ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Director Roger Corman's first sci-fi film! He made this fondly remembered cult classic for $65,000. And this was back when that was a lot of money!

Unfortunately it still looks cheap as hell.

The story concerns a group of people in a remote house after civilization has been destroyed by atomic war. Yes, it starts with stock footage of an A-bomb test in the Pacific. If we had a nickel for every time we've seen . . . well, you know.

After that it's mostly just yak yak yak and oh-my-god the radiation is out there so we're all going to die.

Or not.

*------*----- Spoiler Alert ------*------*

It's "or not".

But several folks do die, though most of them survive the dreaded radiation. The rest of the deaths are caused by the survivors themselves, which kinda makes hash out of what the narrator says at the beginning about how " . . . in His infinite wisdom, He has spared a few!"

Apparently it was a different "few" than the ones in this story, because saving this group didn't turn out to be very wise at all.

Richard Denning (The Creature from the Black Lagoon), Lori Nelson (The Revenge of the Creature), Mike Conners (Mannix), Jonathan Haze (Little Shop of Horrors), and Paul Birch (Not of This Earth) do a good job for the money they were paid — which was probably somewhere between "very little" and "not much", before taxes.

Close to the end of the movie we get to see a multi-horned, three-eyed mutant, designed and played by ace monster-maker Paul Blaisdell. But trust me, it's not worth the wait — proof positive that even ace monster makers have bad days.

And yes, I was kidding when I called this a "fondly remembered cult classic".
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

I watched this one again today, and I felt compelled to give it a better write up. The other one was pretty dry, which explains why it hadn't gotten a reply in nine months.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Rick]

Lemme he'p ya out here, Bud.

I was infatuated with monsters and the like from early childhood, but apart from occasionally catching something on local TV, I saw nothing. My family NEVER went to the movies, so until I was almost ten years old my wishes for monsters were many, but very seldom granted.

But I had friends who lived on my block who did see the movies. Some had families who went to the movies, even the drive-in. And a couple were a little older, so had more freedom with staying up for late shows. And these guys were all way ahead of me in monster movie viewing. So I'd beg them, literally begged 'til I became a nuisance, to tell me about those cinematic treasures which were not mine to see.

I'd hear bits and bites about THE BLOB or THE FLY or CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. But the clear winner was DAY THE WORLD ENDED. My friend Craig had a near photographic memory of that movie. His mistake was letting me know that. So I must have asked/begged/forced him to tell me the story at least a dozen times. To me it sounded impossibly wonderful.

I didn't get a chance to see the movie till just before my 16th birthday when it showed up on a local Saturday afternoon monster/s-f movie. After all the longing to see it and all the expectations built up by Craig's expert storytelling, I should have been set up for the ultimate disappointment. In fact . . . I loved every minute of it. And I still do.

It's cheap, of course, but it's not stupid. It's pretty-well acted and shot. Roger Corman, even in those early, formative days, was way ahead of most low-budget sci-fi filmmakers. He had a sense of style, and a knack for putting the camera in the right place. Still, you can see his growth as a director even from film-to-film. As good a job as he did on DAY THE WORLD ENDED, his very next sci-fi film, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, was even smoother and more assured.

I love this movie. I treasure that first viewing, and almost even more, I treasure the memory of hearing the story as a child from a friend who's no longer among the living. So . . . thanks, Craig.
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Man need not kneel before the angels,
Nor lie in death forever,
But for the weakness of his feeble will.

[Krel]

Back when Mike Connors was billed as Touch Connors. According to Mike Connors, it was the era of gimmick names, he changed that as soon as they would let him.

Roger Corman is in the movie. It is his photo that is used as a photo of Lori Nelson's boyfriend.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

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Rick, that's a remarkable first post here on All Sci-Fi, the kind I like best — a personal connection to the film and a terrific story about how you were introduced to the World of the Fantastic, back in the days of your wide-eyed youth.

You had me hooked from the git-go with that description of your mean old parents who deprived you of your God-given right to have the crap scared out of you as a child, and then your devotion to the genre when you encouraged verbal story telling among your buddies.

Damn, that's good stuff, Rick.

The happy ending was a real winner too, surprising your readers with the unexpected twist about how this less-than-perfect movie did not disappoint you when you finally got to see it. An inspiring tale.

I've mentioned on All Sci-Fi a few times that I envied the folks here who related tales about how they went to local theaters when they were very young (ten years old and younger) and were delightfully terrified by horrific moments in their favorite films.

That's an experience I never had as a kid, simply because my little hometown of College Park, GA, had no theater, so I never went alone to movie theaters.

However, my family did go to drive-ins fairly often, and I saw movies like 20 Million Miles to Earth, First Man into Space, and The Werewolf.

Here's a picture of Mom and Dad in the front seat of our car on the night we saw Earth vs the Flying Saucers at the drive-in.




* Just kidding. I'm not really related to Hugh Marlow and Joan Taylor.

But my parents did take me to downtown theaters in Atlanta to see This Island Earth, Forbidden Planet, The Time Machine, and 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

By 1960 I was twelve years old, and my parents allowed me to ride the bus to the next little town a few miles down the road, East Point, where I saw movies at the small theater there, like Beyond the Time Barrier and a several others — but by this time I was too jaded, world-weary, and sophisticated to pee my pants in public when monsters leaped out of the screen.

