ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Two years before The Blob scared the wits out of America with a story about a slimy, formless lump of sludge that ate people, X The Unknown did the same thing in England.

But the similarities pretty much end right there. Consider these facts.

The Blob was both creepy and funny at the same time. The main characters were ka-razy American teenagers enjoying a swingin' night in a small town. The titular creature was a gelatinous alien. The movie was shot in color, and the title theme earned an 85 on American Bandstand because it had a good beat and was easy to dance to.

X The Unknown is deadly serious, and the main characters are hotheaded Scotsmen who argue a lot. The strange "monster" is just a mass of mobile mud with a hankerin' for radiation. The film was shot in black-and-white, and the music is just as hard on the ears as every other movie from England back in the 1950s because it always sounds like the brass section consisted mostly of kazoos.

The photography is good, but black-and-white was a big mistake in this case. I'm not a fan of colorization, but this one could certainly benefit from it. Consider the effective use of color (especially red) in The Blob, compared to this scene from X The Unknown, when it breaks out of the concrete the military used to fill the crack from which the Mud Monster emerged.





* The wet stuff in the middle is the star of the movie.

Or how 'bout this climatic scene of the Crud Creature crossing a parking lot, cleverly disguised as a mud puddle.





I'm not saying this British movie is bad. I'm just saying that our Blob could beat up their blob. So there.

Still, it does have its own roguish charm. Dean Jagger (as a Quatermass-like scientist) lends a touch of Americana to this eerie English creeper. It was directed by Leslie Norman from a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster (his first, in fact).

IMDB describes Sangster as "One of the driving, creative forces behind the legendary Hammer Studios." (I'll bet that looks great on his resume! )

The story is very intelligent, and the movie offers a serious science fiction concept, well directed and well acted.

Dean Jagger was included in the cast to make it easier for American audiences to identify with the character. He's a fine actor and does a good job, and I like him in this almost as much as I do in White Christmas.

The cast suffers from a sad lack of charming heroines, but Marianne Brauns has a small role as an amorous nurse who sneaks into the hospital's radiation lab for a romantic rendezvous with a young doctor.

Miss Brauns looks like the picture on the left in the movie, but the young doctor probably imagined her more like the picture on the right . . . until good old X showed up and melted the poor guy —


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— and left sweet Marianne looking like this.





You can tell a lot about an actress from the way she plays a scene like this. Note the convincing look of terror, the effective use of the claw-like hand, and the obvious fact that she carefully brushed and flossed.

A true professional, all the way back to her wisdom teeth.

Young Anthony Newley has a small role as a young soldier named 'Spider' Webb. (No, seriously.) Anyone who ever heard Anthony Newley sing will be very glad to know that in this movie, Anthony Newley does not sing.

The special effects by Jack Curtis and Bowie Macurtte are pretty good, but you don't get to see them until close to the end.

The cast includes Leo McKern, Edward Chapman, William Lucas, and Peter Hammond. If you saw this one at a drive-in back in 1956, the second feature was The Curse of Frankenstein and you slept with a light on in your room for the next few weeks.


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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 take umbridge, sir with this statement :

[Bud Brewster]

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Well, I listened to several of Anthony's performances on YouTube, and I must admit that he certainly does well in many of them. So, I stand corrected.

However, the video below is a fine example of what caused my critical remark. Anthony goes just a little overboard with the stage theatrics, the long "sliding" note changes, and his signature tremolo — with results that are, to me, unintentionally funny.
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_________________ Anthony Newley - People


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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]

[Gord Green]

I admit that was a bit painful.

He looked a bit "tanked"!

[alltare]

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

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I've never quite understood what the premise of the movie was. Living mud? Hmmm . . .

The Wikipedia article has a well-written synopsis which includes the paragraph below, and it explains the concept of the living mud pretty well.
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Royston hypothesizes that a form of life that existed in distant prehistory when the Earth's surface was largely molten had been trapped by the crust of the Earth as it cooled; every 50 years there is a tidal surge that these creatures feel, which causes them to try to reach the surface in order to find food from radioactive sources.
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I'm impressed by the way the author pitched this novel idea and made it sound interesting, even if not scientifically plausible. I guess if the Horta in the TOS episode could be alive and sentient, a mass of radioactive mud might have some sort of "neural net" inside it which gives it a from of consciousness.

Here's another excerpt from the Wikipedia article.
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The creature raids the nuclear facility before the authorities can remove the radioactive cobalt to a safe distance. As a result, the creature grows even larger.
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Interesting. The creature feeds on nuclear radiation, and when it eats, it actually gains mass! I suppose this might be explained by saying that the energy the creature absorbs allows it to convert normal dirt or mud into the exotic material the creature is made of.

That seems more likely than having the creature convert energy into matter . . . in this case, more mud.

The movie ends in a way that suggest a possible sequel (Y The Unknown?), but I can't say I'm too disappointed that it wasn't made.
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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]

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Well now, if mud can become mobile and intelligent, how could mankind combat it!

One thought would be to use heat against the mud and harden it, the way a kiln does to turn clay into pottery!

But would this weird form of mobile, radioactive mud respond the same as normal mud and clay . . . or would it be better to try to freeze it?

Wow, this science stuff is confusing!
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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]

Well, I could understand that the mud was full of semi-intelligent worms or something.....But smart mud????
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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.

[tmlindsey]

[Bud Brewster]

[tmlindsey]

If 1950s B sci-fi movies have taught us anything, it's that radiation doesn't kill anything, it either mutates it into giants and/or gives it unusual properties or special abilities.
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"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"

[Bud Brewster]

[Krel]

The author Dean Koontz wrote a novel that became a movie, both titled "Phantoms". In the book and movie an amoeba-like petroleum based creature consumes a CA ski resort town, in the off season thankfully. The creature can mimic whatever it consumes, including the victim's memories and intellect.

I wonder if this movie could have unconsciously influenced Mr. Koontz.

David.