Cinema of Apocalypse: The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues

Well, it’s not a phantom and it doesn’t live 10,000 leagues under the sea.  So what are the merits of this film?  First of all, it is very much a typical 1950’s B-movie.  Out on some beautiful island, there exists a beautiful woman who–for some reason–doesn’t seem to have any ambitions or cares of her own; nor does she seem to have any kind of substantial life before the start of the film.  This beautiful woman, despite her fortuitous disposition, is without a husband and until the dashing hero comes into the picture, she doesn’t seem to care about this fact neither hither nor thither.

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The father of this beautiful woman is a scientist by the name of Professor King–and there’s something he’s mad about!  In particular, this mad scientist is a marine biologist, and he’s been performing experiments on the affects of radioactivity on marine life.  Shunned by the scientific community, he performs experiments under the suspicious and watchful gaze of his “busybody” secretary and his young, money-grubbing assistant who can’t wait to sell the results to the highest bidder.

In the midst of all of this drama swaggers in our hero, another scientist going by the name Dr. Ted Stevens who’s been sent by the government to investigate the strange deaths occurring at the nearby beach.  This is paradise lost, indeed!

Ms. King, somehow convinced her father means the experiments for the greater good, vacillates between flirtation and weariness when encountered with the stranger.  Egads, that sly, tall, dark, and handsome stranger even catches her right out of the shower, and struggling with the zipper on the back of her form-fitting dress, she has no choice but to ask him to help her with the zipper.  Pleased, the distinguished (and coincidentally single) doctor takes his time running his hands up the small of her back.

And while the so-called “phantom” hugs fisherman (and almost the distinguished, snazzy doctor) blindly underwater, I find that the most unfortunate character is neither one of the phantom’s victims, nor the poor turtles exposed to radiation for no good reason.  The most unfortunate character in the film is Ethel, Professor King’s secretary.  As curious a woman as she just tends to be, Ethel is first threatened with a harpoon hanging in the office by the good doctor himself.  He feels she may be attempting to peek into his office, and will no doubt inform anyone with enough money of anything she just happens to glimpse.  Poor Ethel is threatened yet another time when the young, impetuous assistant to Professor King also becomes suspicious of Ethel’s characteristically “female curiosity.”  Casually stroking the office harpoon, looking at Ethel threateningly, the assistant calmly suggests she not inform the good doctor of his plans to sell his radioactivity experiments to some higher (and no doubt foreign) power.