Die, Monster, Die

Horror/sci-fi hybrids are common. At the mostly horror end of the spectrum, Die Monster Die (DMD) has almost no sci-fi. DMD's thin claim to sci-fi rests on the unseen agent of the horror being a radioactive meteor. In the 50s tradition, if a movie had anything to do with outer space, or anything nuclear, it was deemed sci-fi. Boris Karloff stars in this combination horror / ghost story, as the wheelchair bound despotic head of the "cursed" Witley family. DMD double-featured with Planet of the Vampires, so audiences were probably in the mood for a double dose of horror with a dash of sci-fi.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Steve Reinhart arrives in the small english village of Arkham. He wants to go to the Witley place, but he can't rent a taxi, a bicycle or anything. In fact, the villagers all act angry or frightened at the mere mention of it. So, he walks. On the way there, he passes a desolate area where nothing lives. Old Mr. Witley (Karloff) is gruff and demands he leave. However, it turns out Steve was invited by Mrs. Witley (confined to her curtained bed). She wanted Steve to take their daughter Susan away. Susan is somehow blissfully clueless to the strange goings on in Witley mansion. These are abundant: odd moans in the night, a strange blue glow in the greenhouse, people who disappeared. When Mr. Witley's butler dies, Steve investigates. He discovers that grandfather Corbin Witley was into the occult, that bits of glowing green rock in planter pots make the plants grow huge, and a room full of mutant (but rather benign) animals. Despite all this, Susan doesn't want to leave her sick mother. Mother, however, has become so burned/mutated, that she trashes her room and attacks Susan and Steve as a hag monster. She dies, her face melting away. At the graveside, Mr. Witley finally realizes he must destroy the glowing meteor he has in his basement. He takes an ax to it, but is attacked by Helga (former housekeeper mutated like Mrs. Witley). Helga falls onto the meteor and dies. Mr. Witley gets so radiated that he starts to glow. As the glowing frankenstein-esque monster, he attacks Susan and Steve. He lunges for Susan but breaks through a 2nd story railing, falling to his death. His body bursts into flames. The fire eventually spread through the house. Steve and Susan get out, briefly discuss what happened, and decide to leave. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Karloff is great and pulls DMD up from mid-B obscurity.

Cold War Angle
The original short story did not blame simple radiation, but in DMD, the traditional Cold War bugbear -- radiation -- is the cause of all the mutation and death. Pretty conventional stuff by the mid-60s.

Notes
Lovecraft Hijacked by Halloween -- The story upon which DMD is based (loosely) is H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space." (1927) In his story, told mostly as retrospective, about a rural New England farm family and a meteorite. Because the meteor caused plants to grow very large, the farm father kept the stone, thinking it would bring prosperity. Instead, the mysterious force within it, drains the life of his family, eventually causing him to crumble before his friend's eyes and leaving a many-acre dead zone. The force (or alien?), emitted an indescribable color. Once recharged with life, it flies back into space. Fans of Lovecraft's "Colour" story usually don't like AIP's adaptation, perhaps because the story is turned into more of a gothic ghost story than an alien encounter. Elements of the original story can be seen, but they're virtually lost in a sea of halloween standards: spiders, skeletons, skull-art, dungeons, mutant monsters, books of spells, stranger with big knife, foggy old mansions, etc. etc.

Startle-Fest -- Director Daniel Haller (a protege of Roger Corman) made frequent use, if not over-use, of the cinematic tool: "startle moments." These are where something jumps out at the viewers, or happens suddenly, but does nothing to advance the plot. Haller sprinkles in many such moments. The spider bite, the skeleton, the face in the window, the ubiquitous hand on the shoulder, etc. etc. It's as if Haller did not think the story was particularly frightening in itself, so he opted to regularly startle his audience instead.

Gothic Grab Bag -- DMD was not exactly part of AIP's "Poe Cycle", but the success of those films must have influenced the producers' view. Instead of a simple New England farm, we're given a spooky elizabethan-revival mansion shrouded in fog. Interior shots are filled with an grab-bag mix of anything "old". Medieval era carvings, renaissance furniture and baroque decorations. And, like any good haunted house, there are ample medieval weapons displayed on the walls of each room. Just about anything stereotyped as being in a "haunted mansion" was used as a prop.

