ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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[Also released as: "Behind the Door"]

Yet another good vehicle for Boris Karloff, this time as a humanitarian doctor conducting research on a process for curing cancer with cryogenics.

His lab is located in the basement of his Canadian home, adjacent to an ice cave that Karloff uses in his freezing process. Employing his new process, he attempts to cure a man dying of cancer, but the patient's nephew and the disapproving authorities interrupt the procedure.

Karloff tries to drive them away with a gas he concocts. But the gas combines with the cold temperature and puts both Karloff and the group of intruders into suspended animation!

Ten years later, a young scientist (Roger Pryor) and his assistant (Jo Ann Sayers) break into the sealed lab in hopes of solving the mystery of the missing doctor. The fresh air dispels the gas and revives the group.

With the help of the young doctor, Karloff tries in vain to duplicate the gas that made the cryogenic process work, and when he fails, it unhinges his mind. He traps the entire group in the underground lab and begins to use them as guinea pigs.

The story does a fine job of exploring the novel concept. Directed by Nick Grinde.
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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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This brief clip from YouTube is called a trailer, but it's not, so I cut that word off the title below.

However, it certainly demonstrates how well photographed the film is, and I'm eager to watch it now — if I ever get the chance.

And that brings up the interesting fact that TCM doesn't show nearly enough sci-fi/horror from the 1930s and 1940s. I wish there was a satellite channel like TCM which was devoted to those movies, along with the ones from the 1950s.

Oh well . . .
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_____________ The Man With Nine Lives - CLIP


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

[Phantom]

This is one of four "mad doctor" movies he did for Columbia between 1936 and 1940, all cheaply made but intriguing for their futuristic premise, artificial hearts, blood transfusions, cryogenics, resuscitating the dead and transposing brains from one body to another (science hasn't quite caught up to the last two yet).

Karloff may be a little weird in his methods in these films but left alone just might stumble onto a major discovery that actually works (deep freezing the human carcass). He doesn't go total bonkers until some interfering idiot (lab assistant, unimaginative cop, etc.) gums up the experiment and gets the patient killed.

So, we can't really fault his attitude when he is inevitably brought back from the dead and corpses begin to mount up around the town.

The Man They Could Not Hang and Before I Hang are on the Icons of Horror Boris Karloff dvd, The Man Who Changed His Mind and The Man with Nine Lives have their own discs.
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What Is Essential Is Invisible

[Bud Brewster]

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Nice post, Phantom! There are quite a few of the classic science fiction films from the 1930s and 1940s I've yet to see.

Speaking of brain transplants, I heard that a lovely blond went to a neurosurgeon and asked him if it was possible to transplant a brain into a healthy body. He told her that a new procedure had been perfected so that elderly people with failing organs could enjoy longer lives.

But he asked the young lady why she wanted to know about brain transplants. After all, she was both young perfectly healthy.

The blond smiled, crossed her shapely legs, and said —


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