Customer Reviews

Phantom of the West [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This serial surprised with how good it actually was, I was expecting something akin to pure sludge. What I got was an exciting serial with an appealing hero in Tom Tyler (Who has never let me down yet) as Jim Lester. In some ways this serial is laughable in it's antiquity, particularly the staging of the fights which makes it appear as if the combatants are fighting as children.

The Phantom's identity is easy to decipher and kind of ruins the proceedings a bit, but as stated before Tom Tyler alone covers all flaws this eager little mystern (Western+mystery) has. Most of which are understandable and easy to forgive when one considers that they had just barely left the Silent Era behind, however the acting is obviously done primarily in the silent technique. So if major overacting gets on your nerves this won't please you.

If you're more of a action type of B western cowboy fan than a singin cowboy fan ( like I am ) then Tom Tylers your man. Tom was right up there with Bob Steele,Buck Jones,Ken Maynard, and Tom Mix. A full 10 chapters and each cliffhanger was guaranteed to bring those kids back every Saturday back in 1931 when this picture was made. To me the B-westerns of the 30's were the best. They had plenty of great stunts with horses,the hats were bigger, and they had some of the toughest fights ever filmed.This serial also features Ken Maynards brother Kermit. This is a must to have in your collection for the Bwestern fan.Enjoy !

VCI Entertainment, Mascot Pictures, Paul N. Robins presents... "The Phantom of the West," (1931) (Dolby digitally remastered), with 10 Chapters of vintage serial episodes jam packed with thrilling action sequences and stunts that will keep you on the edge of your seat...story line has this all talking serial of 1931 in a circle of events, who is the "Masked Phantom" and why is he trying to kill off the suspects and blame our hero Tom Tyler, he seems like a nice enough fellow...is the audience confused with the constant riding in and out of each scene with his fellow vigilantes....Who really murdered Tyler's father, and is Dorothy Gulliver really the daughter of Cortez or is she in cahoots with the Phantom...will the real identity of the villain be known or will Mascot Pictures keep us in the dark until the final episode......can this Mascot Serial keep the action, daring stunt-work and an exciting cliffhanger going the entire serial....but don't leave the theater until the final chapter is over and done with "Rogues Roundup"....just remember double thrills, chills, mystery and suspense...hitting the bull's eye with excitement...don't miss a single spine thrilling episode..return next week to this local theater for another episode of action and adventure that will keep you thrilled until the next chapter.

Under director D. Ross Lederman, editorial supervisor Wyndham Gittens, original story by Wyndham Gittens, Ford Beebe and Ben Cohn , musical score by Lee Zahler...the cast includes Tom Tyler (Jim Lester), William Desmond (Martin Blair), Tom Santschi (Bud Landers), Dorothy Gulliver (Mona Cortez, alias Mary Smith), Joe Bonomo (Keno), Tom Dugan (Osca), Philo McCullough (Royce Macklin), Frank Lanning (Francisco Cortez), Frank Hagney (Sheriff Jim H. Ryan), Halie Sullivan (Ruby Blair), Kermit Maynard (Peter Drake), Dick Dickinson (Harvey Stewart), James Carlyle (Sam Hollister), W.J. Holmes (Lafe Johnson), Al Taylor ( Deputy) ...the Mascot stuntman Kermit Maynard..... special note that Tom Tyler became one of the most popular action stars in B-Westerns and "Three Musketeers" Series, appeared in "Stagecoach" (1939) and then came the most famous role of his career in the classic serial "Adventures of Captain Marvel" (1941), which he played the caped hero in a 15 Chapter serial for Republic Pictures and another with "The Phantom" (1943) both were first classic productions of their time......meanwhile back to our Mascot Serial which is always good till the last drop and this serial is no exception...there is a great deal of entertainment here for the cliffhanger fans out there...all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and features.

CHAPTER TITLES:

1. The Ghost Riders

2. The Stairway of Doom

3. The Horror in the Dark

4. The Battle of the strong

5. The League of the Lawless

6. The Canyon of Calamity

7. The Price of Silence

8. The House of Hate

9. The Fatal Secret

10.Rogues' Roundup

BIOS:

1. Tom Tyler (aka Vincent Markowski)

Birth Date: 8/09/1903 - Port Henry, New York

Died: 5/01/1954 - Hamtramck, Michigan

2. William Desmond

Birth Date: 1/23/1878 - Dublin, Ireland

Died: 11/03/1949 - Los Angeles, California

3. Dorothy Gulliver

Birth Date: 9/06/1908 - Salt Lake City, Utah

Died: 5/23/1997 - Valley Centre, California

4. D. Ross Lederman (Director)

Birth Date: 12/12/1894 - Lancaster, PA

Died: 8/24/1972 - Hollywood, CA

If you're into vintage serials as I am, why not pick up a copy of the following titles from VCI Home Video:

