:18:03
"Today, audiences do not accept
the unreal or supernatural,
:18:07
so we must create a new formula
for portraying horror."
:18:11
Jacoby's pragmatism failed to justify
the crux of the production's plot -
:18:14
why a girl would place
her faith in a masked killer
:18:17
who whispers promises of artistic glory
from behind her dressing-room wall.
:18:22
Henry Koster reasoned it out
in the story conference
:18:24
and suggested that the two principal
characters were father and daughter.
:18:28
We'll talk about Jacoby and the Koster
production as our narrative unfolds.
:18:34
That's Leo Carrillo as the stuffy
Italian vocal teacher in Paris.
:18:38
He's doubly out of place, as he was
usually in genial roles in B-pictures.
:18:43
Leo had previously appeared for Waggner
as the comic sidekick in Horror Island.
:18:48
Modern Angelinos who seek the quiet
of a rocky beach north of Los Angeles
:18:52
wonder who the heck this Leo Carrillo is
that their state beach is named for.
:18:56
Ageing baby boomers can snigger,
and they wonder
:18:59
why this beach is named for the plump
actor they remember as Pancho,
:19:03
Duncan Renaldo's silly sidekick in the
early-'50s TV show The Cisco Kid.
:19:08
It takes a sense of history to know
that the Spanish-Italian Carrillo
:19:11
was the son of the first mayor
of Santa Monica,
:19:14
that his great-grandfather Carrillo was
the first provisional governor of California,
:19:18
and that his family once owned all of
California from Monterey Bay to Mexico.
:19:24
Universal would boast that this remake
of Phantom cost $1,750,000,
:19:29
which is an exaggeration. Director Lubin
told me it was probably $990,000,
:19:34
but definitely not more than
1,250,000 with overhead.
:19:38
Still, when you remember that Waggner
had made Man Made Monster for $90,000
:19:42
and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was
made in Technicolor the following year
:19:46
for $554,000,
:19:49
you see what a risk a
million-dollar Phantom was for Universal.
:19:52
Cliff Work and Nate Blumberg
were nervous.
:19:55
They would send functionaries to the set
to rush Lubin along to finish the setups.