The Phantom Creeps

The Phantom Creeps from 1939 is everything an old classic B sci-fi is supposed to be.

It features Bela Lugosi (as Dr. Zorka,) a mad megalomaniac scientist who attempts to rule the world by creating various elaborate inventions. However, foreign agents and G-Men try to seize the inventions for themselves.......

It was adapted in DCs Movie Comics #6, cover date September-October 1939, the final issue of that title. Stock footage was used from The Invisible Ray (look closely and youll see Boris Karloff,) including scenes of Dr Zorka finding the meteorite in Africa. The music came from the Frankenstein films. The Phantom Creeps car chase was itself used as stock footage in later films. Newsreel shots of the Hindenburg disaster were used as part of Dr Zorkas final spree of destruction after his robot, which is supposed to destroy the human race, is stopped by a single shot seconds after being unleashed.

Directors: Ford Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind

Béla Lugosi as Doctor Alex Zorka.
Robert Kent as Captain Bob West, G-Man
Dorothy Arnold as Jean Drew, reporter
Edwin Stanley as Doctor Fred Mallory, Doctor Zorkas former partner
Regis Toomey as Lieutenant Jim Daley, G-Man
Jack C. Smith as Monk, Doctor Zorkas assistant
Edward Van Sloan as Jarvis, foreign spy chief
Dora Clement as Ann Zorka
Anthony Averill as Rankin, a foreign spy
Hugh Huntley as Perkins, Doctor Mallorys lab assistant
Ed Wolff as The Robot