Watch The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues For Free

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Handsome, stolid Kent Taylor plays Dr. Ted Stevens, a scientist investigating unusual activity in a seaside community. What he discovers is a radioactive light emanating from the ocean floor...and a goofy marine monster guarding the thing. There's no shortage of dubious types involved, as there are those who would seek to profit from this weapon. Ted, a real multi tasker if ever there was one, also finds the time to romance Lois King (Cathy Downs), the daughter of local oceanographer Professor King (Michael Whalen).One would hope, based on the poster art and that great title, that this would make for tasty schlock movie viewing. Alas, it's not to be, as this is a fairly dull affair, with not much of interest ever happening. Lou Rusoff, the screenwriter, tried to spice things up with the intrigue subplot, but everything is boringly handled. The filmmakers, led by director Dan Milner (who went on to do the more memorably awful "From Hell It Came"), establish their "credentials" by showing off their monster less than a minute into the movie! It's a funny looking beast, to be sure; audience members may be chuckling quite a bit every time it makes an appearance. It does kill a few people, but mostly it just stands there looking silly.Taylor is a rather stiff but not unlikable hero. Downs is lovely but doesn't have a very good part with which to work. Whalen is passable as our well intentioned antagonist. Phillip Pine is a non-threatening, would be villain. Rodney Bell is not bad as the government agent who collaborates with Dr. Stevens. Vivi Janiss does what she can in the role of Professor Kings' nosey secretary, who's motivated to find out more about what her boss does. The very sexy Helene Stanton has her moments as a conniving woman prodding Pine to produce results for certain interested parties.Best of all is Ronald Steins' score, which is good enough to deserve to have been in a better movie.Five out of 10.

Fishermen are turning up dead on a beach, burned to a crisp. A g-man turns up to investigate and meet an mysterious doctor who's also curious about what's happening. Thus begins Phantom from 10,000 leagues, a film that involves a kind of mini-Godzilla preying on the locals while everyone in town sneaks around spying on each other.Dr Steve (or whatever he was called) is trying to find Dr King, professor at the local college who's acting awfully suspiciously. Dr King is being spied on by his secretary, and also his assistant George, and I'm guessing also Dr Steven and the G-man. Dr Steve heads out to investigate the water and finds a beam of light caused by uranium and a strange creature who tries to put the bit on him. Hooking up with Dr King's daughter, he tries to get to the bottom of what's going on, and not get killed in the process.Although it's a fairly decent man in a rubber suit film, Phantom spends an awful lot of time on the drama and intrigue sides of things as we watch everyone spying on everyone else, following each other around and blackmailing each other. The creature itself doesn't seem to do much of anything, as it doesn't leave the area where the uranium is. I could have done with a murderous rampage by the creature but it just sort of swam around a bit.Your tolerance for this film is going to depend on how much action you need from a film. There's not much to go on here but it wasn't that boring either, just an okay time waster. You've got to love a guy in a rubber suit so I've gone easy on this film due to that.

This DVD release, laughingly from Front Row Entertainment was typical D movie status from the Drive-In movie days of the 50's. Starring many unrecognizable actors with some notable exceptions that went on to do many hours of 60's TV shows. This film was shot on location at Malibu's "Paradise Cove" and on sound stage sets. The Cove was the TV home of Jim Garner's detective "Jim Rockford". Unfortunately this schlock film has none of that charm or suspense. The movie was produced and directed by the Milner brothers and they broke the cardinal first and most important law of low-budget monster movies, "Never show the film's monster to the audience until the very end of the picture!" The film's underwater dwelling half-lion & half-sea serpent is shown in all it's cheapness in the first 1 minute of this film, leaving the audience's interest to drain out of this film like a deflating party balloon. This 'formula' film has a mad small-town scientist, his attractive unmarried daughter, a visiting scientist stranger, many evil henchmen working for the mad scientist, a female international spy and a government police officer. The only plot element that wasn't the usual expected schlock was that this radioactive ocean 'ray' was going to be sold to an evil foreign government by a henchman for money, but that was foiled by the mad scientist, himself due to his guilty conscience. Some not expected hilarious moments were enjoyed by this reviewer when I inspected the film's mad scientist lab/set. Even though the scientist was supposedly working with highly radioactive materials, the scientist's protective suit was really only a fireman's cloth asbestos flame suit. Not much protection there! And also it was funny to see the radioactive experiment area was shielded behind a silly draw-string fabric curtain that was hiding a simple fish-tank. This fish-tank experiment container was made to look very ominous by the phony use of bright lights with an accompanied 'ray' sound effect. This set was ludicrous and looked very cheaply built. It was obviously on little budget. This film was not enjoyable in a bad/odd D movie way, just plain bad. The film went on too long and could have had many endings that were more entertaining than this very predictable one. This is waste of your time to view. Other sea monster D films like "Monster from Piedras Blancas" are better and more enjoyable. See the others.

The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues, huh? It's more like The Phantom from 10 Feet. The "Phantom" is as lame a creature as I've seen recently in a 50s sci-fi/horror movie. No movement to speak of, ridiculous looking, and only threatening if you get within 3 feet – we're not talking The Creature from the Black Lagoon here. And The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues commits one of the most unforgivable sins a bad sci-fi/horror movie can – it eliminates all tension and mystery by showing us a good, clear shot of the monster within the first 15 seconds of the movie. What a huge mistake! And when your monster is this bad, you really need to keep it under-wraps as long as you can. This is "Bad Movie Making 101" type stuff.I'm a fan of 50s sci-fi/horror – even the bad ones. But when I run across one this dull, I've got to be honest and give it the rating it deserves. Actually, "dull" hardly seems strong enough. The paper thin plot is as dull as dishwater. We're promised death rays, but none are forthcoming. We're told of radiation burns, but the bodies are all conveniently face-down. And we're lead to believe that there's a large Oceanography Institute nearby, but all we see is a small office and an even smaller lab. What plot the movie does have takes a backseat to incessant conversations between characters I couldn't have cared less about. Can a movie be completely filled with padding in the form of pointless dialogue? The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues comes close. And what a group of characters! Again, about as dull as you'll run across – a misguided but dull scientist, his clueless and dull daughter, a good but dull scientist/hero, a nosey but dull secretary, a gruff and dull investigator, and an idiotic, homicidal, but ultimately dull lab assistant. I think I'm being generous with my 3/10.Before I end this, there are a few things in The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues that I feel I must comment on:1. The young hero/scientist comes walking out of the ocean and just happens to trip over the only person within sight – the film's female lead. What are the chances of that happening?2. Are we really supposed to believe that the local fishermen, scientists, sightseers, the Oceanography Institute, and everyone else really share the same row boat? Were we not supposed to notice the same boat going out to sea over and over? That little boat sure gets some mileage.3. How convenient is it that all the dead bodies and the aforementioned row boat always seems to wash up on the same spot of beach? Just a lucky coincidence I guess.4. Did anyone else find it odd that the movie's young female lead dresses in the living room? For that matter, did anyone find it odd that the bathroom/shower was that close to the front door? And what about that scene where the hero helps the young heroine with her zipper? Can you say cliché?5. Why the need for a subplot involving foreign spies? Granted, Helene Stanton is about the best thing The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues has going for it, but really, why is she here?