Damned Amateurs -- Science should be left to the professionals. That's the final moral of the story, delivered by Steve in the final minutes. "In the proper scientific hands, your father's discovery could have been beneficial." All the trouble was due to an amateur botching things up. Nahum Witley thought his meteor, which made plants grow huge, might be beneficial enough to make up for his father (Corbin's) dabbling in the occult. This adds a layer to the already stereotypic naive scientist role (which Karloff played many times). The naive scientist thinks he's onto a boon for mankind, but creates a monster instead. In DMD, he's still that naive scientist (sort of), but with the added motive of trying to atone for the sins of his father.

Bottom line? Fans of the AIP/Corman Poe Cycle or Hammer's horror films, will probably be entertained. Not impressed, perhaps, but entertained. Karloff fans will see the master holding his own, despite his age. Fans of Lovecraft or sci-fi, may well be more annoyed than entertained. DMD feels like having ordered pancakes, but gotten eggs and sausage instead.

Planet of the Vampires

American International Pictures lived up to its name on this project. Terrore nello spazio was a Spanish/Italian/American effort. The American release title, Planet of the Vampires (PoV) suggests a campier film than it is. There actually aren't any vampires in the usual sense. Yet, it is still a horror/sci-fi hybrid. Director Mario Bava (famous for horror pictures) gives the dark screenplay by Ib Melchior a good presentation, despite a low budget.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Mysterious signals received from a distant planet named Aura suggest some intelligent life, perhaps a distress call. Two interplanetary space ships are sent to investigate. The Galliot goes in first, but seems to crash. The crew of the Argos go lower to check on them. A sudden increase of gravity pins everyone to the floors and the Argos seems to be doomed to crash. At the last minute, the gravity normalizes and Captain Mark Markary is able to land the Argos. When various members of the crew awaken, they go viciously homicidal temporarily. Captain Mark is able to restore order. The Galliot is found near by, perfectly intact. When a team of the Argos investigate, they find the entire crew of the Galliot dead. They killed each other. The Galliot's "Meteor Rejector" device is smashed, making the ship unspaceworthy. The Argos team return later to find no bodies. (They are rising from the dead, but the Argos crew don't know this yet.) A team from the Argos find a derelict alien ship with a huge alien skeleton out front. Mark and Sanya check it out and almost become trapped inside. Various crewmen, usually given lone sentry jobs, disappear one by one. Two Galliot crewmen appear with a story of being unconscious after the landing. They are taken aboard the Argos, but it was a trick. They were zombies who came to steal the Argos's "Meteor Rejector" device. One zombie explains that Aura is inhabited by a race of energy beings. The Auran sun is dying but they cannot construct spaceships. So, they lured other race's ships to Aura to hijack their bodies and flee. The takeover can be done willingly too. Captain Mark says "Never". Mark, Sanya and Wess steal back the Meteor Rejector and plant bombs aboard the Galliot. They take off in the Argos. Wess discovers that Mark and Sanya are possessed by the Aurans. He smashes the Meteor Rejector, thinking he's stopping the Aurans. He dies in the process. Possessed Mark and Sanya decide to set down on an obscure little planet: Earth. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
PoV has the quirky charm typical of Italian sci-fi, but also some visual fun via Bava's sense of art.

Cold War Angle
This isn't present much, beyond the somewhat customary "who can you trust?" trope typical of alien-takeover films.

Notes
Zomies In Space -- The American title is a misnomer, but probably deemed better (by A.I.P.) for marketing. The dead bodies, re-animated by the Auran energy beings, were more the classic zombie than the classic vampire. There is no sucking of blood or needing of human blood, etc. The whole rising-from-the-grave scene is clearly in the zombie idiom. Mixed into the zombie trope is the familiar 50s theme of alien-takeover.

Budget Friendly -- Like many B movies, the production budget for PoV was very tight. Modern viewers could easily scoff at the modest special effects and simple sets. Yet, fans of B sci-fi can appreciate how much mileage Bava got from his shoestring budget. He made an entire alien planet out of a few "rock" props left over from a prior sword-and-sandal film, making use of lots of dry ice fog to disguise how sparse things were. The ship models were quite small (and therefore cheaper), but he manages to make them look larger. To save on matte art and optical effects, Bava used mirrors to put actors and small models into the same shot. Of course, having the Argos and Galliot be identical ships meant handy double use. The giant alien skeleton was probably his biggest expense, but well worth it.

