The Cyclops

Bert I. Gordon wrote, produced, directed and handled some of the photographic effects in this mutant monster movie. In many ways, Cyclops is just another radiation-spawned monster. Like Lost World or King Dinosaur, people travel to a remote place in search of something, only to discover a valley of giant animals. This B.I.G. production follows the very familiar path and brings nothing new to the genre of photographically-created giants. It is, however, a prototype for his more famous Amazing Colossal Man later in 1957. AND, Cyclops is like a first version of the sequel to Amazing Colossal Man, War of the Colossal Beast in 1958.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Susan has hired three men to help her look for her fiance, lost in some remote Mexican mountains three years prior. Russ, a biologist, Marty, a uranium prospector and Lee, the pilot fly into the restricted mountains. Their small plane is forced down by downdrafts. Marty is happy because his sensor says there is uranium ore all around. While searching the area, Susan and Russ encounter some giant, but otherwise ordinary, animals. There is some friction in the group, but Susan is resolute to search for her lost Bruce. She finds a piece of Bruce's crashed plane, but is abducted by "it." The men search for her, following a trail of crashed plane parts to a cave. Inside the cave are more parts, and Susan acting all hysterical. The 25 foot tall, bald-headed mutant with one eye growls at them at the entrance. They retreat beyond arm's reach. Russ theorizes that the native radiation has allowed animals there to keep growing. Their pituitary glands don't stop them. Later, Susan talks to it, soothing it. Marty angers the giant by taking a shot at it. The giant kills Marty and takes Susan out of the cave. He sets her on a rock. While regarding her, a giant snake attacks. The three take the opportunity to escape. The giant must be radiation-mutated Bruce. They run to the plane. The engine doesn't start, so Russ tries to distract the giant away from the plane. Cornered on a cliff, Russ uses a crude spear to stab the giant in his only eye. They get in the plane and start to take off, but the blind giant stands in their way. They narrowly clear his flailing arms. Susan looks back, in pity. The giant lays down, as if to die. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The usual B.I.G. photo effects, especially of an iguana fighting with a gila monster, are so typical of this sub-genre, that it is amusing to see them yet again. The acting of Gloria Talbott is good. Lon Chaney is actually fairly entertaining in this movie. Paul Frees, famous for his deep narrator voice, provides the giant's grunts and roars. In Cyclops, we get a foretaste of giant men movies yet to come, such as The Amazing Colossal Man and War of the Colossal Beast, both also B.I.G. productions.

Cold War Angle
The only connection to the Cold War is the ubiquitous use of radiation as the Deus ex machina which turns nature into monsters.

Notes
BIG Style -- Bert I. Gordon was famous for his things-shot-big movies. To some, his signature photographic technique typifies low-budget 50s monster sci-fi. Cyclops is a lesser-known example of the sub-genre, but very clearly a member of it. Others in Gordon's things-shot-large franchise include: King Dinosaur ('55) with lizards masquerading as dinosaurs and Beginning of the End ('57) with grasshoppers cast as mutant giants.

Giant Trilogy -- Cyclops could be seen as the first of a trio of Gordon's giant man films. The first story is unrelated to the Col. Manning character of the second and third films: Amazing Colossal Man and War of the Colossal Beast, but the pattern is the same. Dean Parkin plays the bald giant in all three.

Plane Crazy: Aerial Jeep -- The light plane the characters use is the relatively rare Stinsen Voyager. 3000 of them were built during the war as a military light observation and courier plane. Production ended with the war. Many were decommissioned and converted to civilian use -- just as many jeeps were. Since production ended in 1945, the Voyager was quickly eclipsed by new civil aviation designs.

Bottom line? Cyclops is very formulaic and so not particularly entertaining. It has some interest to the 50s sci-fi fan as the prototype of the "Colossal" movies of '57 and '58. The acting of Talbott and Chaney keep the film from sinking to utter schlock.

