The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
There's a shaft of light coming up out of the ocean.

(00:03):
It was being guarded by a sea creature.
I believe this light killed three men.
Into uncharted secret coals hidden beneath the sea's surface
go the daredevil hunters of the deep, searching out the mystery of sudden death.
The secrets of The Phantom from Ten Thousand Leagues,
starring Kent Taylor, lovely Cathy Downs,

(00:27):
and Michael Whalen, all ameshed in a scientific web of terror,
involving secret death rays that unidentified nations will stop at nothing to obtain.
Almost like it was burned by an atomic flash.
Fisherman too.
Man bait, a luscious blonde to

(00:50):
tantalizing for the weak to resist.
"I didn't know that they could put beauty and poison so cleverly together in one package."
But the shadow of the phantom death does not stop daring underwater adventures,
while a man of science probes the unknown for the answer to The Phantom from Ten Thousand Leagues.

(01:13):
We're not talking about actors.
We mean a real monster.
I brought her back.
She'll live and I'll get her another body.
I know they're gonna catch me but don't let anyone see me like that! Please, doctor, help me!
Biologically speaking, it's a primary importance that man should want to mate.
Hey, that's right!
You don't get all your kicks or surfing, do you?

(01:36):
We want to be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man.
And we want to get loaded.
You think you're gonna make a slave of the world?
I'll see you in Hell first!
The American International Podcast.
Are you ready?
Hello and welcome to the American International Podcast.

(01:57):
I'm Cheryl Lightfoot.
And I'm Jeff Markin.
And today we're going to plumb the depths with The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues from 1955.
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues was directed by Dan Milner.
From a script by Lou Russoff, which itself came from a story from Dorys Lukather,
and it was produced by Dan and Jack Milner for Centaur Studios.
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues stars Kent Taylor as Dr. Ted Stevens,

(02:20):
alias Ted Baxter, Cathy Downs as Lois King, Michael Whalen as Professor King,
Phillip Pine as George Thomas, Rodney Bell as Agent William Grant,
Vivi Janice as Ethel Hall, Helene Stanton as Wanda,
Michael Garth as the LA County Sheriff, Pierce Lyden as Andy, the Janitor,
and Norma Hanson as the phantom.

(02:42):
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues gets right down to the action right away.
We see Fisherman Willie Harrison on a boat.
We will find out his name later.
From his boat, the fisherman notices a bright light coming up from the bottom of the ocean,
and he also notices a creature of some sort, which is unusual because we don't usually get to see the monster
in the first ten seconds of a movie, but here we are.

(03:03):
How exciting.
It's sort of a fish lizard cat dragon type thing, wouldn't you say?
Are you ever better description?
I just kind of feel I so that's probably better.
It's hard to tell what it's meant to be.
As the fisherman is pulling up his net, the creature rocks his boat and Willie falls into the water screaming.
The creature grabs him, and then we see the fisherman's boat has capsized,

(03:25):
and the man goes under the water with his hands outstretched.
Because now that a fight.
And then it's time for credits.
Water is washing onto the beach where Willie's body lies next to his boat.
A man comes over to investigate.
Then another man in a suit strolls onto the beach.
The first man strolls away purposefully.

(03:46):
Then a third man also in a suit appears on the beach.
As a second man bends down to the dead body, men number three screeches don't touch that.
He catches up with men number two and shows him his credentials.
He's William S. Bill Grant, special investigator, Department of Defense, Washington.
Big title.
Suit man number two says I guess that makes it pretty official.

(04:07):
Bill agrees.
He points to the body on the beach and tells Bill that his body is rigid with burns.
You may not see anything though.
The boat's charred too.
Yet there's no sign of fire.
Then he says we better get him out of the water.
But Bill says he can take care of that himself.
Meanwhile, a car approaches on the road leading to the beach.
Another man carrying a spear gun exits the car and gets into position in the brush on the hill

(04:28):
overlooking the beach for the two men are standing.
Bill asks man number two for his vital statistics.
Man number two admits to being Ted Baxter address local hotel occupation beach comor and tourist.
Length of stay indefinite.
He's a suit clad beach comor tourist.
Right.
Bill asks Ted how he happened to be here now.

(04:49):
And does he know anyone locally?
Ted explains that he was invited to see the head scientist at the university.
Bill knows him as Dr. King and Ted says he was on his way to see him.
When he happened to stumble upon this,
motion into the dead body on the ground.
Just then Bill looks up in spots the would be sniper.
He walks in the man's direction and Ted follows.
The man in the brush sees that he's been made but he doesn't run.

(05:11):
Bill pulls out and cocks his firearm,
commanding the mystery man to present himself.
He does.
Bill recognizes him.
They met at the College of Oceanography yesterday.
That's right, admits the man.
Who says he's George Thomas, Dr. King's assistant at the college.
Bill questions his squirrely behavior.
But George says he saw two men in the corpse.
So not being the hero type, he hit.

(05:32):
Then Bill notices the spear gun and asks George if it isn't a little late to go fishing.
George smiles.
I'm an oceanographer.
He says it's never too late.
He asks George if he's seen anything interesting around here lately.
But Bill tells Ted to keep out of this.
So Ted just wonders off without saying anything.
He does that a lot in this movie.
He does that exclusively in this movie.
Then Bill dismisses George telling him not to die here for a while.

(05:55):
And in fact, forget you were even here at all.
George, gratefully complies.
Now we catch up to that first man who had come across the body on the beach.
He goes up to a house then inside and locks the door behind him.
Dad, a voice calls out from another room.
A woman, this is Lois, paid by Kathy Downs, comes out and stares at the man's so shoes.
You're dripping wet, she says.

(06:16):
She chastises him for sneaking out of the house and complains about hardly seeing him anymore.
This man is Professor King and he claims he's doing something wonderful.
Lois grabs that King's secretary won't even tell her where he is.
King calls that secretary a nosy, prying female and grabs that he should fire her.
Professor King asks if George has been quizzing her too.
Lois says a little.
Lois assumes that George is upset because the professor has cut him out of his work.

(06:40):
And then Professor King grouses that George and the secretary are both spying on him.
There's a knock on the door and Dr. King tells his daughter to say that he's been in his room for an hour and he ducks into the back room.
Lois opens the door and invites Ted into her house.
Ted says he came to see Dr. King.
The woman tells Ted that he went to sleep an hour ago, had notices the wet footprints on the floor and says,

(07:01):
"Are you sure? Please tell him it's urgent."
So she knocks on the bedroom door and after no response, she enters.
The room is empty and the window is open.
Then Ted awkwardly lets himself out.
On the beach, Professor King is taking notes. On what? Who knows?
He spots a turtle and picks it up, smiling at the unhappy creature.
George is once again watching from the bushes as King walks out of frame with his new friend.

