Have Rocket, Will Travel

The next offering of this Digression Week, is not serious. The Three Stooges act, at 30 years old, was a comedy franchise that had almost run its course, as Laurel & Hardy, and Abbott & Costello had earlier. They were revived by Columbia releasing many of their previous short films to television. This brought the Stooges to a new young audience. Have Rocket, Will Travel (HRWT) was the Stooges first full-length film. They appeared in many films, but in HRWT, they were the stars. HRWT is light farcical sci-fi, and almost a lesser remake of Abbott & Costello's trip to "Mars" ('53). Nevertheless, it has some points of interest.

Quick Plot Synopsis
The boys are maintenance men at a rocket lab. Rocket #4 fails shortly after launch and lands not far away. The project director is upset at the failures. He tells Ingrid, the pretty rocket scientist, that the next launch must succeed or funding is cut off. The boys decide to help pretty Ingrid by concocting a super rocket fuel out of just about everything in the lab. They pump the potent brew into the rocket. The director, hearing all the late night commotion, comes to fire them all. The boys hide in the rocket. The director inadvertently ignites the engines. The boys are in space. After some weightless gags, the rocket lands (autopilot) on Venus, which looks much like California. There, they encounter a giant fire-breathing tarantula and a talking unicorn. The unicorn leads them to "the higher form," which turns out to be a robot which took control of Venus long ago and converted all the illogical Venusians to "energy". Since then, however, it had become lonely, so uses the boys as models to create three companion robots. Silliness ensues with two sets of Stooges. The boys escape and get back to their ship. The giant tarantula flames at them, igniting the engines, handily enough. The boys return to a hero's welcome. A ball thrown in their honor goes predictably awry. The three RobotStooges beam in and the three real ones exit the melee. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
One need not be a Stooges fan to find some bits to like in HRWT. As a spoof on 50s sci-fi, it is fun to identify which sci-fi classics are being spoofed.

Cold War Angle
As a comedy farce, there is little attempt to make socio-political commentary.

Notes
Prop Watch -- The venerable old space suits from Destination Moon get yet another mission. For being ten years old, by this point, the old suits are still a sci-fi staple. Note the logo on the helmets. It is the double-lightning bolt logo used by Merex, the diabolical Martian from Zombies of the Stratosphere ('52).

The Other Curly -- Stooge fans already know, but the third stooge in HRWT is "Curly-Joe" played by Joe DeRita. Shemp Howard, Moe's brother, started in the act along with friend Larry Fine. When Shemp left the act in 1932, the youngest Howard brother "Curly" became the new 3rd Stooge. With his signature "n'yuk n'yuk, n'yuk" and "woo woo woo", he was an immediate hit. He remained the star until declining health and finally a stroke in 1946 took Curly out of the act. Brother Shemp rejoined the act until he died of a heart attack in 1955. The search for the new 3rd Stooge settled on Joe DeRita, who was a facsimile of Curly Howard. He stayed with the act throughout the 60s and early 70s. HRWT was Curly-Joe's film debut as the 3rd Stooge.

Ominous Undertones -- Amid the usual stooge set pieces and traditional gags, was a small note of more serious sci-fi. The robot master on Venus was created by the Venusians as their last and greatest wonder. "They let ME, a machine, become the master of their world. Fools deserve to be destroyed, so I destroyed them all and turned them into electrical energy." It makes for a sort of Colossus/Forbin and Krell hybrid. Just a hint of technophobia amid the gags.

Bottom line? Sci-fi comedy is not for everyone. Stooge comedy is not for everyone. As such, stooge sci-fi comedy probably appeals to a pretty small subset. HRWT does show how much sci-fi had become established as a genre.

The Monster of Piedras Blancas

Before moving on to 1960... This first offering in Digression Week, was not an easy film to find. I had passed over it much earlier (when I had a chance for a viewing) on the understanding that it was pure monster, not sci-fi. Well, I was pretty-much right, but a friend suggested it had some shred of sci-fi to it. He was right too. In the gray zone of sci-fi/horror, The Monster of Piedras Blancas (MPB) is much more monster movie than sci-fi. By a slender thread, does MPB cling to the outer edges of sci-fi. Fred is a biologist and hero of the tale. He looks in a microscope and talks of the monster being a missing link for evolution. Remove those bits, and the film would still stand as pure monster movie. MPB is a low-budget echo of Creature from the Black Lagoon. Don Sullivan, who starred in The Giant Gila Monster ('59) is the hero of this story too.

