Creature with the Atomic Brain

A vengeful mobster, an ex-Nazi scientist, atomic radiation and zombies. From the barest descriptions, Creature with the Atomic Brain (CAB) movie should be about as tacky as 50s B-films get. However, CAB has some talent behind it which keep it interesting. The key ingredient is the writing of Curt Siodmak. He gave us Magnetic Monster ('53), Donovan's Brain ('53) and Riders to the Stars ('54). He will go on to give us Earth vs Flying Saucers too. With Siodmak's above-B writing, and above-B acting (Richard Denning, mostly), CAB is a better than average B film.

Quick Plot Synopsis
The action begins immediately after the credits. A hulking zombie breaks into a mansion and kills a (presumed) mobster boss named Hennesy. The police are baffled. The fingerprints are of a man who died days before. The blood stains are radioactive. (back story) A mobster named Buchanan was forced out of the country, betrayed by some mob mates. While in Europe, Buchanan finds a German scientist who is trying to re-animate the dead -- to provide a menial labor pool. Buchanan funds his research and brings Steigg to America. His goal is to send zombies to kill off those who betrayed him. The police figure out the common Buchanan connection with those killed and try to put the last three into protective custody. Buchanan uses a dead policeman to get one of them, and a dead police captain to get the other two. When the zombie captain is captured, police doctor, Chet Walker (Denning) discovers the remote control brain implants and figures out the plot. Police and army troops converge on the lead-lined mansion. Buchanan sends out his platoon of unkillable zombies to fight them off. Walker gets into the mansion and smashes the electronic controls. The zombies all fall down. Buchanan is about to shoot Walker, but the zombie captain strangles Buchanan first. All is safe again. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
Normally, zombie movies are tedious, but in CAB, they're not paranormal spooks. They're electronically controlled bio-units. Siodmak puts more "science" into the tale, which makes it more fun. While the staging is a bit flat, the pacing is good and keeps your interest.

Cold War Angle
There are no commies, but the fact that atomic energy is used to reanimate the dead, CAB does pick up some of the fear inherent in the new nuclear age. Steigg's zombies were fueled by atomic energy in lieu of life.

Notes
Zombie Vision -- One cool little detail is how Steigg used implants in the eyes of the dead bodies to collect and transmit live video of what the zombie saw. This made the zombies an extension of their controllers (Buchanan) and not simply a creepy monster. Steigg also used electrodes to control their speech, so the zombie could act like a remote speaker for its controller. The zombies also took voice commands like "drive the car," and "come home" and "Kill him!".

Girl and the Beast -- A curious trope in sci-fi is the scene where the killer monster is confronted by an innocent little girl. This appeared in the early Frankenstein movie. There is something compelling, some deeper chord struck, in these scenes. The monster stops being a monster, temporarily -- charmed by innocence? The innocent has no fear, she just wants to play. The little girl's death in Frankenstein was a mistake, not malice. In The Quatermass Xperiment ('55) and here in CAB, the monsters are alone with little girls playing with their dolls. The monsters somehow have enough human decency remaining in them to spare the girls. The dolls, however, suffer a sort of substitutionary "death."

Brains on the Brain -- Siodmak was fascinated with the power of the human brain. In Donovan's Brain the big gland had paranormal powers. In CAB, the brain is more of a machine which can be controlled by very clever scientists. The 50s had an undercurrent mood of naive optimism about "science" being on the verge of having all the answers.

Extreme Recycling: Zombie Labor -- A fascinating detail easily overlooked in CAB, is Steigg's original intention for his work -- to create a working class of zombie laborers to do menial work. Here, Steigg fits the archetype of the misguided naive genius "mad" scientist. His bio-robot idea is very similar to Karel Capek's 1921 play R.U.R, (which gave us the word "robot") in which non-human bio-tissue beings were created to supply humans with a menial labor class. This is an enduring notion.