Alien Colors -- Bava also made ample use of strong color to make things look "alien." Pairs of red-green, or red-blue, or green-orange lights add a vivid other-worldliness. The lighting is reminiscent of that used in the soviet film: Mechte Navstrechu ('62) ("A Dream Come True"). American audiences wouldn't get to see the soviet footage until 1966 when A.I.P. created another of their mash-ups, this one entitled: Queen of Blood.

Alien Inspiration? -- Some viewers see an inspiration for Ridley Scott's famous Alien (1979). Certainly the scene in which Mark and Sanya discover and explore the derelict alien ship bears a strong resemblance. Even though this scene in PoV is more of a sidetrack than pivotal, it is certainly possible that Scott drew upon it as a portion of his story.

Hostile Planets -- Screenwriter Ib Melchior was fond of the notion that alien planets harbored mysterious danger. His dark vision was quite the opposite of the almost glib notion that alien beings would be pretty women in short skirts. Melchior's Angry Red Planet ('60) featured ominous unseen Martians who tell the earthlings to get lost and never ever come back. Journey to the Seventh Planet ('62) featured a malicious intellect being that messed with the earthlings' minds and was trying to get off its cold, dark moon, to a better planet -- like earth.

Nihilism or Sequelism? -- The ending of PoV is decidedly un-hollywood. Most of the crew die. Even the last uncompromised humans (Wess) dies trying to stop the Aurans. He fails, despite his heroic sacrifice. Auran-Mark and Auran-Sanya fly down to an unsuspecting earth. The danger of the mind-controlling energy being Aurans was about to be loosed on our simple civilization. On its own, such an ending does have nihilist overtones. It also smacks of a potential sequel along the Body Snatchers line.

Bottom line? PoV will not impress modern viewers who rate movies by how lavish the effects are. It is still a budget film. It also suffers some of the usual pitfalls of foreign films repackaged for American release. There are almost too many characters who are easy to mix up (everyone wore identical leather suits) Nonetheless, it one of the better B movies of the 60s.

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster

The drive-in cinema market was lucrative enough, and comprised enough smaller, independent operators, that indie films were still viable drive-in fodder. Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (FMSM) is a perfect example of a low, low-budget indie production aimed at the drive-in demographic, young adults. FMSM was actually the "A" feature. Futurama Entertainment also released Curse of the Voodoo as the "B". The title of FMSM alone was probably the big draw. Living up to audience expectations was secondary. FMSM appears to have been too obscure to make people's "worst movie ever" lists, but it shares most the usual features that get a film on such lists. Weak or hammy acting, cheap sets, poor effects and abundant stock footage. Nonetheless, it's not without its merits.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A alien ship approaches earth. The bald-headed, pointy-eared Dr. Nadir tells Princess Macuzan that they've picked up signals from the planet, indicating it might have intelligent life. As they approach, NASA launches a rocket. The aliens think it's a missile attack on them, so they destroy the rocket. Two more such incidents are implied. NASA thinks the failures were for lack of onboard control, so prepare to send a Colonel Frank Saunders. Frank is actually an android. His rocket is similarly shot down by the aliens, but his capsule escapes. Frank lands in Puero Rico. The aliens, certain that he's seen them, land nearby to hunt him down. One alien shoots at Frank with his ray gun, narrowly missing, but melting the left side of Frank's head. Malfunctioning, Frank goes into basic survival mode. He kills a couple men who threaten him, but leaves women alone. Frank's creators, Dr. Steele and Karen, and the usual army general, fly down to San Juan to get Frank. The aliens, meanwhile, decide to implement Phase 2 of their plan, which is to abduct earth babes for "breeding purposes." An atomic war on their planet has left them no women. The aliens round up roughly a dozen young women (not all in bikinis). She and Steele found Frank in a cave. The aliens nab Karen as she was on her way to get help. She refuses to tell them about Frank's remote control unit (found in her purse), so they chain her near their monster named Mull. Steele and Frank follow Karen's trail to the alien ship. Steele goes for help, leaving Frank to observe. The aliens nab Frank too. By this time, the military have spotted the alien ship and start blasting it ineffectually. It has shields, but they won't hold if the military use nukes, so Nadir says they must leave. Karen awaken Frank. She tells him to free the caged babes. He does, and Karen too, just before the ship takes off. Nadir releases Mull to fight Frank. They fight, but Frank gets away long enough to blast Nadir, the Princess and the controls with a ray gun. The alien ship blows up in the air. Steele and Karen look happy as they ride a scooter through the streets of San Juan. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
There is a distinctly 50s flavor to the production and story of FMSM which a fan of 50s B sci-fi can appreciate. The over-the-top acting is fun. "And now...Maximum Energy...bwahahaha..."