(07:24):
I have a lion says he looks like he's about to throw it, but he just walks off still holding it.
Because he doesn't even look like he's gonna chuck it.
Yeah.
Now Ted is running a Geiger counter over the beach. He's no longer wearing a suit.
Bill comes up behind him and says, "My friend, the beach comor.
Suppose you tell me what your interest in this thing is.
Dr. Stevens?
Ted stands up. You work fast, he smiles.

(07:46):
Then Bill spits out Ted's entire background to him. He's a well-respected, almost famous oceanographer in Washington
with a specialty in radiation studies."
And he wrote a book called "Nature's Own Death Ray."
Ted was able to isolate hydrogen isotopes in heavy water and created the world's first death ray.
Now what is he doing with that Geiger counter?
Ted naturally says that he's just checking for radiation burns out of scientific curiosity.

(08:09):
Bill asks about the phony name, but Ted won't disclose why he gave one.
Bill thinks Ted looks like he expected this to happen.
Ted asks if he's to consider himself a suspect.
Bill doesn't acknowledge that question.
He comments that the incident ties in with Ted's own experiments.
And Ted says it's just circumstantial evidence.
Ted says that if Bill leaves him alone, Ted might be able to help him.

(08:30):
"Maybe not," says Bill.
"The two part.
Bill to the shore and Ted to his boat."
Now we're at the Pacific College of Oceanography.
A woman enters the office.
This is Ethel, the secretary that Dr. King had mentioned earlier.
And there's a janitor there named Andy.

(08:52):
He's cleaning on the wall hang four spear guns.
Andy is anxious to tell her about Willie Harrison, the fisherman that was found yesterday.
That's the third victim of the venomous god, he says.
And they say that nothing like this ever happened before they opened the school there.
Ethel sits down at her desk.
She doesn't want to talk about this right now.
Andy goes on about how Dr. King whenever that Andy clean his office.
Ethel looks up at him from her desk and tells him she has a lot of work to do.

(09:15):
So Andy goes back to his cleaning, but then continues talking to her.
He tells Ethel that he seemed George following the professor.
Boo just walked in.
And he says it's just not normal, but when King asked what's not normal,
Andy skulks off without answering.
Ethel spots a paper sticking out of a book that Dr. King had laid on her desk.
She tries to snatch it while the professor is changing into his lab coat,

(09:37):
but he turns around and sees her polar hand back.
He takes the books off the desk and goes to his lab door to unlock it.
Ethel sees a piece of paper on the floor.
Professor King turns around to tell Ethel that he does not wish to be disturbed,
which she acknowledges.
Professor King enters the lab and Ethel scurries to the paper on the floor to pick it up.
As she's picking up this paper, George enters.
What have you got there, ask George?

(09:59):
Just a piece of scrap says Ethel.
George takes it and reads it.
It's not a code for something that I don't understand or that only he can understand.
Ethel takes the paper back.
George tells Ethel he has to get into the professor's lab.
Then George takes one of the spear guns from the wall.
I could tell him what you're up to, says Ethel.
You could, says George, pointing the spear gun at Ethel's head, but you won't.
Your place is the spear gun on the wall and walks out.

(10:22):
Now we're with Dr. Ted Baxter Stevens.
He's going for a dive.
He gets into the water, but nothing much happens.
In Dr. King's laboratory, he's mixing potions and throwing power levers.
He's wearing a radiation suit.
That poor turtle is now in an aquarium over a very bright light.
And then we transition from the turtle's face to the creatures.
Did that turtle just activate the lizard guy? Who knows?

(10:45):
We're back out in the ocean with Ted.
He's still swimming around and speaking of bright light.
He also sees a beam of light, but guarding it is the phantom from 10,000 leagues.
Ted hurriedly swims back to his boat and starts paddling back to where the shore.
When he reaches the shore, he almost trips over Lois, who is on the beach, sending herself.
Hi, he says, tell me when you leave your house to use the door of the window like your father did last night.

(11:08):
The door she giggles, I leave the window exits to dad.
Lois invites Ted to swim, but Ted says he's tired.
So he invites her to rest with him and says he wants to get some of her color.
Even though he's wearing a coat and his leathery face is 10 shades darker than hers.
She offers him a smoke, he declines.
He's looking out nervously at the water.
She asks what's bugging you, Mr. Baxter, and he says, call me Ted.

(11:32):
Mr. Baxter is too formal to the beach, and it's also not even his name, though he doesn't say that.
She doesn't want to sit around though. She insists on going for a swim, and he orders her not to, but she objects to that.
He says it's not safe out there, and she objects to that too.
He tells her to trust him and smiles, which she does not object to.
Now we're back with Professor Dr. King in his office.

(11:53):
He's closing the curtains, covering his array of dials.
Ethel is listening at his door, but she screws back to her desk when Dr. King comes out.
He asks her to go to the supply room and get some ocean current charts.
She stands to go on her errand as Ted comes in.
Ted says he would like to speak privately to Dr. King, and Dr. King reminds Ethel she was just leaving.
Ted tells Dr. King that he showed up at his house the night before, but the doctor wasn't in.

(12:17):
Dr. King says, "Yeah, he's gotten a bit of trouble with his daughter over that,
and he's ruined his favorite way of getting out of the house when he couldn't sleep."
Ted gets straight to the point.
He saw a dead fisherman on the beach last night.
Professor King tries to wave this away as Fisherman Lee Hubert, but Ted mentions the radiation rigidity.
Whatever killed him was man-made. Dr. King says that's not his department.

(12:38):
What does Ted really want from him?
Ted asks for maps and charts and other research on the ocean floor.
King says that he promised Lois he wouldn't work this afternoon,
and invites Ted to come by his house at 3 o'clock that afternoon,
and to just come in the unlocked front door, if Lois is out.
Ted thinks this sounds swell.
Then Dr. King asks Ted if he's working with Grant, the special investigator on this matter.

(13:00):
You might say so, says Ted. Ted goes to make one of his famous quiet exits as King frowns.
Ted opens the door to the silhouette of Ethel, who has been eavesdropping in the hall.
"Though?" Ethel hands Dr. King the charts through a requested, and she sheepishly sits at her desk.
I don't know why they gave her such a hard time, they asked for a private conversation, and she was just waiting in the hallway.
But Ted did say he hoped that she enjoyed eavesdropping on them.

(13:24):
Professor King snatches the charts out of Ethel's hands, and calls her an inquisitive woman.
He locks himself in his office. He pulls a book out of his satchel,
it's by Dr. Ted Stevens, and there's a huge publicity photo of Kent Taylor on the front of it.
The title of the book is "Biological Effects of Radiation on Marine Life."
It puts it back in his bag without reading it, takes off his lab coat, and climbs into a radiation suit again.

(13:48):
Now we see Lois has returned home after her visit to the beach, and she's preparing for a shower.
She putters around in a bathrobe, and she lays her clothes out in the living room, then shuts the bathroom door behind her.
Then Ted cubs up to the house, it must be around 3 o'clock.
He knocks, but because Lois is in the shower, she can't hear him, so as instructed, Ted lets himself in, and he sits down to read the newspaper.
Lois, who had been showering, finishes, and she partially covers herself with her robe, and exits the bathroom.