A Trace of Decency -- A common feature in zombie and man-becomes-monster movies is the idea that in the good man, a trace of his goodness will remain. In the recent Quatermass Xperiment ('55) the astronaut Caroon, though being consumed by the space monster, does not kill his wife, nor the little girl, even though he happily kills others. In CAB, the zombie police captain, "Uncle Dave" to the little girl Penny, goes on to brutally stab the last two hidden mobsters, but does not hurt innocent little Penny. (the doll doesn't fare so well, see above). This seems to show that we like to think that goodness runs deeper than monstrosity.

Bottom line? CAB is not an easy movie to find, but worth the effort. Yes, it's a B-movie and sounds absurd. Nonetheless, it's well worth watching for a sci-fi spin on the ubiquitous (and often tedious) zombie character.

It Came From Beneath the Sea

While not especially well known, It Came... (ICFBS) is a classic example of '50s sci-fi. It's a solid example of the radiated monster sub-genre. What helps ICFBS rise above mere B-movie status are its stars and its effects. Kenneth Toby (The Thing from Another World '51 and Beast from 20,000 Fathoms '53) is already a regular sci-fi movie hero. Faith Domergue (When Worlds Collide '51 and This Island Earth '55) is equally established as a sci-fi leading lady. Donald Curtis is also no stranger to sci-fi. It's Ray Harryhousen, however, who dominates. His stop-motion animation is the heart of this movie.

Quick Plot Synopsis
While on a shakedown cruise of a new atomic submarine, some mysterious shape, larger than any whale, grabs the sub and won't let go. The sub eventually breaks free, but a mass of mysterious flesh remains in the aft dive plane. When analyzed back in Hawaii, the flesh is that of a giant radioactive octopus. The navy scoffs at the idea, but reports of a freighter sunk by a 'monster' and other mysterious happenings along America's Pacific northwest, convince everyone that the monster is real. The scientists (Domergue and Curtis) theorize that the depths of the ocean might have always contained such huge beasts, but H-bomb testing in the Pacific irradiated this one in such a way that its prey (fish) always know it's coming, and flee. Hungry, the beast comes to the surface and finds people on ships a suitable substitute. The authorities use mines and submarine nets to protect the city of San Francisco, but the creature isn't stopped by explosives. They try a electrified grid under the Golden Gate bridge, but this only enrages the beast to attack and destroy the bridge. From there, the beast heads for the waterfront and does some damage there too. Soldiers with flame throwers force it back into the sea. There, a special torpedo has been loaded aboard the atomic sub. It must be lodged into a vulnerable area of the beast, then exploded remotely. With some dramatic setbacks, this ultimately works. The beast is gone. The world is safe, for now. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
Harryhousen's animation is great. It really lifts this otherwise pedestrian movie out of the dull B-movie pack. It's also amusing to see how much of a plot retread ICFBS is. It's basic entertainment, following familiar paths rather than breaking new ground.

Cold War Angle
ICFBS falls into the familiar cautionary tale sub-genre. Atomic testing turned the beast against humanity. In this, it's akin to Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Godzilla. On a slightly more symbolic level, the beast is like Godzilla, a living metaphor for nuclear energy. We unleashed it, and now it preys on mankind. True to the Cold War mindset, it is the military with atomic powered weapons that play the role of America's savior. This is the mindset that kept the Cold War alive.

Notes
Hexapus -- it is often noted that Harryhousen's "octopus" had only six arms. This was due to a budget cutback, but really isn't noticeable. There are few times you could ever tell.

Feminist Message -- one blatant "message" within ICFBS is promotion of the "new woman." Domergue plays this personification of the brilliant, strong-willed, brave new woman. The old stereotype isn't quite dead yet, though. When she sees Curtis on the bridge being attacked by the beast, she screams like a girl. Toby pushes her into the restraining arms of a policemen while HE dashes out to save Curtis. Despite this, ICFBS does try to advance the strong-woman role.

Ray Greatness -- ICFBS is a great showcase for the animation talent of Ray Harryhousen. His artistic eye made his stop-motion monsters feel more alive than most stop-animators' work. Watch for the subtle moves the creature makes. They're not strictly necessary for the shot, but they do suggest a creature who doesn't simply exist for the shot.