Cold War Angle
A traditional sci-fi Cold War theme is provided as back story. It is there more out of tradition than an earnest bit of messaging.

Notes
Neo-stein -- The average viewer might feel gipped with FMSM. The "Frankenstein" of the title has almost nothing to do with Victor Frankenstein's famous monster. Instead, the android, Frank, is described by Steele in a sort of Frankenstein idiom of being "assembled of parts". (more of an electronic age's version of Shelley's idea) Later, when Steele talks of damaged Frank on the island, he muses that he might go violent. Karen says to herself, "He would turn into...a Frankenstein." The connection is thin, barely enough to justify the title. Clearly, the producers were coattailing on the more famous monster for some ticket sales.

They're After Our Women -- This primal trope was fairly common in Golden Age sci-fi. Usually, it was hinted at or subtle. In FMSM, this deeply visceral theme is inescapable. The tribal elements are blatant. A raiding party of "them" run around capturing our prime females -- quite clearly stated as being for "breeding purposes." The abduction theme isn't couched in visual analogies (e.g. a monster carrying a swooned babe). Instead, we get a raiding party attacking one of our "villages" (the pool party scene). A virile young man (one of our "warriors") is killed. The raiders hold everyone at gunpoint while they cull the best of the babes, then run off with their captives. The lewd leering of Nadir as he oogles our babes, completes the theme that our stolen women were not going to a better life. All this sets the tone for the also-quirky film Mars Needs Women ('67?)

Roomy Quarters -- Like many a sci-fi space ship, the alien craft in FMSM is a small thing, but seems to have in infinite amount of room inside. A control room, corridors, holding cells, the purification lab, and even room for storing a monster. The ship itself appears to be made from a geodesic radar dome, painted silver. The interior sets (shot in studios on Long Island, NY) tried to carry on the geodesic look in painted wood and plywood. The usual array of dials and switches make up the control panels.

Budget Bad Guys -- The make-up for the alien men is amusingly basic. Their bald-wig skull caps have marginally hidden seams. The clay pointy ear extensions look lumpy and obvious. Add some overall white face paint, and viola, you've got aliens. Interestingly, Princess Marcuzon doesn't have white face paint. The egyptian-esque head dress spared her from the ear extensions.

From Playmate to Princess -- Marilyn Hanold plays Princess Marcuzan. This was the big starring role of her acting career. She had a bit part (as Peggy) in The Brain That Wouldn't Die ('62). She was Playmate of the Month in June 1959. Her costume was surprisingly modest, given her assets and the exploitation theme of the film.

Vespa, The Star -- An unintended star in the cast was a little motor scooter. Dr. Adam Steele rents the scooter to go check out Frank sightings inland. Karen rides on the back, arms around him, while the music track plays a romantic 60s rock tune: "To Have and to Hold," by the Distant Cousins. Karen is rushing for help on the scooter when she's abducted. Adam rushes for help on the scooter after she's abducted. The chainsaw-like whine of the scooter's little two-cycle engine makes for a decidedly unheroic noise while he's riding to the rescue. At the end of the film, beneath the end credits, Adam and Karen ride the scooter around the streets of San Juan (behind the camera truck) while romantic rock tune plays.

Odds at Ends -- The writer or director gave FMSM an odd ending. Adam and Karen's hi-tech project was just destroyed in a fire ball. They just learned there are hostile aliens with interplanetary travel. The just learned there are hideous monsters out there in space. But, what the heck, we've got the scooter for another couple hours, so let's go sight seeing "like lovers dooooo" (say the lyrics). This bit of tourism travelogue is reminiscent of touristy sightseeing around Copenhagen in Reptilicus ('63)

Bottom line? FMSM is a low-grade B film (even though it was the headliner) whose cheap costumes, sets and effects will probably annoy viewers who demand quality. The story line isn't particularly deep either. Yet, for fans of cheap 50s sci-fi, those who liked the old serials, or fans of "so bad it's good," will find a little gym in FMSM.

Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

Roger Corman was again working behind the scenes to create another example of the dub/edit sub-genre. His dub/edit Battle Beyond the Sun brought the soviet film Nebo Zovyot to American audiences. This time, he brought the 1962 Soviet film Planeta Bur to American viewers as Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (V2PP). The title is actually a fair (if uninspired) descriptor for the film and the writing/dubbing follows the original story pretty closely. Corman added some bits of new footage with a couple stars that would have box office value in America, but otherwise left the story unchanged. The dubbing gives V2PP an inevitably B quality, but the sets and costumes still look big budget. The lack of a theater poster for V2PP suggests that American International Pictures may have aimed it at the direct-to-TV market. (hence the DVD cover art in lieu of a poster)

Quick Plot Synopsis
After a bit of new footage of some moon colony models and narrated intro about colonizing the moon, the Planeta Bur footage begins. Read the original synopsis for the overall story. Planeta Bur. Basically, a three-ship mission to Venus becomes a two-ship mission. The men land anyhow and explore, finding dinosaurs and hints of a hidden ancient civilization. The one woman crew member stays in orbit. They all eventually regroup and blast off, just as one of them finds proof of humanoids on Venus. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The original movie was fun, (hover car, robot, etc.) so this version maintains some of that fun. The edits do tighten up the pacing a bit.

Cold War Angle
As with the original, there is less of the usual Cold War analogies. There is no mention of nukes or some shadowy "other side".

Notes
Fading Stars -- Corman shot some new footage, using two English speaking "stars", Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue. Both had some marquee value, but more so for fans of 50s movies.They didn't get new roles, but replace existing roles in the original. Basil plays Professor Harding on the moon base, as a sort of mission control voice. He replaces the disembodied speaker voice of mission control from the original. His function in the story is the same. Faith replaces the somewhat plain looking Russian actress who played Masha in the original. All the footage with Masha is cut. Some of the vital ones were reshot with Faith as Marsha (note the added R in the name). Ostensibly, she is supposed to have been a crew member with Kern and Sherman, but they are (naturally) never seen together. Both Faith and Basil are a looking a bit long in the tooth and really add little life over what the soviet actors had. In fact, without the romantic angle that Ivan & Masha had, Faith's Marsha becomes rather flat. Do, however, note her very 60s sculpted hair.

Cheap Inserts -- Viewers will note how the sets used for Faith and Basil's parts look noticeably cheap compared to the soviet originals. These cheap sets and rudimentary props give the dub/edit a distinctly 50s B-grade feel -- almost a 50s TV sets feel, ala Rocky Jones: Space Ranger.

Bottom line? If the original Plenta Bur (with subtitles) is unavailable, V2PP is a passable way to get the film. The original is a bit longer, slower, and prone to talky scenes, but plays more sincerely. For a study in film recycling, it can interesting to watch the original, then V2PP, then its "sequel" Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women ('68) This latter film also merges in some of Nebo Zovyot footage too.

These Are The Damned

Released in America in 1965, as These are the Damned (TatD) is actually the second of the "Damned" triology. Columbia & Hammer Films produced The Damned in '61, one year after the classic Village of the Damned, but released it in the UK in '63. Children of the Damned was released in '64. The story of TatD is not so much a sequel, as a variation on the theme of "special children." Two independent plot threads become entwined in the second half. The British posters stressed the reckless youth angle. The American posters suggested (with the glowing eyes) a connection to the first movie. In TatD, however, the children's eyes do not glow.

