The Manster

To better understand the two 70s two-headed-man films, it is worth looking at their direct inspiration. In 1962, there was The Manster -- a horror/sci-fi hybrid. This film was the American release of the 1959 japanese-american production entitled, "The Homicidal Maniac with Two Heads". The American version also ran as The Split. George Breakston was the writer, producer and director. Normally, such one-man-shows fail for lack of supervision, but Breakston had done several such one-man productions before, so avoided the usual pitfalls. Peter Dynsley stars as Larry Stanford, the reporter who becomes the two-headed man monster (Man-ster). Dynsley's real wife, Jane Hylton, plays Larry's wife, Linda.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Under the title and credits, a shadowy ape-man attacks and kills some skinny dipping geishas. The beast returns to Dr. Suzuki's lab. He shoots the beast, who had been his brother. In a cage is a deformed woman, Emiko, who had been his wife. Both, experiments gone wrong. Enter journalist Larry Stanford to interview Dr. Suzuki on his work in evolution. The doctor decides to inject Larry with his new-and-improved serum. Back in Tokyo, Larry becomes more irritable and less interested in making up with his estranged wife, Linda. Dr. Suzuki is in town, and shows Larry the delights of geisha houses. Larry becomes rather debauched and a drunkard. He also becomes smitten with Dr. Suzuki's "girlfriend" Tara. Through all of this, Larry feels a pain in his shoulder. Ian, Larry's editor, tries to get Larry some help (psychiatrist, Dr. Jennsen) but Larry just rampages around. Larry's right hand morphs into a wolfman hand. He rampages around Tokyo, killing random people. At one point, he takes his shirt off to investigate the shoulder pain and discovers an eye. He screams and runs to Dr. Jennsen. At Dr. J's office, the second head sprouts up. Dr. J is killed. Ian tells the police that he thinks the killer is Larry. They go to his apartment, just in time to save Linda from two-headed-Larry. Much chase and pursuit footage ensues. Larry gives them all the slip. Dr. Suzuki tells Tara that he thinks he has a drug solution that will correct the earlier serum's error. It should split Larry into two beings. Tara, fed up with the whole mad scientist's girlfriend gig, leaves to call the police. Dr. Suzuki, full of remorse over his tampering, shoots Emiko and is about to commit hari-kari when Larry enters the lab and knocks out Tara. He is, at first, subservient and obedient to Dr. Suzuki, until the doc jabs him with the new drug. Larry kills Dr. J. He grabs up limp Tara and runs up the volcano. The police pursue, with Ian and Linda too. At the rim of the volcano crater, Larry "splits" into two. His left half being morphs back into mild-mannered human Larry. His right half is a hairy snarling ape-man beast. The beast and Larry fight. The beast throws Tara into the volcano. Larry makes his move then, and pushes the beast into the volcano. Linda rushes up "Oh Larry" and gives him a hug. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The low budget gives Manster an odd, campy quality, akin to so many cheap horror films of the late 50s. Yet, there is an earnestness to the production which tries to shine through. There are the three iconic scenes which, while not great cinema, are nonetheless very memorable.

Cultural Connection
The depths of the human soul have long been the basis of great science fiction. From Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, through to the 50s' Golden Era, the many aspects of the human psyche have made for great stories. Mankind's "dual" nature -- part civilized, part savage -- gets used often, usually with some "science" as the catalyst that makes the two more distinct. Manster is one of these stories.

Notes
Neo-Frankenstein -- Dr. Suzuki is the classic Frankenstein model of the "mad" scientist. He has a vague notion of his work being for the betterment of mankind (or at least, Science). Yet, he has no sympathy for the individual. Like Frankenstein, he is recklessly leaping into unknown realms, and then surprised that his results turn out so badly. He feels remorse, even repentance at his misdeeds, but too late. He is killed by his own monster. Also akin to Frankenstein, the monster is the result of medical tampering not radiation, as we so commonly the cause in late 50s Japanese sci-fi.

Three Iconic Scenes -- While they may seem cheesy to modern eyes, three scenes in Manster made a big impression on young viewers. The first was Larry discovering the eye on his shoulder. The second was the growing of the second head while in Dr. Jennsen's office. The third was the splitting scene up on the volcano.

B Feature -- The film was titled Manster for some of its American run. In 1962, it ran as the second feature in drive-ins, to Eye's Without A Face, retitled as The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. Both films dealt with medical doctors dabbling beyond ethics and disfigurement.

The Dark Side -- Breakston's story is a reframing of Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll tale with a 50s spin. Instead of a single man alternating between his good and evil self, Breakston has his character descend from the "good" (civilized, moral, clean-cut, sober) to the "bad" (brutal, licentious, grubby, drunken), and then grow a second head to symbolize the dual nature of man. Note too, that the dark side of man is pictured as an ape. This is an old trope. This is dramatized more clearly by the split near the end. One half is Larry's "good" side (he even returns to being clean cut), while his dark half is savage and hairy. This pairing of good and bad heads would become the foundation for the 70s two-headed-monster films. The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant ('71) would repeat the good-and-evil theme. The Thing With Two Heads ('72) would opt for racism, one black, one white. Note too, that Breakston employed the good-girl / bad-girl trope from Dr. Jekyll. Linda is the virtuous woman (Muriel from 1931) and Tara is the manipulative prostitute (Ivy from 1931).

Metaphor? -- While it can be dicey to read too much into B sci-fi screenplays, it does seem as if Breakston is painting a metaphor about the loss of conservative (50s) values. Larry, the hard working man who wants to lead a proper married life, is enticed (by Dr. Suzuki) into a life of hedonistic abandon (the same as Mr. Hyde sought). There is much drinking and drunkenness, but note the frequent sexual references. There are many geishas, several bathing naked. Tara alludes to having come from the life of a "bad girl." She seduces Larry. And, as such bad girls are apparently unredeemable (too broken to ever be a good girl again), she is killed by the beast. Indeed, one could almost see the film as a metaphor for infidelity. In playing up the sexuality, Breakston seems to be keying off of Paramount's 1931 Jekyll film which was chock full of sexual themes. When the temptress is dead, Larry can be the married man again.

Bottom line? Manster is a peculiar B-grade sci-fi/horror hybrid. A bigger budget and more careful special effects might have lifted it to a minor A film, but the story can be appreciated nonetheless. The film has a cult following and even had "legs" enough to spawn a couple of variations on the theme in the early 70s. Manster made a bigger impression than it might seem.

Eyes Without A Face

In the mood of FrankenFEST, this seemed like a good time to digress a bit to an earlier horror/sci-fi hybrid with somewhat similar themes. Eyes Without A Face (EWAF) was released in France in 1960. (French title being: "Les yeux sans visage") As with many such hybrids, it was more horror than sci-fi, but then, so were most Frankenstein films. So, inclusion seemed within bounds. EWAF was released in America in 1962, dubbed into English, under the misleading title of The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus

Quick Plot Synopsis
Louise drives to a river by night. She dumps in a young woman's body. Later, the police find the body, but her face is missing. They ask Dr. Genessier to identify the body, since his daughter has been missing too (following a car crash that disfigured her face.) Doc says it's his daughter, but the dead girl was really Simone Tassot. A funeral is held for Christiane. Doc's daughter, Christiane is alive and hidden in his chateau. Simone was the dead face donor, but it failed. Louise scopes out a lonely parisian student named Edna who also resembles Christiane. She befriends Edna over several days, then says she found a room for her. At the chateau, Doc chloroforms her. He removes her face and puts it onto Christiane. Edna wakes up eventually, is terrified by it all and jumps out a window to her death. Doc and Louise bury her in the crypt for Christiane. The new face looks great, but her body eventually rejects it. She just wants to die, but her father says he will succeed. The police enlist the aide of Paulette, a girl Christiane's size, caught shoplifting. They have her check into a clinic complaining of headaches. Doc scopes her out, but releases her as not sick. Louise gives her a ride. Now Paulette is on the operating table. He is interrupted by the police inspectors coming to ask about Paulette. Doc plays innocent. They leave. Meanwhile, Paulette wakes from the anesthesia. Christiane cuts her straps. She also stabs Louise. She dies. Paulette flees. Christiane releases all the dogs in the kennel. They attack Dr. Genessier as he walks back from the clinic. She also releases some white doves from a cage. She walks past he dead father, his face chewed up, and walks on into the night. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Horror films are seldom "fun" per se, but EWAF carries itself like a somber poetic version of the familiar Frankenstein tale. The director, Georges Franju, provides some rich and compelling visuals, even in black and white.

Cultural Take
Horror films were beginning to be popular in Europe (Hammer Films, for example). They had a tougher crowd to satisfy, however. The French disliked too much blood. The British disliked harm to animals (but didn't mind blood as much). The Germans (understandably) were sensitive to mad scientist portrayals. EWAF manages to avoid all those obstacles.

