ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

6

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Continuing All Sci-Fi's salute to our former site-administrator (2008 to 2015), Andrew Bogdan — aka Bogmeister on ASF and Bog his own board called The Galactic Base of Science Fiction <— link, which he created and maintained from 2010 until his death in 2015 . . . without ever revealing its existences to a single member of ASF!

I transfered 500+ of Andrew’s posts to All Sci-Fi's in 2019 to make up for the fact that when the “old ASF” crashed in 2014 we lost several thousand posts by Andrew (along with everybody else).

Here are three more examples of the amazing posts by Andrew Bogdan which I “rescued” from the board he created and maintained for five years . . . and which is now virtually forgotten on the web.



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Tarantula (1955)

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Take heed, take heed . . . a scientist named Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) invents a serum to stimulate tissue growth via glandular activity; his lab is in the middle of the desert. Of course, his tests are on lab animals — one of these is a tarantula.

It doesn't work well on humans — Deemer's assistant is proof of this; humans just get deformed and insane — and then die. When I first watched this, it was this affect on humans that really creeped me out, not the giant arachnid. Mara Corday plays Deemer's new assistant — she gets stuck in a worsening nightmarish situation: Deemer gradually gets sick and twisted, while the giant spider eventually returns to its place of rebirth . . . can John Agar save her?

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I last watched this again as part of a recently-released DVD set: The CLASSIC SCI-FI ULTIMATE COLLECTION from Universal. I'd have to give the edge to THEM! as far as the best giant bug movie of the fifties — THEM! expanded in its 2nd half into a threat of worldwide proportions and there just seemed to be a lot more going on (also, James Whitmore is one of the best actors around, period, and Agar is just pretty good).

But, TARANTULA may very well be the 2nd best of that decade.

Directed by Jack Arnold, who did a few of the best of these in the fifties.



I will mention that this film has at least one truly great scene: at about the 70-minute mark, after the great beastie destroys Deemer's house and pursues the characters played by Agar & Corday, who flee in an automobile.

There's a very short pause in the action as Agar & Corday meet the approaching Sheriff's dept. on the road, in the middle of the desert. Then, the huge Tarantula appears from behind a hill in the distance.

"Jumpin' Jupiter!" the Sheriff exclaims, clearly astounded.

The Tarantula just sits there for a few moments, as if surveying the entire valley (its menu), a giant black beast perched on top of a hill. The Sheriff, his deputies, Agar & Corday just stare up in awe for a moment. The music is great here and it's a fantastic few moments.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10

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This Island Earth (1955)

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________________ "This Island Earth" Trailer


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This fifties sci-fi feature stands out a bit because it's an early one in color - and brilliant color it is. The plot concerns visiting aliens among us; these aliens, who look like us except with slightly larger craniums and foreheads, have instituted a sneaky plan to gather Earth's top scientific brains so that they can help the aliens in their losing war against other, more hostile aliens.

One of these top brains is Dr. Cal Meacham (Rex Reason); he passes a test to construct a device and soon heads off to a secret location to join other Earth scientists, among them old flame Dr. Ruth (Faith Domergue) and Dr. Carlson (Russell Johnson of Gilligan's Island fame). The main alien - the one who contacts scientists - is named Exeter (Jeff Morrow). Eventually, two of these scientists travel to the home planet of the aliens, Metaluna, in a flying saucer. This is when it gets really colorful.



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The first half of the story is intriguing; we wait to see what develops. The 2nd half seeks to impress us with visual splendor. There are problems on both fronts. I admit there is interest to the plot in the first half, but it just doesn't make too much sense. The aliens demonstrate in the early going how much more advanced they are than us; how could even our top brains be of any help to them? Then, there seems no reason for two of the main characters to head to Metaluna, except as an excuse by the filmmakers to show off their special FX - the best of the fifties.

The war between the aliens is presented in condensed fashion - there's really no time to show an elaborate showcase of this war; that would require a 3-hour film. Also, as explained in the Wikipedia article on this film, there are some samples of faulty science in this one that are pretty bad - mostly in the field of cosmology. In all, I find Forbidden Planet to be much superior to this, on many fronts.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10

_____________ This Island Earth Tribute (Pt.2)


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus ____________________________________________________________________

Satellite in the Sky (1956)

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This has the distinction of being the first British sci-fi film in color and CinemaScope. The plot concerns the launch of the rocketship Stardust (piloted by hero Kieron Moore), first a test flight and then into orbit.

Lois Maxwell, future Ms. Moneypenny in the Bond films, plays an opinionated reporter (she thinks it's a waste of time and money, considering all of Earth's problems, as well as too dangerous) who has some friction with the hero. But the two soon fall for each other.

As written elsewhere, this has the now-standard slow British pace, but it's usually interesting to look at. It emphasizes the now-classic look and feel of giant rockets, emblematic of the golden age of sci-fi cinema.



Things get complex when the pilot finds out that the true purpose of this experimental flight is military — he is to transport the new “tritonium” bomb up there, where it will be exploded.

This bomb is much more powerful than previous bombs (Hydrogen, Atomic) and would cause too much damage if exploded on Earth.

A further complication — and a very unlikely one — is that the female reporter manages to stowaway aboard the rocketship when it launches on its mission. Most of the male crew don't mind her presence, but one older nasty scientist (Donald Wolfit) is very upset — though he's upset over everything. As the hero points out, if the calculations for a successful launch were based on precise weight, she may have killed all of them ("I didn't think of that" she says meekly).



The final complication — and the biggest one — is that the bomb's propulsion fails and it drifts back to attach itself to the rocketship. It now looks like all of the reporter's misgivings have been realized.

For the final half-hour, it looks like the rocketship and its crew will blow up with the bomb, unless . . . some sacrifice is made.

There's some clumsy, unnecessary soap opera stuff involving a couple of astronauts and the women in their lives and the conflict aboard the ship after the bomb gets hooked to the ship is a bit over-wrought (Wolfit's mean scientist panics). Maxwell seems caught up in overemotional rhetoric — the fate of many a female characters those days.

Still, it's not a bad trip into outer space.

BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10


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