The Phantom Lady (1944) (film review).
There was a reference to this 1944 film in the box set of the ‘Phantom Lady: Collected Works’ comic book, so I decided to give it a look in case any of you reading wanted to see if there was a connection.
Civil engineer Scott Henderson (actor Alan Curtis) is in a bar after a fight with his wife and sort of makes friends with a woman there, who won’t give her name but accompanies him to the theatre, wearing an exotic hat.
When Henderson gets home, he finds the police waiting there and his wife dead, strangled with one of his own ties. They try to track his alibi, but none of the people remember the woman. In court, Henderson is found guilty and has a date with the electric chair, but his loyal secretary, Carol ‘Kansas’ Richman (actress Ella Raines), decides to find the truth. The barman (actor Andrew Tombes) admits to a bribe when he flees and gets hit by a bus.
When she returns to her apartment, one of the police officers whose evidence got Henderson his sentence tends to agree with her, simply because he stayed, Inspector Burgess (actor Thomas Gomez), with the elusive woman’s story. The drummer at the theatre, Cliff Milburn (actor Elisha Cook Jr), is enticed by Carol but discovers she had his address on police stationery, and she has to flee while discovering he had been given a $500 bribe. Calling the police officer from a nearby bar, but when he arrives, they discover Milburn is dead.
The last witness, Estela Monteiro (actress Aurora Miranda), a singer on the stage with an identical hat, has one last night in New York before moving on, and they and one of Henderson’s friends, Jack Marlow (actor Franchot Tone), who seems to have fainting spells.
She nearly misses seeing the singer but spots the hatbox and visits manufacturer Kittisah to see who made it. The hat-maker says she copied the hat for Miss Ann Terry (actress Fay Helm). Meeting her, Carol finds she has a mental disorder. From there on, it’s all spoilers.
This is a typical film noir of the era and certainly watchable but has nothing to do with the comic strip. Carol has a vague likeness to Sandra Knight, but that would have been true of any brunette actress. Having characters with ‘Phantom’ in their names is quite common in comic books. Off the top of my head, the Phantom, Phantom Girl and the Space Phantom (a shape-shifting villain in the Mighty Avengers #2).
As a film noir, it’s not a bad detective film for its period, but it clearly has nothing to do with the comic book.
GF Willmetts
December 2025
(pub: Hollywood Classics. 1 DVD, 83-minute film. Price: varies. ASIN: SPAL 003)
Cast: Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis
