After launching the animated division of his King Features TV arm, Al Brodax went to live action with a 1961 pilot for Lee Falk's The Phantom. This was included in a video compilation of unsold pilots I once had that also included a pair we've previously reviewed, Archie and The Shadow.
Stuntman Roger Creed was cast as The Phantom and his alter ego, Kit Walker, known as Mr. Walker here. Our cast also includes Reginald Denny, Paulette Goddard, and Lon Chaney, Jr. (ex-Hawkeye & The Last of The Mohicans). Chaney was doing quite a bit of television in those days.
Yes, the video quality isn't too good, but this is what I had to deal with. Chaney is fine, as is Goddard. Creed? Not so much. Awkward mount on the horse, and I'm not sure if he did much acting otherwise, other than being a stuntman.
Rating: C.
Unsolved Mystery:
ReplyDeleteIn 1961, Paulette Goddard was all but retired from her acting career; she was in her fourth marriage, to the novelist Erich Maria Remarque, and was mainly living in Europe.
So what was she doing in an extra-cheap TV pilot?
Some say the question is: who is she doing a favor for?
Paulette Goddard's final acting role was an extended cameo in the pilot film for The Snoop Sisters; at the time, she said something about wanting to be in something with Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick - OK, I'll buy that, but The Phantom, with a budget that wouldn't have paid for the craft services table at Universal City for one day?
I'll guess that we'll never know ...
I think King Features, which was experimenting with television at the time (their TV arm would later morph into Hearst Entertainment) needed a name, aside from Lon Chaney, Jr., to attract potential buyers.
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