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The Magnetic Monster (1953)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 1:53 pm    Post subject: The Magnetic Monster (1953) Reply with quote



It isn't really a "monster", it's a small chunk of exotic matter which surges with magnetic force every 11 hours, causing an "implosion" of everything metallic in the immediate area. Each surge causes the isotope to grow in strength, which means it will eventually threaten the Earth itself.

The isotope also grows in size, a clear indication that the material is converting energy into matter. Because of the film's low budget, most of these spectacular events are only presented as verbal descriptions in the dialogue. The story is structured as a Dragnet style investigation.






Richard Carlson (It Came from Outer Space) and King Donovan (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) are "A-Men", representatives of the Office of Scientific Investigation (OSI). The audience follows the investigators' attempts to track down the man who created (and still possesses) the dangerously radioactive isotope.





The special effects for the exciting climax are borrowed from the 1930s German film Gold, but the scenes are impressive and effective. In the climax, Carlson wears a trench coat in a few long shots so he will match a key figure in the borrowed scenes. But after this little trick is employed, Carlson sheds the coat and gets to work saving the world! Very Happy







Producer Ivan Tors and director Curt Siodmak co-wrote the script, originally intending it as a pilot for a television series about a trouble-shooting scientist who worked for the Office of Scientific Investigation. Each episode of the series would focus on some interesting aspect of science, using a fictional story to illustrate various scientific principles.

The Science Fiction Theatre (1955-57) became the final form of the series which Tors and Siodmak created. By focusing on the strange properties of magnetism and demonstrating how these properties could cause a world-threatening situation, The Magnetic Monster is a perfect example of the kind of stories which The Science Fiction Theatre offered television audiences each week.

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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Wed Aug 03, 2022 3:47 pm; edited 7 times in total
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alltare
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 11:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just heard that MAGNETIC MONSTER will be released on Bluray by Kino Lorber in July. Does anyone have more details?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 11:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

_______________________________________

The Magnetic Monster Blu-ray United States
Kino Lorber | 1953 | 76 min | Jul 05, 2016 (5 Months)


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bulldogtrekker
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great news! It is available now as a WB burn on demand; the library bought the DVD at my suggestion.
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alltare
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

bulldogtrekker wrote:
Great news! It is available now as a WB burn on demand; the library bought the DVD at my suggestion.

I bought that burn-on-demand version about 4 years ago. It's considerably better than anything previously available, but there's still room for improvement. I'm anxious to see what doctoring has been done for the BD release. KL has certainly done an exceptional job with the upcoming GOG, judging by the short clip I've seen on youtube. I hope they do as well with this one (too bad it's not in 3D too).
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alltare
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 1:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK, I just received the KL Blu-ray release. It's a much better image than the previous Made-On-Demand disc. Not in color or 3D, of course, but the picture quality is great.

Other than a handful of trailers for this and other films, the only other extra is an audio commentary by Derek Botello. And that's where Kino-Lorber screwed up. It's an awful commentary by a guy who apparently knows very little about this or other 50s scifi movies, even though he is/was a writer of some kind for Fangoria Magazine. I forced myself to listen to his entire commentary, and here are a FEW of his comments and observations:

He seems to have watched MAGNETIC MONSTER and other mentioned movies without paying attention to what's going on. For example, in the first 4 minutes, Jean Byron, playing the wife of our A-Man hero Richard Carlson, is known to be pregnant ("You're in your 4th month", says Carlson). Yet it's not until a scene 34 minutes later that Botello finally catches that fact.

He mentions that MAGNETIC MONSTER, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (which he called "THE THING FROM ANOTHER PLANET"), and THE BLOB are the 3 movies he knows of whose monsters were killed by electricity. Then he "corrects" himself and says it was electricity and freezing that terminated the Blob. Then he finally just says, "Whatever". (As we all know, it was only freezing that immobilized- not killed- the Blob. Electricity had no effect).

He talks about the ending of the movie, and the use of the German GOLD footage, saying that GOLD was reminiscent of DARK CITY and "a British film called 'X'". He is surely talking about X THE UNKNOWN, but never says it. I sure don't see many similarities in those movies.

Then he goes off on a tangent and talks about how Ray Bradbury's stories somehow teach us to "just get along", and we should learn to do the same with MAGNETIC MONSTER. HUH?? I wonder how he feels about ISIS.

I suspect that he is not a person who enjoys so-called hard science fiction. He complains that the entire movie is too dry and "talky". He doesn't like all of the boring scientific explanations and narration. In fact, he seems to spend a good share of his time berating the movie on this and other points.

He claims and complains that the entire movie was built around the final GOLD footage.

He complains about the title: How can there be a "monster" that you can't see? This really bothers him.