(14:14):
Shocked to see Ted sitting there, she helps out in, "Oh!" and then retreats back to the bathroom.
She scolds him for not knocking. He said he did, and her dad told him to just enter if there was no answer.
"He would," she says Riley. "She asked for her clothes, and he hands them to her so she can dress in the bathroom.
She asked if dad is expecting him, and he says yes. He resumes waiting as she dresses.

(14:36):
What's funny is that this house is so tiny, there is one bedroom that apparently Lois and her dad share, and the bathroom that everything opens into the living room.
So there's no corridors or any place that you get to have some privacy in this house.
What's also funny is that usually in a film like this, you would sit with Ted while she's getting dressed, but instead we'd jump into the bathroom and watch her get dressed.
Yeah, that's right.

(14:57):
When she's nearly finished, Lois comes out and asks Ted to help her with the zipper on her dress.
He takes the time with his task, and he finishes just as Dr. King comes home.
Lois immediately excuses herself and goes into the one other room, and Dr. King hands some papers to Ted and says, "I hope this is what you were looking for."
Dr. Stevens.
"Dun, dun, dun."
As cover is blown.
That your king tells him he's read his books, with his real name and his picture adorned prominently on the cover.

(15:23):
Ted says it's just as well that that your king knows who he is because there was no real reason for him to be working undercover anyway.
No, not at all.
Ted looks at the papers he has been given. He asks King if he's mapped the area around Baker's Cove where the accidents have occurred.
Ted says that a deposit of uranium had been found near there, and he asks if there's been any other discoveries.

(15:44):
Dr. King doesn't know of any.
He's only been there for two years.
And he wants to know why Ted's inquiring about this.
Ted says that he made a test dive near the area and confirmed that it was worth an accident.
There's a shaft of light emanating from the floor of the ocean that he believes is nuclear in character, whatever that means.
Any object crossing that shaft would be subject to severe radiation exposure.

(16:05):
Professor King asks if he got a close look at it and Ted drops the bomb that no, he couldn't because it was being guarded by some kind of sea serpent.
Wait a bear in the lead, Ted.
It's a hideous beast that defies description.
Professor King smiles and with good cause.
Ted doesn't seem to believe it either.
Dr. King thinks he's starting to sound like the locals and they're talking about phantom.

(16:27):
Ted confirms with the professor that he has read his books.
So he must have read about the experiment that Ted had done where he successfully isolated hydrogen isotopes and heavy water.
If that experiment were to be done on a larger scale, it could continue indefinitely growing ever larger.
And as for the creature he saw, Ted believes that it was manmade to a mutation of a known sea creature.
Ted thinks it's drawing its energy from that nuclear light source.

(16:49):
And then admits that he himself made a mutant in his laboratory.
What a strange coincidence Professor King does not say.
Ted concludes that this creature must be destroyed, along with the knowledge that led to its creation.
In science, we look for one thing and find another.
You split the atom and then you make an atomic bomb.
Professor King seems a little outraged that Ted is assuming that this knowledge came from his college.

(17:12):
The one that he is in charge of.
He feels that he and his experiments are suspect.
Ted says he hasn't overlooked that possibility.
Excuse me, does he have jurisdiction here?
Whatever.
Then Ted says there's one more factor at play here.
Whoever did this is offering to sell the information to the highest bidder.
King jumps up. I don't believe it, he says.
Just on the phone rings and King answers it.

(17:34):
It's Bill Grant.
Bill's going to need to borrow some equipment from the college to go on a dive the next day.
King hangs up and tells Ted they can't let him go down there.
It's not safe.
Ted says that the professor all but mocked him when Ted told him about the results of his dive earlier that day.
But now he's full of concern about Bill Grant going down there.
Good day, Professor, and Ted walks out.
At least he said goodbye.
Now we're in Professor King's office.

(18:04):
Professor King sneaks up on Ethel as she's rifling through the filing cabinets.
He tells her that Grant's men will need diving equipment tomorrow and to have it ready.
And also to let George and the night watchman know in case the men come tonight.
And then he gets philosophical.
Professor King wants to know what Ethel considers just punishment for someone who would take a scientific discovery of monumental scope and sell it for filthy cash.

(18:28):
Ethel freaked out so she doesn't know.
King asks if death would be just in such a case as he caresses his spear gun.
She doesn't answer.
No matter says King, you can tell me some other time and he goes into his office and Ethel screws over to the phone and dials giving Mr. Grant.
Please, he says into the phone.
Now we see that George is meeting a blonde new to this movie woman named Wanda.

(18:50):
She's standing beside a car and he tells her she shouldn't have come there.
He may have been followed.
He says there are federal men investigating the case and they're going to be making a dive tomorrow.
When it says they'll have to be stopped.
George asks how and when it tells them that's his problem, but he has another problem.
She's going to return to Europe in two days and she's expected to bring information with her.
Information that was to have been provided by George.

(19:13):
George says he isn't ready and he won't be until he can get into Dr. King's lab.
Wanda reminds him he was ready enough to accept the sizable upfront payment and she tells him he has two days before she leaves for Europe.
He can find her on the beach at Colby's Point.
Wanda, who is a bleach blonde and a type black dress, references their former dating relationship.
But he calls her beauty and poison in one package. She's smartly gets into her car and drives away.

(19:37):
In the next scene, someone who could it be is putting pills inside the tubes of the breathing apparatus that's going to be used for the dive tomorrow.
Now you find ourselves courtesy stock footage at Jeff Dees Roadhouse where Ethel is meeting privately with Bill.
She asks if it's okay to talk there and he says go ahead. She says I can tell you everything.
But we don't get to hear everything just yet because we're going to cut away to a couple running down the beach and they happen a robot and take it out to see.

(20:03):
At the King's bungalow, Professor King stands on the deck.
Lois emerges dressed to the nines and her dad ogles her a bit.
Kind of weird. He tells her she looks great and she hopes that Ted thinks so too.
King calls Ted a promising young man and you should put young in quotation marks there.
But then Professor King starts spiraling into some monologue about science, the devouring mistress.

(20:25):
He says science devours all who seek to fathom her mysteries and for every secret she reveals she demands a price.
A price that a scientist must be prepared to pay even at the cost of his life or the lives of others who stand in the way of his search.
That's kind of weird, right?
Lois looks as dumbfounded as I am right now. Lois wonders if he's threatening her nonsense.
He says just then Ted joins them and King leaves the two of them alone.

(20:50):
Ted and Lois decide to go for a walk along the beach while the camera tilts up in a sloppy resolve reveals George watching them from the hillside.
What a great date that Ted's bringing for their a walk on the beach. It's her front yard back at the roadhouse.
At the list, still speaking with Bill. She accuses King of being a killer, but Bill needs proof.
Bill says you can't accuse someone of treason just because you don't like him.