Notes
French-enstein -- The basics of EWAF are quite familiar. You have a noble-minded, but ethically-challenged doctor. You have people going missing as they supply parts for the doctor's project. You have a "horrible monster" that he just can't quite get right. The "monster" kills the bad doctor in the end. All very familiar Frankenstein ground. Yet, in EWAF the mood is notably different. The doctor is "mad" in quiet, methodical and stoic way. His monster is still a social outcast, though she is a sort of anti-monster. She is delicate, almost fragile and "floats"from room to room in lieu of lumbering. In this, she takes James Whale's monster's pathos even further.

Artsy Touches -- Showing that the film was not just gore for the sake of gore (that would come by the late 60s), Franju included artsy elements, such as Christiane having her artificial mask, and the face of Edna being lifted off as just another make, though made of flesh. Aren't we all hiding behind masks, in a way? Then there was the long scene of the doctor walking up all those stairs, with many long up-camera angles, contrasted with Christiane's descent of those many same stairs, with many long down-camera angles. Then too, there was her painted portrait in the study, before the accident, all pretty, with a white dove on her hand. The film ends with her freeing some white doves from a cage, and carrying one of them on her hand as she walked off into the dark woods. All very artsy.

Ironic Art -- Modern viewers will note the prescient irony in EWAF, in that in 2006, it was in France that doctors performed the first real face transplant on a woman. To prevent tissue rejection, Isabelle Dinoire must take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of her life, or her new face will decay just like Christiane's did in EWAF. For added irony, given how Dr. Genessier died in the movie (face mauled by dogs), Dinoire's face was mauled by her dog.

Marketing to the Masses -- The english dubbed version

was released in 1962. The distributors decided to give it a more sensational title: The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus, even though Dr. Génessier was never referred to as "Dr. Faustus". The dubbed track followed the french pretty closely. Of course, over-hyped movie posters were nothing new. Anything to sell a ticket. EWAF was double-billed with The Manster, another dubbed horror/monster film.

Bottom line? EWAF is well worth watching as a closet classic. The cinematography is engaging, as is the contrast between the horrific "realities" and the stately manner in which they're carried out. EWAF is not strong on the science in its fiction, but no less so than many other hybrids tagged as sci-fi. EWAF is a much better film than most of the usual hybrids.

Panic In The Year Zero!

American International Pictures was not famous for great movies, but Panic In The Year Zero (PYZ) was a pretty good movie. It was highly topical, given that it was released at the frightening height of the Cold War. It starred, and was directed by Ray Milland -- an actor past his peak, but still solid. Frankie Avalon -- before becoming mired in the whole beach party genre, plays his son Rick. PYZ is classic Atomic Angst, playing out the "what if..." following an all-out nuclear war. The film is sometimes categorized as sci-fi, but this may be because nuclear apocalypse films often were. There is no science in PYZ. There is a tangental connection to sci-fi via the writer Jay Simms. He did pen several B sci-fi movies, however. He brought us The Killer Shrews, The Giant Gila Monster (both '59) and Creation of the Humanoids ('62)

Quick Plot Synopsis
The Baldwin family set out for a fishing vacation in the hills. A few hours outside of Los Angeles they see bright flashes from behind them. Massive mushroom clouds rise of LA. Ann, Harry's wife, wants to return to see if her mother is okay, but reckless refugee traffic eventually turns them back. Harry decides that civilization is about to crumble so he turns off to an out-of-the-way small town to buy supplies. They stock up on groceries and hardware like axes and rope. When Ed Johnson, the hardware store owner refuses Harry's check and promise to return and pay, Harry decks him and leaves (with the goods). A gas station operator tries to gouge $3 a gallon (sakes!) where his sign says 34 cents per gallon. Harry decks him and leaves the ten dollars (regular price.) The Baldwins eventually escape the traffic, but are beset by a convertible carrying three hoodlums. The three plan to rob and kill Harry, but Rick (Avalon) shoots from within the trailer, wounding Andy slightly. The hoodlums depart. Once at the remote campsite, Harry and Rick wreck the rickety bridge, limiting access. Rick knows of a cave in the rocky hills big enough to live in. The family set up home in the cave. Scattered radio reports tell of other major cities being destroyed by nuclear attack, and American counter attacks on enemy cities. Law and order difficult to maintain. The UN declares this to be the year zero. Harry encounters Ed Johnson in the woods. He and his wife set up home in the Baldwin's abandoned trailer. Harry's cool to the idea of socializing, worried that it would expose their cave hideout. Smoke from a distant farmhouse belies someone else living in the area too. While hunting a buck, Rick hears two shots fired. Later, he and Harry find Mr and Mrs. Johnson shot dead at the trailer. The three hoodlums have set up home in the farmhouse. One day, Ann does laundry in the river, but one of her slips floats away. Andy and Mickey find it, follow upriver, and come across Karen (the Baldwin's teen daughter). There is an off-camera suggestion that Mickey sexually abuses Karen. Her screams bring Ann running. She takes a distant shot at the men, frightening them off. Harry finds out and is outraged at the hoodlums. He and Rick sneak up to the farmhouse while the leader, Carl, is away. Harry overhears Mickey and Andy talking about attacking Karen. He and Rick burst in. Mickey makes a move for a gun, so Harry shoots him. Andy looks contrite, but Harry shoots him anyway. They search the house and find the hoodlums' sex slave, Marilyn locked in a bedroom. She's wary, but agrees to come with them. They hide the bodies in the barn. Back at the cave, Karen is recovering and Marilyn is softening to Rick's 50s cuteness. Carl, prowling for who killed his buddies, comes upon Marilyn and Rick out gathering firewood. Carl shoots Rick in the thigh. Marilyn shoots Carl dead. The first aid kit isn't enough for Rick's wound, so they uncover the car and drive to the nearest town looking for a doctor. They find one, but he says Rick needs blood. The nearest hospital with blood is 60 miles away. The Baldwins drive on into the night, but encounter another vehicle. Instead of hoodlums, it turns out to be an advanced Army patrol. They direct Harry to an aid station just 10 miles down the road. As they drive off, the two soldiers reflect on the hopeful future of America. The End.

Apocalypse Survived
Like many dramas of the Cold War era, PYZ plays out the scenario of the collapse of civilization after a massive nuclear war. Instead of focusing on radiation (mutants or sickness or death), the story stays confined to lawlessness and survival. The off-screen devastation and chaos leave survivors in the hinterlands on their own. Some become greedy, some become rapists and killers. That background of fallen man is what Harry Baldwin is headstrong determined to have his family survive. They do, but not unscathed. The moral of the story is: as bad as nuclear war can be, it can be survived. This is quite the opposite message from the movie On The Beach ('59) in which no one survives.

Cold War Spotlight
One of the nagging fears of the Cold War era was that doom could rain at any moment -- without warning. The Baldwin family blithely start a vacation with no hint from current events that a nuclear attack was at hand. The radio announcer provides the larger off-screen view that most major western cities were destroyed and that American had retaliated. Several of the "enemy's" cities were destroyed too. A subtle hint of patriotic confidence is written in, such that we hear the enemy sues for peace terms. America "won."

Notes
Man's Dark Side -- The real story within PYZ is not the more familiar atomic mutants that result from a nuclear war. It is the emergence of mankind's own "dark side" from within. The various institutions of civilization corral and leash fallen man's tendency towards evil, but it is never truly tamed, or eliminated. In the Cold War ethos, global nuclear war would break down civilization's fences, snap the leash. This is shown in small stages -- price gouging, etc. -- but most clearly in the three hoodlums: Carl, Mickey and Andy. They represent ruthless, black-hearted man, amused at theft, killing and rape. But note too, how Harry, Ann and Rick discover their own hint of dark side. Each comes to accept killing too, albeit for more noble reasons.

Panic's Two Faces -- It can seem, at first, that the characters of Harry and Ann are written shallow. She is all denial. He becomes authoritarian, with total bunker-vision. Yet, with a bit deeper look, Harry and Ann each portray two polar responses to the nuclear apocalypse -- go into survival mode and try to remain civilized. Both of these would be present in most people. Indeed, the two responses are present in both Harry and Ann. He chides her for clinging too hard to the old ways of civility, yet acts honorably. He decks the price-gouging gas station man, but still pays (advertised price) for his gas. Ann, still expecting mutual civility, balks at the killing of hoodlum Andy at first encounter. Yet, later, she is quick to shoot at him as they ravage her daughter. By the end of the film, the two faces have become more blended in both Harry and Ann. Both live in bunkerism with hope for civility's return.

Army? Thank God! -- A background current within the story is that American society and institutions are essentially "good." There are just some very bad apples in the bunch. Store owner Ed Johnson turns out to be just a regular guy, then hapless victim of evil. Dr. Strong (aptly named) is a noble remnant. The America-is-okay sentiment is most evident when the Baldwins encounter the army patrol near the very end of the film. "Oh Harry, the ARMY. Thank God!" Darker, most pessimistic (modern) films would have cast the doctor as just another guy on the make, and the army patrol is little better than uniformed hoodlums.

Familiar Ground -- The boulder-strewn landscape of "the hills" in which Harry hides is family, could look very familiar to people who watched a lot of westerns on television or Republic serials shot in the 40s and 50s. It looks familiar because it's the same land. TV series like Bonanza, Gunsmoke,The Virginian, and The Rifleman were shot there. In the sci-fi realm, the Commando Cody serials and Captain Video series were shot there too.