The 27th Day

This barely-known Columbia picture is a surprising gem among obscure 50s sci-fi. The cast is mostly, with a few notable exceptions, made up of actors outside of the usual B-sci-fi Hollywood stable. The story line is unmistakably driven by the Cold War ethos of the day. Yet, despite it's evident slim budget, The 27th Day strives for a much more intellectual tone. In fact, the story has parallels with that early 50s cerebral classic, The Day The Earth Stood Still ('51). This B-level effort has faded into an undeserved obscurity, perhaps for lack of following the expected (by 1957) formula for typical sci-fi.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Five specific people are taken off the earth to a flying saucer. Eve Wingate, a woman from Cornwall England: Jonathan Clark, an American journalist: Ivan Godofski, a Russian soldier: Professor Bechner, a German scientist: Su Tan, a Chinese widow. They are told by "The Alien" that the aliens' sun will nova in a month. They want the earth as a new home but cannot directly harm anyone. He gives each a clear plastic box containing three capsules. Each capsule can eliminate all humans within a 3000 mile circle, but harm nothing else. The capsules will become inert after 27 days. The aliens expect the humans to wipe themselves out, clearing the planet for them.
Su Tan commits suicide as soon as they return to earth. Her capsules turn to dust. Eve throws her capsules into the sea. Bechner is hit by a car and hospitalized. His capsules are studied by the American government. Eve joins Jon in Los Angeles and both go into hiding because the alien broadcasts the tale and their names to everyone. The Soviets torture Ivan into disclosing the secret of his box. They demand that the Americans pull all forces out of Europe and Asia or they'll use their capsules. They plan to do this anyway. The Americans test a capsule in an uninhabited Pacific region. The capsules work as described. On the 27th day, the Soviet General is about to use the first capsule on America, but Ivan attacks him, causing the capsules to drop to the street. Professor Bechner notices inscriptions on the capsules and recalls the alien's words, "a matter of life AND death." He concludes that the capsules can be used "for life" too. He puts the pin in the opposite end and calls out coordinates. The Russian General dies on the street before reaching the capsules. Used this way, only "bad" people die. Earth is saved. The people of earth invite the homeless aliens to live in earth's uninhabited regions. They accept. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Despite it's low budget and minimal effects, it's a decent thriller with some pretty weighty examinations of human nature. It's a good look at Cold War thinking.

Cold War Angle
This movie is all about the Cold War -- the threat of massive instantaneous death and human nature's predilection to use that power. It definitely paints elements within the Soviet military as the true problem -- a view eagerly accepted by 50s American audiences.

Notes
Deus ex Machina -- Many 50s sci-fi films cast aliens in the role of surrogate supernatural power who comes from "outside" to pronounce judgement, warn us or solve earth's problems. Klaatu from The Day the Earth Stood Still was a clear example. The unnamed "alien" in 27th Day serves a similar role of forcing earth's Cold War into a resolution -- either destruction or peace.

Nuclear Millennium -- There is a hopeful tone in 27th Day. By forcing mankind to deal with total elimination of the human race, the Alien brings about a "new millennium" suggestive of that when Christ returns after Armageddon and begins his thousand year reign. Only the "good" people enter into this new age, the evil and rebellious die in that last great battle.

Star Watch -- Gene Barry stars as Jonathan Clark. He starred in War of the Worlds ('53). Paul Birch plays a minor role as an Admiral. He starred as the father in Day the World Ended ('55). Arnold Moss plays the Alien. Fans of the first Star Trek TV series would recognize him as Anton Karidian / Kodos from the "Conscience of the King" episode. Paul Frees plays a TV anchor man. He's one of those distinctive narrator voices in many 50s sci-fi movies.

Wise Women -- Where women usually get short shrift in 50s movies, they are portrayed as the noble and wise ones here. Su Tan gives her life (suicide) in order to neutralize her capsules. Eve throws hers into the sea. This is exactly what Professor Bechner says. "If we were a stable, mature people, this would be nothing. We would have promptly tossed the capsules into the nearest sewer." "Or ocean," adds Jon.

Villain Vision -- Communist states are painted as the clear villain. The Soviet General becomes the American personification of Cold War Russia. "I am prepared to destroy all human life on the north american continent..." Later, he declares, "Democracies are appeasers. If the Americans cannot be provoked into a war, they must be bombed into it." Note that the glimpse we're given of Communist China is a brutal one. Soldiers are burning a village and shoot Su-Tan's husband.

Ivan the Good -- As a counterpoint to the belligerent Soviet General, Private Godofski is regular person, son of a loving mother. At first, Ivan withholds the secret of the capsules, knowing how his commanders would use them. He endures torture to keep the secret, but succumbs to appeals of safety for his mother, etc. Ivan also rushes the General, interrupting the annihilation. Ivan is the writer giving us the other side of the coin. Not all Russians are bad -- they just have some evil leaders.

Bottom line? 27th Day is hard to find, but worth the search. It is entertaining as a study in human nature and Cold War thinking.

