Phantom from Space

Director: W. Lee Wilder W. Lee Wilder

Overview

In this sc-fi film, an invisible alien crash lands on Earth near an L.A. observatory and begins causing all sorts of trouble. First he begins by blundering over several picnickers and killing them. Naturally the police investigate and enlist the aid of two scientists.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/09/2014
UPC:	0874757041292
Original Release:	1953
Rating:	G
Source:	Filmchest
Presentation:	[Full Frame]
Language:	English
Time:	1:13:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ted Cooper	Hazen
Noreen Nash	Barbara Randall
James Seay	Major Andrews
Rudolph Anders	Dr. Wyatt
Harry Landers	Lt. Bowers
Jack Daly	Wakeman,Actor
Dick Sands	Phantom
Lela Nelson	Betty Evans
Michael Mark	Watchman
Jim Bannon	Actor
Burt Wenland	Actor
Berry Evans	Actor
William Lava	Composer

Technical Credits

Alex Weldon

W. Lee Wilder

William Raynor

Bill Raynor

Howard Anderson	Special Effects
Alex Weldon	Special Effects,Screenwriter
W. Lee Wilder	Producer,Director,Screenwriter
William Raynor	Screenwriter
Howard A. Anderson	Special Effects
Bill Raynor	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Phantom from Space is not the worst film ever made, but it's an amazingly dull one -- and one thing that a science fiction movie should never be, even when it's bad, is dull. The whole genre is built on an innate sense of wonder, and there isn't at least a glimmer of that, then something is seriously wrong. The thing is, Phantom could have been an enjoyable little flick -- never great, mind you, but possibly good and certainly the kind of silly fluff that you look forward to seeing on an impossibly rainy Saturday afternoon. The idea of an invisible alien who is wreaking havoc and causing death has a lot of possibilities, but none of them are exploited either by director W. Lee Wilder or his screenwriters. Aside from the absence of joy and life, Phantom suffers from its meager budget. The special effects are almost non-existent, and thus rather than see so much of what transpires, we are told about it -- adding to the dullness. The characters are dull, the dialogue is dull, the direction is dull, the actors are dull -- I think you can probably see a pattern here. Phantom ends up being a film that's really only for sci-fi completists.