Car Nuts -- Fans of 50s (and early 60s) cars will find a candy store on parade. All the traffic scenes feature dozens of 40s, 50s and 60s iron. The Baldwin's '62 Mercury Monterey gets a lot of camera time, but there are glimpses of many less-famous models, too numerous to list here.

Bottom line? PYZ is well paced, with enough action and events to keep the average viewer engaged. The film's low budget prevent more lavish treatment of a nuclear holocaust, but Milland navigates this well enough by focusing on the human drama rather than topics requiring special effects, sets or extensive makeup. The result is a focused drama about the thinness of civilization's veneer. PYZ is a good peek into the Cold War citizen's heart.

This is Not a Test

Produced just before the Cuban Missile Crisis, This Is Not A Test (TINAT) was spot-on for the angst of its day. It is a mixed bag as a Nuclear Armageddon story. Some genre lists include TINAT as a sci-fi, though there is really no science in the fiction. It does, though, share with many 50s sci-fi, the topic of nuclear disaster. TINAT is an independent film with a strong film noir flavor. It was not the product of any major (or minor) studio, but rather, a personal work of "art" by Fredric Gadette, who was the director, a co-screenwriter and producer. The basic premise of a collection of strangers thrust together by a crisis was not new, but fitting.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Deputy Coulter gets a radio command to set up a road block on a remote desert highway around 4 in the morning. He doesn't know why, but obeys orders. He stops a group of strangers. Old Jake drives up with his granddaughter June (she's maybe 18 or so). Then arrives Cheryl the alcoholic and her boyfriend Joe, the hood. Sam and his wife Karen arrive next. She has a yappy dog named Timmy. Al drives up in his warehouse-supply semi rig. Al has Clint, a creey hitchhiker, with him. Later, young Peter arrives on his scooter. Coulter recognizes Clint as a wanted mad man killer. Clint escapes to the brush. Clint's radio reports that the crisis is an impending air raid attack. Their location is right between "the city", a military command center and a missile fuel refinery, so as remote as they are, their location is a likely "ground zero." Coulter decides that Al's truck will be their best shelter, so orders everyone to empty the trailer on such short notice. They unload, amid various human drama vignettes. Karen responds to Al's flirtations. Her husband, Sam, does little about it. Cheryl drinks too much. Joe talks jazzy jive talk. The truck had boxes of food and beverage. Coulter thinks they'll have to survive in the trailer for two weeks after the blast. He has Al drive to a better spot a quarter mile down the road. Karen rides with Al, not in back with her husband Sam. At the new spot, Coulter has them block the trailer's air vents with mud to keep out the radioactive air. June gets claustrophobic and refuses to get into the trailer. Her grandfather recalls some abandoned mines nearby, so he, June and Pete all run off. The rest get into the trailer. Sam, distraught, kills himself with the shotgun. Everyone else is locked into the trailer. Clint comes out of hiding, but all the car keys are gone. He vents his rage by killing some of Jake's chickens. It's hot and stuffy in the trailer. Cheryl strips off her blouse. Tensions flare. Coulter decides the dog Timmy will use up air, so kills it. Cheryl wigs out and opens the doors. Outside is a group of "looters". Coulter has a gun, but they overpower him, take some food and Karen. They drive off in Coulter's car. Jake tells June and Pete to hide deep in the mine. There's a spring for water inside it, and Pete will get food from a nearby cabin. Jake will just watch the end of the world from a mountain top. Meanwhile, the others have climbed back into the trailer and locked the door (from the inside?). Coulter comes to and pounds on the door to be let in. They refuse. The bright white flash fills the screen. The End.

Armageddon Escaped (and Not)
TINAT offers mostly a tale of futility and doom, but leaves in a sub-thread of hope and survival. The main focus is on the doomed group who stay with the trailer. There, despite Coulter's efforts and their will to survive, they are all wiped out in the blinding flash of the bomb. The understated hint of hope rests in June and Pete, a young Adam and Eve who are hinted at surviving the holocaust.

Cold War Spotlight
The late 50s (post-Sputnik) and early 60s were the most frantic period in Cold War tensions. In the 1960 Presidential campaign, America's "missile gap" was a drum beat loudly. Many Americans believed that the Soviets had huge numbers of long range nuclear missiles. The Cuban Missile Crisis later in '62 would bring this all to a head. The fear, panic and fatalism portrayed in TINAT was a palpable part of American culture in 1962. The threat of a sudden missile attack was never far from peoples' minds.

Notes
Bunkerism -- Airing on September 29, 1961 as a Twilight Zone episode entitled, "The Shelter." It is the fable of the ant and the grasshopper gone noir. In it, a man and his family take refuge in their home's bomb shelter when reports tell of unknown aircraft approaching. The neighbors all want into the shelter too but there isn't the room or the supplies. The neighbors panic and turn savage in an effort to get in. It turns out to be a false alarm. TINAT may have been inspired by this episode, but it may have been in development at about the same time (the cars in TINANT are 1961 vintage or older). They're not the same story, but both deal with how quickly civility breaks down in the face of impending doom.

Ground Zero Redux -- TINAT seems to build upon (but not copy) an earlier film. The movie Split Second ('53) featured a collection of strangers "trapped" at the site of an impending nuclear blast. In SS it was a Nevada test site. In TINAT, it's an actual attack. Both featured a hard-nosed "leader". Both featured faithless wives who end up driving away with criminals. Both had one of the group dying of a gunshot. Both featured three people escaping the group -- an old prospector type, a young woman and a young man -- to a nearby abandoned mine. Both featured the rest of the group dying in the blast.

Ignoble Leaders -- It seems, from watching 50s sci-fi and nuclear dramas, that people half-feared the bombs, but half-feared the collapse of civilization. People easily imagined despotic local leaders abusing their new power. Coulter starts out as the stalwart but out-of-his-league fragment of authority. The people obey him half-heartedly, but they do obey. As time goes on, Coulter gets more gruff and authoritarian. His ruthless killing of the little dog exemplifies the harsh realities of martial law. The others stage an empty coup by locking him out of the trailer.

Bottom line? TINAT is not a great movie, but it is not bad either. It isn't high quality, but it isn't flagrantly cheap either. Filming at night is more costly than day-for-night, for example. Yes, some of the acting is spotty and the writing is occasionally preachy. Yet, overall, the plot movies along. There is a film noir quality to it. It is a good example of the fear lingering in the background of Cold War era folks.

Hand of Death

This bit of digression is for a movie once deemed a "lost": Hand of Death (HoD). It developed more cache for being "lost" than it otherwise could on its own merits. It is really quite an ordinary film.Twentieth Century Fox produced this ultra-low-budget formula film in 1962 as an almost generic B-feature product. HoD starred John Agar, who had some marquee reputation among horror and sci-fi fans. The story (sometimes titled "Five Fingers of Death") is the usual rehash of hubris-dooms-scientist tale and ugly-monster-gets-hunted-down. Imagine a mash-up of Hideous Sun Demon ('59), First Man in Space ('59) and The Invisible Ray ('36).

Quick Plot Synopsis
A rural postman sees a bunch of dead sheep at a remote house, so stops to investigate. He drops over too. He and the sheep revive later. Scientist Alex Marsh (Agar) has been working on a special knock-out gas. Delighted that his unintended human test was a success, Alex goes to Los Angeles to talk his boss into funding more research on his knock-out-hypno-gas as an über weapon. Alex's girlfriend Carol laments at the lack of romance. Alex resumes work in the desert, but progress is slow. An accidentally spilled beaker exposes Alex to a deadly nerve gas mixture. He swoons and dreams of swirling beakers but does not die. He awakens, but finds out that his touch kills. His lab assistant is the first of many accidental victims. Alex covers his act with arson and flees to LA. Terrified at the thought of incarceration or hospitalization, Alex pleads with his boss to find a cure for him. After a few days, Alex puffs up to a crusty black-skinned hulk. At the sight of crusty Alex, his boss tries to get out of his wheel chair. When he falls, Alex tries to catch him. Boss dies and turns into a black crust. So Alex flees. While fleeing, he unintentionally kills a gas station attendant and a cab driver. Alex stumbles across Carol in a beach house. She keeps him there and quiet while the police arrive. In the beach showdown, Alex makes a move towards Carol, so the police shoot him dead. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
HoD has a retro feel, so it has some nostalgic appeal. While not a deep movie, it has several little points of interest. (see below)

Cold War Angle
Grafted into the conventional dangers-of-science story is the notion that Alex's gas would render nuclear weapons obsolete. His idea was a knock-out gas mixed with a hypnotic drug. Knock out the enemy, then persuade them be friendly. Cold War solved! Unless, the Russians are planning to do the same.

Notes
Customary Hubris -- As with many of the traditional science-gone-wrong tales, the star scientist smugly thinks he has things all figured out. Poetic justice has them fall victim to their hubris. Carol worries about Alex's work with deadly nerve gas. Alex assures her that scientists are all smarter now and take very precaution, etc. etc. Yet, what does he do? Set a beaker of deadly toxins next to his elbow on the table, and fall asleep. What could happen?