Quick Plot Synopsis
An American tourist, Simon Wells is lured into a mugging by a pretty woman named Joan -- the sister of the gang leader. Simon is taken to cafe by plain-clothes military men, where he meets Bernard, the leader of a secret project. The next day, Joan, feeling bad about Simon, goes to him on his boat. An awkward May-September relationship develops. The gang leader, King, threatens Simon, so he and Joan leave on his boat. They come ashore and spend an implied romantic night at a coastal cottage used by Bernard's former flame, Freya, as an artist's getaway. Freya arrives, so Simon and Joan run into the night. They are pursued by King's gang. To escape, Simon and Joan climb the fence of the secret project's grounds. King chases them off a cliff and falls off himself. A group of children rescue Simon and Joan. Another, Henry, rescues the nearly drowned King. The children take them to their secret hideout. There is something different (and wrong with) these nine kids. They live underground, cut off from all outside contact. Bernard is their manager and teacher. King starts to get sick. Bernard decides to send in his men (in hazmat suits) to extract the three adults, but the three get the upper hand. It turns out that the children are radioactive. That's what makes outsiders sicken and die around them. All nine were the result of accidental radiation on their pregnant mothers. Bernard's government-sponsored project is to raise the kids as replacement people for a post-armegeddon earth. The three adults lead the children in an escape, but it fails. The children are rounded up. King, weak from radiation poisoning, drives Freya's car off a wharf. Bernard shoots Freya for now knowing too much of the secret project. Simon and Joan escape to Simon's boat, but are sick. Bernard says they'll die soon. When they do, their boat will be blown up. A helicopter follows Simon's boat. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Character development keeps the pace is a bit slow in the beginning, but the story gets fast and suspenseful in the second half. The insidious secret-government-plot was fairly new in '61. The characters are written with some depth, so TatD works, even as a social-commentary drama.

Cold War Angle
This shows up later in the movie is blatant. Bernard gives his rationale to Freya near the end. "To survive the destruction that is inevitabally coming, we need a new kind of man. An accident gave us 9 precious children. They can survive in the conditions which must inevitably exist, when the time comes. Every nation is searching for the key to survival and we have found it. When the 'thing' happens, (the equipment) will open the door, and my children will come out to inherit the earth."

Notes
Damned Franchise -- Apparently, British audiences (or marketers) liked the word "damned," so brandished it where they could. John Wyndham's original story, "The Midwich Cuckoos" which was the basis for the first "Damned" film (Village of the Damned ('60) ) was about alien xenogenisis. The hybrid children had special powers which included the ability to cause death, so were much feared. The second "Damned" movie (TatD) was about otherwise normal children who had earthly origins, even if accidental. The third "Damned" movie, Children of the Damned ('64) picked up on Wyndham's original notion, though obliquely.

Leisure's Dark Side -- Much of TatD is spent on social commentary about the dark side of post-WWII prosperity. Increased living standards gave rise to disaffected youth who had no pressing need to work (and thereby lacked purpose). The occasional crime was enough to support their minimal (nihlist) lifestyle. The Teddy Boys seem a bit tame to modern audiences, but in early 60s Britain, they represented the threat of idle (hostile) youth.

Odd Theme Song -- Pervasive throughout TatD is the peculiar theme song: Black Leather Rock. Viewers too far removed from 50s and pre-hippy beatnik-ism, the lyrics sound a bit childish and/or stupid. "Black leather, black leather, rock rock rock." Repeat ad nauseum substituting the final triplet with: smash, kill, etc. Odd as it sounds, the theme tune does capture some of the mood of the era's self-absorbed, anarchistic and nihlistic youth culture.

Pick Yer Poison -- The Teddy Boys, and especially the sociopathic King, represented a visible threat to decent society. They were selfish and brutal, but visible. Bernard and his secret government project, however, represented a far worse threat. Note the scene near the end, when Bernard rather cooly pulls out his pistol and shoots Freya (a former lover of his) dead for knowing too much. Petty bully or fascistic Big Brother, which was the bigger threat?

Early Plots & Black Helicopters -- An interesting cultural icon note, is how early the insidious secret government plot had helicopters as its harpies. In TatD, they were chubby Sikorsky H-55s. The role would later get more sinister looking attack helicopters like Blackhawks or Apache gunships. TatD had them first!

Bottom line? TatD is a bit obscure to the mainstream of sci-fi, but well worth seeking out. It doesn't really follow Wyndham's original premise, but still raises quite a few issues, makes several statements, and has enough action (in the latter half) to keep viewers' attention. The overall mood is a bit gloomy, but it is not dull.