Plot Redux -- The plot of ICFBS will seem familiar. It's nearly the same one as in Beast from 20,000 Fathoms ('53). It's also very similar to the premise for the original Godzilla. Then there is the very-B Monster from the Ocean Floor ('54) which also featured a tentacled beast terrorizing the coast. It's interesting to note that Ihiro Honda first imagined his atomic-spawned beast as a giant octopus, but thought it too obtuse and opted for a dinosaur instead.

Tedious Triangle -- A typical Hollywood love triangle consumes much of ICFBS's runtime. Commander Mathews (Toby) falls for lady scientist Joyce (Domergue), who feels loyal to genius scientist Carter (Curtis). Triangles seem to abound in sci-fi. There was a love triangle in Godzilla and a loose one in Monster from the Ocean Floor. Or, the triangles of the three Creature from the Black Lagoon movies. Most of the time, the romance thread in ICFBS seems contrived and competes with the sci-fi monster story, rather than advancing it.

B Heritage -- Despite the big name stars and top notch animator, ICFBS is a classic B movie. There is frequent narrator voice-over to tell you the story instead of the movie telling it. There is much use of military footage.

Bottom line? ICFBS is definitely worth the watch, if only to see Harryhousen's work. It's a B movie, but it's a good B movie. It does little to advance any sci-fi notions. Instead, it's a rehash of earlier ideas.

The Quatermass Xperiment

It was a little difficult figuring just where to insert this movie in the timeline. The Quatermass Xperiment (QX) was a Hammer Films version of a 1953 BBC television series. Released in the UK in 1955, American audiences didn't see it until 1956. By then, an alternative tile of The Creeping Unknown was in use too. (see poster). The BBC produced a second television series: Quatermass II which itself would become a feature film in 1956.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A rocket crash-lands in the English countryside one night. It's the first manned rocket of the British space program, returned from being lost for two days. Only one of the three crewmen staggers out. The other two are gone. Only empty pressure suits remain. The surviving crewman, Victor Caroon, is obviously very sick. The local police inspector suspects Caroon of murder. "In my book, 3-2=1 means I investigate the 1." Caroon's fingerprints are no longer "human." Caroon's distraught wife hires a man to get him out of the security hospital. Caroon strikes the man, killing him. A mere touch drains the life out of him. Caroon's wife is horrified when she sees that his hand has become large and thorny (he touched a cactus and 'merged' with it.) Caroon runs away. The police search fruitlessly. Caroon hides but is discovered by a little girl. Eventually, he hides in a zoo and after hours, saps the life out of many of the animals. A conspicuous trail of slime is now seen. A fragment of the thing is found and taken back to Quatermass's lab. There, they see that it absorbs life (lab mice) to grow. While they're away, the blob breaks out of its glass case, but expires on the floor before reaching more mice. It was just about produce spores. The bigger blob must be too. Time is short.
A TV crew are televising a show about the restoration of Westminster Abby, when the giant tentacled blob thing that once was Caroon, wriggles onto the scaffolding. It goes into a quiet mode in order to release its spores. Quatermass orders all of London's power grid be hooked up to the metal scaffolding. It is, and the blob is roasted. The world is safe, but irascible Quatermass is only interested in launching a second rocket. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The story is classic sci-fi with classic horror overtones. The pacing is pretty good and the effects are passable for the era. The Caroon character is especially creepy and keeps the plot interesting.

Cold War Angle
QX has little trace of typical Cold War themes. The story is more of a pure sci-fi monster tale about the unknown dangers that may lurk in space.

Notes

Pre-Blob -- Quatermass theorizes that out in space there was a form of life which did not utilize tissue, as earth life did. This is a concept that will reappear many times in sci-fi. When the rocket passed through it, the stranger merged with Caroon. The merging seemed to have killed the other two. Once hybridized into corporeal form (Caroon), the creature sought out new life forms to merge with (the cactus) and found that it could feed off of living beings by absorbing them -- rather like more-famous The Blob in 1958. It continued to mutate beyond man-shape into the tentacled blob thing. It wasn't a menacing intelligence so much as a life form going about it's bio-business -- eating and trying to reproduce. Man still struggles against beast for survival. Space is the new dark jungle.

