It's 1955, and when horribly burned bodies begin washing ashore on a California beach, Washington sends Dr. Ted Stevens to investigate. An expert in the effects of radiation on marine life, Stevens makes the acquaintance of the local oceanography expert, Prof. King. King is a mysterious man, working long hours in his locked lab and never letting anyone in or divulging any of the things he's been studying. Meanwhile, the bodies continue to wash ashore and when Stevens go looking himself, he finds a radioactive rock under the water, guarded by a giant sea creature.

The police want to know what, if anything, Prof. King is hiding in his lab. In fact, it seems everyone wants to know, including King's secretary Ethel, and his assistant George, although each for different reasons. Ethel wants to get back at the Prof. for some unspecified wrong done to her son while George is in deep to some organization threatening to kill him. I'm assuming George is trying to capture the creature and sell it to clear his debt or something, but the mystery around the monster's origin is closely guarded throughout the film, at times making it seem Prof. King created it, and at others that George is its master.

Also in the mix is King's daughter Lois, whom, naturally, Stevens falls in love with pretty much upon meeting her. Yes, King is another single father in an old horror movie. Go figure.

PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES is nothing if not confusing. There are so many theories and red herrings flying around here, you're never sure from one scene to the next just what's going on or who might be behind it. I suppose all that confusion is good as it keeps the viewer wondering and anxious to see how it all turns out. Otherwise, I imagine most people would simply switch this thing off about 20 minutes in. It's not a very interesting movie. There's no action, even when Stevens first spies the creature underwater; it takes him about 3 seconds to swim back to the surface, hop in his rowboat, and paddle away. That's because the 10,000 leagues in the title is more like 10 feet below the surface.

The creature, while shown several times, is never seen as a real threat in the movie. We know it's responsible for the washed up bodies, but we never see it do more than grab an ankle. It never emerges from the water, so one can only assume that, as long as no one goes into the ocean, or at the very least near its little glowing rock on the bottom, they'll be fine.

From a story by Dorys Lukather (who has this one credit to her name) and a screenplay by Lou Rusoff, the man responsible for the equally silly THE SHE-CREATURE, PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES is directed by Dan Milner, and it may have just ruined him. He has plenty of credits before PHANTOM--40, in fact--and only one afterward, directing POPEYE in the 60s.

The stars are all anonymous names and faces who resemble other stars. Kent Taylor plays Ted Stevens, but it sure looked like Hugh Beaumont to me, while Vivi Janiss as Ethel could have been a double for Betty Davis. Other than that, PHANTOM is populated by one cardboard cutout after the next. Cathy Downs and Michael Whalen play the Kings with all the diversity of a straight line, while Rodney Bell as Officer Grant, the cop in charge of the case, looks like the before in one of those fitness ads. Even the wardrobe is stiff; we first meet Stevens and Grant on the beach . . . both dressed in suits. The film is set on the beach and we only see Stevens in something other than a suit--complete with jacket and tie--twice. I'm surprised he didn't wear it into the ocean.

I don't know what the intent was with PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES, but as far as I can see there's nothing here that screams CLASSIC HORROR to me. How many radioactive monsters can we destroy? And it's not a theme that vanished quickly. HORROR AT PARTY BEACH followed 9 years later with a plot that was pretty much the same in most key points.

If you're looking for a good monster from the sea killing beach residents movie, don't bother with this one. I hear there's a particular intense movie starring a shark that came out about 20 years later, you might give that one a try.

other Horror Classics
Carnival of Souls
Atom Age Vampire
Creature from the Haunted Sea
Nightmare Castle
Black Dragons
The Invisible Ghost
One Body Too Many
White Zombie
Attack of the Giant Leeches
The Screaming Skull
The Beast of Yucca Flats
The Terror
Revolt of the Zombies
The Giant Gila Monster
The Fatal Hour
Dead Men Walk
The Mad Monster
Maniac
Metropolis
The Vampire Bat
The Ape
The Monster Maker
The Killer Shrews
The Brain That Wouldn‘t Die
King of the Zombies
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Bluebeard
The Corpse Vanishes
Night of the Living Dead
Doomed to Die
Phantom of the Opera
The Indestructible Man
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Nosferatu
Swamp Women
The World Gone Mad
The Little Shop of Horrors
Tormented
The Monster Walks
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet
The Gorilla
A Shriek in the Night
Bloodlust
The Amazing Mr. X
Last Woman on Earth
The Bat
The House on Haunted Hill
The Last Man on Earth
Dementia 13