ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

This is Richard Carlson's other 3 D movie from 1953 (along with "It Came From Outer Space").

The sets were designed by the film's director, William Cameron Menzies (director of "Invaders from Mars" and production designer for "Gone With the Wind"). The cast includes Hillary Brooke ("Invaders from Mars"). The screenplay is by Dan Ulman from a story by Maurize Sandoz. Music by Marlin Skiles.

Other than this interesting pedigree, there isn't much here to recommend.

Carlson mysteriously deserts his fiance (Veronic Hurst) just before their wedding when he is summoned to his ancestral castle in Scotland by an eccentric and reclusive relative. Miss Hurst follows him, but he refuses to see her when she arrives at the estate.

The maze referred to in the title is part of the Scottish estate's garden, an elaborately scuplted hedge with a small pool at it's center.



While walking through the maze, Miss Hurst encounters a huge frog (a man in a rubber suit who tries desperately to hop like a real frog).



Amazingly, the frog turns out to be the actual lord of the manor, two-hundred years old, a victim of a freak bit of evolution: his embryo never developed past the "frog" stage which (according to Carlson's explanation) we all go through during gestation.



This concept was totally discredited in scientific circles (even among stanch evolutionists) over a hundred years ago. Basing a story on such nonsense is just as bewildering as some of Menzies' directorial touches, such as having one of the characters periodically address the audience with bits of narration while the camera is aimed so high that the screen is mostly occupied by the ceiling above the actor's head!

If the viewer disregards these cinematic flaws, the film is . . . well, it's STILL worthless. Watch something else.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

If you look REAL closely you can occasionally see the stunt man's head inside the mask. The few times that happens it's very brief.
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Bud Brewster]

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Brother, if you want to see hoopla at it's finest, watch Richard Carlson lay it on thick for this toad of a movie, with his claims about how exciting it is.

___ THE MAZE - 3D Horror Classic - 1953 official trailer


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