Small Space -- Quatermass bombasts about how the rocket went "1500 miles into space!" as if that was a really long ways. At this time, Sputnik had not yet flown, so people had little mental image of space. Actually, pretty ordinary GPS satellites are up around 1200 miles. Geostationary weather satellites are at 22,000 miles. 1500 miles is actually not that far up. In the mid 50s, it must have seemed very far out there. After all, the much-vaunted V2s only went up 50 miles. Ah, how much larger space turned out to be.

Nobody Listens To Me -- One amusing feature that occurs somewhat frequently in QX, is the unimposing and ineffectual image of the British police. They cordon off an area, but when Mrs. Caroon goes in anyway, the bobbie can only trot along behind her bleating, "Hey, miss, stop. Hey." She ignores him. When the crowds assemble, a police car with loudspeaker whines. "Please go home. You're only going to hamper our efforts. Please go home." No one leaves. This ineffectuality happens many times. Perhaps a subtle commentary on British policing?

You Call Yourself A Rocket Scientist? -- The Brian Donlevy portrayal of professor Quatermass seems odd today. He's brash, arrogant and rude. Yet, he's still revered and respected (in the story). This may be a glimpse into the British reverence for scientists. They can be total jerks and get away with it. "There's no room for personal feelings in science, Judith," he tells Caroon's wife. Apparently there's no room for civility either. That's her husband, for crying out loud. Perhaps Quatermass was intended to portray a sort of Churchillian determination (to make the British space program succeed), but Quatermass lacked any of the charm of Churchill. Instead, he's just a pompous jerk.

Good ol' Electricity -- Ah, how many sci-fi monster flicks rely on our old friend electricity to kill the beast. Interesting that all of London's power could be channeled through a single two inch cable. Those were the low-power consumption days, I guess.

Bottom line? QX is definitely worth the watch. Yes, it's low budget, but it's well done and a classic example of the sci-fi horror genre.

King Dinosaur

Only obscurity has kept King Dinosaur (KD) from being lampooned as one of the "worst movies ever." Other movies, which get tagged with that dubious distinction have better stories and even better acting. However, to kvetch about the imperfection of B-movies is like complaining that Little Leaguers don't play like Major Leaguers. KD did strain the intention of this study -- to find the good, even in bad movies. Writer/Director Bert I. Gordon wanted to do a (fake) dinosaur movie, so he did. Having a good storyline was optional.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A new planet drifts into the solar system and takes up an orbit around the sun close to earth's. It looks habitable. The nations of the world begin a space race to build rockets, in hopes of being the first to planet Nova. Four American scientists are the first to land. They find the atmosphere very close to earth's, so forego the space suits and explore the tall pine woods and meadows in shirt sleeves. The geologist pronounces it a very young "preshistoric" planet. They make a rustic camp for the night. The physician and his fiancee go for a walk, but he trips, rolls down a hill and is attacked by a rubber alligator. Since he's badly mauled by the rubbergator, the biologist and geologist decide to explore the island in the lake and leave the other two at camp. Once on the island, they're attacked by a "giant" iguana. The paleontologist enthuses about seeing a T. Rex, the king of the dinosaurs. It has them holed up in a cave. They manage to fire a signal flare. The other two see it and paddle to the island. While a "giant" gila monster fights the iguana, they rescue the trapped pair. They decide to detonate their atomic power pack to kill the "dinosaurs". This they do, pronounce it a good thing, then happily set back for home. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
To start with, you can't expect KD to be a regular movie. It's a lower budget than the usual low-budget fare, so it's amazing that it exists at all. There are actually some fun nuggets among the many many minutes of stock footage. A tiny plot nugget is that Gordon predicted the space race five years before it actually began.