Night The World Exploded

This little Columbia film double billed with The Giant Claw in June 1957. Both were produced by Sam Katzman and directed by Fred Sears. Night The World Exploded (NTWE) is actually the better of the two, but far less remembered. NTWE is one of the relatively rare sci-fi plots based on chemistry or geology, and in which the "monster" is not alive. This poses many challenges. Sears does a good job keeping the pace moving. Many of the usual B-movie features are present -- the droning narrator, ample stock footage, and a rocky love interest between the lead actors. Yet, amid all that conventionality, NTWE plays reasonably well.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Conway has developed a machine, the Pressure-Photometer, which he feels predict a big earthquake for California. The governor is reluctant to order evacuation. The big quake hits. Conway's machine predicts even more coming. Now Conway has funding. His lovely assistant, "Hutch" was about to quit the team and get married, but is persuaded to stay and help. (She and Conway have a star-crossed attraction to each other.) They descend into the depths of Carlsbad Caverns in an effort to be nearer the internal pressures. While down there, they find a strange black rock in the cave pools. Ranger Kirk, a rock hound, takes it back up to his office to study. Once in the air, it grows in size, gets flaming hot, then explodes. Only a smoking crater remains. Down in the caverns, Conway unwittingly does the same as Kirk. This time, the hot rock falls into a pool and is neutralized. Conway studies the rocks and declares that they're made of a previously unknown element, E-112. He demonstrates the mineral to a group of world scientists. The mineral absorbs nitrogen from the air, increasing it's mass and heat until it explodes. This is what's happening under the earth, because mankind has done too much mining. The loss of over-cover has allowed E-112 to migrate to the surface where it's getting contact with air, expanding, then exploding. The big computer named Datatron calculates that the earth has only 28 days, 4 hours left until the earth explodes. The only solution is to flood the world's mines with water, to neutralize the E-112 and provide pressure to force the rest back deeper. This is done around the world except for one area in southern Nevada. It's the driest place on earth and a volcano has erupted there. The only hope is to blow up Horseshoe Dam and flood the area. The military don't have bombs up to the task, so Conway decides to let E-112 do the job. Running against the clock, they haul a box of E-112 rocks into the base of the dam. They just barely get out in time before it all blows up. The water rushes down, apparently doing the job. The world is safe, for now, and does not explode. Hero and heroine embrace on a rocky hilltop. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
You don't often got to see a mineral cast as the villain. Writers and the director manage to keep it interesting. Even though most of NTWE follows routine B-movie practices, it's still fairly entertaining.

Cold War Angle
This is a subtle undercurrent, but present. Audiences in the 50s would have been more sensitive to it than 21st century audiences. A new and unstable element threatens to blow up the earth. No one is safe. The sense of inevitable doom in the chart room (family being together in case it's the end), is very much a Cold War mood.

Element 112 -- The lead character declares that there are only 111 known elements, even though some of the higher ones were only theoretical in the late 50s. For instance, only three atoms of E111, Roentgenium, were officially observed in 1994. E112 (unofficially called Ununbium (Uub)) wasn't synthesized until 1996 and even then just two decaying atoms. In 1957, the idea of a rare and dangerous E112 was clearly beyond known science.

Enviro-Moral -- Laura "Hutch" Hutchinson actually states the eco-moral of the movie. "It's almost as if the earth was striking back at us for the way we robbed her of financial resources." By this, she means extensive mining. It is the flooding of the world's mines which saves the planet. Nothing conjectured on how the loss of all these mines affects the global economy.

Gender Roles -- NTWE sells the frequent gender roles messages. Hutch is the pretty, but frightened girl. When she's frozen with fear on the rope ladder, Conway yells up at her: "Wouldn't you know a woman would pull a stunt like this? You're all scientists until there's the slightest bit of danger. Then you fold up. You want your mommy and daddy?" Oh sure, he says he was just saying that to get her mad enough to move, but she doesn't refute his insult. Ultimately, he's the heroic man and she's the damsel in distress.

Regular Obscurity -- Being a "star" in 50s sci-fi is pretty obscure in itself, nowadays. A minor actor playing bit parts is yet another step into obscurity. Just for fun, here's a look at one of them.
John Close started his acting career in 1950 as a 29 year old. He often got roles as a minor military character or policeman. He played an army captain in The Day the Earth Stood Still ('51), Johnny, the police pilot in Them! ('54), and a reporter in World Without End ('56). 1957 was a busy year for Close. He was Major Everett in Beginning of the End, Deputy Larry in Monster That Challenged the World and here in NTWE, he played a soldier. His last film in 1963, The Slime People was also a B-sci-fi.

Any Dam'll Do -- The climax comes as a volcano is erupting near the fictional town of "Los Arenos" Nevada. They decide to blow up "Horseshoe Dam" to flood the area. The real Horseshoe Dam is north of Phoenix Arizona, hundreds of miles from Nevada, on a river flowing away from Nevada. The model dam does not resemble Horseshoe Dam, nor any other in Nevada. It is an interesting bit of fiction, but doesn't hinder the story.