VCI CLIFFHANGER TRAILERS:

1. Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe)

2. Adventures of the Flying Cadets (Bobby Jordan)

3. Drums of Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon)

4. Jungle Girl (Frances Gifford)

5. The Phantom (Tom Tyler)

6. Zane Greys "King of the Royal Mounted" (Allan "Rocky" Lane)

7. Secret Agent X-9 (1945) (Lloyd Bridges & Keye Luke)

8. Adventures of Red Ryder (Don "Red" Barry)

9. Secret Agent X-9 (1937) (Scott Kolk & Henry Brandon)

10.Zorro's Cliffhanger Collection (Reed Hadley, John Carroll & Linda Stirling)

11.Dick Tracy's G-Men (Ralph Byrd)

12.Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Buster Crabbe)

13.Jungle Jim (Grant Withers & Raymond Hatton)

14.Miracle Rider (Tom Mix & Tony Jr)

If you crave action, drama and plenty of adventure then this is the place for all of the above...check out another release from VCI Entertainment and Republic Pictures present Zane Grey's "King of the Royal Mounted" (1940) (digitally remastered), 12 Chapters of vintage serial loaded with action sequences...is there a discovered substance called "Compound X", which may cure infantile paralysis...has Tom Merritt stumbled on such a rare find...is there a war between Canada and sources known later as the "Father Land".....get out there as they're going fast, this is the one you've been waiting for.

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing "The Phantom of the West" (1931), the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '30s, '40s & '50s...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure from the "King of Serials" VCI...just the way we like 'em

Total Time: 166 mins ~ VCI Entertainment 1738 ~ (11/01/2000)

...confusing, jarring, mind-numbing...existing in a dream-like state.

PHANTOM OF THE WEST, filmed in 1930 & released in 1931 is perhaps the classic example of the motion picture serial in transition from silents to sound...it's images & characters like Phantoms themselves projected onto some giant movie screen in your mind...weird.

It's as though someone with a home-movie camera went out and filmed these events, capturing a realistic look at the American West. But realistic this is not...It's more of a fantasy dream world.

For example, when hero Jim Lester (Tom Tyler) is ambushed by a couple of thugs in Chapter 1, he fights it out with thug #1 (Joe Bonomo) and brings Bonomo in to the sheriff for questioning. When Bonomo is forced to reveal the secret identity of THE PHANTOM he is shot from ambush. Now, in the very next chapter Bonomo reappears in the bar fighting with a drunk & appears in all of the following chapters even though he has already been killed off...and he doesn't even bother to change his shirt or add a moustache...as if in a dream.

Also, when THE PHANTOM is finally revealed we all know his identity cannot possibly be true because the character in question was seen in the company of others (earlier) when THE PHANTOM struck.

Now, I'm not criticizing this creaky serial, I love this film!

This was the first of the Mascot PHANTOM/MYSTERY/VILLAINS and/or SECRET/CLOAKED/NIGHT-RIDERS to come...THE VANISHING LEGION(1931), THE LIGHTNING WARRIOR(1931), FIGHTING WITH KIT CARSON(1933), MYSTERY MOUNTAIN(1934) & Gene Autry's THE PHANTOM EMPIRE(1935) folowed.

And it's really great to catch a glimpse of the 1930's American West before urban sprawl...Most of these Poverty Row Productions could not afford expensive sound stages to shoot on and so they had to make due with the real thing, actual location shooting!

I have both the VCI videotape and the ALPHA dvd and I compared them side-by-side and have come to the conclusion that both were taken from the same film source. All the scratches, wash-outs, jump-cuts, etc. are the same. However, this is really a great visual treat. Remember, this serial is from a cheap studio, but most images are sharp and surprisingly clear! I was amazed at the quality of this serial.

If you are just starting out on serials then go first with the Republic classics from the late 1930's-early 1940's: DICK TRACY(1937), DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE(1939), MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN(1940), JUNGLE GIRL(1941), SPY SMASHER(1942)...there are lots to choose from.

But if you want a classic example of the early roots of the sound serial, then this is your baby...& it's all just a dream...

The Phantom of the West is a 10-chapter All-Talking Mascot serial released in January of 1931, starring Tom Tyler and Dorothy Gulliver, directed by D. Ross Ledermann.