Cold War Angle
The narrator explains that the nations of the world are racing to the first to 'claim' planet Nova for their civilization. The note of urgent necessity to this race can only find its power in Cold War thinking.

Notes
Think B.I.G. -- This was Bert I. Gorgon's first film -- both as writer and director. It's a pretty lame movie, as even B-movies go, but it was his debut. Gordon would go on to create several other (somewhat better) 50s B-grade sci-fi movies: The Amazing Colossal Man, The Beginning of the End, Attack of the Puppet People, Earth vs. The Spider and War of the Colossal Beast. In all of these there is the play of ordinary-sized things being "made" gigantic. In the Puppet People the protagonists are made small, but this still leaves the normal sized villain as the relative giant. Gordon was fascinated with BIG things. KD was his first foray into photo-giantism.

Checkers! -- Many B-films used stock footage of the test firing of the V2 rocket, painted with the big four-square checker pattern. In KD, we see more V2 and Checkers footage than usual. Since Checkers has become like one of the family, this extra footage is like seeing "lost" episode material. Gordon also gives us footage of Checkers' blast off, reversed and superimposed over a pine woods skyline to create a landing. Hard to believe, but this cobbled-up bit of recycled footage would actually get recycled itself in later B-grade scif movies. Sakes!

Mega-stock -- One thing that strikes a 50s sci-fi fan about KD, is the mass quantities of stock footage -- even for a 50s B-film. Shots of assembling V2s, guys in various labs, testing jet engines, bomb tests, radar antennae, the ubiquitous B-47 in rocket-assist take off, some mice in space (supposedly), etc. etc. It seems like nearly half the movie's run time is comprised of stock footage. There is a lot of V2 footage. It seems like Gordon wrote up his story, then found as much pre-existing footage as he could to flesh out his outline. This meant shooting very little new film -- a big budget saver.

Dino-shifting -- You have to give Gordon some credit here. There's a ready market for people-menaced-by-dinosaur movies, but how to get modern folks and dinosaurs together? The "lost" island idea was getting old. King Kong, Lost World, Unknown Island, Lost Continent, etc. etc. had been done to death. Some writers opted to bring the dinosaurs to the modern folk. Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Godzilla, Lost World Gordon's solution was to have a planet with dinosaurs drift close to the earth so we could rocket over there and get menaced. He still had an island of dinosaurs, but the device of a new planet to explain why we'd not found them before. It gives a chance for some sci-fi spin too.

Budgetosarus -- The "dinosaurs" in KD are an alligator, an iguana, a gila monster and (briefly) an armadillo. Unlike in Lost World they're not gussied up with glued on fake fins and spines. They're just plain old earth critters filmed crawling over model landscapes as if they were huge. This would be a hallmark of Bert I. Gordon's work -- the ordinary made to look BIG.

Cave Sweet Cave -- Some of KD was shot in Bronson Canyon, so rightfully looks similar to the cave home of Ro-Man from Robot Monster ('53). Another Ro-Man dejavu are the scenes of the gator and iguana doing the death roll together. One wonders if Gordon had been inspired by Robot Monster.

The Civilized Bomb -- A very curious tidbit in KD comes at the end. The team has a nuclear power pack to drive their remote gear. It can be set to overload and become an "atom bomb." To deal with the "dinosaurs" that menace them, they set it for 30 minutes, then hightail it off the island. Once a safe (?) couple of miles away, the bomb goes off (stock footage of Nevada Test Site mushroom cloud). "We've done it," proclaims Dick. "We've brought civilization to planet Nova." Perhaps Gordon (the writer) meant that killing off the "dinosaurs" made Nova civilized (or civilizable). Perhaps he saw the bomb as the ultimate expression of mankind's progress. Either way, it sounds very strange to 21st century ears.

Bottom line? If you can't handle weak acting or get upset with stock footage, or groan at critters-filmed-as-giants, then avoid King Dinosaur. It will only make you angry. If, however, you're a fan of low-budget sci-fi, it's worth a look, if only to see how much mileage you can get from stock footage. The whole civilized bomb thing is worth puzzling over too.