Quick Plot Synopsis
At a remote coastal town, mysterious murders have people in a worried buzz. There is an old legend of a monster, but not taken seriously until grocery store owner Kochek is found decapitated in his store. Fred, a local biochemist and the local doctor examine a scale found at the scene. They decide that the monster is a deep sea amphibian (?). Lucy rushes in. Her father is hurt. They find him at the base of a sea cliff, badly bruised. They take him to the lighthouse to recover. Meanwhile, another local named Eddie is missing. Several searchers are injured when a 7' tall man-monster rushes out of the meat cooler at Kochek's store, carrying Eddie's head. Another scale at that scene proves who killed the others too. Lucy's father recovers enough to tell how, years ago, he sensed something living on one of the sea caves and left fish for it to eat. Over the lonely years, he kept leaving fish, but switched to meat. He stopped feeding it. Accustomed now to red meat, the monster took to hunting people. Armed men search the caves but don't find the monster. That night, the monster comes to the lighthouse. Lucy swoons in her nightgown and the monster carries her out. Her father throws a lantern at the monster. He puts Lucy down and goes after her father. He shoots the monster several times and barricades himself at the top. Lucy summons help. The monster breaks out and throws the father off. Fred faces the monster alone. He notices that the monster doesn't like a flashlight in his eyes. He tells Lucy to turn on the lighthouse light. The monster is blinded, so Fred rifle butts it over the railing, into the raging rocky surf below. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Beyond the obvious shock techniques and gore, is an intriguing, almost Freudian/Faustian tale. A lonely man feeds a hidden beast. When that beast is not appeased as it had become accustomed to, it rampages, eventually killing the man too. It might be a stretch to say that the monster was (metaphorically) Sturges's own Id in rebellion, but MPB has some entertaining thought potential.

Cold War Angle
As primarily a monster-horror film, MPB draws more from the fears in human nature than fears of communist invasion.

Notes
Son of a Creature -- It is no coincidence that the aquatic man-monster bears a resemblance to the creature from the black lagoon. Jack Kevan, who wrote the story and produced the film, was one of the make-up artists who worked on Black Lagoon. To save money, the big claw hands from The Mole People ('56) were used. Also re-used, were the feet of the Metaluna insectoid mutant from This Island Earth ('55). A bipedal burrowing, reptilian insectoid made him a bit of a platypus of a monster.

Location Location -- There is a lighthouse on the central California coast called Piedras Blancas. It was not the site of filming, however. The lighthouse in the film is the Point Conception lighthouse, on the Santa Barbara channel. It is still there. The double doors which the monster bursts through, are still there, even though the lower platform has since been removed. The town used for filming, Cayucos, is 30 miles south of the real Piedras Blancas, not Lompoc, which is the small town near Point Conception.

Evolution Monkey Wrench -- Fred, the biochemist, insists that they try to capture the monster, not kill it. He calls it an important "missing link" for evolutionists to study. A sentient bipedal amphibian! What havoc it would have wreaked on popular post-Dawinian monkeys-to-man theory. Perhaps this why Fred decides not to try to capture it in the end and just kill it. The monster was a most inconvenient truth.

They ARE After Our Women -- MPB has the iconic abduction scene of the monster carrying off the beautiful young woman. As per custom, she is vulnerably clad and swooned. Since the monster has heretofore decapitated everyone he came across, this abduction is highly noteworthy. A lonely monster looking for love only bolsters a semi-Freudian interpretation.

Bottom line? MPB is classic late-50s monster fare. It's light on the science. Yet, it can be entertaining enough. It may not, however, be too easy to find.

End of an Era?

With Atomic Submarine, the decade of 1950s sci-fi came to an end. With it, comes the close of this first phase of my "research," begun almost two years ago. 50s sci-fi was clearly not all the same. It has been interesting to see how sci-fi movies had changed (for better or worse) over the decade. The early almost-innocent space opera genre, such as Captain Video and Radar Men from the Moon, faded away. A later fascination with ugly monsters, death and destruction increased.

Every era has its worries. The 1930s had The Depression. The 40s had Hitler. The 50s had several new cultural fixations. They found expression in film. The first fixation was anxiety over atomic Armageddon. A second was fear of Communist invasion. A third was fascination with the dawn of the space age. These three themes drove the majority (though not all) of 50s sci-fi movie plots.