(21:11):
I have Bill. Wait till you get to the 2020s. You absolutely can do that.
Ethel tells Bill that Dr. King sent her only son out into the squalls for his filthy ocean specimens.
And from her tone, it sounds like he didn't come back alive.
Ethel says that if she could just get into his office, she could get improved.
Bill suggests he could show her how to make a wax impression of the lock and from that they can make a key.

(21:33):
Ethel's willing to try and the two of them leave, but they pass by Wanda who is sitting at the next table.
Oh, I don't make a wax impression of a keyhole.
We talked about this yesterday. I don't know how it would work.
We can make an impression maybe probably get somewhat destroyed when you pull it out, but.
Right. You'd have to disassemble the whole lock apparatus.

(21:55):
Anyway, now that couple who are in the rowboat park their boat near that nuclear light area.
They put on diving equipment and go in. It may be day or night now.
I don't even think the movie sure what time of day it is. The creature sees the couple and makes its move.
Following them as they return to their boat as they're sitting there, touting off.
It gently headbutts the bottom of their boat. The woman screams as the boat tips over.

(22:19):
Then towels float to the surface, but they do not.
Meanwhile, Ted and Lois's date continues.
It's legitimately night now. They're sitting on a bench making small talk about the small talk they'd made earlier on the date.
Lois says they should get going so the two of them head back down the beach.
They nearly chip over the bodies of that man and woman and their boat that had now washed up on the shore.

(22:41):
Ted tells Lois to go to the house and call Bill Grant. She runs off and Ted begins inspecting the boat.
Just then, Georgie merges from the nearby bushes and shoots a spirit head.
The spirit goes into the sand near the boat and missing Ted.
Georgie runs back to his car. Ted chases after him, but gives up as the car drives on a site.
Ted returns to the beach and uses his handkerchief to collect the spear.

(23:02):
And now we're at the morgue. Bill and Ted are looking under the sheet.
I guess that's one of the dead bodies there.
Bogus.
It's pretty hard to not say Bill and Ted.
What's funny is this movie has a Bill and Ted.
It has a Ted Baxter and Mr. Grant. It has a Doctor King and none of its relevant yet.
So Bill and Ted are looking under the sheet. Ted is smirking as usual.

(23:24):
Bill looks mildly disgusted. Bill says they're burn worse than the fisherman was.
Bill asked Ted what they are going to do.
Ted still smirking says me. Am I off the list of suspects now?
Bill looks at Ted sadly, nods, and then he just takes off.
Bill and Ted continue talking outside the morgue.
Bill is learned that Ted was sent out to investigate the same case that he had been on.

(23:45):
But now Washington wants them to work together.
Ted says he thought this would happen eventually.
Initially they wanted to maintain two separate investigations.
One a scientific investigation and the other a gun-token government investigation.
Bill examines the spear that had been shot in Ted's direction.
It says PCO on it, which stands for Pacific College of Oceanography.
Which means it's time we turn to the college.

(24:07):
Yeah, that narrows the field of suspects a little bit.
Just as somebody who's in the movie.
They're going to pick up the diving equipment from the night watchman.
Bill checks his watch. It's 130 a.m.
And Bill says let's dive at 6 a.m.
Ted agrees and then explains to Bill about the creature and the shaft.
We get to say shaft a lot in this.
Bill says, huh, so there is something to those Phantom rumors.

(24:29):
He holds up the spear and says, I've got this and I won't miss.
Ted has Bill to draw the creature away so Ted can scope out that light.
It won't be easier pleasant though.
Neither is this says Bill, spear in hand.
So the next day Bill and Ted head out in a boat with their diving gear and a guy or counter.
When their boat is out and they're finally ready to dive, Bill puts on his diving gear and he starts to get woozy.

(24:51):
Ted rips off Bill's breathing apparatus and finds that bill that had been placed there.
And then Ted finds one in his apparatus as well.
You still want to go in and ask Ted, Bill nods and they continue shooting up for their dive.
They swim around for a while.
Ted is following the readings on his guy or counter and he nearly swims right into the Phantom.
As he retreats, Bill shoots off that spear gun and he misses.
Hey, he said he wouldn't miss.

(25:13):
Bill and Ted head back to the boat and the shore putting it into this most excellent adventure.
What a waste of time.
On the beach, Bill and Ted are getting back into their suits and discussing the suspects at the college.
Ted wonders if they were too nosy and that maybe King wanted them out of the picture or was it George or both.
And what about Ethel?
Bill tells Ted to rule out Ethel.

(25:34):
She's bringing him proof that King is behind this.
How wonders Ted?
Bill says he gave her a set of keys.
Ethel said all the proof they need is in the lab.
Ted hopes she's right.
We'll know tonight says Bill.
So now we're back at the college Ethel is in the office and she notices that one of the spear guns is missing from the wall.
George comes in and she mentions the missing spear gun.
George says King must have taken it.

(25:56):
Ethel says that she saw George leave with it last night.
And George tells Ethel that she sees too much.
She ought to wear blinkers.
George tries the door to King's office.
It's locked. Unsurprisingly.
He tells Ethel he's got to get in there.
His life depends upon it. Ethel couldn't care less.
She's got her own worries.
She goes to her desk to pretend to work and George leaves.
Now we're back at the bungalow.
Ted calls on Lois.

(26:17):
She's sunbathing on the deck.
Ted wants to see her dad and the college said that he was at home.
Lois says her dad's upset that dead man was one of his students.
Ted really wants to talk to him.
So Lois goes to fetch him.
Dr. King comes out.
Ty tucked into his highways to trousers.
Ted tells Professor King that he might be interested in the results of the dive that he made that morning.
King assumes that he's there to admit that it was all a hoax.

(26:40):
O. Contrary says Ted, it's all very real.
King tries to blame Ted's overheated imagination for everything that he saw.
Professor King says good day and Ted turns to the camera,
containing the urge to roll his eyes as usual.
Now we're at Colby's point where Wanda is sitting on the beach,
sunning herself and George walks up.
He tells her he hasn't been able to get any information yet.

(27:02):
And Wanda tells George that King Secretary has some information on George.
Wanda had her talking to Grant the other night.
And George's name came up.
George asked what he should do.
And Wanda says that she knows what she would do.
She tells him she'll be at the same location to a clock tomorrow.
But not to come.
And let's see if something for her.
Yes, she says that the people who are waiting for that information
will get a little extreme if they don't get what they want.