Make Suggestions, Not War -- Alex's brainstorm is bizarre at best. Mix a mild nerve gas (just enough to temporarily knock people out) with hallucinogens that will render the targets open to suggestion -- a drug-induced hypnosis state. Then, tell all those would-be enemies to be friendly...or whatever. The 'whatever' is the bizarre part. The only way his gas-drug weapon would be better than nukes, is that it would leave the buildings standing. There would still be a gas-based Cold War with each side trying to have more gas bombs than the other. A world in which the regime in power can gas and reprogram its opponents is too much like Orwell's 1984. Far from utopia. This reprogramming-gas world would make a good sci-fi movie plot.

Touch of Death -- In 1936, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff starred (together!) in a film called The Invisible Ray. In it, Karloff is exposed to an unknown isotope in a meteorite. Thus infected, he glows in the dark, but more saliently, whomever he touches dies (of radiation poisoning). It is a bit surprising that this touch-of-death trope wasn't used again until 25 years later.

The 3rd Third Stooge -- Watch for Joe Besser in a small role as the gas station attendant. Besser became the 3rd third stooge in 1955 after Shemp's death. His tenure with the Three Stooges was not a comfortable fit, so was short. Curly Joe replaced him by 1960, being then the 4th third stooge.

Bottom line? HoD is too much a rehash of well-worn plots and tropes to be of much interest to anyone beyond avid 50s sci-fi buffs. It can still be hard to track down a copy, but only diehard hubris-monster fans, or John Agar fans, may feel it is worth the effort.

1962

Since the closing of science fiction cinema's Golden Age (the 1950s) far fewer sci-fi films were release each year. 1960 had far less than 1959. 1961 had a couple less than 1960. 1962 had a bit less than 1961. Curiously, almost none of them were "home grown." Reworked and dubbed foreign sci-fi films made up the bulk of the offerings for '62 audiences to enjoy.

Planets Against Us -- Italian production about stealthy alien cyborgs, all patterned after one dead human, sabotaging earth's space efforts.

Journey to the Seventh Planet -- Joint American & Danish production about an alien on Uranus that can conjure things, beautiful or terrible, from men's thoughts.

Creation of the Humanoids -- A future of mankind's slow extinction and eventual replacement by robots so advanced that even they don't know they're robots.

Underwater City -- A city on the sea floor is proposed as the answer to mankind's problems. It is built, but disaster strikes.

Invasion of the Animal People -- Originally a '59 Swedish sci-fi about an alien landing in northern Lappland and a Yeti which rampages.

The Brain That Wouldn't Die -- A mad/gifted surgeon rescues his fiancee's head from a car crash, then searches for a suitable body to transplant it to.

The First Spaceship on Venus -- English dub of the 1960 East German film "Silent Star". An earth mission finds traces of a dead civilization on Venus.

Battle Beyond the Sun -- English dub of the 1959 Soviet Sci-fi, about a Mars mission which must divert to save a doomed rocket. Roger Corman inserted some gratuitous and questionable monsters.

Planeta Bur -- A Soviet sci-fi, benchmarked here, but used in english-dubs in two later films.

Hand of Death -- Not yet reviewed, pending.

Planeta Bur

It is not normally within the scope of this study to review foreign sci-fi flims when released in their native country. Typically, I've waited until the english-dubbed version was released in America. However, since Planeta Bur (PB) which translates to "Planet of Storms" became the basis for two later American re-edit releases, so a benchmark seemed appropriate. This was exactly the same process by which Nebo Zovyot ('59) became Battle Beyond the Sun ('62) and would happen to more foreign sci-fi in the 60s. It almost forms a sub-genre of its own. PB is interesting in its own right, for how the sober "hard" sci-fi of Nebo Zovyot had given way to a much more western flavor of sci-fi with monsters, aliens and alien civilizations.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Three ships are on their way from earth to Venus. The Cappella is struck by the obligatory meteorite and destroyed. The remaining two ships, the Sirius and Vega continue on, but the planned mission required three ships. The Arktur is being sent from Earth, but won't arrive for 2 months. The cosmonauts aboard Sirius and Vega decide that some sort of landing and exploration is better than waiting. Ivan and Kern go down from Vega in the glider, leaving Masha in orbit. They must land in a swamp, then all contact is lost. The Sirius lands somewhat nearby and the three-man crew set out in a Jetson's-ike hovercar to find them. During their travels they hear an eerie woman's song in the distance, and encounter prehistoric beasts both benign and threatening. Ivan and Kern, meanwhile, have fought off some man-sized t-rex beasts and are headed to meet the men of Sirius. Ivan and Kern become weak with fever. Their robot, John, stands watch. The Sirius crew had to submerge the hovercar to escape a pterodactyl. In doing so, they discover what might have been an ancient city, submerged like Atlantis. Once on dry land, the Sirius crew contact John and tell him to administer an anti-fever drug. Ivan and Kern recover just as a volcano sends down rivers of lava. They order John to carry them across, but he malfunctions half way there. The hovercar shows up just in time to rescue them. John is lost to the lava. All five return to Sirius, but worry that Masha had landed the Vega somewhere, stranding them all. An earthquake and flood from rain undermine the Sirius, so they must take off immediately. Alexey discovers that his odd triangular rock is really a sculpture of a woman's face. There was humanoid life on Venus after all. They blast off and find that Masha remained in orbit. They're headed home. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The big budget meant some pretty impressive props for 1962. The story line is pretty vast with ample unexplored tangents. The result makes PB something like the soviet Forbidden Planet.

Cold War Angle
There is little of the usual Cold War elements in PB. It amounts to more a space adventure with some wide-eyed anticipation of what space might hold in store. There is little of the soviet chest thumping that Nebo Zovyot had.

Notes
Old-Think: Planetary Evolution -- PB builds upon the old (and since abandoned) notion that the solar system evolved from outer to inner. Planets further out from the sun were presumed to have formed and developed sooner, and therefore been hospitable for life earlier. Planets further in would be at "younger" stages of evolution. By this old theory, Mars cooled and developed first, so was more ancient. It had life and civilization before earth did. By the time earth's civilization "evolved," Mars was dying out (even H.G. Wells presumed this order of things back in the late 1800s, as the premise for why the Martians wanted to invae earth.) Earth was in its prime. Venus was therefore presumed to be at some early stage of evolution, like earth had been millions of years ago. Hence the dinosaurs. It was a pretty theory, but like many evolution theories, made a better mental model than it did real science.

Emancipated Machines -- An intriguing little bit within PB, is that the robot John is not a mere servant, as robots often are in film. He must be spoken to politely, or will refuse to hear the commands. When Roman asks John where his "masters" are, John snips back that slavery is outlawed by the constitution. He has no masters, he is a free-thinking robot. Roman has rephrase his question before he gets an answer. In the lava stream, John's self-preservation programing has him trying to toss Kern off his back so he (John) can escape the lava. Unlike Asimov's 3-rules types of robots, John was quite willing to kill one of his crew-mates in order to survive -- an interestingly cold-hearted view of mechanical man.

Robby-ski -- Not since Robby the Robot (Forbidden Planet ('56) and Invisible Boy ('58) ) had a robot been a more-or-less equal member of the cast. (The robot in Colossus of New York ('58) had a human brain). John is very much made in the Robby mold. If he hadn't melted in the lava, he had enough charm to go into sequels too, as the Soviet Robby. But alas...

Car of the Future -- A fascinating bit of eye candy is the cosmonauts' hover car. With its bubble canopy, fins and jet-like scoops, it is a terrific example of what people of the late 50s, early 60s thought the car of the future would look like. In the photos, "A" is the hover car from Planeta Bur. "B" is the Ford Atmos, 1955. "C" is unnamed, but looks like the inspiration for the '59 Cadillac. "D" is the Firebird III, 1958. This is what people in the late 50s, very early 60s thought we'd all be driving in the year 1985.

The hover car looked very cool, but unfortunately, much of its "hovering" travel did not work as well. Cantilevered on a hidden arm, that traveled along a concealed track, the car tended to wobble and bounce awkwardly. There are a few scenes in which the car's travel better matches it's looks, such as racing through the burning forest, and near the end when a cushion of smoke hides the supports. The producers got as much mileage as they could (pun intended) from that expensive prop. It has almost as much screen time as the actors.

Torn In Space -- A curious subplot involves the female crewmember: Masha. She and Ivan are romantically involved, but she is ordered to remain in orbit. During some protracted loss of contact, Masha agonizes about what to do. Folow orders, or follow her heart? Remain in orbit as ordered? Land the Vega in an attempt to help poor Ivan out of whatever trouble he's in. Her inner struggle with duty vs. desire seems like a sort of commentary on the fitness of women for exploration. The men eagerly face dangers and decide quickly. They are motivated by bravery, patriotism and science. She is motivated by emotion, incapable of making a big decision and worried about being subordinate. A curious snapshot.