Bottom line? NTWE is a fairly typical 50s sci-fi B-movie. It won't impress anyone not already a fan of the genre, but it's interesting (to those who are in making a mineral be the monster/threat. If you are a fan of 50s B sci-fi, you can recreate a Saturday night at the Drive In, in the summer of 1957. Watch both The Giant Claw and Night the World Exploded back to back -- with lots of buttery popcorn and Coke. This is an experience to be savored.

The Giant Claw

Sometimes cited as "the worst film ever," The Giant Claw does typify the "bad" films that 50s sci-fi is famous for. Producer Sam Katzman was trying to produce a serious monster-from-space B movie, but it went wrong. Samuel Newmann's script was safely formulaic. Katzman had veteran actors like Jeff Morrow (This Island Earth ('54) and Morris Ankrum. He had a beautiful leading lady (Mara Corday). The movie wouldn't be ground-breaking art, but it stood to make a few bucks. If it weren't for the incredibly bad monster, The Claw would simply have faded into obscurity among the dozens of other mediocre B films. Instead, The Claw is remembered for its laughably silly looking -- though memorable -- monster. Despite this infamy, the overall movie is clearly a sibling in the 50s sci-fi monster family.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Up north, the military are testing the radar net for gaps. One pilot, Mitch MacAfee (Jeff Morrow) sees a big blurry shape whoosh past him. He calls in a UFO and gets heat for it, until a downed airliner also called in a UFO before it was lost. While flying back to Washington, Mitch's plane is attacked by the thing and downed. Pierre, a French Canadian farmer, takes care of them, but sees something one night that frightens him. (the beast) In Washington, they learn of another plane lost after reporting a UFO. The brass are upset at a lack of radar confirmation. Sally (Mitch's love interest) suggests reviewing research balloon cameras. The film reveals the big ugly bird. The Air Force tries to shoot it down, but it's invulnerable to weapons. Martial law is declared. Everyone is ordered to say indoors. Lacking easy prey, the bird attacks ground targets. World wide panic ensues. People run, buildings fall, trains are snatched up. Even nukes have no effect. It has an anti-matter shield. Analysis of a feather fragment tells them that the bird must have come through space from an anti-matter galaxy. (?!) They worry about why the bird is on earth. Sally thinks it came to lay eggs. Sure enough, they find a nest near Pierre's farm. They shoot and break the egg. The bird is enraged and goes on a destructive rampage. Mitch figures out that a "meson gun" that will shoot subatomic particles at the bird's shield, thereby neutralizing it. Through several failed attempts, Mitch succeeds in building his meson gun. They mount it in the tail of a B-25.
The bird is wrecking New York City skyscrapers. It chases the B-25. They fire the meson gun after suitable dramatic delay. After the white smoke clears, the plane has turned and fires rockets at the bird. It is mortally wounded and goes down into the sea. One claw curls in final agony as it sinks into the water. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
The bird monster is so bad, so obviously a puppet, she's fun to watch. (She, because she lays an egg) Also fun is seeing how seriously the actors play their parts, not knowing during filming how ridiculous the monster would be.

Cold War Angle
In as much as some prior monsters were personifications of atomic power (Godzilla) or metaphors for enemy attack (Deadly Mantis), the Claw could be seen in this light too. The radar, jets and generals are all of that era. Those things aside, however, the tale falters as a metaphor because of the absurdity.

Notes
What Were They Thinking? -- How could anyone release such an obvious loser? It's an interesting little study into the tough world of B films. Sam Katzman had produced over 200 movies before The Claw including the passable It Came From Beneath The Sea ('55) and the classic Earth vs. The Flying Saucers ('56). Both of those had Ray Harryhausen to create the special effects. How could an experienced and successful (in the B market) producer come out with such a turkey? (literally). He didn't plan to.
Katzman had been cranking out low budget movies for many years. Newmann's script was formulaic enough for B-market success: Brave hero, beautiful lady love interest, monster attacking people, gizmo weapon. All pretty standard (safe) stuff. Flying monsters were tough to do in the pre-CGI era. (Recall how equally bad Rodan and Mothra look in flight.) Katzman's budget could not afford the only man who could have pulled it off (Harryhausen). So he farmed it out to a studio in Mexico. In the meantime, he had director Fred Sears begin shooting. All the stars played out their roles, as good professionals, having to imagine what the monster would finally look like. Morrow said he imagined a huge streamlined hawk that was incredibly fast. Katzman, a bit worried that he didn't have a monster yet, was assured by the Mexicans that their monster was coming along well, and was really frightening. Reassured, Katzman pressed on. All the live-actor shots were done. When the mexican monster arrived, Katzman was aghast. It was a clumsy looking, googly eyed, snaggle toothed vulture thing. The mexican artists apparently had great fear of vultures. If Katzman was not already financially over-committed to The Claw, he might have just canned the whole thing. But, he was committed. He had to accept the vulture-thing and finish the movie. They did the best they could. The Giant Claw is a stunning example of how little room there was for things to go wrong in a low-budget movie production. There simply wasn't the budget for a do-over.