(27:24):
In Dr. King's office, Ethel is nervously puttering around.
Dr. King comes out and tells her, "You're here late."
She agrees and then rushes out the door.
King enters his laboratory, but it's been ransacked.
He looks down and there's a ring of keys on the floor.
He hears a noise from outside his laboratory.
The camera brings us out there and we see his Ethel.
She's returned to search her desk for, well, you can guess,

(27:45):
King comes out of his lab, sneaks up behind her and holds out her keys.
I believe you were looking for these?
She snatches them away and rushes out.
Dr. King takes off his lab coat and serves meaningfully at the spot
where the speargun should be.
Now Ethel is walking along the beach.
George is in his favorite hiding spot with his speargun.
He shoots it and the spear embeds itself in Ethel's back

(28:07):
and she falls forward into this hand.
Now we see that Ted is visiting with Lois when Dr. King comes home.
That's where King apologizes to Ted for his behavior earlier that afternoon
and Ted accepts.
Then there's an knock at the door and it's Bill Grant there with the sheriff.
He asks that's where King is if he was at the college tonight.
Yes, says King about an hour ago.
The sheriff informs him that his secretary, Ethel,
was found murdered on the beach.

(28:28):
She was killed with one of the college's spearguns.
King Asaphis being charged with this horrible crime.
Not yet says the sheriff, but it's just a matter of time.
Wow.
Then Bill and the sheriff leave and Ted ducks out with them,
leaving to strut Lois alone with her father.
Sobbing into her dad's chest.
Bill and Ted are standing by a boat considering the case.
Bill feels responsible for Ethel's death.

(28:49):
He got her the keys to get into the lab.
Say, why don't they get into the lab?
Why did this idiot think of doing that first?
With a warrant.
Ted says he needs the professor's notes.
And then Bill remembers the piece of paper that Ethel gave him.
He adds it to Ted to see if he understands the implications.
Ted starts to look at it, but they're interrupted by the sheriff,

(29:10):
who comes up and says that he just saw their murder.
Dinger prints that were found on the spear
belonged to George Thomas, King's assistant.
And turns out that George left the speargun in his car
with the same fingerprints all over it.
And the clincher, he didn't come home last night.
Bill says he better put in for retirement.
He feared this one all wrong.
I'll say.
The sheriff says he tried to call the college to tell King he's in the clear,

(29:31):
but there was no answer.
Ted says he's probably at home and he'll go tell him.
And with that, Ted ducks on a frame.
The sheriff throws Bill a bone offering to let him ride along
as they go pick up George.
Dr. King and Lois, his daughter, are having a romantic stroll hand in hand
down some road.
And then Ted is there too.
The father and daughter stop at a park bench.

(29:53):
And then King once again goes on about the steel trap
whose jaws could close in on him and others.
Lois is scared by his ominous ramblings.
Ted joins them to say that good news.
George killed Ethel.
Woohoo!
King surmises that she must have figured out what was going on
and he had to silence her.
Ted tells Lois he'd like to talk to her father alone
and King sends Lois home.
Then Ted shows King the paper that Bill had given him.

(30:16):
Apparently it's a chart of the intensity increased readings
of the light shaft.
Dr. King then confirms that there is a uranium deposit on the ocean floor.
Ted asks how he activated it and King says that's his little secret.
But he will tell him it began with an animal experiment.
The same experiment that Ted had performed himself and had written about.
I knew it, Crows Ted.
But Ted wants to stop this thing.

(30:37):
King isn't on board with that.
Ted says it's not up to him.
It's killed five people.
King agrees with him.
But asked for an hour to think about it.
Ted agrees he has no choice but to let this happen.
King says that he'll meet them back at that spot and he should go stay with Lois.
And then Ted, as always, Smirking, exits the frame.
Now with Bill and the sheriff and they're at Colby's point

(30:58):
and they found Wanda who was packing up after her day at the beach.
And then we return to the bungalow where Ted has joined Lois.
Lois wants to go find her father, but Ted was told to keep her there.
Lois is determined to find him though.
So she sets out to the college to see if he's there.
And Ted accompanies her since he's supposed to be keeping an eye on her.
As they go outside, they see a large ship on the ocean.

(31:19):
It passes by over that life shaft and erupts in an explosion
as Lois and Ted watch with horror.
It was an oil tanker or a munitionship.
It goes up like a nuclear cloud.
And Professor King hears it from his office too.
Lois can't believe her dad had anything to do with this,
but Ted has no time to talk and he splits.
Because he can't talk when he's leaving, he has to.
At Dr. King's office, he throws a tantrum and destroys the laboratory.

(31:43):
Right on time, Andy the janitor comes in with a mop and a bucket.
Tantrum over, Professor King magnanimously tells Andy that he can clean up now.
Andy looks down at some bloated alligator kind of thing, lying in the dirt on the floor
and wonder how he's going to get it in that little bucket.
Andy asks if this is one of God's creatures.
And Professor King says, no, it's man's folly.

(32:04):
And he tells Andy goodbye because he knows he's never going to see him again.
But we will.
George is walking up the beach at Colby's point.
He heads toward Wanda's umbrella, but instead of finding her, he finds Bill's uppercut.
The sheriff grabs George and Bill says that his girlfriend wanted to told him everything they needed to know.
George says, what about King?
He's the one who planted that thing on the ocean.

(32:26):
The sheriff asks Bill if he knows what George is yammering on about.
Bill says he thinks he does and he heads off, leaving the sheriff to bring in George on his own.
Now we're at the college.
Lois and Ted have reached the office where poor Andy is still trying to clean up this mess.
They ask where Professor King is and Andy says that he left a few minutes ago.
Bill Grant also arrives.
Ted says that Professor King must be at the beach and Bill says he'll drive them all there.

(32:50):
And indeed we see King is on the beach taking out a boat.
He rose out and he puts on his diving gear and sets an alarm clock.
And we see he has a box of dynamite with him.
He sets an alarm clock and jumps into the water.
He swims down and places the bomb that he's created.
But before he can swim away, the phantom comes behind him and gives him a great big hug.
So he comes in for a snuggle.

(33:11):
The bomb explodes and King the phantom and presumably the shaft of light are destroyed.
This explosion creates a giant flume of water that Bill and Ted and Lois see from the beach.
Lois says, if only I'd known in time, perhaps I could have stopped him.
I know he meant this power to be used to help humanity, not destroy it based on what we don't know.
And Ted says, I'm sure he did any paper is a mistake.

(33:34):
Nature has many secrets that man mustn't disturb.
And this was one of them. Lois replies, I know.
If only he too could have understood.
And Dr. Ted Stevens says, I'm sure he does Lois.
That's why he took a secret with him.
Whatever that means.
Bill leaves and Ted takes Lois away to marry her, I guess.
And that's the end.
You're back with the American International Podcast where we're talking about the phantom from 10,000 leaks from 1955.

(33:58):
When American releasing corporation began making low budget films, they knew that if they made two together and released both as a double feature, they could make a larger profit.
ARC's co-founder James H. Nicholson came up with the film's title as he was looking for a feature to support and team with the world ended.

(34:21):
ARC lacked the money to make both, so they allocated a phantom to Dan and Jack Milner, film editors who wanted to get into feature film production.
ARC and Milner split the cost in profits 60/40.
Portions of phantom from 10,000 leaks were shot on location at Malibu and Catalina Island, California, according to the Hollywood reporters production charts from that era.

