The Phantom

A largely forgotten comedy-chiller in the tradition of The Cat and the Canary, Artclass Pictures Corp.'s The Phantom emerges as one of the loonier films of the early sound era. Sans his nickname "Big Boy" and the usual B-Western regalia, Guinn Williams stars as nervy reporter Dick Mallory who, along with the district attorney's (Wilfred Lucas) daughter Ruth (Allene Ray), goes in search of The Phantom, a masked killer whose recent jailbreak is alarming the citizenry. They find him running an insane asylum (a rather appropriate place for a deranged killer), but not before a series of encounters with Swedish-accented domestics and the usual thick-headed police officers.