Monster A Go-Go

Frequently making critics' "worst movie ever" lists, Monster A Go-Go (MaGG) certainly suffers from the usual low budget indie B foibles. Add to that, it being an incomplete project patched to "completion" by someone else on the cheap, and there are ample reasons the movie gets low marks from critics. Even if finished as planned, it would have been an odd collection of non sequitur vignettes and a rehash of the familiar trope in which a returning astronaut becomes a monster.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A capsule returns from its mission after an extended loss of contact. A helicopter pilot finds the capsule but dies shortly afterward. No sign of the astronaut. Dr. Logan reports that the helicopter pilot was "cooked" to death by contacting something radioactive. The head of the project, Chris Manning arrives in an Air Force DC-3 to help investigate the pilot's death. Cut to a groovin' dance party. Enjoy a close-up of a girl vigorously shaking her peaches for the lens. A grumpy boyfriend extracts his dance-around girlfriend. They drive into the night, but later park to kiss and make up. He tries to make up too much, so she leaves. He is killed by the monster. She passes out. Next day, Dr. Henry Logan goes to check out the landing site to follow a hunch. He is ambushed and killed by the tall, gaunt man-monster. A Dr. Brent arrives in a small Cessna, to take over for Manning. He finds out about a radiation repellant drug, given to Douglas (the astronaut) which was unapproved. It caused a test animal to double in size, then die. When everyone at the lab has gone home, Dr. Conrad Logan prepares to give the monster (whom he has been hiding in his lab for 8 weeks!) more antidote drug. He finds the lab ravaged, all the antidote and monster gone. Brent berates Logan for being a total incompetent. The monster scares some sunbathing women. Conrad tells Conners, (now a Colonel) that the monster's radiation radius gets bigger between antidote injections. Conners orders lethal force to stop it. Troops deployed, (perhaps around Ruth's house?) but it eludes their dragnet. A truck driver helps a flirtatious women start her car. In doing so, he gets a lethal dose of radiation. He dies in town (Chicago). Now the monster is somewhere in Chicago. A network of geiger counters are hooked up to an oscilloscope to locate him. It works for a bit, but he hides in an abandoned dead end tunnel. Two men go in with hazmat suits and decontamination spray. They follow the monster in for awhile, but he suddenly vanishes without a trace. When the hazmat guys come out, they receive a telegram reporting that astronaut Frank Douglas was found alive and well, 8000 miles away. It is a total mystery. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Fun might not be the word. A fan of bad movies would find it fascinating -- an odd puzzle, more than a simple entertainment story. The overall effect smacks of cheap 50s sci-fi: radiation, monsters, a military man or two, a scientist or two.

Cold War Angle
Radiation is the lethal agent in all the deaths. There is a poorly conveyed cautionary element about the hazards of things atomic.

Notes
Unfinished Symphony -- Bill Rebane began his film in 1961 (or so)
with the working title: "Terror at Halfday." (Perhaps supposedly taking place in Half Day, a small town 30 miles north of Chicago) At some point, he ran out of money and shelved the incomplete project. H.G. Lewis bought the unfinished work and finished it (sort of) Lewis added the narration and is said to have shot some new scenes to flesh out the story (ostensibly) and fill out the run time. Just how much Lewis added is unclear. Even the obviously older footage (presumably Rebane's original) is inconsistent enough to suggest that Halfday was started and stopped a few times over a couple years before finally getting shelved. Lewis's motivation was pure business (see "Package Deal" below) He needed a B film to maximize the profits of his Moonshine Mountain. This suggests that Lewis would be unlikely to shoot much new footage -- certainly not enough to account for the inconsistencies and oddities. That would be almost half the film. The utter lack of an ending suggests that Lewis did as little as possible to cobble together a film. So, most of the footage may have been Rebane's, including out-takes and extra which Rebane didn't plan to use (such as the extended scenes of firemen trotting around).

Package Deal -- H.G. Lewis was looking for a B feature in order to have a second-feature to release with his Moonshine Mountain. Lewis himself said his motivation was purely financial. Distributors would make double-features out of singly released films. Unscrupulous distributors would then claim both films were the B feature, so paid less for them. To ensure his Moonshine Mountain brought in whatever first-feature returns it could, Lewis needed his own package deal B feature. It didn't matter how lame the B was, as long as he had one. Lewis changed the title to sucker in some ticket sales. Anything with "monster" in the title was good for some sales. The "a go-go" was a trendy buzzword worth a few tickets too. (see below)

Why A Go-Go? -- Go-Go dancing and discotheques were becoming a hot item in the mid 60s. The original was "Whiskey a gogo" in Paris. ( a gogo meant "with abundance, lively, energetic.") Some American copies had opened up in the late 50s. The most famous was on Sunset Strip. It was there that the iconic "go go dancer" (shapely girl in a cage, wearing a fringed miniskirt and tall white boots) was born. Go Go was edgy. One San Francisco club was famous for having well-endowed topless dancers. By the mid-60s, Go Go was more mainstream, but still had some of that risky edge. It was a hot new trend (until overshadowed by the hippy era of the late 60s) Even if MaGG had no real go-go, (the dance party scene is its only weak claim to it), the mere mention was innuendo enough to sell a few tickets.