Bottom line? The action is a bit thin and at times talky, so modern viewers accustomed to laser battles and frequent explosions, will find PB hokey However, the english-subtitled version of PB is well worth watching for fans of 50s sci-fi. It can make a great study in the recycled sub-genre as the first feature, followed by Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet and then Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, both of which used much PB footage.

Battle Beyond The Sun

American International Pictures bought the rights to the 1959 Soviet film Nebo Zovyot ('59). They had Roger Corman isn't mentioned in the credits, but is said to have acted as a producer. Francis Ford Coppela is billed as the associate producer. They edited down the original, keeping the basic story line, but expunging the more blatantly soviet elements. Aside from the necessary dubbing into english, they grafted in a brief bit of new footage of two monsters fighting. From the poster, you can see that they promoted Battle Beyond the Sun (BBS) as a monsters movie. The result was a B film that had some impressive scenes and models (from the original), though little of what the poster promised. BBS has a very 50s feel for 1962 audiences.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Read the plot synopsis for Nebo Zovot for the basic story. Briefly, in 1997, the space program of South Hemis has been preparing their rocket "Mercury" for a mission to Mars. A rival team from North Hemis launches theirs, "Typhoon", first. It wasn't well prepared and soon has navigation trouble. They're being drawn into the sun and have no fuel left to escape. The Mercury changes course and rescues them. The rescue uses up Mercury's fuel, so they have to land on an asteroid. An unmanned fuel ship is sent from earth, but it crashes. A second, manned, fuel ship is sent. It succeeds, but the pilot is mortally wounded by the monsters. The four return safely to earth for a heroes' welcome.

Why is this movie fun?
The original had many great 50s rocket and space station models and sets. Much of this remains. Even if becoming a bit dated by 1962, they're still great eye candy for the 50s sci-fi fan.

Cold War Angle
Some of the original film's moral message survives. Impetuous "races" to be first and one-upsmanship cause trouble. The tensions between the USSR and America get recast as rivalry between North Hemis and South Hemis. The hopeful note of reconciliation remains.

Notes
Cuttings -- Notably absent from the original are the reporter's initial dream sequence (the handy fictional too), and much of the early character development. Some of the closing human interest scenes logically removed too. There are the expected shifting nationalities of the characters. The American reporter Verst becomes the North Hemis captain Tawrence. The montage of western decadence, celebrating the Typhoon launching first, is missing. Most signs of soviet identity are cut (no proudly waving soviet flags) or hidden, but the red star on the fin of the rockets is often still visible. The trouble is caused by one man's reckless ambition (Tawrence), and not a nation's (as in the original) The closing monologue was left out.

Miscellaneous Monsters -- The ticket selling power of "hard" sci-fi had faded for American audiences by the mid-50s. A.I.P. must have assumed that a simple english-dubbed edit of Nebo Zovyot would not have sufficient appeal. Two monsters were created -- supposedly to resemble genitalia of both genders. These two oddities fight each other on the asteroid. Their inclusion was not necessary for the story line. All they really do is provide a different way for "Paul" to die. In the original, he dies from an unexciting overdose of radiation from piloting the unshielded fuel ship. Radiation death was not enough. Audiences wanted monsters, so Corman & Coppella pander up a couple gratuitous monsters.

Natural Non Sequitur -- Not only are the two monsters unnecessary for the plot, they exist in a vacuum -- literally. There was no atmosphere on the asteroid. How did they handle that? Further, for naturalists in the audience, how did survive there? Such giant mega-fauna require a vast food chain of lower life forms.

Naughty Nationalism -- Popular in the late 50s, was the notion that Cold War tensions could be blamed on nationalism. If only people could see beyond national boundaries and become one people, etc. etc. In BBS the post-war world is divided into two super-nations: North Hemis and South Hemis. Yet, like Orwell's 3-state world in 1984 the dissolving of many smaller nations into a few larger ones did not bring peace.

Identity Issues -- The english dubbing clearly recasts the Soviet team as South Hemis. The Americans (renamed Captain Tawrence and Dr. Martin) as recast as from North Hemis. This is a little contrary to American custom, as North Hemis included north america, northern europe, and northern asia. The rest is South Hemis. Yet, the supposedly South Hemis ship, the Mercury, has a North Hemis insignia superimposed on it to cover up the original film's "Rodina • CCCP" Who was supposed to be who? At a certain level. It doesn't matter.

Bottom line? For fans of "hard" sci-fi, there is plenty of serious space tech to enjoy. The original film may be too hard to find. Since the A.I.P version keeps the plot reasonably intact, this may not be necessary. Fans of alien space monster movies will likely be bored into a rage, as they'd have to wait through three quarters of the film to get two minutes of monster fight. Yet, BBS has a nice 50s flavor to it.

First Spaceship on Venus

Crown International released an english dubbed version of a 1960 East German/Polish sci-fi A-level production. Der Schweigende Stern (DSS: The Silent Star) was itself based on the novel "Astronauci" (Astronauts) by Stanslaw Lem. Crown dubbed the film and shortened it. While the original adventure story is fairly well maintained, the moral of the tale is muted. The First Spaceship on Venus (FSoV), as Crown retitled it, becomes a B film in America, but its landmark qualities are still evident. As Rocketship X-M and Destination Moon kicked off the 50s, Der Schweigende Stern is their counterpart that kicked off the 60s. An international crew set out to explore Venus.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A strange object is found in the Gobi dessert that is of alien origin. It is a recording "spool" whose message can only partially be deciphered. People connect the recordings with the huge meteor impact in Siberia in 1908. Scientists calculate that it was a space ship, not a meteor, and could only have come from Venus. All antennae train on Venus, transmitting greetings, but the morning star is silent. A manned rocket mission to Mars is reassigned to go to Venus. As they get close to Venus, interference blocks radio contact with earth. The two scientists decipher the remaining bit of the message. Venus planned to attack earth. Since the crew cannot get a word of warning to earth, they decide to land. They find traces of a civilization, but no Venusians. They follow a power cable to a big sphere. Others follow the other end to a ruined and melted city. Inside a chamber, a black ooze tries to get them. Durand shoots it with his laser rifle. The ooze retreats, but it triggers a defense mechanism. Gravity is increasing, but will snap into anti-gravity and throw the ship back into space and firing the mega weapon the Venusians planned to strike earth with. Everyone gets to the ship, along the way seeing the shadows of the frightened Vensuians burned onto a wall. Aboard the ship, one of them thinks he can stop the mega weapon from charging. The chinese man and african man go back to a control center to shut it off. The chinese man rips his suit. Brinkman rushes to him with more oxygen. The african shut off the weapon, but the gravity snap occurs anyhow. The ship is tossed into space, as is Brinkman. Chen Yu dies of a ripped suit. Talua is left behind. Back on earth, the surviving five give somber little speeches to the assembled crowds. Let it be a warning to us all, but let's keep exploring space. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The sets are impressive. Even the special effects, which by today's standards are crude, still have a certain polish. It is fun to see the advent of second-generation sci-fi getting underway.

Cold War Angle
Crown's edited version, FSoV, cut away much of the original's heavy nuclear warning moral, but some of it remains. The original film had a heavy nuclear caution message.

Notes
XM 2 -- The story line of FSoV merges the grand scale space epic like Conquest of Space ('55) with the cautionary discovery of Rocketship X-M ('50). With much techno-wonder, people travel to another planet. There, they discover that the alien civilization was destroyed by nuclear disaster. The traditional theme of the 1950s, also kicked off the 1960s.

Harmless Edits -- FSoV omits some tangental scenes which were not crucial for the action/adventure story. Much of the background about the death of Sumiko's husband is omitted. Non-essential character development scenes before the launch are dropped: Brinkman and his mother, Arsenyev's goodbyes with his wife, Talua missing Mona, etc. The romantic tension between Sumiko and Brinkman loses several little scenes.

Willful Omissions -- Noteworthy cuts include a longish scene where Sumiko rejects Brinkman's romantic advances, telling him that she cannot have children because of the radiation at Hiroshima. When the crew are traveling in the "crawlers" through the melted Venusian city, Brinkman asks Sumiko what she's thinking. (she looks stunned). In the original, she says "Hiroshima." In Crown's dubbing she says, barely audibly, "...all the damage..."

Shifty Characters -- The nationalities of some key characters shift from the original film to FSoV. The captain of the mission is a Russian in DSS, Professor Arsenyev. In FSoV, he becomes an American, Professor Harringway. Appropriately enough, the American in DSS, Dr. Hawling, becomes the Russian, Dr. Orloff. The Polish engineer, Soltyk becomes a Frenchman, Durand. Brinkman, the pilot, changes from being German to being American. The other four keep their nationality.

Doofus D'Jour -- In DSS, the American is portrayed as a bit of a doofus. He floats around helplessly weightless and frets that the robot Omega always beats him at chess. He suggests that the people of earth will panic. It is the Russian captain that is strong and assured. In FSoV, the roles are reversed. It is the Russian who is helpless, is beaten by a machine, and has to be assured by a steady American. The nationalist posturing is subtle, but interesting in both films.

