Having survived a near death experience in quicksand in the first chapter of Columbia's wartime serial The Phantom (1943), Tom Tyler's masked "Ghost Who Walks" spends the bulk of Chapter 2, "The Man Who Never Was," on the trail of schemers out to waylay an expedition led by Professor Davidson (Frank Shannon) and his daughter Diana (Jeanne Bates) in search of a mythical city; meanwhile, agents of a foreign power seek to destabilize relations among local tribes so that they can establish a secret airbase. Adapted from Lee Falk and Ray Moore's popular comic strip, The Phantom was one of three serials inspired by comic superheroes. A mashup of character traits cadged from Batman, Superman, and The Lone Ranger, The Phantom lacks super powers and must rely on his wits, his agility, and the occasional save by his trusted four-legged sidekick Devil (played by Ace the Wonder Dog). Entrusted to action specialist B. Reeves Eason, The Phantom devotes much of its run time to fistfights, shoot-outs, and derring-do; a celebrated second unit director, Reeves had photographed the epic chariot race for Fred Niblo's silent Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), using more than 40 cameras, and also supervised the burning of Atlanta in Victor Fleming's Gone with the Wind (1939). As a director in his own right, Eason helmed the Mascot Pictures sci-fi serial The Phantom Empire (1935), starring Gene Autry.

By Richard Harland Smith