I'm a fellow of pretty meager talents as both an amateur critic and a creative artist, but one thing I AM quite good at is spotting and appreciating the kernel of goodness in media so creaky and weird that almost everyone else writes it off. So, it's with the confidence of a crazy man about to declare the sky is green that I say that the 1939 Bela Lugosi serial/movie "The Phantom Creeps" could be AMAZING if remade for a modern audience with modern effects. I've been watching it bit by bit over the past two weeks, and it's a hoot.
Here's the thing: I could fill a book with everything that's technically wrong with "The Phantom Creeps". It's so supremely bonkers and contains so many outlandish plot elements that you have to wonder what Depression-era screenwriters were smoking back in 1939. But I'll be darned if it isn't extremely entertaining, and 90% of that is due to the presence of one of the few true "chaotic neutral" characters I have ever witnessed in entertainment.
The short version of this story, if that's possible, is that a mad scientist has discovered a mysterious meteorite that's so powerful that it could allow its owner to take over the world. The mad scientist wants it, the US government wants it, and foreign spies want it... only, now it seems the mad scientist died in a freak car accident. Or did he? (HINT: Nope.)
Like many action-serials of its time, it features a chisel-chinned, hard-punching "man of action" lawman hero, a beautiful reporter dame who keeps sticking her nose into danger, and a cadre of typical villainous spies and gangsters. But you also have Bela Lugosi's character, Dr. Zorka, the mad scientist who is ostensibly the villain of the show and the "Phantom" of its title. The weird thing is that he's a *secret* villain the entire series; everyone but his assistant believes he's dead! He's just a regular, middle-aged dude with no special powers and below-average fighting ability, and his entire success or failure hinges on everyone continuing to believe he's deceased. His put-upon assistant and goon (Monk) is an escaped convict of equally low caliber as a fighter and is liable to getting thrown in jail at any moment, making him even more vulnerable than his boss.
However, thanks to his insane arsenal of cool inventions (including exploding spiders, an invisibility belt, and the ugliest giant robot you've ever seen) Zorka is a real threat... maybe THE major threat. You're obviously supposed to consider him the villain of the series due to his desire to take over the world, but it's almost impossible not to root for him as the smartest character in the room and a fascinatingly amoral (not immoral) underdog. As long as the Phantom creeps around corners and stays in the shadows... he's got a chance. And maybe the world would be better off if it *was* run by this eccentric genius.
If remade in the modern era, I think this series would do best to amp up the campiness if it decided to keep all of the bizarre trappings of the original (in terms of Zorka's inventions), but it could also be a very loose adaptation that just kept his invisibility belt. In any case, the whole aspect of having this believed-dead mad scientist act as a chaos agent who is using his brain and cunning to screw with significantly more powerful forces of "vanilla" good and evil really works. And although he was a delight in the role, it's an idea that doesn't require an actor of Bela Lugosi's caliber to make it a winner.
Getting back to the original serial and away from hypotheticals, though, it was loads of fun, providing the viewer can appreciate camp in high doses. This serial is absolutely ridiculous, and is all the better for it. As with many serials of this era, you can either watch the full 12-episode series or a "summary" movie released later that pares the whole thing down to just 60 minutes. If you enjoy Lugosi or this kind of campy sci-fi, give the full series a watch. If you're just wanting to get the flavor of the thing, the movie will do.
Here's the thing: I could fill a book with everything that's technically wrong with "The Phantom Creeps". It's so supremely bonkers and contains so many outlandish plot elements that you have to wonder what Depression-era screenwriters were smoking back in 1939. But I'll be darned if it isn't extremely entertaining, and 90% of that is due to the presence of one of the few true "chaotic neutral" characters I have ever witnessed in entertainment.
The short version of this story, if that's possible, is that a mad scientist has discovered a mysterious meteorite that's so powerful that it could allow its owner to take over the world. The mad scientist wants it, the US government wants it, and foreign spies want it... only, now it seems the mad scientist died in a freak car accident. Or did he? (HINT: Nope.)
Like many action-serials of its time, it features a chisel-chinned, hard-punching "man of action" lawman hero, a beautiful reporter dame who keeps sticking her nose into danger, and a cadre of typical villainous spies and gangsters. But you also have Bela Lugosi's character, Dr. Zorka, the mad scientist who is ostensibly the villain of the show and the "Phantom" of its title. The weird thing is that he's a *secret* villain the entire series; everyone but his assistant believes he's dead! He's just a regular, middle-aged dude with no special powers and below-average fighting ability, and his entire success or failure hinges on everyone continuing to believe he's deceased. His put-upon assistant and goon (Monk) is an escaped convict of equally low caliber as a fighter and is liable to getting thrown in jail at any moment, making him even more vulnerable than his boss.
However, thanks to his insane arsenal of cool inventions (including exploding spiders, an invisibility belt, and the ugliest giant robot you've ever seen) Zorka is a real threat... maybe THE major threat. You're obviously supposed to consider him the villain of the series due to his desire to take over the world, but it's almost impossible not to root for him as the smartest character in the room and a fascinatingly amoral (not immoral) underdog. As long as the Phantom creeps around corners and stays in the shadows... he's got a chance. And maybe the world would be better off if it *was* run by this eccentric genius.
If remade in the modern era, I think this series would do best to amp up the campiness if it decided to keep all of the bizarre trappings of the original (in terms of Zorka's inventions), but it could also be a very loose adaptation that just kept his invisibility belt. In any case, the whole aspect of having this believed-dead mad scientist act as a chaos agent who is using his brain and cunning to screw with significantly more powerful forces of "vanilla" good and evil really works. And although he was a delight in the role, it's an idea that doesn't require an actor of Bela Lugosi's caliber to make it a winner.
Getting back to the original serial and away from hypotheticals, though, it was loads of fun, providing the viewer can appreciate camp in high doses. This serial is absolutely ridiculous, and is all the better for it. As with many serials of this era, you can either watch the full 12-episode series or a "summary" movie released later that pares the whole thing down to just 60 minutes. If you enjoy Lugosi or this kind of campy sci-fi, give the full series a watch. If you're just wanting to get the flavor of the thing, the movie will do.