Internationalism -- both DSS and FSoV feature an international crew. This trope began towards the end of the 50s, but became almost customary in the 60s. 12 To The Moon ('60) made a big point of this. Gene Rodenberry would institutionalize the idea with his Star Trek series later in the decade. From the 60s on, space travel was less of a nationalist endeavor.

Bottom line? FSoV is actually a fairly good english dubbing of DSS. Some of the human interest stuff is cut, but the action adventure story is almost entirely intact. The Hiroshima angle is expunged, neutralizing much of the moral of the story, yet even that is still there. Both versions are well worth a sci-fi fan's time to find, as it represents the advent of Sci-Fi II.

The Brain that Wouldn't Die

This is one of those films which developed a reputation as being "so bad it's good." The Brain That Wouldn't Die (BTWD) is certainly a low-budget example of B-grade sci-fi / horror movie. Despite its release in 1962, it's also a solid product of the 50s, being filmed in 1959. (note the '59 Mercury and '58 Ford) There are blatant lowbrow elements where the producer and director (also the co-writers) dabbled in cheap exploitation gimmicks. Yet, there is also a more earnest attempt by the script to re-explore the classic Frankenstein story with more from the monster's point of view. There is also a noir-like quality in which no one seems noble.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Bill Cortner is a rogue surgeon who experiments in techniques to bring dead people (or limbs) back to life. His surgeon father berates him for his reckless and a-moral approach to science, but Bill is supremely confident in himself. En route to a weekend getaway with his fiancee, Jan, Bill drives too fast and crashes. He is thrown clear, but Jan is killed. He takes her head on to the country laboratory. There, he does more science-magic and keeps Jan's head alive on a lab table. She can only last for a couple days this way, so Bill goes shopping for a new body for Jan's head. He tries a strip club. Two strippers get into a tawdry cat fight over him, but he leaves, realizing he'll be recognized. He picks up a blond acquaintance, Donna, but she has a friend nearby too. They go to a swimsuit contest for no good reason. Donna recalls a mutual acquaintance, Doris has "the perfect body" but a big burn scar on side of her face. She's bitter against all men because of it. Bill promises her breakthrough plastic surgery. She goes with him to his country lab. Meanwhile, Jan's head awakens. She finds she has a psychic link with a misshapen creature locked in a closet. She argues with Kurt, Bill's embittered assistant about ethics. She summons the creature to kill Kurt. He is incautious near the creature's door and it grabs him, ripping off his good arm. He eventually dies. Bill comes home with Doris and dopes her drink. Bill takes unconscious Doris to his lab. Jan lectures him on ethics. Bill scoffs. He, too, is incautious near the creature's door, gets grabbed and killed. In the struggle, a fire starts. Jan directs the creature to take Doris to safety. She laughs maniacally in the flames. Fade to black. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
There is much that might annoy a film snob, but the audacity of the script keeps it interesting. The remix of traditional Frankenstein themes is interesting.

Cold War Angle
BTWD is more of a classic science-gone-wrong tale. There is no political undertone.

Notes
Brain Power -- A recurring meme in 50s sci-fi was that the human brain, freed from the burden of a human body, would find amazing powers. We saw this in Donovan's Brain ('53) that developed ESP control over people. We saw it again in Colossus of New York ('58), in which Jeremy's brain, inside the robot body, developed special vision powers. Jan, via Bill's special serum, develops mind-communication powers with the creature in the closet.

Brains Gone Bad -- Hand in hand with the free-brain power meme is the notion that brains (intellect) freed from the restraint of the body (matter) will tend to drift into the Dark Side. Donovan's brain was never kindly, but it went really bad without his body. Jeremy's brain turned from kindly altruist to selfish maniac. Jan, similarly, went from loving fiancee, to vengeful banshee.

MonsterView -- Unlike the mute monster which Victor Frankenstein created (in the 1931 classic), Bill's monsters (Kurt and Jan) do a fair amount of talking about how they feel. Jan is full of hate for being kept alive in her inhuman condition. She and Kurt argue about ends justifying means. Kurt defends Bill's playing God. He's a monster who hopes his maker can finish/improve the work.

Gang o'Noir -- In the flim noir model, none of the characters in BTWD are noble. They all have very human failings and flaws. Bill is, of course, the oversexed, over confident evil scientist. Jan becomes the hateful monster master. Kurt is the selfish minion. Even Doris, who might be seen as the victim of the picture, is a man-hater for what one did to her. The two strippers are obviously base material. Bill's father isn't all that innocent either, as he turns a blind eye to his son's inhuman experiments.

Build-A-Babe -- In a sort of extreme extension of a male fantasy, Bill goes shopping for the 'best' female body. It's for Jan's head to live on, of course, but for HIM to enjoy mostly. The real Jan was, apparently, was apparently just a body to him -- maybe just a pretty face. Bill's tastes in women are pretty low and libidinal. He shops first at a strip club? Then prowls the streets?

Cheap Teasecake -- Viewers are 'treated' to a lite burlesque dance by the blonde stripper in her meshy costume. There's the cat fight with near spillover moments. There is the pointless bathing suit contest to parade some more babes before the camera. Little of these scenes adds to the plot. They're just teaser visuals for the (perhaps) mentally-light male viewer who could not keep up with the science-and-ethics dialogue.

Cat Fight! -- In an almost crass display of exploitation filmography, producer Rex Carlton and director Joseph Green have the two strippers slap, pull hair and roll around wrestling on the floor (with much of their ample assets exposed). This does nothing to advance the plot at all. It's a pure bit of pandering to the male ticket-buyers. A tip that the producer/director knows this, is the brief shot of two cat paintings on the wall, with a little "meow" overdubbed.

Bottom line? BTWD can be watched as a typical "bad" old movie and laughed at for all its overwrought (or just bad) acting. It can also be enjoyed for its noir flavoring and dabbling in the old Frankenstein theme closet.

Invasion of the Animal People

More of a re-edit than a new film, Invasion of the Animal People (IAP) was built upon the 1959 Swedish-American production Rymdinvasion i Lappland (Space Invasion of Lappland). The American title was Terror in the Midnight Sun. Producer Jerry Warren inserted some newly shot footage into the original and released it (again) in 1962. At its heart, it remains a pretty basic monster story with hints of Frankenstein. The overall original story of a "meteor" landing in Lappland, which turns out to be an alien spacecraft remains. The title is a misnomer, as only one "animal person" ever appears and it's not clear if it is invading or not.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A young woman awakens to a piercing sound only she can hear. It causes her to need hospitalization. This coincides with sightings of a UFO over Lappland. She gets better and goes to live with her uncle. He is called to investigate a meteor landing in Lappland. Many dead and mangled reindeer are found near the site. Diane tags along. Diane is smitten with handsome Eric, one of the team's scientists. Eric is smitten with her too. The team flies to the landing site. While they are discovering that the meteor is really a spherical space ship, a 30' tall yeti-thing smashes their plane. Diane and Eric ski off for help. They rest in a remote cabin. The monster attacks. Diane runs. Eric is hurt but found by the other scientists. The beast finds Diane in the snow after a raging storm. It carries her off to a suddenly abandoned Lapp hunting camp and leaves her there. It trundles down to the village where it is greeted with more bullets. It rages around smashing things, including a second airplane, some cabins and Saami teepees. Meanwhile, Diane wakes up near the campfire, but three tall-headed aliens block her escape. She passes out again. The creature comes up later and carries her away. A mob of angry Sami chase the beast with torches. They trap it at a cliff edge. The beast sets down Diane and the Sami let fly their torches. the creature catches fire and tumbles over the cliff. The aliens leave. What they wanted, no one will know. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
There is much about IAP that is comfortably familiar, but the snowy arctic environment provides some novelty. Barbara Wilson is fine as eye candy.

Cold War Angle
IAP is more of a cryptic monster story with a lot of skiing and only a dash of aliens. Political parallels are notably absent.

Notes
They're After Our Women -- One of those traditional tropes is that aliens and monsters cannot resist a pretty earth woman. King Kong, Ro-Man, Gill Man, etc: even though they were all non-human, they fall victim to an all too human weakness (for men, anyhow). The big creature destroys herds of reindeer, airplanes, cabins and Saami villages, but tenderly carries Diane around. Even the tall-head humanoid aliens come out of their ship to surround Diane. Since the trope has become almost cliche by this point, it may not have any symbolic significance. That's just what monsters and aliens do -- fixate on our pretty girls.

Mash-up Mania -- Terry Morse did a mash-up with Ishiro Honda's original Godzilla ('54). He shot some new footage with Raymond Burr as the star, and rearranged the original japanese footage. The goal was to make a film more palatable to American audiences. Warren followed this model. He added the introduction shots with John Carridine blathering about mankind and science. Carridine's voice also provides narration where Warren must have thought audiences would not "get it." He also inserted several small-room scenes with more people talking about what's happening elsewhere. He also created the odd opening scene with Diane running down the street in her pajamas, fleeing the maddening sound. His efforts did not really improve the story. This mash-up tradition will continue in the early 60s as Roger Corman and others do exactly this same hack-n-mash process to other foreign sci-fi movies in order to make some quick, cheap American release features.

