ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Despite the American look of this creepy little yarn, it's an Italian production filmed on location in Spain, with a story is set in Mexico.

Caltiki (named after an ancient Mayan god) is a formless radioactive blob that lives in an underground lake in Mexico. When the activities of a scientific expedition disturb the monster, it sets out in pursuit of the group. Tiny pieces of the creature can grow into giant pieces. One of the scientist is infected by a fragment, the fragment is removed, but it grows into a new monster.

Prepare yourself for a shock show; physical contact with Caltiki drives men mad and strips the flesh from unwary divers. The top members of the production staff are listed in the credits under Americanized pseudonyms, apparently in an attempt to hide the film's Italian origin.

The cinematographer (Mario Bava, director of Planet of Vampires) is listed as John Foam, the director (Riccardo Freda) is listed as Robert Hampton, and the screenplay writer (Filippo Sanjust) is listed as Philip Just.
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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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Here's another movie I've never watched, because . . . well, no rockets, no saucers, no aliens, no futuristic cites, and no brave scientists who save the world by solving important problems!

Oh wait! My mistake!

There IS a group of stalwart men of science who save mankind! Damn, I'll have to watch this movie in the next few days with this YouTube download.

I hope it's better than expected!
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_______ CALTIKI - The Immortal Monster (1960)


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

[Pow]

From critic Bill Warren

Movies in which the monster is an amorphous blob occasionally turned up in the late 1950s — The Creeping Unknown, X the Unknown, The H-Man, Enemy from Space, and, of course, The Blob — and their minor but real popularity makes it a little surprising that in recent years someone hasn't tried to make the definitive blob movie.

After a gabby opening, Caltiki becomes reasonably exciting after the comet shows up.

Mario Bava's moody photography impresses throughout.

The major problems with the film are the trite and cluttered plot, the truly awful dubbing, and a vaguely hangdog air about the proceedings, as if the movie slightly embarrassed everyone involved.

Although not an expensive film, Caltiki had an adequate budget. Atmospheric and handsome most of the time, it is somewhat slowly paced at the beginning; it should not be considered the usual hackwork.

It can't be called a good movie, but it is above average for monster thrillers of this period in the departments that really count for such things: design photography and special effects. Although Caltiki never seems to threaten the world as promised in the ads, the film climaxes on a note of satisfactory suspense.

Unfortunately, the terrible dubbed dialogue makes the film hard to follow at times, and comic at others.

The peculiar premise also does not help the film. Rationalizing why an amorphous, carnivorous blob would live for 20 million years and then be found and tamed or something by Mayans presents many difficulties, to say the least.

None of the actors gets much of a chance to do anything, and the characters are there just to keep the plot moving.

At the climax, when Caltiki is dominating a house, the miniatures are extremely good, among the best ever done in a film of this nature. Only the fact that miniaturizing flames is impossible gives away the fact that the house is not full-sized!

The sets for the Mayan temple resemble redressed sets from for some other kind of film, but are interestingly photographed.

Sidebar: Saw this one many years ago as a kid. Found it creepy and frightening at the time. Not sure what I'd think of it now.

[Bud Brewster]

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Mike, I have one of the older versions of Bill Warren's book on my book shelves, but I haven't really read much of it, so I really appreciate the fact that you've posted several of his reviews on All Sci-Fi.

If you've found a way to copy-and-paste the text, that's great, but if you're actually taking the time and effort to transcribe the text from Bill's book, I'm even more grateful — and I know I'm speaking for all the members.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

Bud, thanks for the link, I watched it today. I haven't seen it since the mid 60s when I was a young child, and the only thing I remembered was the poor diver, and the ramming with the fuel truck, which I thought was at the end of the movie. It's not the clearest copy, but it was interesting to see, I quite enjoyed it.

They'd have problems today, as Militaries stopped using flamethrowers a few decades back. You would actually find more military flamethrowers in civilian collector's hands today.

Pretty good effects even though the miniatures were woefully under scale. What ever they used for the flesh of Caltiki was really creepy looking.

David.