Rocketship XM was a dramatic first example of atomic angst expressed in a sci-fi movie. The invasion theme got a later start but more than made up for lost time. Destination Moon was the first installment of serious imagining of what manned space travel might be like. With the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and America's Explorer 1 in 1958, the Space Age became a reality. Perhaps it is no coincidence that those two years saw the most sci-fi films released.

The 60s would be a different era with different concerns. Yet, change didn't come overnight. Early 60s sci-fi showed a strong affinity for the style and mood of the 50s. After all, there was still the threat of communist invasion to fret over. The threat of nuclear destruction would grow even more more frightening in the early 60s. But, on a brighter note, the 60s was the decade of the Space Race, not just dreams of space. Sci-fi would push the dream far beyond earth orbit.

Now begins phase 2 of my studies: sci-fi movies of the early 60s.

The Atomic Submarine

There was more to 50s science fiction than just rockets and outer space. The nuclear powered submarine was also a hot new technology. The deep sea was mysterious too. Irving Block and Jack Rabin's short story focused on the nuclear sub. The screenplay for Atomic Submarine (AS) turned out to be more of hybrid between horror, sci-fi invasion tale, and the traditional submarine movie genres. Having the effects men from Forbidden Planet, Block and Rabin, helped, but could not completely compensate for the low budget. It seems fitting that the last sci-fi movie of the 1950s was an alien invasion tale. The plot had become stereotypic. A flying saucer and monster-like alien plot the invasion of Earth (surrogates for the earthly enemy Americans already feared).

Quick Plot Synopsis
Ships are being lost, mysteriously, all around the arctic. The US Navy sends its most advanced nuclear sub, the Tigershark, to investigate. Tensions mount as an outspoken anti-war scientist is assigned to the mission. Dr. Nielson is the expert handler for the small experiment explorer sub "Lungfish," for examining seabed evidence. More ships are lost. The crew figure out that the sinkings happen within 1000 miles of the pole. They wait at a gap in the line. They get high energy readings and see a lone light moving underwater. They can see that it is a saucer craft, but are never able catch it. More ships lost. Nielson theorizes that the saucer must return to the pole after each attack to recharge its batteries from the Earth's magnetic field. They position themselves between the last sinking and the pole. when the saucer comes, they try to torpedo it, but this fails. Desperate not to have the saucer outrun them again, they ram it. The bow of Tigershark gets stuck in the saucer's hull. The saucer appears damaged, but is still able to move slowly towards the pole. Nielson thinks it will recharge and escape. With little time left, a crew of five man Lungfish to attempt to cut Tigershark free. At the saucer, they find it has air inside. In the dark and spooky interior, the two frogmen work to free the sub, but die of melting. Commander Holloway hears a voice calling him on. He comes to a dome structure with a tentacled cycloptic alien inside. The alien is studying earth for possible invasion. Holloway shoots the alien in its big eye and runs. He and Nielson return in Lungfish. The alien heals himself. Tigershark pulls free. They pursue the saucer and arm an missile. The saucer breaks free of the ice and zooms toward space. The missile follows, finally finding its target. Earth is saved. Light banter ensues. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
There is a charm in the old fashioned invading-alien-monster-in-a-saucer story. The mixture with the war-movie flavor (submarine setting) is different. Rabin and Block's models add some interest. The minimalist interior of the saucer (pitch black except for lit ramps and catwalks) has a German impressionist feel to it.

Cold War Angle
Aside from the mere presence of a nuclear powered and nuclear armed submarine billed as the "deadliest in the fleet," there is the subdued "moral" to the tale. In the end, even the anti-war advocate has his eyes opened to the very real menace "out there." In the end, it is American military weaponry that nips the threat in the bud. Even the pacifist concedes the value in having brave men with strong weapons to deal with the threat. In the 50s sci-fi tradition, the alien is a stand-in for the feared communist hoards plotting to invade our Eden. Our troops and our nukes will protect us. Rest assured.

Notes
Inspired by the Headlines -- In July 1958, America's first atomic submarine, USS Nautilus, made the first ever transit under the North Pole's arctic ice. This accomplishment was a two-edged sword. If WE could send a sub under the arctic ice, then so could THEY. While the topic was still hot, Allied Artists wanted to push out a quick atomic submarine movie. Shooting took less than two weeks.