(34:42):
The peer visible in the background of most speech shots is Paradise Cofe Peer in Malibu, which was torn in half by a giant El Niño wave in the film.
A contemporary but undated studio billing sheet included in the film's file at the campus library indicates that Don Orlando was originally cast as Andy.
Both Day the World ended and phantom from 10,000 leaks cost under $100,000 each to make.

(35:06):
The budget for phantom was $75,000, and a portion of that was put up by a group of Japanese American investors who called their company Ness Sarima.
When Samuel Arcoff asked one of the groups members what Ness Sarima meant in Japanese, that's what he wrote.
The investor laughed and said nothing, it's American in reverse.
The phantom from 10,000 leaks was released in December of 1955 on a double bill with American releasing corporations Day the World ended.

(35:32):
This was ARC's first dual venture.
Theater owners wanted the option to run the film separately as the bottom half of double bills, but Arcoff refused to allow that.
Arcoff also told exhibitors that the company wanted a percentage of the gross rather than a flat fee, which is how the major studios got paid.
In Samuel Arcoff's autobiography, flying through Hollywood by the sea to my pants, he describes a marketing effort that took place in Detroit during a newspaper strike.

(35:57):
Because of the strike, studios could not run newspaper ads promoting their films, and most studios didn't even run the films.
But Nicholson and Arcoff thought of an outside-the-box promotional idea to bring viewers to Detroit's Fox Theatre where phantom was playing.
ARC organized horror caravans, small parades through the snowy streets of Detroit.
They put monsters, menacing scantily-clad young women, and lightly-clad young men on flatbed trucks, and rolled them down roads lined with holiday shoppers.

(36:25):
Local TV and radio news covered the stunts, giving Arcoff what he loved best, free publicity.
The press book for the double feature encouraged theater owners to work with newsdancing to cross-promote the movies by arranging for a lobby display of science fiction books in exchange for posting display cards that had photos and information about the movies on the newsstand.
They also recommended posting flyers on library bulletin boards and organizing school essay and drawing contest with science fiction or outer space themes.

(36:52):
Arnold Mark's stage in screen dedicated column published in February of 1956 reported that the Paramount Theatre was offering "Do it yourself, guide your counters to promote the twin bill of Day the World ended and Phantom from 10,000 Leagues."
Oh, how cool. And how timely is the nuclear era?
Taglines for a phantom from 10,000 Leagues include freezing horror, hideous atomic mutant strikes from the depths of the sea.

(37:16):
Up in the bottomless depths comes a spine-chilling menace terror is about to surface.
Sheer horror is a living nightmare stalks the ocean floor.
From the depths of the sea, horrifying, terrifying.
What was the thing nature had spawned on the ocean floor?
Here is one of the top horror movies of the year.
You'll thrill and chill to the monster from where the ocean floor.

(37:39):
Both Day the World ended and Phantom from 10,000 Leagues put popular with audiences to impart the marketing efforts of James H. Nicholson.
Yeah, like what we just mentioned.
In January 1956, the films were released simultaneously in 250 New England theaters.
The pairing grossed $45,000 from just two Boston theaters in its first week.
Within just two months of their release, the double feature had earned $400,000.

(38:02):
According to Arcov, the lines to see the movies in Los Angeles on the four weekends that the films were booked into the Hollywood Theatre were so long and the crowd so large they blocked the sidewalks.
And he really enjoyed that.
In the December 13th, 1950, five edition of the Los Angeles Times, the movie Land Column reported that Millenor Brothers Productions, which furnished the Phantom from 10,000 Leagues to the American Releasing Corporation, now have a four-picture deal with James H. Nicholson of the same organization.

(38:28):
I don't know that they did four pictures though.
Arcov recounts in his book that shortly after learning that the picture grossed $140,000 in Los Angeles, the Millenor Brothers and some of the Nasserima investors met with him and asked for the 40% share of that take, which they deemed owed to them.
Arcov wrote, "I turned to the Millenors and said, 'You guys have been in the motion picture business for 25 years. You should know that you're not going to get your money that quickly.'

(38:51):
First of all, we'll never see all of that $140,000. The theaters are only going to pay us our cut of the gate, which is 35%.
Also, the film only opened a week ago. We haven't sent out billing yet, much less gotten any money.
And before we divide the receipt $60,000, we have to deduct our distribution fee and pay for the advertising and the cost of prints. Arcov wrote that the group left his office downcast that day, but he assures his readers that they did indeed eventually get their money."

(39:19):
Box Office Magazine's review of the Phantom from 10,000 Leagues began with a riff on one of Phantom's last lines.
In describing a situation as this "hodgepodge draws to a merciful clothes, a character in tones, what a mess." That line could aptly serve as the beginning and the end of a critique of the offering.
The reviewer also said the picture can hope for nothing better than perfunctory attention on the lower half of the most inconsequential of double bills.

(39:43):
And it's one possible justification in even such a glorious spot is the opportunity of stressing it as an exploitation special.
Variety's reviewer called it "a confused offering that makes little attempt at seeking thrills with sufficient logic to hold a plot together."
The LA Times published a brief review of Phantom that's "scoled" of the filmmakers. It said it should be pointed out that a league according to Webster is about three miles.

(40:07):
A Phantom from 10,000 Leagues would be quite a fellow. If these figures confuse you, it's nothing compared to the plot-purposing plausibility of this underwater epic.
10,000 Leagues is 30,000 miles and it's only 4,000 miles to the Earth's core or I guess 8,000 miles to get all the way through.
And if you went that distance, you would find yourself going through the entire depth of the Earth and tens of thousands of miles beyond the surface of the opposite side of the planet.

(40:33):
And it's seen where Ethel and Bill meet at the Roadhouse, the exterior science has Jeffkees Roadhouse. And that is a stock shop from the film "Roadhouse" in 1948.
I found a few reviews of this movie and nothing really positive. How did you feel about it? Positive?

(40:54):
Well, I think that I can positively say this is the funniest movie we've covered yet on this podcast.
You think so? It's funny, but I don't know if it's the funniest.
Well, AIP is not known for its comedy.
No, not intentional comedy. Well, you could say the beach movies kind of fall under that category.

(41:15):
Sergeant Ted Head, I think was supposed to, Dr. Goldfoot maybe.
I know that things are supposed to be funny, but are they actually funny? Is a different question.
Well, I think this movie was funny.
It did have some really hilarious moments. What part did you laugh at?
Well, it was definitely not intentional, but the names were just so much fun. Having a Bill and Ted and...
Oh, Ted Baxter and Mr. Grant.

(41:38):
Yeah, that was pretty silly. I was surprised we didn't have a character named Clark and get a Clark and lowest pairing at some point.
Well, the actor who played Ted, his name was Kent, so we were close.
Very close. One thing that I did find funny, maybe not in such a "ha-ha" funny way of speaking of Kent's, Kent Taylor,
he has the smarmyst expression on his face at all times. He is constantly smirking.