Jim Lester (Tom Tyler) discovers an intruder, an escaped convict, starving and dehydrated, saying he is innocent of the crime that sent him to prison 15 years earlier. When the sheriff arrives, Lester doesn't reveal the convict's presence, but is told that he is Francisco Cortez (Frank Lanning), who was serving a life sentence for the murder of Jim's father. Lester finds that Cortez has departed, leaving a note explaining that seven men in Rawdon know who committed the crime. Lester follows Cortez, and on the way encounters a "mysterious band of horsemen" known as the Night Riders, who use "The Phantom" as a password. After the masked horsemen leave, Lester is attacked by two men, capturing one of them, Keno (Joe Bonomo). He also finds a threatening note from "The Phantom." In town, the seven men identified by Cortez have received similar threatening notes, all delivered by dart. Keno is questioned, but is mysteriously shot before he can talk. "Mary Smith" -- actually Cortez' daughter Mona (Dorothy Gulliver) is found outside the window, but says she has also received a threat from "The Phantom." Soon the murders of the seven men begin, accompanied by visits from the mysterious Night Riders.

This is an early Talkie, with the expected "silent movie" acting and discomfort in delivering spoken lines by some cast members, including Tom Tyler, who had made a number of silent films. Other familiar faces include William Desmond, Tom Santschi, Philo McCullough and Kermit Maynard among the seven men targeted by "The Phantom." The "comic" character, a stuttering village idiot named Oscar (Tom Dugan) is quite annoying, though the style may have been dictated in part by what could be understood through sound equipment in theatres of the time. Other "unusual" features are harder to excuse, such as Joe Bonomo's character showing up in later chapters, though there is conflicting information as to whether or not Keno was actually killed. Either way, it is odd that nobody arrests him when he shows up in town, doing his "trademark" body-throw across the saloon. This scene is used in a couple chapters; there is also quite a bit of footage recycled as "flashbacks," even more than usual for a Mascot serial. But Tom Tyler is fine in his action scenes, Dorothy Gulliver gets involved in ways other than requiring rescue, and if the plot doesn't always make sense there might be some form of explanation in the spoken introduction to the next chapter.

Alpha's edition, # ALP 4726D is on a single DVD running about 166 minutes. All chapters of the source print are from a reissue, titles headed by "Paul N. Robins Presents" and identified as "A Television International Serial." The head-switch-point glitch a few lines above the blanking bar betrays this as being from a videotape. The image has some dirt and scratches but is fairly clean, reasonably sharp, with few splices and most of it with good gray scale. The sound has a little noise and there is distortion in a few chapters, most obvious in the title music. Unfortunately when the Television International reissue was done -- and it wasn't recently -- they made "improvements" including the titles and music. A scene was cut at Lester's first encounter with the "mysterious band of horsemen" who were harmonizing a "western" tune, and sadly the syncopated chorus with which they terrorize the countryside as they ride got replaced with a "dramatic" orchestral theme. It was a lot funnier to watch the citizens of Rawdon react with horror to the Romberg-esque operetta music, also originally used without the singing for the main titles. Lee Zahler's name still appears on the redone credits, though little of his music remains. While sounding rather silly, the original is a remarkable use of music in an early sound serial, and they adjusted the volume to match the distance of the riders. A couple chapters are rather short, under 13 minutes, with most around 17. Chapter eight, where picture and sound quality are at their least good, is missing about two minutes of "retrospective" material seen in another video release also from the Television International edition for that chapter. Of greater consequence, there is a scene in the "recap" introduction to chapter six, showing Jim Lester dancing with Ruby Blair (Hallie Sullivan), daughter of William Desmond's character, which is nowhere to be found in chapter five. Maybe the dance music was every bit as bad as that for the mysterious horsemen.

While a restoration of the original version would be preferable, this one from Alpha is good for the price and fairly complete. Those looking for good acting and impressive visual effects won't find them in this serial, though the outdoor photography is generally fine. The plot has enough twists to overcome some of the roughness of early sound film technique, though as always with serials it is best watched one chapter at a time.

VCI Entertainment, Mascot Pictures, Paul N. Robins presents... "The Phantom of the West," (1931) (Dolby digitally remastered), with 10 Chapters of vintage serial episodes jam packed with thrilling action sequences and stunts that will keep you on the edge of your seat...story line has this all talking serial of 1931 in a circle of events, who is the "Masked Phantom" and why is he trying to kill off the suspects and blame our hero Tom Tyler, he seems like a nice enough fellow...is the audience confused with the constant riding in and out of each scene with his fellow vigilantes....Who really murdered Tyler's father, and is Dorothy Gulliver really the daughter of Cortez or is she in cahoots with the Phantom...will the real identity of the villain be known or will Mascot Pictures keep us in the dark until the final episode......can this Mascot Serial keep the action, daring stunt-work and an exciting cliffhanger going the entire serial....but don't leave the theater until the final chapter is over and done with "Rogues Roundup"....just remember double thrills, chills, mystery and suspense...hitting the bull's eye with excitement...don't miss a single spine thrilling episode..return next week to this local theater for another episode of action and adventure that will keep you thrilled until the next chapter.