Yeti or Wookie? -- In neither the original or IAP, is the monster's existence explained. Was he an alien beast, like an über-Wookie, or an earthly yeti? The poster for "Terror" suggests that the aliens brought him. The poster for IAP suggests that the aliens were trying to use mind control on earth yeti -- a sort of snowy Plan 9. Did the aliens leave because their "army of one" was killed? Or, was the experiment already going badly because the lure of a pretty girl was a stronger influence than their advanced alien brains? We may never know.

Teasing Shadows -- As a sop to the young males in the audience, Director Vogel included a scene in which shapely Diane undresses so her wet clothes can be dried by the fire. While this is done off camera for modesty's sake, Vogel provides a bright spotlight so her "naked" silhouette can be oogled on the wall behind Erik. It's a cheap thrill for the pubescent, but it also speaks to an earlier era's boundary lines of "decency".

Bottom line? IAP is a poor reworking of what was already a marginal B film. If you can watch Terror in the Midnight Sun first, you'll get a better (though still weak) story. Watching IAP afterward can provide some laughs at Warren's lame additions. IAP does provide a curious example a hybridized foreign film.

The Underwater City

For a somewhat refreshing change, Columbia's Underwater City (UC) is set in inner space instead of the ubiquitous outer space. It is the tale of a self-sustaining colony on the sea floor -- a blend of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Project Moon Base. It combines several traditional B-sci-fi elements, but in a less-common aquatic twist. A visionary scientist sees his dream of an undersea city come true.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Junius Halstead and other scientists are surveying the sea floor for a site to build Amphibia City. Their geologist, Dr Wentz, is killed by a giant moray eel. Undaunted, Halstead gets funding. Bob Gage is retained as engineer. Gage does his job, but is regularly dismissive of the project's goals. The rest of the team includes Halstead's niece Dr. Monica Parker, a navy buddy of Bob's named Chuck and a dietician named Phyllis. With much industriousness, the city is built. The crew, including a newlywed couple, live in Amphibia City to prove its viability. Bob continues to be a chauvinist jerk to Monica. Chuck is obsessed with getting drunk, Phyllis cooks up seaweed, and fish are rounded up like cattle, etc, etc. Chuck finds whiskey in a sunken ship. He and Bob rescue Monica from a sudden hole in the sea floor, which is beginning to collapse. The city had been built on a fault line because Wenz died before discovering it. The leaders ignore advice to evacuate the city. Naturally, disaster strikes. The sea floor quakes and the city begins to fall into sink holes. Halstead dies when his office window breaks . Most are evacuated via the special mini-sub before near-total ruin. The final six shelter in the last surviving dome until a navy sub rescues them. Romances blossom. Those involved vow to continue Halstead's dream for the future. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Many of the usual B movie sci-fi tropes and scenes are given a fresher look by being done "under water" than in space. There is a palpable "Popular Science" gee-whiz attitude throughout the film.

Cold War Angle
This is plainly stated. Underwater cities were to be the new bomb shelter. If there was a nuclear war, mankind could live beneath the sea until the surface was habitable again. Then man would emerge and repopulate the earth. UC provides a glimpse of the bunker mentality so common during the Cold War.

Notes
Late Bloomers -- To modern eyes, the budding romances between the pair of middle-aged professionals seems odd. Julie Adams (of Creature From The Black Lagoon ('54) ) was visibly in her mid-30s, though still had great legs. William Lundigan (as her eventual romantic interest) was in his mid-40s at filming. Over the decades since UC was made, on-screen "love" has become the almost-exclusive purview of teens or twenty-somethings. Love isn't for the middle-aged (or old) anymore. This makes the eventual pairings of Bob and Monica (and Chuck and Phyllis) seem a bit peculiar. How did they all get to middle age with no "significant others"?

Happy Drunk -- Another odd thing to modern eyes, is how lightly the rest of the crew take Chuck's obsession with getting sloppy drunk. In the movie, it's all cute and funny. After decades of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other awareness programs, UC's glib acceptance of drunkenness looks peculiar.

Naive Colonialism -- UC gives an interesting glimpse of the pre-environmentalist view of the world. The ocean is seen as a virgin country to colonize, farm, and extract its mineral wealth -- just as the colonists viewed the vast prairies and forests of The West. Nature is seen as inexhaustible. This is just the sort of attitude that led to the overpopulation and lack of food that Phyllis lectures Bob about, yet she's part of the problem too.

Tiny Bubbles -- A fun little visual effect are the scuba bubbles. Filmed on a dry sound stage, the actors moved in slow motion (no swimming). Bubbles (soap bubbles in air) were added in post-production. The effect isn't entirely convincing, but is clever.

Aqua Remakes -- Several familar sci-fi scenes are repeated in UC, but with the novelty of being "under water." One, is the shot of characters descending a ladder from the rocket ship, beside a large rocket fin. In UC, they descend a ladder beside big curved leg of the dome. A second common scene is the actors cowering in the foreground while "giant" monsters fight in the background. In UC, instead of fake dinosaurs or giant insects, it is an octopus and moray eel.

Bottom line? UC is a somewhat predictable remake of space colony stories, but with a Jaques Cousteau twist. The effect is pleasant enough, though not all that remarkable. For fans of the 50s sci-fi, UC will be mildly entertaining. For friends who are tired of watching 50s saucer and alien fare, it could be a welcome change.

Creation of the Humanoids

This independent film (Genie Productions) is surprisingly deep for a low-budget movie. It has the usual hallmarks of B-grade films: simple sets, marginal acting and stock footage. The writing is above average. The Creation of the Humanoids (CotH) is a very thoughtful science fiction drama. It is not an action film. It is not a special effects showcase. Set in earth's post-nuclear future, it is a tale of mankind's dependence upon, yet fear of, the robot servants they created.

Quick Plot Synopsis
After a destructive nuclear war, earth's population is too small to rebuild. They develop robots to do the work. These robots are improved intellectually and refined physically to eventually look and move like humans. This upsets a vocal minority who call themselves The Order of Flesh and Blood. The Order wants to suppress robot advancements and keep people in charge. A high-ranking member of The Order (Craigis) uncovers a plot by the robots to improve one of their kind to be almost indistinguishable from a human. This is illegal. The lab of Dr. Raven (a human who is aiding the robots) is raided. Raven fears what the authorities will do to him. Unable to commit suicide, he orders the improved robot to kill him. The robot complies. This crime should embolden The Order's anti-robot rhetoric, but a new problem derails things. Craigis' sister is "in rapport" with a robot. While trying to talk his sister out of this scandalous platonic relationship, a co-worker drops by. Craigis and Maxine almost instantly fall for each other. While out late smooching, they are summoned to The Temple. There, they are interrogated by three leader robots. This reveals that Craigis and Maxine are themselves a couple of the improved humanoid robots. A young Dr. Raven enters. A robot body of himself as a younger man was built and his memories implanted into it. Dr. Raven tells Cragis that he's a robot. Craigis has trouble with this revelation, but copes. Mankind will eventually die out due to a low birth rate. The robot central committee is trying to preserve mankind by producing robots that look and think they're human. Craigis and Maxine reaffirm their love for each other, even though robots. Success. Mankind can be saved. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
There are so many deep thoughts and intriguing background stories within CotH, that many could be movies unto themselves.

Cold War Angle
This is unmistakable, as the film opens with several stock footage clips of nuclear test blasts and the narrator talking about an atomic war which wiped out 92% of mankind.

Notes
Story Roots -- Screenwriter Jay Stills blended elements from two prior robot stories. The namesake came from Jack Williamson's 1947 novel "Humanoids". From Williamson's story, Stills drew the trope of a population of mechanical servant robots who are programmed for mankind's "good" and mankind atrophying into uselessness. From Kavel Capek's 1921 play "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)" he drew several basic plot elements, including a robot "Adam and Eve" to start a new creation.

Racial Commentary -- The oppression and subjugation of "the Clickers" is a shifting social critique. At times, is sounds like a civil rights / racism analogy, with a (slave) labor class having few rights and the ruling minority worrying about them gaining power. Then too, there was the tension over the "interracial" relationship of Craigis' sister Esme, and the robot Pax. Yet, there is more depth to the Clickler/Human issue than fits the (then) contemporary black-white tensions.

Feminist Commentary -- There is a hint of feminism too. At one point, Esme tells Maxine (who is a robot, though even she doesn't know this yet), jokes that her brother, Cragis, considers women to be an inferior design copy of men. On a certain level, the Order of Flesh and Blood sounds like chauvinist men worrying over women taking over the workplace. Yet, this doesn't fit the Clicker plight exactly either.

Death by Leisure -- Both Capek's play and Williamson's novels featured mankind's doom coming from leisure, not nukes. The robots simply did too much for man, so he atrophied into uselessness. Craigis hints at this problem a few times in the script (per the book themes), though good ol' fashioned radiation gets the primary blame. This gives CotH a very 50s feel.