Proto-Voyage -- Two years before Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, AS featured a very advanced nuclear sub, equipped with a mini-sub, and scientists aboard, all engaged in the wonders (and dangers) of the deep. Toho Studios would put out Kaitei Gunkan (Undersea Warship) in 1963 as a third super-sub movie (AIP releasing it in America in 1965 under the title of Atragon). Atragon was more fantastic. Voyage had a much bigger budget and is much better remembered, but AS was the first of the super-subs.

Cargo Subs -- A fascinating detail, easily lost in the action, was the notion of cargo-carrying submarines. In the 50s, nuclear power was imagined to be so cheap as to make the idea seem economically feasible. Trade routes under the polar ice could open markets and reduce costs. The idea was new. In 1916, the Germans dabbled with cargo submarines to evade the British blockade during WWI. The Deutschland was one of two built. Since America was the big customer for German goods, the entry of the US into the war in 1917 put an end to submarine cargo runs.

Ship, Heal Thyself -- The notion of a ship as a semi-lving thing, which can heal itself, was unusual, but entirely new. The Devil Girl from Mars (1953) had a ship that could repair itself, given enough time and raw material. Still, self-healing ships were fairly rare yet.

Hawk vs. Dove -- Dr. Nielson Jr. (played by Brett Halsey) is portrayed as the anti-war idealist. Commander Holloway (Arthur Franz), a proud military man. Nielson and Holloway have running debates over the need for nukes. There was a nascent anti-nuclear sentiment, even in the 50s. AS is a sort of rebuttal.. Nielson is a straw man for the pro-nuke faction. The obvious moral to the story is that in the face of an unarguably hostile threat (the alien, and by analogy, the communists), nuclear weapons are necessary.

Bottom line? AS is a B movie in the classic pattern. It has stern narration, ample stock footage and inexpensive sets. it's unusual venue lends interest. For fans of aliens in saucers, threatening to invade Earth, it is a fun variation on the theme. That said, folks who are not fans of 50s B sci-fi, will likely be unimpressed.

Wasp Woman

Roger Corman, tireless producer/director that he was, put out another of his B movies in late 1959. WW is a much more conventional science-gone-wrong story. It also added to a growing sub-genre of science spawned human-animal monster stories. Leo Gordon, who wrote the screenplay, had just given us Alligator People a few months earlier. It co-ran with Return of the Fly, the famous of the human-animal monster sub group. WW amounts to a female version of The Fly but without the transporter technology. Instead, it's the more customary trope of animal juices turn you into that animal.

Quick Plot Synopsis
(never mind that the credits are over a hive of honey bees)
Research scientist Dr. Zinthrop thinks the royal jelly of the queen wasp holds the key to perpetual youth. He promotes his ideas to Janice Starlin, head of a cosmetics company. Starlin Enterprises has been steadily losing revenue since Janice -- the "face" of the company -- has lost her youthful look over the 18 years at the helm. Janice hires Zinthrop. The rest of the staff are suspicious and skeptical. Most think Zinthrop is a con man or a quack. They plot to uncover the scheme. Meanwhile, Janice does get daily injections of the serum Zinthrop developed. After 3 weeks, looks only a few years younger. Zinthrop has a new serum which is even stronger. She tells everyone to plan for a huge new product release that will save the company, etc. etc. Zinthrop is attacked by one of his test animals. The cat reverted from neo-kitten to savage beast with wing buds. Zinthrop, despondent at his failure, is hit by a car. With Zinthrop missing, and impatient with the slow progress, Janice injects herself with the untested new serum. Now she looks remarkably younger. Everyone is amazed. Not long afterward, Janice develops odd headaches. In the lab on night, Cooper snoops right after one of her injections. Now with wasp(ish) head and claws, Wasp Janice attacks and kills Cooper. She also dispatches a night watchman. A few days later, Janice takes the last dose and again becomes Wasp Woman. She kills the nurse assigned to care for Zinthrop. Bill fights with Wasp Janice to save his girlfriend Mary. Zinthrop throws a bottle of acid at WaspJanice, hitting her square in the face. Recoiling in pain, she falls out of a window and dies. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
It's interesting how 1959 had three human-animal monster stories. Comparing similarities and differences is food for thought. Perhaps not intentionally, the sub-genre dabbles in the fragile essence of what is humanity, vs. the beastly "nature" side, much as Dr. Jekyll did.

Cold War Angle
As with most monster movies, there is little or no Cold War analogy. Instead, there is the usual dangers-of-science moral. There is also the hubris of man thinking he (or she) can trump nature -- with the customary fatal results.

