There are strange goings on in the office of scientist Michael Whalen who keeps his laboratory locked tighter than the hatch on a submarine. His secretary (Vivi Janiss) is suspicious of the goings on and pays dearly for her defiance. It appears that a sea monster of some kind is guarding an undersea stash of uranium and tips over any boats which pass by. Is this some man in disguise, or is it some small sea creature turned huge by man-made mutation? Fortunately, you get to see the monster pretty early on in the film, so there's no waiting around to catch sight of it. The monster is pretty gruesome, too, but like many other sea monsters in science fiction movies of this time, it's definitely a cousin to "The Creature From the Black Lagoon".Of course, the government is called in to investigate the strange goings on, and by coincidence, the agent (Kent Taylor) happens to walk along the beach on his first day there only to discover a body of one of the victims. I thought at first that the monster was kind enough to its victims to drowned them quickly before biting into them with their razor sharp teeth, but I guess this monster has an aversion to human flesh because all that happens to the victims is the obvious radiation burns found on their bodies. Then, there's the scientist's assistant who has something up his sleeve as well, stalking the beach in secret with a spear gun which he isn't above using. It's a rather strange plot, not fully explained, but giving the audience the message that mankind should leave some of God's secrets alone, that nature should be left to fend for itself and that we are not meant to know everything. A bit of comedy concerning the romance of Taylor and the scientists's pretty daughter (Cathy Downs) is thrown in, but all that does is add running time to the virtually plot less film.

Handsome, stolid Kent Taylor plays Dr. Ted Stevens, a scientist investigating unusual activity in a seaside community. What he discovers is a radioactive light emanating from the ocean floor...and a goofy marine monster guarding the thing. There's no shortage of dubious types involved, as there are those who would seek to profit from this weapon. Ted, a real multi tasker if ever there was one, also finds the time to romance Lois King (Cathy Downs), the daughter of local oceanographer Professor King (Michael Whalen).One would hope, based on the poster art and that great title, that this would make for tasty schlock movie viewing. Alas, it's not to be, as this is a fairly dull affair, with not much of interest ever happening. Lou Rusoff, the screenwriter, tried to spice things up with the intrigue subplot, but everything is boringly handled. The filmmakers, led by director Dan Milner (who went on to do the more memorably awful "From Hell It Came"), establish their "credentials" by showing off their monster less than a minute into the movie! It's a funny looking beast, to be sure; audience members may be chuckling quite a bit every time it makes an appearance. It does kill a few people, but mostly it just stands there looking silly.Taylor is a rather stiff but not unlikable hero. Downs is lovely but doesn't have a very good part with which to work. Whalen is passable as our well intentioned antagonist. Phillip Pine is a non-threatening, would be villain. Rodney Bell is not bad as the government agent who collaborates with Dr. Stevens. Vivi Janiss does what she can in the role of Professor Kings' nosey secretary, who's motivated to find out more about what her boss does. The very sexy Helene Stanton has her moments as a conniving woman prodding Pine to produce results for certain interested parties.Best of all is Ronald Steins' score, which is good enough to deserve to have been in a better movie.Five out of 10.

A mysterious monster terrorizes humanity in THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES. This is one of the many public domain monster movies that I would always find at Walgreens for about $1.00 or less. To be honest I only bought a lot of these movies because of their DVD covers, and this is one of them. Let's start with the positive aspects of the film.......I got nothing. Now on to the negative aspects. Well first of all the story is badly paced and hardly memorable. Next the Characters are not memorable either, especially not the monster. The Monster isn't even a good special effects creation. Even the title makes no sense, it's not a phantom it's a Frankenstein-like creature that looks like a lizard. So in the end, this is a very boring film. Not worth checking out what so ever, so avoid it at all costs.

This _unambitious, even messy Sci Fi thriller has some nice sexy touches—like a beach scene, a shower scene-- which even give it a slight resemblance to the old TV shows; in a word, after a few mysterious deaths on a peaceful shore, two investigators are fooled to take over the case, one is a regular cop, the other a handsome scientist whose books' covers look like those of the movie stars'. In a few ordinary shots, we are subtly given to fathom that there was a creepy connection between the unexplained deaths and a presumably hideous underwater floating toy.All the characters are basically uninteresting and even ugly—perhaps even the two sexy ladies who try to enchant us with their shapes; instead, these characters are many. Ugly, but many. There's the handsome scientist—and there's also the frankly old one; there's the oldster's daughter, and there's the evil woman who plots one knows not what; there's the cop—and there's the treacherous villain associated with the mentioned vamp. There's also an ugly toy—the underwater floating toy.For me, The Phantom from 10000 Leagues was basically and fundamentally boring—for reasons of lack of style, and a little skill could have enlivened it; but do not feel disheartened and annoyed. Maybe you will like The Phantom.