1974 Directed by Gene Levitt
The internationally famous Worldwide Studios has hit hard times and is forced to sell its backlot to Hollywood property developers. The trouble is someone keeps killing off the site surveyors. The studio chiefs then learn of the legend of a masked man who lives on the lot and is sworn to protect it from harm
El fantasma de Hollywood, Das Phantom von Hollywood, 好莱坞魅影, Il fantasma di Hollywood
USANR
USA
A pretty decent version of the Phantom story, I actually genuinely love the way the phantom looks here. It’s such a cool neat design and it fits real well with the Hollywood motif. Not the best version of this story but a pretty solid little tv movie all around, worth a look.
It's 70s TV Movie time again, and this one's a doozy.
Transplanting the Phantom of the Opera story to the backlots of 'Worldwide Films', there's a legendary mysterious character living amongst the decrepit sets that are about to be bulldozed so the land can be sold for real estate. People are dying and it's a race against time to find which of the sets or underground stores is the Phantom's lair, to stop the killing and save the studio head's kidnapped daughter.
And just who is the Phantom among the pretty great cast? Surely it's Otto the archivist who dwells in the bowels of the studio, right?
Made at a point in time when New Hollywood's location shooting was preferred…
One of the last (TV)films to use the backlot of MGM before they tore it down, this has a pretty nifty vibe to it because of that fact as it plays into the plot. Dressed with flail and medieval getup, the 'phantom' kills (all except for one offscreen due to being on the tube) to save. Or backstory trauma or whatever. Passable into the proto-slasher genre with killer POV and stalking, it is dampened by a highly uninteresting mystery and aping of the Opera story. Cute for a look though.
LETS GET ON THOSE BULLDOZERS!!
nooo don’t carry my lifeless body into the cemetery you’re so sexy aha
Coming between Peeping Tom and Halloween , Phantom of Hollywood makes extensive use of killer pov and foreground framing. It also makes interesting use of match cuts. It’s a well-shot, ahead-of-its-time, forgotten gem. I want more like this. 70s TV movies had so much more artistry in them than any big budget theatrical release of today. Sure this one has cliches in spades, but it’s so early on that it doesn’t matter. Also, the gimmick of using old sets is phenomenal.
The Phantom of the Opera is a decent core around which to build all sorts of vengeful madman movies. I'm not sure if The Phantom of Hollywood really lives up to its potential, but there are a few reasons to give this TV movie a look.
The movie spends a great deal of time romanticizing the backlot of Worldwide (MGM) pictures, lovingly moving across the dilapidated old structures as clips of the studio, getting used in the past, are intercut. It's not especially well done, but it's good enough.
As the movie winds up toward its conclusion, you get to watch these old structures getting wrecked by bulldozers. It looks to be a lot of the original structures, since I…
I don’t know, it’s probably nostalgia for a time I’m too young to be a part of but I’m digging this one.
This was supposed to be a punishment screening but turned out to be genuinely good campy fun! Also props to the phantom in this one having a unique mask and skillset: medieval weaponry?!
gotta say, for a made for tv movie that i imagine was planned fairly quickly around the opportunity to film some of the demolition of the MGM backlot, this is actually really good? the Phantom mask/costume design here is fucking great, and the amazingly hammy Phantom performance is really fun — i should have known i desperately needed a 1970s Phantom doing a Shakespeare monologue in my life. and the presumably lowish budget really only shows itself in shitty audio, with a new pass on the sound editing and mixing i could see this becoming a new cult fave. some of the editing choices in this are surprising and funny and fun — also Uncle Fester has a small but charming part as a film editor! i’m a sucker for movies about the movies in general, but i was really pleasantly surprised by this.
September 9: Watch a horror movie that features a masked killer.
Today’s challenge is to watch a horror movie that features a masked killer, which doesn’t seem that hard on the surface. Add in my own personal stipulation of trying to watch a film I’ve never seen before and the task becomes tougher. I took a deep dive into 70s made for TV horror with this one and just may have found a gem.
I think it’s fair to call The Phantom of Hollywood a “proto-slasher.” It comes before Halloween and Friday the 13th but still uses lots of slasher movie tropes (even the killer’s POV!) while still keeping a foot firmly in the realm of classic Hollywood, and makes…
Pretty cool for a TV movie. Decaying and decrepit Hollywood sets, a killer Phantom dug in like a tick, and Uncle Fester editing film! 3.5 donuts out of 5.
a passable tv serial killer movie with a disfigured former star taking umbrage at the sale of a historic backlot
no gore, a few moderately famous enough but plenty of nostalgia with numerous old set pieces from classic films
worth a watch if you're a fan of that