Cast Away -- There are almost two separate casts in MaGG. In the first half, we have Carl, Nora, Chris Manning and Dr. Henry Logan of the astrophysics lab. Ruth is astronaut Frank Douglas's girlfriend (she's a widow). The military man is Captain Steve Conners (clearly sporting captain's bars on his jacket). In the second half, Ruth is gone completely, as are Carl and Chris. Dr. Brent arrives and takes Manning's place. Dr. Henry Logan is dead, but brother, Dr. Conrad Logan (who wasn't in the first half) fills his role as white-coat. Conners is still with the cast, but now a Colonel (with palms on his lapels). Henry Hite plays the role of the monster, but his only clear interaction with any of the cast is with Henry Logan (whom he kills). Shots of him lumbering around alone are interspersed. Only Conners and Nora (with differing hair styles) stay throughout.

Telltail Lights -- The automobiles in MaGG are early 60s models, so probably from Rebane's footage. They seem to indicate that he worked on Halfday off and on over several years (61 to 63) In the opening scene, Conners is in a 1960 Chevy Impala. When they pick up Manning from the airport, it is in a black 1962 Pontiac Bonneville. Henry Logan drove a gray(?) '62 Bonneville. The floozy in the trucker-kiss scene had a 1960 Bonneville. Even the Chicago Civil Defense footage shows early 60s cars on the street, such as a '62 Chevy Biscayne. No '64 or '65 cars are seen. The dance scene (oft rumored to have been inserted by Lewis) has the angry boyfriend put his date into a '61 Pontiac Tempest. He stops to smooch and die in a '63 Pontiac LeMans, but first-cast members Chris and Carl examine the body (beside said LeMans), so this seems like Rebane footage.

Sing Along! -- In case you wanted to sing along, here are the lyrics to the movie's ballad:
Go, you monster, back to space
I don't like your haunted face,
Awlright
Go, you monster, go
Go, you monster, go now
Go, you monster, go!

You may come from beyond the moon
But to me, you're just a goon,
Awright
Go, you monster, go
Awwwww-right nowwwww
Go, you monster, go!

Missing Music -- When Carl takes Ruth out to a restaurant to soothe her anxiety about Frank being missing, he asks if she, "Remembers that song?" No music is playing. Rebane probably intended to add a music track, but hadn't yet. Lewis never bothered. How much footage would a man who didn't care about this sort of detail, have spent the money to produce?

Bad Ring To It -- Another foible MaGG is notorious for is the fake phone ring. In the second half, (now) Colonel Conners sits at the table in the command headquarters (a computer room). The camera pans to the phone and we faintly hear off-stage, someone make a Brrrrr noise with his voice. Conners answers the phone and hears of the frightened sunbathers. In all likelihood, this is another bit of Rebane's unfinished footage. The stage hand's cue was probably supposed to get over-dubbed with a stock phone ring sound in post-production. Yet another clue to how little Lewis was finishing Rebane's project.

Grand Ending -- MaGG is famous for its abrupt and total non sequitur ending. The monster simply vanishes and the real astronaut conveniently appears (off camera, mentioned in a telegram). Clearly, Rebane hadn't shot an ending and Lewis was not keen to put any money into shooting one. No doubt he inserted the close-up of the telegram, and used the lame technique of a narrator expository wrap it up -- such as it was.

What Was He Thinking? -- Eclectic as it is, Rebane's story would seem to have been a variation on the mutated astronaut trope. (The Quatermass Xperiment, First Man Into Space, etc.) With the domestic love-interest of Ruth and little Jimmy, and the suggestion that the monster was trying to get to Ruth's house, Rebane may have intended monster-Douglas to get cured in the end. Along the way, it seems like Rebane was into making social-moral messages.

Bottom line? Anyone offended by low production value films should stay away. MaGG is less coherent than The Creeping Terror or Plan 9. It lacks any artsy eccentricities like Manos. Fans of really low grade "Z" movies will be amused (in an MST3K sort of way) at the bizarre collection of scenes and craters of non-continuity. True fans of cheap 50s sci-fi may find MaGG an interesting puzzle to muse over.