''The Phantom Creeps'' is a 1939 12-chapter
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 ...
horror serial starring
Bela Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...
as
mad scientist
The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly amb ...
Doctor Zorka, who attempts to rule the world by creating various elaborate inventions. In a dramatic fashion, foreign agents and
G-Men try to seize the inventions for themselves.
It is the 112th serial released by
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
and the 44th to have sound. It was adapted in ''DC's Movie Comics #6'', cover date September–October 1939, the final issue of that title.
In 1949, to broadcast on television, the 265-minute serial was edited to a 78-minute
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
.
Plot
Dr. Zorka, a rogue scientist, is the creator of various weapons of warfare, including a devisualizer belt which renders him invisible; an eight-foot tall slave robot (
Ed Wolff), robot spiders that can destroy life or paralyse it and he also has a deadly meteorite fragment from which he extracts an element which can induce suspended animation in an entire army. Foreign spies, operating under the guise of a foreign language school, are trying to buy or mostly steal the meteorite element, while his former partner, Dr. Fred Mallory, miffed that Zorka will not turn his inventions over to the U.S. Government, blows the whistle on him to Captain Bob West of the Military Intelligence Department. Tired of answering the door and saying no to the spies and the government, Zorka moves his lab. When his beloved wife is killed, Zorka, puttering around for his own amusement up to this point, is crushed and swears eternal vengeance against anyone trying to use his creations and to make himself world dictator. And would have if not for his assistant Monk, an escaped convict virtually enslaved by Zorka, who is cowardly, treacherous and totally incompetent, and whose accidental or deliberate interference with Zorka's efforts repeatedly frustrates his master's own plans...
Cast
*
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic Dracula (1931 English-lan ...
as Dr. Alex Zorka: Lugosi received top billing for this, his final serial appearance.
*
Robert Kent as Capt. Bob West
*
Dorothy Arnold
Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold (July 1, 1885 – disappeared December 12, 1910) was an American socialite and heiress who Missing person, disappeared under mysterious circumstances in New York City in December 1910.
The daughter of Francis R. ...
as Jean Drew
*
Edwin Stanley
Edwin Stanley (November 22, 1880 – December 25, 1944), was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 230 films between 1916 and 1946. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and died in Hollywood, California. On Broadway, Stanley appear ...
as Dr. Fred Mallory
*
Regis Toomey
John Francis Regis Toomey (August 13, 1898October 12, 1991) was an American film and television actor.
Early life
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey, and attended Peabody High Sc ...
as Jim Daley
* Jack C. Smith as Monk
*
Edward Van Sloan
Edward Van Sloan (born Edward Paul Van Sloun; November 1, 1882 – March 6, 1964) was an American character actor best remembered for his roles in the Universal Studios horror films such as ''Dracula'' (1931), ''Frankenstein'' (1931), and ''Th ...
as Jarvis
hs.2-12* Dora Clement as Ann Zorka
hs.1-2(as Dora Clemant)
* Anthony Averill as Rankin - Henchman
hs.2-12* Hugh Huntley as Perkins, Dr. Mallory's lab assistant
hs.2-12* Monte Vandergrift as Al - Guard
h.5*
Frank Mayo Frank Mayo may refer to:
* Frank M. Mayo (1839–1896), American actor and comedian
* Frank Mayo (actor)
Frank Lorimer Mayo (June 28, 1889 – July 9, 1963) was an American actor. He appeared in 310 films between 1911 and 1949.
Biograp ...
as Train Engineer
h.6*
Jim Farley as Skipper
h.9(as James Farley)
*
Eddie Acuff
Edward DeKalb Acuff (June 3, 1903 – December 17, 1956) was an American stage and film actor. He frequently was cast as a droll comic relief, in the support of the star. His best-known recurring role is that of Mr. Beasley, the postman, in ...
as Mac - AMI Agent
hs.2-12*
Reed Howes
Reed or Reeds may refer to:
Science, technology, biology, and medicine
* Reed bird (disambiguation)
* Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times
* Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales
* R ...
as Signalman
h.10 H10 or H-10 may refer to:
Transportation
* Atlas H-10, a 1948 four-seat cabin monoplane aircraft
* HMS ''Encounter'' (H10), a 1934 British Royal Navy E class destroyer
* HMS ''H10'', a 1915 British Royal Navy H class submarine
* PRR H10, a 1916 ...