(42:02):
I mentioned it a half dozen times probably, but every scene, he's just got his lip turned down and he's got this look in his eye like,
"You're all idiots, and I'm super smart."
And every time he exits the scene, he just cracks an eyebrow, turns away and walks out.
He doesn't say a word.
It's really weird and it's very noticeable. You pick up on it.
And it's hilarious. This movie is funny.

(42:24):
It is funny, but I thought the she-creature was funnier, I'll be honest.
When they're running around in that cabin trying to get away from the she-creature who's lumbering slowly after them, that was really funny.
This is funny, but it's not that funny to me.
I think the she-creature was more farcical with all that running around.
Maybe. Now this movie wants us to take it seriously.

(42:46):
That's hilarious.
Yeah, that is pretty funny.
Because there are so many plottles in this movie. There are so many things that don't make sense.
It doesn't make sense. They just kind of write it off like Dr. King's saying, "Well, that's my secret. I'm taking it to my grave. I don't have to explain my science to you."
Right. Or Bill Grant saying, "Wow, I should have thought of that sooner about the investigation."

(43:08):
Yeah, dipshit. You should have. Are you a government special investigator?
LA Sheriff is smarter than he was.
I wonder if Ted was told to use that alias of Ted Baxter because he was on this investigation.
Or he just did it because he thought it would be cool. And I think it's the latter.
Yeah, it made no sense because there's a book with his photo prominently placed on it.

(43:29):
His mug.
Right. And he is a professor of marine biology or whatever.
Radiology? I don't know.
Anyway, he's got a reputation. He had a letter of introduction to the college.
So what good does it do him to lie to you?
Lois. To lie to the guy from the government.
I mean, it's good for us because we got to have a character named Ted Baxter paired with Mr. Grant.

(43:51):
It's just so dumb. And as always, the science is kind of stupid.
Uranium deposits on the ocean floor. A light that can't be seen above that night.
And then they add that level of entry gets going on.
There's a spy network after this information that nobody understands or is going to talk about.
No, and apparently Wanda caved easily when they picked her up.

(44:15):
She seemed like a tough cookie.
And see her is completely spilling everything to the LA police just because they have her in custody.
She would probably end up dead if these people were as dangerous as she indicates they are.
But how great is that scene where they captured George because I don't think I did it just this one I went over.
No, that is really funny.
Because George had no idea what was coming.

(44:37):
He walks up to the umbrella.
And then from behind the umbrella comes the fist.
And the fist is attached to Bill Grant.
And George goes down. It is funny. You're right. That was a very funny scene.
You have to watch it. Listeners, please check that out.
I don't know. The underwater scenes were kind of dreary.
The monster was very underwhelming.
The monster looked like something that would be in an episode of Scooby-Doo.

(44:59):
Right. And it's a person with a mask and they take it off at the end of the movie.
I mean, above the surface, obviously.
But the monster didn't do much of anything. It gently hooked people to death.
It didn't even do that. I just tipped over their boat. They didn't have to try very hard to do that. So I'll give it that.
No, those robots just look over the nearest into the tap.

(45:20):
It wasn't a menacing monster. He didn't come out.
Unlike what the publicity would tell you he never went after lowest.
She was never in any danger. She barely did anything.
And it killed some people.
But it was that shaft that did the real damage.
Blowing up that naval ship or whatever. That was pretty shocking that they've put that in the movie.

(45:42):
That's really high stakes.
Well, the opening of the film when Willie Harrison meets his maker.
He gets dragged down. It looks like the creatures actually dragged him into the water. He's pulled down.
Right. But what's the purpose of that creature?
Dr. King put the creature there. It's lab created and installed there to guard the shaft.
Well, I think I understand this is that the lab experiment was a smaller scale.

(46:06):
So when he brought the turtle back, that was a smaller scale, but he was doing.
But he had found this uranium and was able to do that on a larger scale.
And I think the turtle or whatever it was had just spawned by.
And I don't think he was placed there. I think he caused it.
But I don't think it was something that Dr. King placed there.
I think it's because he was doing the other experiment that the animal just happened to be in the area.

(46:29):
And then it just hung out. I don't think it was a turtle though.
It doesn't look like a turtle at all. Maybe a catfish because it does kind of look like a cat.
It does have whiskers.
And it has like a ridged head and it's bipedal, even though it swims to.
He has got arms and legs and it's kind of a riff on the creature from the black lagoon.
Or rip off, maybe it would be better word.
And we saw another homage, I guess, in work, "God's of the Deep."

(46:53):
There was a creature-esque being there too.
I think that monster archetype was exploited a lot during that period.
I don't know. There's just so many times where I had to stop the movie and just kind of yell out,
"Why is this happening? This is so dumb."
What secrets did Dr. King have? I mean, I guess we never know.
I think I was just written for the script so that Lou Russoff didn't have to come up with a scientific explanation for what's going on.

(47:18):
If he's going to take it to his grave, then it's nobody's business and then I have to worry about it to cop out.
No, it's a cop out. And I can see how whatever that light was could be weaponized.
It's like a landmine or an explosive device that you could take out ships with.
Obviously, we saw that happen.
So something activated it.
You have to have a uranium deposit. You have to put it on the ocean floor.

(47:41):
It can't be too deep because none of this happened at a great depth.
It's 10,000 leagues.
Sitting in the robot on the surface of the water, you could see the creature standing on the floor of the ocean.
None of this was deep. It was a phantom from 15 feet.
Everything about this movie kind of makes me ticked off.
I know you liked it because it was funny. There were very funny bits.

(48:03):
Kathy Dowlands was kind of a disappointment in this.
She didn't really have a lot to do except have a especially close relationship with her dad
and then make excuses for her after he destroyed his own error.
Well, I thought she was better in this than she was in Oklahoma woman.
Oh, for sure.
But I think she was best in amazing colossal man.
Here are a lot more gulps in there. She did a lot more integral to the plot.

(48:26):
Here we just have dumb bill and snarky Ted.
I thought it was funny that King refers to Ted as a young man when the actor is four years younger than the actor playing King.
And 20 years older than Lois.
So there's a appropriate relationship for sure.
Well, I thought it was funny that when they found out George had the spear gun,
they automatically concluded that he was doing that on his own and that Dr. King didn't put him up to it.

(48:51):
Even though they had no evidence for George's motive until they got Wanda.
So that was a platole for me.
And they were wrong because while George wasn't working for King directly,
King was responsible for some of the stuff that was going on.
Yeah, thanks to King that whole ocean tanker.
The only reason George was involved because he was trying to make some money out of the deal.
But he didn't have any information to give.

(49:13):
So he was making money for, well, I guess he killed somebody.
False promises.
Yeah, he was complicit in treason, I guess.
She said they were waiting in Antwerp for her.
So are we at war with the Dutch?
None of this makes a whole lot of sense.
But once they figured out George did it and that was the LA police that did not bill.
Even though he had seen George in the bushes on two or three separate occasions with the spear gun.

