Some viewers of the video tape of this film, who have a little knowledge of film history, can be excused when they begin to wonder why players such as Norman Kerry and Carmelita Geraghty, who had not made a film for several years, suddenly show up in a 1936 film. No, Carmelita did not suddenly come back from retirement.The answer is simple...this film was made in 1931 as "The Hawk" by Romantic Productions for Pioneer Multi-Color(a Cinecolor forerunner), had a couple of screenings for the trade press, some scattered bookings and then, basically, disappeared.
Flash forward to 1936 and Ashton Dearholt, who was on the board of Romantic Productions in 1931 and now "in charge of production" for Burroughs-Tarzan productions took a step backwards and liberated "The Hawk" from the inventory storage, slapped his name on it as the Producer, changed the title to "The Phantom of Santa Fe" and shipped it out as a Burroughs-Tarzan 1936 production.It doesn't take but a few minutes of viewing this one before most film buffs would begin to think that "this thing looks like it was made at the dawn of the sound era." It was.Like early in 1931.Jacques Jaccard as the director should have sent up warning signals in itself regarding the correct date and age of this so-called 1936 film.At that, there are a lot of films that actually were made in 1936 that are creakier than this one.Or, for that matter, in 2003.
Flash forward to 1936 and Ashton Dearholt, who was on the board of Romantic Productions in 1931 and now "in charge of production" for Burroughs-Tarzan productions took a step backwards and liberated "The Hawk" from the inventory storage, slapped his name on it as the Producer, changed the title to "The Phantom of Santa Fe" and shipped it out as a Burroughs-Tarzan 1936 production.It doesn't take but a few minutes of viewing this one before most film buffs would begin to think that "this thing looks like it was made at the dawn of the sound era." It was.Like early in 1931.Jacques Jaccard as the director should have sent up warning signals in itself regarding the correct date and age of this so-called 1936 film.At that, there are a lot of films that actually were made in 1936 that are creakier than this one.Or, for that matter, in 2003.