Plane Crazy -- Amid the usual P-80s stock footage is a less common sighting. We get a takeoff shot of two Avro Canada CF-100 all-weather interceptors. Part of Canada's strategic defense.

Stock Footage & Switcharoo -- Note in the Bird vs. Squadron scene, how P-80s fly up, but F-86s fire, and then become F-106 models when the bird chomps them. Also note when Mitch is flying back to New York, he's in a DC-6, but after the bird hits them, it's a model of a B-29 that's smoking and spinning down. No points awarded for continuity. Sharp eyed film buffs will also note that the panic-in-the-streets scenes were lifted from prior films too. Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, which lifted it from The Day the Earth Stood Still and many others.

Bottom line? Watch The Claw, not because it's so good, but because it is a benchmark in how absurdly bad a B-grade sci-fi could get in the 50s. This is one of those movies which became iconic -- referenced, spoofed and alluded to in later movies. For cultural reasons alone, it's worth seeing at least once.

1956

Several classics were released this year. Many, more easily forgotten, B-grade fodder were released too. More sci-fi movies were released in '56 than had been in each of the previous years, but the sci-fi rocket was just warming up. Here are 1956's films in roughly chronological order:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers -- THE seminal classic about alien take-over and personal loss of individuality and humanity.

Indestructible Man -- A pulp crime story with Lon Chaney Jr. as a man man invulnerable to weapons.

The Atomic Man -- A British crime drama with a sci-fi twist. Industrial spies are after a scientist who lives 7.5 seconds in the future.

Forbidden Planet -- To many, this is the apex of 50s sci-fi. A United Planets cruiser finds a dark and deadly secret of a lost civilization.

World Without End -- Astronauts returning from Mars go through a time warp and arrive on earth centuries after a global nuclear war, to find mutants and underworlders.

The Creature Walks Among Us -- The third in the Creature series, and the most thoughtful. Gill man develops lungs and lives among men.

Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers -- A Ray Harryhausen classic of saucers and aliens intent on conquering the earth.

It Conquered The World -- A Roger Corman flick about a Venusian who smooth talks his way to earth so he can conquer it. Very low budget.

Satellite In The Sky -- British space drama about a weapons test intended to shock the world into peace, but things go wrong.

Beast of Hollow Mountain -- Not really a sci-fi story, but sometimes classified as one. A dormant T-Rex emerges to terrorize Mexican cattle ranchers.

Godzilla, King of Monsters -- The Americanized re-issue of the 1954 classic Gojira. Raymond Burr footage inserted, but essentially the same story.

Manhunt In Space -- Essentially three episodes of the Rocky Jones: Space Ranger TV show, edited into a "feature" film.

Fire Maidens of Outer Space -- A British variation on Catwomen of the Moon that panders with beauties, yet falteringly tries to be "art."

1984 -- The first film adaptation of Orwell's famous novel. Imperfect but moody and evocative.

Quatermass 2: Enemy From Space -- Professor Quatermass discovers a secret government plot and a processing plant which is incubating ammonia-breathing aliens.

The Mole People -- Archeologists find a "lost" civilization of (now) albino humans deep in the earth, who enslaved a race of mole-man creatures.

The Gamma People -- Obscure British sci-fi about an evil scientist trying to create a super-race in a tiny European nation.

Warning From Space -- English dubbed version of a Japanese film, which was itself a mash-up of The Day the Earth Stood Still and When Worlds Collide.

Monster That Challenged The World

This movie isn't particularly well known (or at least well remembered) but is actually a reasonably good example of 50s monster sci-fi. The Monster That Challenged The World (MCW) fits somewhat into the classic "big bug" sub-genre by its situation and plot. The monsters are called giant mollusks, though amount to 20' monster aquatic caterpillar things. Just what they are doesn't matter too much, though. Like any good big-bug movie, they arise, terrorize and must be stopped. The monster is actually pretty well done for its day. The acting is reasonable too. Overall, this makes MCW a good watch for a 50s sci-fi fan.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Some mild earthquakes rumble through southern California. A naval lab tests parachutes with jumps over the inland salt lake, Salton Sea. A jumper disappears, as do the two sailors sent to pick him up. Their bodies are found, shriveled, drained of all fluids. A gooey slime on the boat is the only clue. The slime turns out to be mildly radioactive. Next, a young woman and her boyfriend are lost, swimming at night. The same slime is found. Divers look for the bodies and find a strange sack-like "egg" but also a giant creature in an underwater cave. One diver dies, the other escapes. The egg is taken back to the lab. Dr. Rogers (Hans Conried) theorizes that eggs from ancient sea mollusk (he calls the Kraken?), but the mildly radioactive waters of Salton Sea have mutated them into giants. They are voracious eaters and lay thousands of eggs. If they escape the lake into the canals, and thence to the ocean, they could threaten the whole world. Sure enough, they do get into the canals. The navy finds their 'nest' and blows them up. All would be well, except for the egg back in the lab. The secretary's daughter innocently turned up the holding tank's heat, so that egg hatches. It quickly grows and chases the secretary and girl into a back room. Just as it appears the beast will get them, the hero arrives and distracts it. Just as it appears the hero is about to be eaten, sailors arrive with guns and kill it. Hero and love interest are saved. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
For a low budget movie, MCW is pretty well done. The early movie attacks are kept suspenseful. The monster itself is well done for the pre-CGI era. MCW is a worthy addition to the big-bug family.

