VCI Entertainment's 4K Film Restoration Of Phantom Of The Air Will Be Available As Both DVD And Blu-ray Product Offerings On July 06

VCI Entertainment announced this past week that a new 4K film restoration of director Ray Taylor’s 1933 sci-fi and aviation twelve-chapter serial, Phantom of the Air, will be available as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings on July 6.

This landmark — pre-code as well — serial from 1933 not only includes actual stunt footage of airplane daredevils (barnstorming and air circus craziness swept the nation after the success of Wings in 1929), but it is one of the earliest sci-fi themed films of the sound era.

Of note, Universal Pictures also released The Invisible Man the same year … and this Universal serial pre-dates The Vanishing Shadow, which was the studio’s sci-fi serial in 1934 (which is also available from VCI Entertainment as a new film restoration released on Blu-ray in 2019).

The film stars then box office heavyweight Tom Tyler — who successfully made the transition from silent films to the talkies — as U.S. Border Patrol agent Bob Raymond, who is also an accomplished pilot.  

As the action gets underway, we learn that Thomas Edmunds (William Desmond — The Vanishing Shadow, The Roaring West, etc.), a research scientist, has developed an anti-gravity chemical compound that he calls “Contragrav.” He wants to use it as alternative aviation “fuel.”   With his lovely daughter, Mary (Gloria Shea — The Last Days of Pompeii, Black Gold), they meet up with Edmunds at the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio and recruit him to be their test pilot.

Also attending the air show is a flying ace by the name of Mortimer Crome (LeRoy Mason — The Tiger Woman, The Man Who Wouldn't Die, The Apache Kid), who runs the International Import and Export Company … and, as it turns out, is a good friend of Mary.  

This friendship gives him access to the family and no one suspects that he is actually the head of a criminal organization and is out to steal the “Contragrav” invention … his first step, eliminate Edmunds (his plane crash — and act of sabotage — is the cliffhanger for chapter one).

Twelve thrill-pack chapters, complete with airplane stunts that are insane, a lovely damsel, often in distress, a villain with henchmen to spare (yes, that’s future two-time Oscar winner Walter Brennan as one of Crome’s minions) and our flying hero facing doom at the end of each cliffhanging chapter!!