Product Details

• Actors: Bela Lugosi, Robert Kent, Dorothy Arnold, Edwin Stanley, Regis Toomey
• Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Whirlwind Media
• DVD Release Date: September 19, 2000
• Run Time: 265 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6306004572
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243,847 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Phantom Creeps" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Motion picture serials from the '20s to the '50s were short adventure films that played before the feature attractions. Genres included horror, sci-fi, mystery, superhero, western and more that were played over 10-15 episodes in order to entice the audience back to the theatre the following week. Serials were known as "cliffhangers" because each episode would leave the viewer hanging, always "to be continued" until the final episode's resolution 10 or 15 weeks later.

One of the most memorable serials of the 1930's was The Phantom Creeps (1939). Bela Lugosi stars as Dr. Alex Zorka, a mad scientist, who conducts bizarre experiments in a secret laboratory with his assistant, Monk, an ex-convict. Dr. Zorka's inventions are sought after by the U.S. Government as well as hostile spies. The source of his inventions' power is a meteorite fragment he discovered in Africa, containing a source of limitless energy. Hokey, entertaining, and funny by today's standards, The Phantom Creeps is a classic example of the bygone era of Saturday matinees at the local movie house. All 12 episodes are presented here in their original unedited version.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Serial, Bad DVD, January 26, 2001

By 

"rhofan" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Phantom Creeps (DVD)

The Phantom Creeps, Bela Lugosi's final movie serial, holds a special place in my memories for being the first complete chapterplay I had seen. I had seen portions of others but never a complete one before this. Lugosi steals the serial as Doctor Alex Zorka, a brilliant scientist who has made a series of inventions from a meteorite he found in Africa--via footage from "The Invisible Ray" for the Africa sequence. He wants to sell his secrets to the highest bidder, but the US Government wants to stop him. What is unusual for this serial is that I feel that Zorka was initially the good guy of the story before the US and a spyring start looking for his secrets and thus hounding him into insanity. The DVD for this is painful. The print used retains the Commonwealth (TV?) logo instead of the normal Filmcraft or Universal logo. Sound is muddy at quite a few places. Picture will be dark in a few places--sometimes in a daytime scene. They use only one set of opening credits for the 12 chapters. Normally, Universal would use a opening which showed the main cast for its first 3 episodes while the remaining episodes would use an opening that merely lists who the actors were. It is this second opening that is on the DVD and is only used once for all 12 chapters. There are no extras on this disc, such as a trailer, although you can choose to play it all at once or select an individual chapter. There is an insert with information on Lugosi. There are better VHS copies out there and in my own collection at one time I had an actual film print which had the Universal logo. I can't really recommend this DVD unless you don't have a copy of this serial at all. I wouldn't buy another disc from Whirlwind Media, the releasers of the disc, unless it was an extremely rare serial that probably would not be released any other way. Now if only Universal would get off its duff and start releasing their own serials instead of letting people with Public Domain prints do it, I might be a little bit more happy.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware of annoying trademark watermark, July 29, 2005

By 

David J. Wicks (Central Coast, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Phantom Creeps (DVD)

What a load of old cobblers. No, I'm not complaining about the storyline and quality of The Phantom Creeps (after all, what do you expect for under $7?) What I'm irate about, and what every DVD purchaser around the world should also be concerned, is the way the distributor - Vintage Home Entertainment - has superimposed its logo watermark in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Not just once to establish the copyright ownership, but ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE SERIAL. I don't want my attention distracted with a logo emblazoned across the picture... and if I had known I wouldn't have spent my money on it. I hope this is not a sign of things to come with DVD releases - 'cause if it is, I ain't gonna buy anymore. The quality of the print, by the way, is woeful. Shocking quality and constant jumps where the film has been joined after breaking. I'll never buy another DVD from this mob again... this is possibly the worse DVD I've ever purchased... and I'm a big Bela Lugosi fan!!!
From David Wicks - Australia

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun Serial with Lugosi. Typical early Alpha Quality, May 10, 2003

By 

Michael W. Miller (Franklin, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Phantom Creeps, Vol. 1 (DVD)

Fun Serial with Bela Lugosi at his evil best as Dr Zorka. Alpha has broken this 12 chapter serial into 2 separate DVD's for sale. This disk contains chapters 1-6. When I first starting watching this disk, I cringed during Chapter 1 as the quality was quite poor with lots of scrathes and some splicing. I thought, "Here we go again with a substandard Alpha release!" Then, to my surprise, chapters 2-5 were quite good. Still nothing like you would get from the Roan Group, but on par with Sinister Cinema or Retro Media. Chapter 6 falls in closer to the poor quality of chapter 1, however.

If you are a Lugosi fan and want a low cost version of this series, then take a chance on the Alpha release. If you are a Lugosi fan who wants to collect the best possible prints of his films, then skip this Alpha release. The disk contains no extras, but does have a chapter stops for each serial chapter.