Cold War Angle
Other than the common source thread (radiation caused the monsters), the story is much more a monster tale than a metaphor for the Cold War. The prominent and heroic role of the American military was completely acceptable to 50s audiences.

Notes
Better Monster -- The animatronic giant "sea mollusk" is fairly convincing and reasonably well done. This monster stands in stark contrast to the bizarrely bad space bird in The Giant Claw, released around the same time. Having a huge real beast model helps the actors relate, much as having the giant ant models helped in Them! ('54). The giant mollusks are reasonably scary looking.

Special Locale -- The movie is set on southern California's Salton Sea. Part of the explanation of the monsters' origin is that they were ancient life mutated by mild radiation (bad ol' nuclear testing) and water seeping underground via new earthquake fissures. Salton Sea was a dry salt flat until 1905 when the Colorado River jumped its banks and flowed via an irrigation canal to flood the flats. Tiny dormant shrimp were revived from the last time the flats were flooded. This happened periodically over the centuries. This becomes the premise to explain the 'new' monsters.

Nuke Legacy -- Even though nuclear test explosions weren't done at the lake (the area is far too populated), the crew of the Enola Gay did do practice bomb runs over the lake. No "live" bombs, of course, but it's still a connection to the nuclear age.

Pre-Jaws -- One scene features two young lovers going for a night swim. First the man disappears. While the woman is treading water, frantically calling for him, she feels a tug at her leg. She screams and is pulled into the inky water. It's a very Jaws-like scene, but almost 15 years earlier.

Star Watch -- Tim Holt, as the cranky Commander, was a staple of B-westerns since the late 1930s. This was the last of his regular work movies. He did only a few bit roles afterward. Hans Conried, who normally plays comic roles, such as in The Twonky ('53), gets a serious role as the all-knowing, if a bit testy, scientist.

Bottom line? MCW is a pretty well done B monster movie from the later 50s. It follows the formula plot of Them! in several ways, but in a fresh enough form to not seem like a rehash. It's worth watching for monster movie fans, provided one isn't too jaded by modern CGI and expectations of salacious gore.

The Unearthly

This little B-film is more in the horror genre than sci-fi. Yet, like Frankenstein, is typically categorized as sci-fi. Like most B-movies, they cost so little to produce that they only had to achieve modest ticket sales to be profitable. What Unearthly does do, is follow the tried-and-true formula for B-movie success. Have monsters. Have beautiful young women whom the monsters can menace. This was sure to tug at enough young male instincts -- "Protect the women" (at least the desirable ones.) The producers (who will also bring you Beginning of the End later in 1957, made sure they had the beauties. Misguided Dr. Sharon is Marilyn Buford, former Miss California and Miss America of 1946. Sally Todd, who plays Natalie was Playmate of the Month for February 1957. The female lead, Allison Hayes, was the female lead in many B-movies and would reappear in 50s sci-fi as the "50 foot Woman," in 1958. There were simply too many beauties to not sell some tickets.