(49:39):
But he didn't put that together with the fact that Ethel got killed on the beach.
And why did he make Ethel do his dirty work?
He could have got a warrant and searched the laboratory.
I think he had just caused there were suspicious deaths.
There was a shaft of light that's dangerous enough to blow up a munitions boat or oil tanker or whatever.
And that would have been seen from the beach at night.

(50:02):
It would not have been unnoticed.
And this movie is just a mess.
And the other thing is there's only 10 characters in this movie and that's if you include the phantom.
Who is portrayed by a woman, which is pretty cool.
So as a who'd done it, I'm not even sure who not supposed to know who done it or not in this or wrong for the right.
I don't know from what perspective I was supposed to be watching this.

(50:23):
It's not a monster movie.
No, it's definitely not a monster movie.
But that's the title of the movie.
It might be a mad scientist movie.
It is kind of a mad scientist and the hubris thereof taking down not just him but everyone around him.
And danger in the entire region if not the world.
But this looks like a nice beach and there's only so many characters who are allowed to go there.
It's not crowded.

(50:45):
There's always a robot when you need one.
There's hardly anybody there.
Looks like they all using the same robot over and over again.
Why rent four robots when you can just use the same one over and over again.
It looked to me like there was a different location for the clubies point shots.
And it looked familiar and I can't find anything to confirm this.
But it looks like the same beach that they used in sorority girl.

(51:07):
It does.
It has the same rocky outcropping, pursues and cabinet had that final meltdown in the surf.
It looks very much like that.
I don't know.
It's kind of fun to pick it apart.
It's kind of a hate watch situation for me anyways.
Or every so often I have to stop and yell at the movie.
Or crack jokes or whatever.
Well, there are a lot of opportunities for jokes here.

(51:29):
Yeah.
If this hasn't been on mystery science theater, it should be at some point.
But it's kind of shooting fish in a barrel or sea serbant in a barrel at this point.
The jokes right themselves.
Well, let's put a grade on this movie using our AIP scale.
For A is awesome, I is intermediate and P is pathetic.

(51:50):
What to say, you Jeff?
Well, I'm going to say that this is not in any way a good movie.
But it's very entertaining.
In his trailers from Hell commentary on this one, Joe Dante says that he doesn't know anybody
who's seen this movie all the way through.
But I watched it three times in preparation for this episode.
And we met him so technically he kind of knows us.

(52:11):
And I just found this movie extremely amusing.
It's not a good movie, but it's definitely so bad that it is good.
It's not great, so I can't give it an A, but I can comfortably give this one an intermediate I.
What are your thoughts?
Maybe I was too hard on it and all the nitpicking that I did.
I was really angry.
I was just annoyed.

(52:32):
Some movies make me angry.
This didn't.
It's just kind of dumb.
But you're right.
There are some funny moments.
And I think it's worth a watch.
I think you should see it once.
It is very integral to the history of American releasing Corp,
which became AIP shortly after this movie was released.
It was their first double bill.

(52:53):
The bottom half of the double bill.
So it wasn't as important as the world ended, which was a Corman feature.
Right, but that was the first time they put two movies together and sent them out with no opportunity for the theater owners to split them apart.
So this was kind of a new thing for them.
And it did very well.
And that success led to further success.

(53:14):
So in that way, it's pretty important in the history of American international pictures.
So I guess I will not give this a P.
It's not that long.
It's funny in parts.
There are a lot of things that I wish that they had done better.
I wish that if they're going to have a monster, they need to deploy it a little more thoughtfully.
It could be a lot more exciting.
If that monster also came to shore, maybe pick the lowest up and tried to take her away.

(53:39):
Something.
It should have done something more than just snubble people to death underwater.
But I won't give it a P. I'll give it an I.
It's kind of a reluctant I, but it is enjoyable in its own way to watch.
I want to mention too that Taylor is Ted and Ronnie Bell is Bill were just this close to becoming a comedy duo in this movie.

(54:02):
Yeah.
They're the original Bill and Ted.
Ronnie Bell especially his line meetings.
They're kind of dry.
And he almost sounds like he's whining all the time.
And it's like everything else in this movie.
It's just kind of funny.
And towards the end when he says I should put in for retirement, he sounds so resigned.
He almost did resign.

(54:23):
And Kent Taylor's Ted is his own character.
All of his exits.
He just does the same thing.
He kind of turns his head halfway.
Cox and I brow half smiles and then walks out of the frame.
And he does it over and over and over again.
Never saying a word.
Nobody calls them on it.
The first time that he goes over to see Dr. King and he's jumped out the window.

(54:45):
He just turns toward the door, leaving lowest wondering where her father is.
He stops turned around, look at her and then just turns around again and exits.
Not a word.
I'm surprised you put up with that because that's really rude.
But he seems to be the only eligible bachelor in the movie.
So you got to make do with what you got.
No, George, he's kind of dating Wanda, I guess, but I don't think they're really together together.

(55:07):
It's her dad's employee that would be just an appropriate relationship, I think.
Speaking of inappropriate relationships, and lowest in her dad's here, a bedroom.
That appears to be so.
The main room of this bungalow has two door ways that we can see.
And one leads to the bedroom where we know was Dr. King's room because that's where they go when they find that he is not there.

(55:30):
And later, Cathy retreats into that room to leave Ted and Dr. King alone.
And he also gets her clothes out of that room.
And the other door goes to the bathroom where she takes a shower.
Right. And exits almost undressed practically into Ted's lap.
And another thing I'll give credit to this movie is they didn't make Andy an idiot.
No, I felt so bad for him.
He's a bit of a gossip at the beginning. He wants to talk about these murders because it's obviously a small town.

(55:54):
There's only 10 people, including the Phantom, and one's visiting.
Well, there were other people that got killed as well, but they're dead. You can't talk to them.
Oh, yeah, they're not credited.
Right, right. I can't be super enthusiastic about it, but you're right. It is funny.
It makes a lot of mistakes that you'd expect to film from this area to make.
And it's all the more precious because of it.

(56:16):
It's a dopey movie, but it's our dopey movie.
So if you like us or among those who have proven Joe Dante wrong and have seen this movie all the way through, let us know about it.
You can do that via our website, aippod.com.
While there you can listen to other episodes of the podcast and you can see things that we can't show you on an audio only for them, such as trailers, lobby cards, posters, that sort of thing.

(56:39):
So give us a visit aippod.com.
Well, this undersea journey has ended for the American International podcast. I'm Cheryl Lightfoot and I'm Jeff Markin and we'll meet you at the drive-in.
Follow the American International podcast on Instagram and Letterbox @aip_pod and on Facebook at facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast

(57:03):
The American International Podcast is produced and edited by Jeff Markin.
A man whose mind is distorted by hatred.
And Cheryl Lightfoot.
A girl hungry for too many things.
The American International podcast is part of the Pop Culture Entertainment Network.

(57:28):
[Music]

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