Notes
B Stars -- Susan Cabot, who does a capable job as the ill-fated woman. She also starred in a couple of Corman's prior films, War of the Satellites ('58) and the peculiar film Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent ('57). WW was her last movie role. Corman movies were no way to grow a career. Michael Marks plays Dr. Zinthrop well enough. His trace of russian accent meshing well with the eccentric scientist role. Audiences had just seen him (briefly) as the night watchman in Return of the Fly. He was also conspicuous as Emil, friend of Mr. Franz the puppet master in Attack of the Puppet People ('58)

Prologue Added -- Corman's original cut of WW is said to begin with Starlin conducting the business meeting where sagging sales are discussed. This makes the Dr. Zinthrop character a bit of a shot out of left field, but the movie gets going on its own nonetheless. When WW was released for television in 1962, director Jack Hill filmed several minutes of prologue footage. In it, we see Zinthrop as the eccentric researcher employed by a honey company. Instead of working with bees, he has been working with wasps. His honey farm boss is unimpressed with talk of reversing aging. They sell honey. Zinthrop is fired. This prologue sets up Zinthrop and his discovery (as well as need for a patron), so his appearance at Starlin Enterprises is not so much of a non-sequetor.

Opposite Imaging -- The poster artist may not have read the script or seen the film. His image of a huge wasp with a woman's head is the opposite of what happens. WaspJanice, like FlyAndre and FlyPhillipe before her, had an insect-ish head and claws, but her own human body. Handily enough, she took to wearing black knit pantsuits as the serum was taking over, so she was dressed for the killer role. The poster does give a refreshing twist on the old abduction trope, even if it's not in the movie. Here, it is a shirtless young man in the clutches of the she-monster, instead of the swooning buxom babe.

Vanity Fare -- Instead of the typical naive scientist creating the monster, we have that trope split in two. Zinthrop follows the role of naive scientist who hopes to benefit mankind with risky "science." Unlike most, he shows restraint. He was willing to call it quits when things went wrong. Janice took up the task of the fatal misstep, pushed by her desire to save her company and her vanity as a woman. She pushed nature over the edge.

Bottom line? WW is a fairly predictable science-gone-wrong tale, but capably acted and directed. There are enough entertaining moments to keep WW watchable. For fans of The Fly, it can be an amusing other-side-of-the-coin.

Attack of the Giant Leeches

This is another classic Roger Corman production. In the B-minus movie tradition, it's got lame acting, minimal sets, guys in rubber monster suits and a lot of scenes set in a dark swamp. Corman wasn't trying to produce "art" or delve into social commentary. it's best not to try to read too much into it. Attack of the Giant Leeches (AGL) amounts to a shallow monster flick trying to grab a few box office bucks amid the craze of cheesy drive-in monster fare. There is almost no science in the fiction, beyond some references to radiation from rocket engines. AGL is yet another of those late-50s movies which barely qualify for inclusion in the sci-fi realm.

Quick Plot Synopsis
An old timer in the swamps of Florida sees a strange creature one night and shoots at it. No one believes him back in the small town. Later, he is found dead with strange wounds. No one can find any traces of the supposed monster. Later, the young bimbo wife of a small town grocery store owner and her hunky boyfriend engage in a little semi-adulterous smooching in a car out in the back woods. The husband finds them and forces them at gun point to wade into the swamp. The giant leeches grab them and drag them under. When wife and beau are missed back in town, the husband is arrested for murder. He hangs himself in the cell. Two other old men are looking for the missing bodies, but are also grabbed by the leech monsters. Turns out the leeches have kept the wife, beau, and two old men alive in a "gator cave" in order to keep feeding on them. (the odd wounds) When the two old men and beau's bodies float up (now dead), Ranger Steve searches the lake with scuba gear. The leeches attack him too, but he escapes. The bimbo wife finally dies, falls in and floats up too. The ranger uses a huge charge of dynamite to shock and kill the leeches. It works. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
This is a simple formula nature-monster story. At that level, AGL is not necessarily "fun". It is, however, somewhat amusing to see the 2-dimensional characterizations. The total bimbo wife strains credibility. The Dudly Dooright wildlife ranger is equally incredible.

Cold War Angle
At best, AGL is yet another nuclear energy cautionary tale. Imprudent use of nuclear materials caused the monster. While this is the same origin of Godzilla, the giant leeches lack any wider analogies. They're just monsters.