Quick Plot Synopsis
The opening shot is of big Tor Johnson looming over a screaming blonde woman on a bed. She's "clawing" his face. A non-sequetor hook to start the movie. Starting in earnest, an old doctor brings his young brunette patient named Grace to a remote house, the private 'hospital' of Dr. Charles Conway. She's there for rest and treatment for a nervous breakdown. Right away, viewers know it's a set up. The old doc brings victims to Conway for experimenting upon. A man who calls himself Mark Houston, comes to the house pretending to be lost, but Conway recognizes him as an escaped killer: Frank Scott. Conway offers sanctuary in exchange for cooperation. Conway is trying to implant in people a 17th gland which will produce hormones that yield immortality. Houston wants no part of it, but cannot speak out. The expected love interest develops between Mark and Grace. Things come to a head when another resident, Natalie, disappears. Conway operated on her, but the experiment failed. She prematurely ages. Conway has Lobo (Tor) try to bury (alive) another failed experiment, but Mark rescues him, unknown to all. Mark, Grace and Danny make an attempt to escape but are caught. Things unravel quickly. Mark escapes, but Danny is shot by Lobo. Mark calls in the police. He's actually an undercover cop investigating mysterious disappearances. Amid the chase and struggles, the zombie-like man Mark saved from being buried confronts Conway with a knife and stabs him dead before Lobo clubs the zombie dead. The police find a cell below the house with many deformed wolf-man-like failed experiments living in it. The horror is over. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
Amid the otherwise mediocre acting are little nuggets like John Carradine (Conway) who just has a great screen presence. Tor Johnson in his typecast role as "Lobo" is fun to see reprised. While almost predictable, Unearthly is still fairly watchable.

Cold War Angle
There is no Cold War here. The plot is Frankenstein rehashed.

Notes
Tor Returns -- Tor Johnson played "Lobo" to Bela Lugosi's "Dr. Vornoff" in Bride of the Monster ('55). He plays the same hulking simpleton with a soft spot for "purdy gurl". Here, he's more sympathetic than frightening -- despite the opening minutes which suggest a rape scene. He's just a big dumb minion with a soft spot.

Medical Work -- Later sci-fi would become more limited to space travel and gizmos, but in the 50s, medical science was still a valid topic. Conway gives Mark a fair bit of mumbo-jumbo talk about the sixteen glands of the human body controlling everything and his plan to insert a 17th gland to stop aging. No mention is made of just how Conway acquires these glands. Not one to let a little failure get him down, however, Conway had apparently been trying dozens of times, never getting it right.

Good Love / Bad Love -- in Unearthly there are two love relationships on display. The "good" love is between Mark (the undercover cop) and Grace, the naive beautiful woman -- the very picture of innocence. In contrast is the "bad" love which Dr. Sharon has for the demented Dr. Conway. Her devotion to him compels her into being an accomplice for his ruin of many lives. Mark is the image of selfless love. He'll risk his life to save Grace. Conway is blind to Sharon's love and can think of only his potential fame.

They're After Our Women -- At one point, Tor does carry off the nightgown-clad Natalie, ample chest thrust high, in the stereotypic abduction image. It's worth noting that we see Conway actually experiment on the pretty young Natalie, and fail, and attempt to experiment on pretty young Grace. Even though we see men as failed prior experiments, Conway is on screen going after "our women." The bad guys scheming to get our desirable women is a frequently recurring trope in B-movies. As a note: all the brutish monster men on the poster do not menace the women. They stayed locked up and only get 30 seconds of screen time at the very end.

Bottom line? If you're a B-movie horror fan, you'll get a kick out of Unearthly. If you're a sci-fi fan of rockets and aliens or robots, you may not be as keen. Nonetheless, despite its many B qualities, it's worth watching for the experience of 50s sci-fi. They can't all be epics.

The Beginning of the End

This is the sort of film that producer/director Bert I. Gordon would become famous (or infamous) for. B.I.G. liked playing with relative size, making his antagonist(s) larger than life. The Beginning of the End (BotE) is an obvious rehash of Them! ('54) with radiation-induced giant bugs, but substituting grasshoppers for ants. Instead of menacing Los Angeles, these giant bugs go for Chicago. BotE is a cheaper copy in many ways, but still found a ready audience in the mid 50s. Some better-than-B actors helped keep BotE from foundering completely. Peter Graves is the male lead. He saved Killers from Space ('53) and It Conquered The World ('56) from total loser-dom. Peggie Castle was the female lead in Invasion USA. Morris Ankrum, veteran B-sci-fi actor, once again plays the stern military man as he had in Rocketship XM ('50), Invaders From Mars ('53) and others yet to come.

Quick Plot Synopsis
People in rural Illinois are starting to disappear. Then a whole town of 150 is wiped out. Audrey (Castle) is a reporter who pushes for the story. Radiation might be the culprit, but no one has any nuclear material. She interviews Ed, an agricultural scientist (Graves), who has been growing giant tomatoes with the help of radiation. The isotopes are safely locked up, however. They travel to the site of a wiped out warehouse which stored tons of wheat. There, a giant grasshopper eats one of the scientists. Ordinary grasshoppers had munched on the giant tomatoes and so grew giant too. Hundreds of them mass in the woods. A National Guard unit's small arms can't stop them. They march towards Chicago, destroying Peoria and a couple others en route. The army's best tanks can't stop them. Panic ensues. Chicago is evacuated. The giant grasshoppers infest the Chicago area, but go semi-dormant during a cool night. Top brass in Washington plan bomb Chicago with an a-bomb to kill them while they're in one place. Ed and Audrey think they can find a sound that will attract the giants. If they could lure them into Lake Michigan, they'd all drown. They capture a live giant and bring it to the lab for tests. None of the sounds affect it. Time is almost out when they do find a frequency that works. Speakers are set up on one of Chicago's towers, to attract all the outlying bugs to downtown. Then a boat in the lake with a speaker will attract them to their doom. The plan works, though with a protracted fighting scene. In the end, they all drown. Chicago is saved. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The giant bug (or other critter) sub-genre was only just getting started. We had ants in Them! and a spider in Tarantula. There will be many more to come, but this was an early one yet. The first half of the film, with it's mystery, is much better than the latter half. The relentless threat to a major city harkens to HG Wells' War of the Worlds. After that, it gets lame, but Graves and Ankrum don't disappoint.