Under director D. Ross Lederman, editorial supervisor Wyndham Gittens, original story by Wyndham Gittens, Ford Beebe and Ben Cohn , musical score by Lee Zahler...the cast includes Tom Tyler (Jim Lester), William Desmond (Martin Blair), Tom Santschi (Bud Landers), Dorothy Gulliver (Mona Cortez, alias Mary Smith), Joe Bonomo (Keno), Tom Dugan (Osca), Philo McCullough (Royce Macklin), Frank Lanning (Francisco Cortez), Frank Hagney (Sheriff Jim H. Ryan), Halie Sullivan (Ruby Blair), Kermit Maynard (Peter Drake), Dick Dickinson (Harvey Stewart), James Carlyle (Sam Hollister), W.J. Holmes (Lafe Johnson), Al Taylor ( Deputy) ...the Mascot stuntman Kermit Maynard..... special note that Tom Tyler became one of the most popular action stars in B-Westerns and "Three Musketeers" Series, appeared in "Stagecoach" (1939) and then came the most famous role of his career in the classic serial "Adventures of Captain Marvel" (1941), which he played the caped hero in a 15 Chapter serial for Republic Pictures and another with "The Phantom" (1943) both were first classic productions of their time......meanwhile back to our Mascot Serial which is always good till the last drop and this serial is no exception...there is a great deal of entertainment here for the cliffhanger fans out there...all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and features.

CHAPTER TITLES:

1. The Ghost Riders

2. The Stairway of Doom

3. The Horror in the Dark

4. The Battle of the strong

5. The League of the Lawless

6. The Canyon of Calamity

7. The Price of Silence

8. The House of Hate

9. The Fatal Secret

10.Rogues' Roundup

BIOS:

1. Tom Tyler (aka Vincent Markowski)

Birth Date: 8/09/1903 - Port Henry, New York

Died: 5/01/1954 - Hamtramck, Michigan

2. William Desmond

Birth Date: 1/23/1878 - Dublin, Ireland

Died: 11/03/1949 - Los Angeles, California

3. Dorothy Gulliver

Birth Date: 9/06/1908 - Salt Lake City, Utah

Died: 5/23/1997 - Valley Centre, California

4. D. Ross Lederman (Director)

Birth Date: 12/12/1894 - Lancaster, PA

Died: 8/24/1972 - Hollywood, CA

If you're into vintage serials as I am, why not pick up a copy of the following titles from VCI Home Video:

VCI CLIFFHANGER TRAILERS:

1. Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe)

2. Adventures of the Flying Cadets (Bobby Jordan)

3. Drums of Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon)

4. Jungle Girl (Frances Gifford)

5. The Phantom (Tom Tyler)

6. Zane Greys "King of the Royal Mounted" (Allan "Rocky" Lane)

7. Secret Agent X-9 (1945) (Lloyd Bridges & Keye Luke)

8. Adventures of Red Ryder (Don "Red" Barry)

9. Secret Agent X-9 (1937) (Scott Kolk & Henry Brandon)

10.Zorro's Cliffhanger Collection (Reed Hadley, John Carroll & Linda Stirling)

11.Dick Tracy's G-Men (Ralph Byrd)

12.Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Buster Crabbe)

13.Jungle Jim (Grant Withers & Raymond Hatton)

14.Miracle Rider (Tom Mix & Tony Jr)

If you crave action, drama and plenty of adventure then this is the place for all of the above...check out another release from VCI Entertainment and Republic Pictures present Zane Grey's "King of the Royal Mounted" (1940) (digitally remastered), 12 Chapters of vintage serial loaded with action sequences...is there a discovered substance called "Compound X", which may cure infantile paralysis...has Tom Merritt stumbled on such a rare find...is there a war between Canada and sources known later as the "Father Land".....get out there as they're going fast, this is the one you've been waiting for.

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing "The Phantom of the West" (1931), the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '30s, '40s & '50s...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure from the "King of Serials" VCI...just the way we like 'em

Total Time: 166 mins on 2 VHS ~ VCI Entertainment 1738 ~ (11/01/2000)