Notes
More Atomic Monsters -- AGL is squarely part of the radiation-spawned monster from nature sub-genre. It's the same motive plot trope as Them! ('54), Tarantula ('55), and Beginning of the End ('57) but done with less zest. At least it wasn't yet another insect. In AGL, it's "atomic radiation from those rocket engines at Cape Canaveral" that caused the ordinary leeches to mutate into giants (that is, people sized).

Almost Saved -- One intriguing tidbit is seeing that the beautiful young woman actually does die in this film. The 50s had a strong tradition of the beautiful young woman being spared by heroic rescue. The fact that Liz, draped over the rocks in the typically leggy swoon pose, survived in the 'gator cave' for so long, elicits the notion that she, too, will somehow be saved by Ranger Steve. When she finally dies in the end, floating up to the surface, it's a mild disappointment. The pretty ones aren't supposed to die.

Good woman / bad woman -- Steve's wife is the "good" woman. Sensible, faithful, caring. Liz is the "bad" woman. Even though Liz is the trampy wife of fat Dave the store owner, she's young, very shapely and very blonde. All these physical traits suggest that she'll survive. The young males of the audience may have been rooting for her to be saved too. After all, Dave hung himself in the jail cell, so she'd be free of him and available for "the right man." Still, poetic justice is served. Bad girls don't survive. Subtle message: be a good girl and live.

Bottom line? AGL can be enjoyed as a simple, (if some what shallow) monster tale. The swamp setting adds some moodiness. Don't, however, expect the movie to make you go "hmmm..." afterwards. It's simple drive-in fare, not art.

4D Man

While a bit obscure, 4D Man (4D for short) is more of a low A-grade movie than a B-movie. For one thing, it's shot in color. It has some A-grade actors, and some cleanly done optical special effects. As in many sci-fi films, the technology isn't the star, but a plot device to propel a larger human drama. In this case, it gives the main character a special power. How he handles (or mishandles) that power is the meat of the tale.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Tony Nelson is talented scientist who is obsessed with his research, to the point of having a hard time keeping a job. He is trying repeat an earlier fluke success at getting one material to pass through another. (a pencil through steel) He travels to see his brother, Scott Nelson (Robert Lansing). Scott heads up a research lab trying to make a metal stronger than steel -- Cargonite. Scott convinces Tony to accept a job at his lab, but this only complicates the social scene. Scott was about to propose to co-worker-scientist Linda. Instead, Linda falls in love with Tony. Frustrated at all this, Scott goes to the lab late one night and gets into Tony's secret apparatus. He manages to get it to work. His hand passes through the steel. Meanwhile, another lab scientist, Roy, has stolen Tony's notes and is trying to sell the facility's director on the idea, so he can be a chief scientist himself. When Scott and Tony re-try the experiment in the lab, it works, even though the equipment wasn't working. Scott has "the power" all by himself. He tells Tony that he doesn't want anyone to know just yet. A newspaper headline tells of a bank robbery. The next morning, Scott sees that he's aged noticeably. Passing through matter ages him. He rushes to a friend's apartment for help, but when he touches the friend on the shoulder, the friend drops dead, his body aging to a gray shriveled corpse. Scott, however, was young again. His special power also saps life from others. He hides the amplifier so no one else can share his power. Things quickly unravel. Scott confronts his credit-stealing boss and saps him. Scott tries to find solace in a bar, with a floosie, but kills her with a kiss. The police know there's a killer on the loose. Tony tells the police all about it. The police cannot stop Scott, however. He shifts through walls, touches (and kills) policemen, and even a hail of bullets cannot stop him. He just shifts himself and the bullets pass through him. Scott finds out that Tony is trying to build another amplifier, so returns to the lab. Tony, Linda and the police try to kill Scott by turning on the reactor while he's inside it. (this is where Scott hid the amplifier) This fails because he is invincible when shifted. Everyone but Linda flees. Scott tries to talk her into running away with him. While in an embrace, she shoots him with the gun the detective left behind. Unshifted Scott is mortally wounded, but defiantly shouts his invincibility. To prove it, he throws himself into the Carbonite reactor, slowly disappearing into it's walls. The End (?)

Why is this movie fun?
The premise and human-interest angle are interesting and well done. The A-level actors do a good job making their characters believable. Robert Lansing does an excellent job with Dr. Scott Nelson -- both his frustrated awkward "before" self and the tormented-yet-maniacal "after" self. Given how many later movies (or TV shows) would take up the idea of people being able to pass through walls, etc., it's fun to see an early version.

