Aspiring if under-funded independent producers rushed in to provide movies for these starving theaters and drive-ins, among them Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson, who formed American Releasing Corporation (soon to be rechristened American International Pictures) in 1954. Arkoff and Nicholson eventually redefined the movie business by plying their trade almost exclusively to teenagers, a heretofore ignored movie-going demographic. But the colorful, sometimes apocryphal stories about AIP's rise often ignores their rocky first few years, before they hit upon that winning formula.

The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1955) is notable mainly as the lower half of ARC/AIP's first double-bill, headlined by Roger Corman's Day the World Ended. Their handful of earlier low-budget productions had been sold individually, for a flat rate, supporting bigger films that raked in nearly all the dough. Arkoff and Nicholson decided to offer both halves of the double-bill as a thematically-linked (in this case, both sci-fi) package. Together they cost around $170,000 to produce but within a few months had earned around $400,000. AIP was on its way.

By far the lesser title, The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues is less rough around the edges, but where Day the World Ended is lively and involving, Phantom is almost excruciatingly dull. Ironically, David and Jack Milner, film and sound editor brothers who aspired to direct and produce their own movies, clearly had no idea how to cut their own movie, which crawls along at a snail's pace.

A profoundly stiff and inexpressive underwater creature vaguely resembling The Creature from the Black Lagoon (a clear inspiration) kills a local fisherman off Paradise Cove in Malibu (future home of one James Rockford, Jr.), further leaving traces of radioactivity on his dinged-up rowboat. (It appears the filmmakers could only afford this one rather sorry craft; it turns up repeatedly, with different owners.)

Government agent Ted Baxter (Kent Taylor, minus his signature pencil moustache) meets local investigator William S. "Bill" Grant (Rodney Bell), and pretty soon suspicion falls on marine biologist Professor King (Michael Whalen), who's been fooling around with uranium. Ted becomes involved with King's daughter, Lois (Cathy Downs), while Grant stumbles onto the movie's subplot: King's assistant, George Thomas (Phillip Pine) is trying to steal King's secrets on behalf of Wanda (Helene Stanton), a voluptuous spy for a never-identified (but clearly communist) foreign power. A sub-sub-plot has King's nosy secretary, Ethel Hall (Vivi Janiss), also sneaking about King's office.

Though modeled after Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Phantom of 10,000 Leagues plays more like a movie serial exhibited at extreme slow motion. Like most serials, the action ping pongs between three basic locales: King's laboratory and office/home, the beach, and out on and under the water where the Phantom lurks. There's a lot of talky exposition but the characters are all sketchy archetypes of little interest, quite unlike the eccentric, sardonic ones often found in the generally more intelligent scripts directed by Roger Corman.

And where Corman kept things moving by blocking his actors into interesting, sometimes even kinetic compositions, Phantom is all thumbs. Characters endlessly walk onto, off of, across the beach in long, uninterrupted takes. They leisurely stroll into a room, have a long conversation, and then almost hesitantly walk out. (The camera rarely cuts away until the door is shut and no one is left in the room.) When Ted and Grant investigate the monster's lair, they laboriously put on their wet suits and other scuba gear, and then when they're done struggle to get it off.

One might expect the underwater scenes to be even more sluggish, but in fact they play a bit better. Besides Creature, movies with underwater photography had become the rage in Hollywood for a brief period (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a source of Phantom's title with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, The Sea Around Us, etc.). Phantom's is crude compared to Creature but fairly ambitious for such a cheap film. Unfortunately these labors are undone by the film's monster, a Mardis Gras-type design as ludicrously unbelievable as the Creature from the Black Lagoon is lithe, graceful and seemingly alive. Phantom's is singularly inexpressive, its one moving part being a trap-door mouth. As Richard Harland Smith points out in his commentary track, the Phantom appears to tickle its victims to death.

Video & Audio

Presented in 1.85:1 widescreen (AIP's earliest non-‘scope releases were flexible aspect ratio-wise; exhibitors could run them flat, i.e., standard size, or cropped up to 2:1.) Previously released by MGM as a "Midnight Movie," the 1080p transfer gives a substantial high-def bump while the DTS-HD Master Audio mono is improved slightly as well. No subtitle or alternate audio options, however, and the disc is Region A encoded.

Extra Features

Supplements include an excellent audio commentary by TCM's Richard Harland Smith, one right up there with fellow genre historian Tom Weaver's best work. It, more than the movie, makes this a Highly Recommended purchase. He puts the film into proper historical context while providing well-research information about its cast and crew, as well as the picture's conception, production, and release. It's a great track.

Also included is Joe Dante's "Trailers from Hell" segment, also worthwhile, and a trailer for The Monster That Challenged the World (1958).

Parting Thoughts

Of great historical interest for genre fans, The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues is pretty terrible, but Richard Harland Smith's audio commentary and the high-def transfer more than compensate. Highly Recommended.

Stuart Galbraith IV is the Kyoto-based film historian and publisher-editor of World Cinema Paradise. His new documentary and latest audio commentary, for the British Film Institute's Blu-ray of Rashomon, and commentary track for Arrow Video's Battles without Honor and Humanity are newly available.