Cold War Angle
While mostly an atomic radiation cautionary tale, there is the basic story line of a relentless force moving upon an American city. Panic, evacuation, a-bombs. It's all familiar Cold War material.

Notes
Don't Fool With Mother Nature -- Popular Science magazines were bright with the prospect of what radiation-mutated crops might do for mankind. This is exactly what Ed was trying to do. As with all good naive scientists, he failed to see the bigger picture. Pests eat crops. Giant crops can create giant pests. The moral behind the film is that messing around with radiation can go horribly wrong.

Strong Woman -- Peggie Castle plays an obviously tough and independent reporter. She'd covered the destruction in WWII and Korea, written respected books and never once screamed like a girl. (she did scream when Frank was eaten, but it was more shock and a call for help than silly panic). Towards the end of the movie, she has less to do, and does lean in the chest of hero Ed (Graves), but she's on screen as more of an equal than a date.

Unsafe Sex? -- A teen couple are necking on Lover's Lane. They get eaten. A pretty woman in only a towel is primping in her hotel room (back to the window). She gets eaten. Such scenes suggest to some viewers that Bert was giving subtle messages that being sexual is dangerous -- avoid it! This seems too flat. Instead, you could see the necking couple and the sexy woman as representing a very personal and vulnerable aspect of mankind. Intimate moments feel very vulnerable. Our outward mask of civilization is off. Like the lady in the hotel room, we're dressed in only a towel (not full battle gear). Attacks at those moments enhance the mood of vulnerability. It's not a subtle "don't neck" message (like anyone would ever listen to such a message anyhow).

Picture of Doom -- One of the most memorable "special effects" of BotE is how regular grasshoppers (albeit big ones) are set loose to walk among or climb on photos of Chicago. As cheap as it is, this works pretty well. Note how they had cutouts of a line of busses from the same photo, set in front of the building plane, so grasshoppers could walk between them. Also note one scene where the set-back of the building is cut separately, so the grasshoppers can hang their legs over the parapet. Cheap as they are, these effects work better than the poorly done superimposition (green screen), which gets overused.

Stock Footage Galore -- If you're a stock footage fan, you'll find a lot to love in BotE. Tanks on the road, Troops, crowds panicking. In fact, if you watch closely, you'll see one scene lifted from The Day The Earth Stood Still ('51).

Give Me a B...Any B -- The General Hanson character says the Air Force is sending a B-52 (then America's new super plane) with an A-bomb. When they show a clip of footage, it's actually a propeller-powered B-36, the old-tech behemoth the B-52 were designed to replace. Perhaps stock footage of the B-52, America's high-tech nuclear bomber, then operational for only a couple years, was not yet available, or deemed too sensitive to inclusion in B-movies.

Object of Fear -- One of the things that help a big bug movie work, is that the critter is somewhat fearful even when small. Ants are relentless (fire ants, army ants), many people are afraid of spiders, and later movies' scorpions and a mantis -- which are creepy looking, will have their traits magnified. But grasshoppers? They just don't inspire fear. BotE fights an uphill battle in trying to make them fearsome.

Off Screen Action -- BotE makes good use of off-screen events. We are told the town of Ludlow was wiped out. All we see are stock clips of tornado damage. We only read of Peoria's destruction in a telegram. When anyone is 'eaten' by a giant grasshopper, we only see the giant lunge, the victim cower, then cut away. Good for budgets, but also kinder to audiences.

They're NOT After Our Women -- Despite the poster (in which the grasshoppers have curious teeth and fangs), they do not pick up anyone. In fact, they eat everyone quite fairly. One is implied to have eaten the lady in the towel, however, so there is at least a tiny delivery on what the poster promises.

Bottom line? BotE is another in the big bug sub-genre. If you like that sort, you'll likely gloss over the low budget short cuts. As a story, it's pretty conventional and doesn't break any new ground.