The Phantom Creeps
About The Phantom Creeps
Dr. Alex Zorka, played by Béla Lugosi, builds a devisualizer belt, an eight-foot robot, mechanical spiders, and a meteorite element that can freeze armies. He will not give the inventions to the United States. His former partner, Dr. Fred Mallory, warns Captain Bob West of military intelligence. Foreign agents hunting the meteorite piece work out of a language school. After Zorka's wife Ann is killed, he turns the machines toward ruling outright. His assistant Monk keeps bungling the plan. Reporter Jean Drew and West close in across twelve chapters, ending with Zorka's attempt to destroy the world.
Cast & crew
More about The Phantom Creeps
Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind directed the twelve-chapter Universal serial. Henry MacRae produced it. Wyllis Cooper wrote the story. George Plympton and Basil Dickey wrote the screenplay. Jerry Ash and William A. Sickner photographed it. Editors were Irving Birnbaum, Joseph Gluck, and Alvin Todd. Universal released it on 7 January 1939. It runs 265 minutes and is the studio's 112th serial, the 44th with sound. Charles Previn is the music credit. In 1949 the chapters were cut into a 78-minute television feature.
Themes
Making
Universal built the serial around one robot suit, a belt gag, and a spider prop, then stretched the chase across a dozen chapters.
Look
Jerry Ash and William A. Sickner shot the chapters, including the robot and the invisibility belt.
Music
Charles Previn is credited with the music.
Preservation
All twelve chapters survive in circulation. A 78-minute feature cut was made for television in 1949.
Notes
- Dorothy Arnold plays Jean Drew. Robert Kent is Captain Bob West. Regis Toomey is Jim Daley. Jack C. Smith is Monk.
- Edward Van Sloan plays Jarvis. Dora Clement is Ann Zorka. Edwin Stanley is Dr. Fred Mallory. Ed Wolff is inside the robot.
- Lee J. Cobb appears in the serial.
- The chapter titles run from "The Menacing Power" through "Death Stalks the Highways," "The Iron Monster," and "To Destroy the World.
- DC adapted it in Movie Comics no. 6, cover-dated September–October 1939, the last issue of that comic.
- A Wikimedia file and an Internet Archive copy both carry the serial.
Scenes
- Zorka puts on the devisualizer belt and vanishes in front of the men hunting him.
- The iron robot and the mechanical spiders are turned loose in the middle chapters.
- The last chapter, "To Destroy the World," brings the meteorite element to a finish.
Also available
- Internet Archive (ThePhantomCreeps)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Phantom Creeps.ogv)