Biblical Undertones -- Unusual for a sci-fi, a fair amount of dialogue is devoted to discussing the nature of the soul, and the role of a creator. At one point,e robot Ultima Dr. Raven expounds on some very biblical themes near the end. He talks of physical death not being frightening when the prospect of eternal life is there. He talks of the joy of a new, immortal body over his old fleshly one.

Bottom line? CotH is a surprisingly deep story for a low budget production. The pace can be slow at times, and the scenes a bit talky. But, the many topics and issues it raises can be food for thought long afterward. For those who like their sci-fi cerebral, it is worth the search to obtain a copy.

Journey to the Seventh Planet

Searching for new ways to produce B movies as cheaply as possible, AIP outsourced Journey to the Seventh Planet (JSP) to Denmark. JSP is not a Danish movie dubbed into english, but an American movie produced in Denmark. It is partly a traditional low-budget 50s rocket mission film, but has elements which look to the next generation of sci-fi. The 1950s was obsessed with the moon and Mars. The 60s began to look farther out into the solar system.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A utopian post-nuclear Earth is exploring the solar system. Strange radiation signals are detected coming from Uranus, the seventh planet. A five-man mission is sent to investigate. When they arrive, strange things begin to happen. They land on the supposedly frozen surface, but find a lush evergreen forest, exactly as Sven recalled from childhood. Eric reminisces about his childhood village, and it magically appears behind him. In the village is Ingrid, whom he was keen on. Don (Agar) the highly libidinous, remembers past girlfriends, and they magically appear. They don space suits and explore outside the energy barrier to see who is behind all the recreations. They find something deep in a cave. Via voice-overs and overlaid light effects, we learn that an alien lives in the cave, and can read minds and make them see or experience whatever it wants. It is, at first, intrigued with the newcomers, eventually planning to travel to earth for greater fun and comfort. The earth men plot to kill the creature, and it fights back with nightmare beasts. The men devise a torch gun, but the brain-thing sabotages it. With the liquid oxygen, the men freeze part of the brain, such that their laser rifles cause damage. Thus distracted, the brain-thing cannot prevent their take-off. Erik decides to bring Ingrid with him, though when they're far away from the planet, she fades away to nothing. Sad Erik. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The plot is so quirky that it is hard not to be entertained. The idealized dream-babes make for fine eye-candy. The whole film has a very 50s feel to it.

Cold War Angle
This more of a psycho-drama than Cold War analogy. Only the prologue offers the customary moral overtones. The narrator intones about how "Now in the year 2001,the world is no longer threatened by wars of annihilation. Man has conquered space. Man has learned to live with himself."

Notes
Agar's Brains -- An amusing co-incidence in JSP, is that the evil alien turns out to be a giant brain with one large eye. John Agar had to battle a giant brain alien a few years earlier in The Brain from Planet Arous (1957). Fate?

Space Jerk -- Agar plays the role of a womanizing playboy astronaut who, handily enough, has fond memories of many prime babes for the brain-thing to conjure up. Agar plays the role with his usual smug smile. With this, he does not come across as suave or a ladies man (as Dean Martin or James Bond could). Instead, he comes across as a total jerk. He is so bent on his own gratification, that it really didn't matter to him if the babes were actual women or only illusions.

Trek Fodder -- The key trope in JSP (using men's thoughts to create a 'reality') was reused in a first season episode entitled "Shore Leave." In the Star Trek adaptation, the dream builder was benign.

Babes In Space -- As shallow as it is, JSP carries on the traditional trope that outer space is populated with beautiful women. Ever since Flight To Mars in 1951, sci-fi movies have usually pictured other planets to be well stocked with lovely twenty-somethings in very short skirts.

Spiders In Space -- A careful observer will notice recycled footage of a tarantula in a cave, (now tinted blue) from Earth vs. The Spider ('58). These bits of footage are said to have been included when the American producers disliked (and discarded) the Danish special effects for the spider attack. A quick eye will note that what comes out of the alien's eye is a thing with more of a skull with crab legs. It is hard not to wonder what that deleted scene looked like.

Lights Ahead -- Note the 'psychedelic' lighting effect (double exposure) to indicate when the brain-thing was "speaking" to the men's minds. This has more of a 60s feel to it, foreshadowing the orgy of colored lighting effects in 2001.

Bottom line? JSP has the usual shortcomings of a low-budget film, but with an unusual story line. It is just right for a fan of 50s B sci-fi.

Planets Against Us

"I Pianeti Contro Noi" was an Italian sci-fi in the 50s style that was released in Europe in 1962. A French-dubbed version was also released, entitled "Le monstre aux yeux verts" (Monster with Green Eyes). Walter Manley Enterprises, apparently dubbed the French copy into English and titled it Planets Against Us (PAU). The story fits neatly into the 50s idiom of deadly invading alien stories. It also carries on the invasion-angst tradition. Aliens sabotage earth's space programs and attempt to prepare earth for conquest, with a 5th column of cyborgs all patterned after one dead man. A pretty earth woman softens the steely heart of one of the cyborgs.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A plane crashes in the Sahara, killing all aboard, but one of the bodies is missing. Earth's various aerospace projects begin to fail. Rockets blow up. Security cameras catch sight of the same man at each disaster. It is the missing dead passenger. Authorities deduce that it must be an alien sabotaging earth's space flight efforts. A global manhunt begins. The mystery man, now named Bronco, is seeking the (adult) daughter of Dr. Borri, who is perfecting a temporary-paralysis gas. Bronco finds Marina and much alien-on-earth social play ensues. Bronco is clueless, but Bronco is attractive to the ladies, etc. Things turn dark when Bronco touches the hand of a policeman who stopped him. The man dies instantly. One of the ladies after Bronco, dies similarly, reduced to skeletal dust. Bronco is part of the vanguard, a group of cyborgs, identical copies of the dead passenger. Their job is to get earth ready for an alien invasion. Dr. Borri's paralysis gas is their key. Bronco, however, develops a soft spot the lovely Marina and becomes conflicted. Bronco is damaged by a policeman. He drives to rendezvous with the other cyborgs aboard the saucer, but turns back (to go see Marina?). The saucer zaps him with a ball of light. All that remains are metal bits and the souvenir Marina bought for him. Professor Miller warns the audience that secret invaders could be anywhere. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The traditional hidden alien invasion line is nostalgic. Being an Italian production makes the acting (often odd) more fun to watch. The first cyborg army in movies is of historical interest.

Cold War Angle
In PAU, the invading aliens assume their traditional role as surrogates for the communists. The closing epilogue by Miller leaves no doubt that the intent of the movie is to play to spy fears. "(The invader's agents are) cleverly hidden in the throngs of various cities. They powerful, ruthless, maniacal. Yes, it is a dreadful, menacing, but silent invasion. Even at this moment, this very second, there may be one of these monsters right next to you (as he looks right into the camera) Watching, watching, about to destroy you NOW (he points a finger at the camera).

Notes
Cyber First? -- PAU appears to be the first "modern" film to feature cyborgs -- humanoid shaped robots -- if you don't count evil Maria from Metropolis (1927). Aliens inhabiting, taking-over or duplicating humans was pretty common. They remained organic, however. "Bronco" and his duplicates were mechanical copies of a Professor Landerson's dead son Robert.

Deadly Midas -- An interesting trope is that Bronco, the cyborg, kills with a touch of his hand. They said the touch imparts lethal radiation. Bronco's hands can kill in seconds, even a touch on this cold lips causes a non-lethal radiation sickness. This trope appeared in the 1936 sci-fi film, The Invisible Ray, in which a scientist (played by Boris Karloff) is exposed to "Radium X". Thus "poisoned", his touch kills by radiation overdose.

The Alien Speaks -- Cyborg Bronco delivers the somewhat muddled messages of the story. One the one hand, it is the usual superior alien talk. "You people of this puny world move swiftly towards your own destruction." On the other hand, he lapses into a reverie over how precious life is, how foolish man is, and how science is dangerous. These are probably the personal observations by the softening "heart" of an invader cyborg than the collective voice of the invaders who sent him.

Tin Man's Heart -- A curious subplot is the cyborg "Bronco" developing a fondness for pretty (human) Marina. Bronco had no qualms about killing people and setting up the earth for conquest by his masters. But like Ro-Man, feels the awakening spark of love and wants to keep the earth girl for himself. He tells her she has "a beautiful shape," and that, "With you I could bring a fresh spirit to the earth. And restore the world to a new state." Quite the pick-up line.

Glimpse of Old Europe? -- Bronco could have sought out Dr. Borri directly, in his quest for the paralysis gas, but curiously, he does not. He seeks out Borri's daughter, Marina. Bronco somehow needs her to make the introduction to her father. To modern American eyes, this seems pointless. It may, however, be a vestige of Old World etiquette. Even an invading alien should not simply barge into a highly respected person's office. Proper introductions are necessary.

Bottom line? PAU is a convoluted invasion story burdened with a few too many messages. Sorting them out takes some concentration, so PAU is not a good choice for an impatient viewer. For the patient and forgiving 50s fan, it does carry on the traditional invading aliens tradition.