The loss, of course, was mine. (* sigh . . . ) Ah, well. There's no point in regretting the road not taken.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

At the risk of helping to derail this thread, I can relate to Rick's experience. When I was a lad (back before the dinosaurs had died off) my parents would take me to the movies, but not one sci-fi movie. I had a neighborhood friend about four years older who seemed to go to all the sci-fi movies. He would regale me with accounts of the likes of War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Conquest of Space, and so on. I can even remember a few mistakes he made in his descriptions that didn't jive when I finally got to see them on TV some years later. But when I saw the previews for The Day the Earth Stood Still on Saturday Night at the Movies, I quickly recognized it as being one of the movies my friend had described. That alone was exciting enough.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Robert (Butch) Day]

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

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I remember pouring over the theater ads in the Atlanta Journal in the 1950s, looking for movies at the Roosevelt Drive-in.

I'm sure the ad for this double feature would have made me promise to mow the lawn, rake the leaves, and reshingle the roof if my parents had agree to take me to the drive-in, but I don't remember seeing the ad, and I'm not sure either of the two movies would have impressed me if I'd gone.

But holy crap, ain't this newspaper ad terrific!



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bogmeister]

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____________ The Day the World Ended Trailer


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This on by Roger Corman looked like an updating of Five (1951) to me, with the added distinction of a radioactive monster. The monster was pretty cheesy-looking — unless you were less than 10 years old. But there was some creepiness to the other couple of characters who were afflicted with radiation sickness/mutation.

I kept waiting for one of them (the one Denning's character helps carry in) to go totally berserk and go on some cannibalistic splurge or something.

Corman managed to bring some suspense to the whole deal. Denning was, as always, solid. And Touch (Mike) Connors (future Mannix) hammed it up as the sleazy villain.



There are those fans who refer to Roger Corman as the reincarnation of Ed Wood. That honor probably falls on Bert I. Gordon. In my opinion, you can rationalize all you want, but the films of Wood and Gordon were very similar in their capacity for being dull and uncreative, and on the same level of unintentional humor.

Corman was a step above that, I feel — not a big step, but he managed to instill some edge and surprise in many of his films, including this one, which was budgeted at $96,000. I even have what I believe to be a great example of what I mean from this picture.


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Yes, most of the film is perfunctory & even a bit dull, but there is one scene where Corman utilizes the power of cinema . . . of imagery . . . in what I must determine as a conscious effort on his part, to its fullest potential.

Bill Warren singles this scene out in his usually excellent analytical manner in his book, "Keep Watching the Skies."

Towards the end, Denning's character fires a rifle at the mutant monster, which then begins to advance on him. Corman keeps the camera behind Denning's right shoulder as Denning continues to fire and the creature continues to advance. It's all a single, continuous shot. As Warren mentions, audience members were unnerved & startled by this scene. I can imagine them squirming in their seats and trying to back away as the creature continues to move forward, relentless, just "annoyed" by the bullets.

This is an example of Corman at his best, and there's nothing like this in the films of Wood or Gordon.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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Ah-ha! What did I tell ya!

Bogmeister picks the kind of movies I consider to be absolute loosers (or at least deeply flawed), and then he finds aspects of the story that people like me miss because they don't meet our high standards of excellence!

However, Bogmeister looks past all that and discovers admirable elements he can praise! He even does his homework by pulling in comments from experts like the late Bill Warren, author of Keep Watching the Skies — who obviously used this same gift to become a leading expert on science fiction movies!

Andew Bogdan loved to write about science fiction, and he filled the old All Sci-Fi (2007 to 2014) with posts that were incredibly well written and well researched.

Tragically, all those great contributions were lost when the "free forum" web host I used for that board went out of business in 2014. And I've regret that loss for years.

But now I have a chance to restore some of Andrew's work to All Sci-Fi. His "lost" message board, the Galactic Base of Science Fiction, is hosted by one of those damned "free forum" sites with ads plastered all over the place . . . and it might vanish at any moment, just like the first TWO versions of All Sci-Fi did!

The original one only lasted a year, between 2005 and 2006!

And so, folks, if I seem a bit obsessed by the idea of recreating Andrew Bogdan's reviews here, it's because he represents the kind of member I know we all wish we had more of on All Sci-Fi.

Naturally I appreciate all you folks who contribute comments which aren't as elaborate as Andrew's (a good message board needs posts of different types), but Andrew gives our board the in-depth, well-researched, expertly written posts that none of the rest of us can match!

So, even though he's gone . . . he's not forgotten!

His brilliant work is waiting to be saved from oblivion on the message board he created — but which now lies dormant, completely inactive! It's not even possible to join it and add new posts just to prevent the dreaded "free forum" web host from deciding to delete it because it hasn't been used in four years!

New members must be "activated" by the site admin. Unfortunately he past away four years ago!

Folks, I'm going to keep right on rescuing Bogmeister's "lost" post, even if I don't get any encouragement from you guys . . . but it would be nice to know that other members of this board were enjoying the brilliant reviews written by the late Mr. Bogdan, the ones that were miraculously preserved on the message board he created in 2010 and suddenly discovered by Eadie!

Don't be shy, folks! Hit the "reply" button and share your thoughts with us. That's what we're here for!

Bud __
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

I remember seeing this movie "back in the day" and actually liking it! Oh, I may have been half asleep in the back of my Dad's old Chevy, but I remembered seeing that monster...and with the eyes of youth I thought it was GREAT!

Of course, the first sci-fi movie I remember seeing at the movies was KILLERS FROM SPACE and the ping-pong eyed aliens were absolutely terrifying!

Thank God good taste and appreciation of true art comes with age!!!
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.