SOLD! - Adventures of Captain Africa (The Phantom!) 1955 Movie Poster Art

Comapare the art with the scan of the poster itself up above!

Glenn Cravath is a legendary movie poster artist, with his most famous piece being the classic original poster for the 1933 release of King Kong!

This movie was actually conceived and filmed as a sequel to The Phantom (starring Tom Tyler). Well into production, Columbia found that its film rights to the comic strip had expired. King Features wanted more money than producer Sam Katzman was willing to spend and negotiations broke down.

Hurried retakes and major re-editing followed, with John Hart now wearing an amended costume that only used part of the original Phantom outfit, with the addition of a leather aviator's cap and riding britches. The new story featured a new hero, Captain Africa, who still bears a strong resemblance to The Phantom in both appearance and behavior.

The serial features heavy use of stock footage from earlier serials Jungle Menace (1937), The Desert Hawk (1944) and The Phantom (1943) itself. Footage from The Phantom was reduced when this stopped being a sequel. Only a few minutes of new material were included per chapter.

The serial was produced by legendary Hollywood cheapskate Sam Katzman. Serial producers often economized by including a "cheater" chapter, in which flashbacks to earlier chapters are shown instead of new scenes. The Adventures of Captain Africa audaciously uses four cheaters within its 15-chapter length. The frequent recaps were possibly necessitated by the hasty rewrites during production.

Adventures of Captain Africa was Columbia's last Jungle serial.

BOARD: 9 3/8 x 14 3/8
IMAGE: 8 5/8 x 13 5/8

Mixed Media on 1/16" Illustration Board