He talks about the funny name of the computer used in the movie, failing to know that MANIAC was a real computer, used at Los Alamos Labs in nuclear weapons research in the 1950s (it's also purported to be the first computer to play a simplified game of chess). He implies that it's a made-up name for a fictitious machine. Well, it is made up- it's an acronym, as were most early mainframe names- but the computer itself was real.

He gets the magnetic monster's name wrong. The radioactive element's name is SERRANIUM, not SELENIUM, and the correct pronunciation is clearly heard in the movie.

The real indicator of his inattention to detail becomes obvious when we discover that he thinks Kurt Siodmak's name is pronounced SOD-me-ack. Not once, not twice, but at least ten times. It's not until the ending credits that he finally gets it right, as Siodmak's name scrolls by in large bold letters.

He talks often about David O. Selznick's films, and seems to be a fan of the producer. Unfortunately, he's convinced that Selznick is Irish, because he consistently calls him "Mr. O'Selznick".

Now, I certainly do not claim to be an expert movie critic or director. In fact, I'm nothing more than an enthusiastic lover of 50s scifi movies. However, it strikes me that if he had given more than a cursory look at MAGNETIC MONSTER and the other films and subjects that he references, he would have been able to form a much more coherent and competent presentation. The whole narration seems to be performed without much preparation, and he gives the impression that he is unsure about many of the things he discusses.

Where oh where was Tom Weaver when we needed him?


Last edited by alltare on Wed Aug 17, 2016 7:53 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 1:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Wow . . . you're certainly right in saying the guy is supremely unqualified to provide a commentary on that movie. If he doesn't like all the detailed discussions about science, he does NOT get that movie at all.

And based on all the rest of the strange things he did, he doesn't sound like a person of even average intelligence, much less smart enough to be a knowledgeable film historian.

Thanks for the warning. When I get that BD I will avoid that "not-so-special feature". Rolling Eyes

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 2:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dang! Now I gotta see this movie!
Great review! Thanks!
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alltare
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow! I have just been informed that almost everything I said above about commenter Botello had already been said 2 months ago over at the Classic Horror Film Board.

( http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/61853/Best-Audio-Commentaries-Worst-Audio-Commentaries?page=11#.V7S93hKhdCQ ).

It's amazing that my comments are almost identical to those of Jameson281. Even our ending sentences about Tom Weaver are the same. All I can say is that they're both scifi sites, so these kinds of coincidences should be expected. Seriously, though, I did not plagiarize his posting. My words are completely my own and weren't stolen from Jameson281.
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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 6:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've had the BD for awhile.

Truth is, almost never listen to the commentary tracks or pay much attention to special features. I watched the movie and that was it.

I'm a big collector of these older genre movies. When a movie is 60 years old, in this day of the internet, I don't really know if there is much to be learned from a commentary track. They can be entertaining but rarely informative. Most of what we can learn has been posted and talked about multiple times. We can search images and video clips.

Listening to a couple of guys of dubious qualification shooting the breeze for 70 minutes is rarely worth the trouble.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 7:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brent Gair wrote:
Listening to a couple of guys of dubious qualification shooting the breeze for 70 minutes is rarely worth the trouble.

Commentaries definitely run hot and cold. For a long time I had little interest in them, because the few I had listened to weren't especially good.

However, once I realized that some commentaries were much better than others, I started listening to them occasionally.

For example, the commentary for The Magnificent Seven (there are two) are very good. And Tom Weaver's commentary with Laurie Mitchell for Queen of Outer Space is very entertaining.

But Tom's commentaries when he's alone are so packed with info, delivered very rapidly, that they aren't quite as much fun, just because he's not interacting with someone.

However, Tom certainly does HIS homework and gets his facts straight.
Very Happy
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Aug 04, 2017 12:24 pm; edited 2 times in total
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 8:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brent Gair wrote:
They can be entertaining but rarely informative.

Also, if the commentary is done by people who were involved with the production, relying on their 40- or 50-year old memories, they can be downright misleading.
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alltare
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 11:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Weaver's commentary on the Blu-ray THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD is exactly as you described, Bud — rapid fire delivery. But I kinda like it. I can learn more about a movie from Weaver in 15 minutes than most others can deliver in an hour or two. The guy knows his business.

Bud Brewster wrote:
...But Tom's commentaries when he's alone are so packed with info, delivered very rapidly, are not quite as much fun, just because he's not interacting with someone.

However, Tom certainly does HIS homework and gets his facts straight.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 12:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________

This is a great trailer for this little gem. It really puts you in the mood! Very Happy

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______________ The Magnetic Monster (1953)


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


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Dec 10, 2019 1:19 pm; edited 3 times in total
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MetroPolly
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 7:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I gave this movie a go over the weekend. It's not bad, if a little draggy in places.

BTW, I downloaded the dailymotion version Bud suggested, and maybe the version got screwed up somewhere, but my audio was about 3 min(!) fast.

I dumped it and got it off Youtube.
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