Cold War Angle
This movie isn't an allegory of the Cold War. There is an oblique connection to the dangers-of-science sub-genre. A background element of the Cold War years, is the research lab working on improved materials for the military. Nelson's work isn't with any nuclear weaponry, but how it goes dreadfully is still an understated cautionary tale about how even innocent research can create a killer.

Notes
Phase Two -- The quasi-science behind the premise, is that Scott can (at will) shift the "time" of his body relative to objects, permitting him to pass through them. The more he does this, the faster it ages him. While fanciful, this has a plausibility. The portrayal of "time" as a life force which he can then absorb from others has no plausibility, but it makes for a good plot device.

Drain the Life -- An interesting plot device is how Scott Nelson must drain the life from people in order reverse his own rapid aging. He does this by simply "touching" (merging) with them. The trope of the living sacrificed to prolong another's life, is not unique. It got (and gets) used in low-B movies like She Demons ('58) in which a mad scientist extracts hormones from young women (turning them into ugly demons) in order to keep his sick wife alive. In 4D, however, the "monster" drains life from them by a mere touch. This is a fascinating preview of the Wraith in the Stargate TV series (2005) -- race of beings who must "feed" on living humans in order to survive. The idea still has legs.

Power Corrupts -- Another plot aspect which is not unique to 4D is how the man who acquires some amazing power can't handle it. For the sci-fi world, this appeared in H.G. Wells' novel "The Invisible Man." His special feature tempted him into tyranny. Once a man feels immune to the hand of justice, he commits crimes with impunity. Scott Nelson is no different in 4D. We see his morality drop away and his total human selfishness take control. He gets professional revenge on his credit-stealing boss. He robs a bank and tries to induce LInda to run away with him. At the end, he shouts, "I'm invincible! Nothing can hurt me!" with a well acted mixture of defiance, denial (he'd just been shot) and pleading. An interesting little human psych study of how man might behave if he no longer fears punishment.

Gray Midas -- An intriguing little twist amid the plot was how Scott's power was not totally under his control. By force of will, he could "turn on" his time-shift to pass through walls, but when he stopped willing it, objects were solid to him. At one point, he's trying to grab the door knob to a bar, but keeps passing his hand through it. At that moment, he wanted to be "normal" but his power was not so completely under his control. A little while later, when he wanted some companionship and kissed the B-girl, she screams in pain and turns into an old woman, then dies. Scott was becoming a sort of King Midas who ruins everything he touches. This adds a degree of pity to the character. With the "cool" power, he could never be normal again.

Blob Brother --4D's producer, Jack Harris, and director, Irvin Yeaworth brought us The Blob in late 1958. 4D has some family resemblance. Color, big-name stars, and brassy jazz score. 4D and The Blob may have been shot together in '57. Young Patty Duke plays a bit part of a landlady's daughter, but she looks maybe ten years old -- noticeably younger than she was in 1959. Universal may have intended to release The Blob and 4D Man together, but opted to spread out the releases for better revenue.

Stop the Music -- The score in 4D is heavy-handed brass jazz band fodder. Such jazz was pretty typical stuff of 50s movies which held the Rat Pack and Las Vegas show scene as the pinnacle of cool. The score of 4D seems like a cross between a 007-wanabe movie and the Pink Panther -- but without any of Mancini's style. Given the rather dark story line, the loudly perky jazz seems out of place. Instead of enhancing the story, it intrudes, like someone talking loudly in the theater while you try to watch the flick. Unless the viewer is a fan of such brassy nightclub jazz, it's more likely to be annoying than admired.

Bottom line? 4D is worth the time. It's a modern Midas tale reasonably well done. The science is weak or a tough stretch, but the story can be enjoyed anyway.

