILM: THE PHANTOM (1996)

Forgotten Films: The Phantom (1996)

This is the 53rd in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

It seems to be fashionable to dislike this film but I was never a fashion plate and I will say up front that I am a huge fan of THE PHANTOM film. I liked the comic strip in the paper when I was a kid and I liked the movie serial with Tom Tyler (who also did THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL, one of the best of the serials). Not that the film does not have a few problems.

The story should be fairly familiar. The Ghost Who Walks and keeps justice in the Bengali jungle for more than 400 years is really just the latest in the line of male descendants of a man robbed and beaten by pirates and left to die. He develops the persona of The Phantom as a spirit of vengeance and every generation the eldest male child studies and takes on the role when he predecessor dies. This really creeps out those who are sure that they have killed the Phantom.

In this version, Kit Walker (Billy Zane) is the 21st Phantom who is out to rescue his old flame Diana Palmer (Kristi Swanson, old original Buffy herself) from the clutches of Xander Drax (Treat Williams who is overacting to beat the band in this one), a millionaire industrialist/crook/would-be world dominator. Diana is searching for information against Drax when she is kidnapped by a group of female air pirates lead by Sala (Catherine Zeta Jones, in one of her first big films). She is rescued by the Phantom and he finds that Drax is searching for the three skulls of Touganda, one each in jade, silver and gold. Drax has acquired two skulls, thanks to his henchman Quill (James Remar) who happens to have killed the 20th Phantom (Patrick McGoohan in a nice role as the ghost only Kit can see). Drax escapes the Phantom with Diana in tow as a hostage.

The two skulls are able to lead to the third skull on a small deserted island. The third skull is in the control of the Singh Brotherhood, the group of pirates who marooned the first Phantom and the mortal enemies of all future Phantoms. The Phantom shows up, things blow up quite well, people are rescued, Sala becomes a good guy who, like Diana, loves the Phantom, evil is defeated and the world is saved.

The film has quite a few good touches and is mostly based on three early Phantom sequences from the first couple of years of the strip. It does not hold itself strictly to the strip and takes some liberties. Phantom devotees not doubt screamed at them just as the Holmes people do to the Robert Downey Jr films. But I found it enjoyable. The air pirates have some nice bi-planes. The Phantom’s costume is close to the original but has some interesting reworkings of the skull motif into the stretchy fabric that did not quite exist in the 30’s.

There are some things played for laughs and I did not mind them too much and they did not detract from the film overall. Treat Williams does overact and sometimes it is with good effect as in the “Liar!” scene and other times not. For the most part the cast works well with the film.

In his book “IF CHINS COULD KILL: Confessions of a B Movie Star” Bruce Campbell says that he was a finalist for the Phantom role and only just lost it to Billy Zane. I love the work of Bruce Campbell but I am not sure he would have been better in the role. This time I think the filmmakers got it right.

Check it out. It is not very expensive and copies are readily available. And, as I have said before, your mileage may vary on this one. Oh, and if you get the chance, avoid the 2010 SyFy relaunch of this title like the plague. You will thank me for this advice. God awful does not begin to express how bad it is.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.