*
Ed Wolff as The Robot (as Edw. Wolff)
Production
The serial contains some similarities with the earlier serial ''
The Vanishing Shadow
''The Vanishing Shadow'' is a 1934 Universal science fiction film serial directed by Lew Landers. It features what is believed to be the first appearance of a hand-held ray gun in film. (apart from '' The Death Ray''). Many science fiction gadget ...
'', such as an invisibility belt and a remote-control robot.
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 ...
was used from ''
The Invisible Ray'', including scenes of Dr. Zorka finding the meteorite in Africa. As with several Universal serials, some of the stock music came from
''Frankenstein''. ''The Phantom Creeps''
' car chase was itself used as stock footage in later serials.
Newsreel
A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, informa ...
shots of the
Hindenburg disaster
The ''Hindenburg'' disaster was an airship accident that occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States. The German passenger airship LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'' caught fire and was destroyed during its attemp ...
were used as part of Dr. Zorka's final spree of destruction after his robot, which is supposed to destroy the human race, is stopped due to the sabotage by the Monk after being unleashed.
Universal tried to improve their serials by eliminating the written foreword at the start of each chapter. This led to ''The Phantom Creeps'' being the first serial in which the studio used vertically scrolling text as the foreword.
Influence
The innovation of the scrolling text version of the synopsis at the beginning of each chapter was used for the ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'' films as the "
Star Wars opening crawl
The ''Star Wars'' opening crawl is a signature device of the opening sequences of every numbered film of the ''Star Wars'' series, an American epic space opera franchise created by George Lucas. Within a black sky background featuring a smatteri ...
".
The
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie (born Robert Bartleh Cummings; January 12, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and voice actor. His music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live shows have be ...
song "
Meet the Creeper
Meet may refer to:
People with the name
* Janek Meet (born 1974), Estonian footballer
* Meet Mukhi (born 2005), Indian child actor
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Meet'' (TV series), an early Australian television series which aired on ABC du ...
" is based on this movie. Zombie has used robots and props based on the design of The Robot in several music videos and live shows. The character Murray The Robot in Zombie's animated movie ''
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto
''The Haunted World of El Superbeasto'' is a 2009 American adult animated superhero film directed, co-written and co-produced by Rob Zombie. The film was written by Zombie and Tom Papa from Zombie's comic book series of the same name. The film wa ...
'' is also based on The Robot. The Robot also appears on the album cover for the single "
Dragula
DRAG-U-LA, along with the Munster Koach, was one of two cars on the television show ''The Munsters'' designed by prolific show car designer Tom Daniel while working for George Barris and Barris Kustom Industries.
The car
The fiberglass body o ...
".
A comic book adaptation was published by DC Comics in ''Movie Comics'' #6.
The first three chapters of ''The Phantom Creeps'' were riffed in season two of ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000
''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...
'', in the episodes ''Jungle Goddess'', ''Rocket Attack U.S.A.'', and ''Ring of Terror''.
Chapter titles
# The Menacing Power
# Death Stalks the Highways
# Crashing Timbers
# Invisible Terror
# Thundering Rails
# The Iron Monster
# The Menacing Mist
# Trapped in the Flames
# Speeding Doom
# Phantom Footprints
# The Blast
# To Destroy the World
Source:
See also
*
List of film serials
A list of film serials by year of release.
1910s
1920s
1930s
Films still exist from this point on unless noted otherwise:
1940s
1950s
See also
* Serial (film)
* List of film serials by studio
References
{{reflist
External linksSerial ...
by year
*
List of film serials by studio
This is a list of film serials by studio, separated into those released by each of the five major studios, and the remaining minor studios.
The five major studios produced the greater number of serials. Of these the main studios are consider ...
*
List of films in the public domain in the United States
Most films are subject to copyright, but those listed here are believed to be in the public domain in the United States. This means that no government, organization, or individual owns any copyright over the work, and as such it is common property ...
References
External links
*
* (1949 TV film edited from serial)
* (original twelve chapter serial)
* (1949 TV film edited from serial)
*
Profile in Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phantom Creeps, The
1939 films
American science fiction films
American black-and-white films
1930s English-language films
1930s science fiction films
Universal Pictures film serials
Films directed by Ford Beebe
Compilation films
Films with screenplays by George H. Plympton
Mad scientist films
1930s American films