The Alligator People

20th Century Fox needed a B movie to run with their Return of the Fly as the A feature. They bought a black and white CinemaScope film from an independent producer (Leewood) and released them together in the summer of 1959. The Alligator People (AP) has a similar people-animal hybrid monster trope, but a weaker story line. At its core, AG is the well-worn tale of a misguided scientist who tries to help mankind but instead creates monsters. Even though not as strong a film as its more famous stable mate, AG still has higher production values than many of the decade's B films. The photography is lush, even though black and white. Beverly Garland stars. Her strong performance makes up for the somewhat tepid acting of the others, Lon Chaney excepted. His portrayal of the drunken creepy Cajun is over the top, not tepid.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Two psychiatrists discuss the case of Jane Marvin. Under sedation, she recalls an entirely different life and identity. The flashback begins. Joyce and Paul Webster are happy honeymooners on a train. Paul receives a sobering telegram. He gets off the train at a mail stop and disappears. A thin shred of evidence leads her to a remote plantation deep in the cypress swamps of Louisiana. People deny knowing Paul, but an odd country doctor, and a mysterious piano playing stranger in the night arouse her suspicions. Meanwhile, we see Dr. Sinclair working in his lab some distance away, on mysteriously hooded (and agitated) patients. Paul, with semi-gatorized face, pleads for a cure. When Paul returns home, Joyce confronts him. He runs out into the rainy night. She pursues, but gets lost in the swamps. Manon (Chaney) finds her and takes her back to his cabin. There, he intends to have his way with her, but Paul interrupts. They fight and Paul brings Joyce home. Doc tells all to Joyce. His experiments with alligator hormones helped injured patients completely heal, but an unknown other hormone also turns them into alligator people. Paul pushes for the cobalt treatment. While on the table getting the radiation, Manon breaks in and rampages. The equipment overloads. Paul is turned into an alligator-headed man. Manon is killed by high voltage. Joyce chases GatorPaul out in the swamp. The house explodes. GatorPaul is swallowed up in quicksand. Joyce is left alone, screaming. Flash forward. The two psychiatrists don't know what to do. Jane has adjusted so well by totally suppressing her former tragic life as Joyce, that they figure to leave well enough alone. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Beverly Garland puts her heart into the role and is well worth watching. Lon Chaney is entertaining.

Cold War Angle
This is thin, at best. Dr. Sinclair talks of the "power of a cobalt bomb" (his radiation treatment gizmo resembles a big dental x-ray unit) having the ability to remove the beast side of his man-beast alligator people. In the end, that same radiation, in too large a dose, turns a man into even more of a beast.

Notes
Hubris Deserts -- Dr. Sinclair seeks alligator hormones to help severely injured people heal. This, because skink lizards can regrow a lost tail, so reptiles have healing hormones. While partially successful, the hormone (or one within it) causes the patient to become a reptile. As things are getting worse, Dr. Sinclair says, "I feel like I've been playing God and now I'm being punished for it." Hubris gets its just deserts. Like many a misguided movie doctor before him, Sinclair is killed by his creation (in this case the machine blows up the whole house). Thus, AP delivers the traditional moral: mankind shouldn't go messing around with science. This not-so-subtle message is quietly underscored by the psychiatrists who heed the warning and do nothing about Jane (Joyce). Just leave her alone and let her be happy.

Gator Ranger -- Richard Crane plays the newlywed-turning-to-gator. The gator-skin mask, which he wears for most of the film, obscures his looks, but Crane is none other than Rocky Jones: Space Ranger. Crane played many roles after Rocky Jones. It seems a bit of a step down from having one's proud face on the side of a Silvercup Rocket, and star of your own TV series, to swamp freak.

Acme Isotopes -- AP echoes the fine 50s naive wonder at things nuclear. Radiation was the magic catalyst that could make monsters, cure bad breath, save the world from aliens, or destroy it in seconds. Radiation could do whatever the imagination could dream up. Radiation beams from a cobalt isotope are the wonder drug that are the cure for the nasty alligator side effect. Note the innocent ignorance regarding the shipment and handling of such deadly materials. The crate of radioactive cobalt is shipped in a wooden crate, by public train, and left untended at the small town station. Joyce, fresh from a later train uses the crate as a handy bench. Manon muscles the wooden crate into the back of his pickup as if it were full of tractor parts. Deadly isotopes are ordered up and shipped in the Wile E. Coyote idiom.

Gritty Edge -- Once scene in AP pushes the edge of gritty, for mainstream 50s sci-fi. This is the almost-rape scene when Manon "rescues" Joyce from the snakes and alligators in rainy night. He leeringly suggests that she take off her wet clothes. When Joyce declines, he wraps a blanket around her "to keep her warm" but it turns into a grope-fest. He says she "owes him" for saving her. When she screams, he knocks her out with one punch. As she lie unconscious on the bed, he grins as he peels back the blanket. Only GatorPaul's timely arrival interrupts the grimly inevitable. Chaney did a very convincing job as the lecherous creep.

Bottom line? As an independent production, AP is a notch above average. It makes an appropriate double bill with Return of the Fly -- two human-animal monster movies. The plot is little deeper than the usual indie B sci-fi, but the production values are higher. Garland is well worth watching, as usual.