''Phantom from Space'' is a 1953 independently made American

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

film produced and directed by

W. Lee Wilder William Lee Wilder (August 22, 1904 – February 14, 1982) was an Austrian-American screenwriter, film producer and director. He was the brother of the film director Billy Wilder and father of television comedy writer and producer Myles Wilder ...

that stars Ted Cooper,

Noreen Nash Noreen Nash (born Norabelle Jean Roth; April 4, 1924) is an American retired film and television actress. In the beginning of her career, she had uncredited parts at MGM. In 1945, she appeared in '' The Southerner'', after which she had mostly l ...

, Dick Sands, and Burt Wenland. The original screenplay was written by William Raynor and

Myles Wilder Myles Wilder (January 28, 1933 – April 20, 2010) was a television comedy writer and producer. Wilder attended and graduated from UCLA's Theater Arts Department. During his senior year, he and two of his friends, Mitch Rose and Wayne Thoms, prod ...

. Working with most of the same crew, this was one of several early 1950s films made by Wilder and son Myles on a financing-for-distribution basis with

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

and, on occasion,

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

Plot

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) investigators arrive in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

after what appears to be a

flying saucer A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...

crash, causing massive interference with tele-radio transmissions. During their investigation, they receive eyewitness reports of what appears to be a man dressed in a bizarre outfit, which appears to be radioactive and thus a public threat. Their investigation uncovers that the man is actually a

humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and ''-oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. The earliest recorded use of the term, in 1870, referred to indigenous peoples in areas colonized by Europeans. By the 20t ...

creature from outer space, who is invisible without his spacesuit. They start a massive manhunt for the invisible, radioactive alien running loose. The action culminates in Los Angeles where the invisible alien has been tracked. He becomes trapped inside the famous

Griffith Observatory Griffith Observatory is an observatory in Los Angeles, California on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park. It commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin including Downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, ...

. A woman lab assistant discovers that he can be seen using ultraviolet light. The alien attempts to communicate by tapping out a code, but no one can understand it. Now breathing heavily because his breathing gas reserves are now running low, he is trapped high-up on the Griffith telescope's upper platform. Because he can no longer survive without his breathing gas, he falters and then falls to his death. His body briefly becomes visible before completely evaporating

Cast

* Ted Cooper as Lt. Hazen *

as Barbara Randall * Tom Daly as Charlie * Steve Acton as Mobile Center Dispatcher * Burt Wenland as Agent Joe * Lela Nelson as Betty Evans *

Harry Landers Harry Landers (born Harry Sorokin; September 3, 1921 – September 10, 2017) was an American character actor. He was born in New York City. Early life and career Landers's education came at Public School No. 202 and Thomas Jefferson High ...

as Lt. Bowers * Burt Arnold as Darrow * Sandy Sanders as First Policeman *

Harry Strang Harry Strang (December 13, 1892 – April 10, 1972) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 500 films and television shows between 1929 and 1965. On Broadway, Strang appeared in ''The Girl in the Train'' (1910). Primarily a characte ...

as Neighbor *

Jim Bannon James Shorttel Bannon (April 9, 1911 – July 28, 1984) was an American actor and radio announcer known for his work on the '' I Love a Mystery'' and ''Red Ryder'' series during the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Born in 1911 in Kansas City, Mis ...

as Desk Sgt. Jim * Jack Daly as Joe Wakeman * Michael Mark as Refinery Watchman *

Rudolph Anders Rudolph Anders (December 17, 1895 – March 27, 1987) was a German character actor who came to the United States after the rise of Hitler, and appeared in numerous American films in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Biography He was born Rudo ...

as Dr. Wyatt *

James Seay James Seay (September 9, 1914 – October 10, 1992) was an American character actor who often played minor supporting roles as government officials. Early years Seay demonstrated an interest in acting at an early age, as he and his mothe ...

as Major Andrews * Steve Clark as Bill Randall * Dick Sands as The Phantom

Production and release

W. Lee Wilder formed a film production company in the early 1950s called Planet Filmplays for the purpose of producing and directing "quickie" low-budget science fiction films, with screenplays co-written with his son Miles. ''Phantom from Space'' uses

stock footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

of radar rigs. Some of this stock footage would later reappear in ''

Killers from Space ''Killers from Space'' (a.k.a. ''The Man Who Saved the Earth'') is a 1954 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film, produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder (brother of Billy Wilder), that stars Peter Graves, Barbara Besta ...

'' (1954). ''Phantom from Space'' opened on May 15, 1953.

Legend Films Legend Films is a San Diego-based company founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietar ...

released a colorized version of the film.

Reception

Film historian and critic

Glenn Erickson Glenn Erickson is an American film editor and film critic. A graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, he started in the film industry in 1975 as an editor of low-budget films and later worked in minor technical crew capacitie ...

reviewed the film's DVD release. He wrote, "After a couple of uninspired potboilers in the late 1940s ('' The Pretender'' is actually a good movie), Wilder hit his groove of incompetence with this no-budget wonder concerning the saddest space invader on record ... Endless talky scenes alternate with the entire cast of 6 running back and forth in the old interior of the Griffith Planetarium. The poor invader is a bald

Muscle Beach Muscle Beach is the birthplace of the United States physical fitness boom, which started in 1934 with predominantly gymnastics activities on the south side of the Santa Monica Pier. Muscle Beach Venice is the contemporary title of the outdoor we ...

type in a radioactive space suit and a helmet that appears to be the same prop from

Robot Monster ''Robot Monster'' (or ''Monster from Mars'')

, somewhat altered."Erickson, Erick
''DVD Savant'', DVD/film review, October 14, 2008. Accessed: July 23, 2013.

References

Bibliography

* Warren, Bill. ''Keep Watching The Skies, American Science Fiction Movies of the 50s'', Vol I: 1950–1957. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1982. .

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Phantom From Space 1953 films 1950s science fiction films Films directed by W. Lee Wilder United Artists films Films scored by William Lava American black-and-white films American science fiction films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films