The Phantom (1996)

Plot of The Phantom: In the jungle of Bengalla in 1938 a group villains are searching for  a mythical skull on behalf of their boss in New York, Xander Drax. Despite intervention from the native’s superhero The Phantom, Quill the surviving villain gets away with the skull. Meanwhile newspaper tycoon, Dave Palmer sends his daughter, Diana, to Bengalla to investigate. She and the Phantom’s alternate persona, Kit Walker, have history. She is captured by a group of black clad ladies and tied up in their base, until The Phantom rescues her. Thereafter she and Kit Walker return to NY, where they find a second skull, but it is taken by Drax, and the location of the third, essential skull, identified. Drax believes that with three skulls he will achieve world domination, and identifies the location of the third, flying to it in a seaplane, with the Phantom secretly riding on one of the floats. Arriving at a secret island Drax, and later the phantom, have to face up to the villainous sect holding the third skull.

Content: There is a lot in the content. The film starts with a short story about how the Phantom originated, and why he appears to be immortal. The previous Phantom, Kit’s father, appears occasionally to advise him. The villains track through the jungle which includes a wonderful scene where they get a native boy to drive a truck over a rope bridge. The Phantom takes them on, riding a horse and shooting two automatics. Later Diana is captured by the black clad ladies, who brandish Lugers. We can see a smidgen of Indiana Jones. Drax is seen being evil. Once in New York the streets are full of 1930s cars and Kit Walker gains the help of a taxi driver. There is a big finish on the secret island.

A View: This film lost a lot of money, causing possible sequels to be cancelled. I thought there was a lot of engaging detail, although the actual Phantom character could be nothing other than a bit naff. The interaction between Diana and the villainous black clad lady, Sala, is fun although apparently love scenes between Kit and Diana were cut. In order to make several of the action scenes possible there must be an extreme suspension of disbelief, particularly because the Phantom is not supposed to have super powers. But there is a lot of charm there, and it is better than many have thought.

Fun Fact: There are a couple of red seaplanes used by the villainous ladies. They are actually crop spraying aircraft, which went back to their day job after the filming.