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alltare
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Joined: 17 Jul 2015
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 Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2016 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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THE MOLE PEOPLE is one of my favorite 50's movies. The parts I like the best are the parts that many others ridicule: Frank Baxter's intro (I love it!) And the initial discovery process (much of which was outtakes from other movies, if I'm not mistaken) held my interest very well. And the Mole Folk's Nehru suits were really spiffy.
The worst scene in the movie is that stupid dance number by Yvonne De Lavallade (I think that's her name- the woman with the top knot hair).
I will leave it to Bud Brewster to comment on the babes. |
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2016 12:30 am Post subject: |
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For the record, Bud Brewster likes babes. He's seen better than these babes, but he's also seen worse. 
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And John Agar likes to make eyes at the ladies, too. 
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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 1:39 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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orzel-w
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 1:53 am Post subject: |
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While watching this one again tonight, I again wondered how the "mole hole" effect was accomplished. This effect has been used in several films, one of the more recent being The Princess Bride. There's a hole in the stage, which is filled with a dry, coarse, granular substance. It's like quicksand, only dry. The actor can sink into it or emerge from it, or, as in the case of The Princess Bride, actually dive into it.
What I'm wondering is how the "hole" is built below the stage floor to maintain the level of "sand" in the hole, while allowing room for the actor(s) and allowing them to breathe after submerging.
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WayneO
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Robert (Butch) Day
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:24 am Post subject: |
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Bud, it looks from the pictures you posted that the Mole people were putting-on their own version of The Wizard of Oz. (Sure looks like a Scarecrow - Mole person mask!)
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alltare
Quantum Engineer
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| Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:18 am Post subject: |
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MOLE PEOPLE is one of my favorite 50s films. The early discovery part is very interesting, and Baxter's prelude is great. The only part that I really dislike is the stupid dancing girl scene — the most pointless dance I've ever seen.
EDIT: Hey! I said exactly the same thing a year ago.
Last edited by alltare on Tue Jan 24, 2017 11:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:34 pm Post subject: |
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Enjoy this first-rate trailer for The Mole People.
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___________________ The Mole People - trailer
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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 Wed Jan 05, 2022 3:47 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Gord Green
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| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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With Dr. Baxter introducing this movie how could you not buy into it if you were a 13 year old sci-fi geek???!
I mean with the Beaver's dad and all!
There was a great magazine adaptation of the movie produced by Warren and Wally Wood to whet your apitite-----
And hot babes and monsters!
Come on! |
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:21 am Post subject: |
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| alltare wrote: | | MOLE PEOPLE is one of my favorite 50s films. The early discovery part is very interesting, and Baxter's prelude is great. The only part that I really dislike is the stupid dancing girl scene ??? the most pointless dance I've ever seen. |
In the 1960s, the Beach Party movies perfected a method for presenting "pointless dances" in a manner that guaranteed the full attention of male audience members.
Lots of closeups on the shaking fannys!
_____________ Do The Jellyfish by Neil Sedaka
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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 1:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Maurice
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| Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 4:57 am Post subject: |
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| orzel-w wrote: | | What I'm wondering is how the "hole" is built below the stage floor to maintain the level of "sand" in the hole, while allowing room for the actor(s) and allowing them to breathe after submerging. |
Various movies have done it various ways. A common technique is to use a water tank and float a thick layer of cork chips and cork dust on the top of it. Since cork is lighter than water it doesn't sink and as long as the actor doesn't slap down there's not much telltale splashing.
Sometimes there's a see-saw contraption under the surface of the water allowing the actor to slowly be lowered. Sometimes the tank is only a few feet deep so the actor can stand on the bottom and lower themselves in just by bending.
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Last edited by Maurice on Wed Aug 09, 2017 4:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Krel
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| Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:41 am Post subject: |
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| Maurice wrote: | | Sometimes the tank in only a few feet deep so the actor can stand on the bottom and lower themselves in just by bending. |
That reminds me of a "Get Smart" story. At the end of the opening credits, Max enters a phone booth, dials a number and drops through the floor. There was a discussion at the studio about how to do the last bit. There were talks of digging a pit in the floor and building a trapdoor, and how to do that, and how much it would cost, just for that one scene. Don Adams said how about this? He steps into the phone booth, closes the door, then just squats down! It looks like he just dropped through the floor, and he saved the show the thousands of dollars that constructing a pit and trapdoor would have cost.
David. |
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:36 pm Post subject: |
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| orzel-w wrote: | Teenagers are the toughest audience. Second toughest is adults who have fond memories of specific movies from childhood . . . except Bud. He likes every movie he was enamored of as a child.  |
You know, Wayne, I've often wondered about that. Why do I seem to still care for the movies that impressed me as a kid? You've often said that films and shows you adored when you were much younger now seem pretty dull.
We've all experienced that sad fact. But oddly enough, it hasn't happened for me as often as it has for you. Why not, I wonder?
I think I know the answer, but I'm reluctant to say it because it makes me sound vain and arrogant. The answer is . . . bad movies just didn't impress me, even when I was just a kid! Even though I was dazzled by the really good ones, the not-so-good-ones fell short of what I wanted to see.
In all fairness, however, I should also point out that I didn't see many of the lesser movies until later in life, the ones Rick (for example) has such fond memories of. By that time I'd become a member of those groups you mentioned who are hard to impress: teenagers and adults.
In other words, most of the movies I saw while I was a wide-eyed youngster just happened to be the cream-of-the-crop! Because of this, I just don't have a lot of fondly remembered films which were big disappointments when viewed again when I was older.
Please don't get me wrong; there are several great movies I DIDN'T get to see as a kid. And I truly regret that, because if I had, I'm sure they would have impressed me even more than when I eventually did see them.
As for The Mole People, I finally saw in the 1990s with a group of friends. None of us were overly impressed.
Here's an article about it in Famous Monsters of Filmland issue 29 from July 1964. It might be the one Rick saw which made him eager to see this movie.
However, it's so short that apparently Forrest J Ackerman was not overly impressed with the movie either, despite the fact that the article promotes the film with plenty of enthusiasm!
The article is clear enough to read if you zoom in to about 270%, close enough to make the text look like this on your display.
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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 1:53 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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orzel-w
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| Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Bud Brewster wrote: | Why do I seem to still care for the movies that impressed me as a kid? You've often said that films and shows you adored when you were much younger now seem pretty dull. 
We've all experienced that said fact. But oddly enough, it hasn't happened for me as often as it has for you. Why not, I wonder? |
I've wondered at times if maybe your career as a teacher, interacting daily (five per week, anyway) with kids, has kept a more youthful fascination alive in you.
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WayneO
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Bud Brewster
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| Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 6:56 pm Post subject: |
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| orzel-w wrote: | | I've wondered at times if maybe your career as a teacher, interacting daily (five per week, anyway) with kids, has kept a more youthful fascination alive in you. |
Or did I become a teacher because I've always been the way you described?
Which came first, the chicken . . . of the velociraptor that laid a chicken egg? 
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Gord Green
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| Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:33 pm Post subject: |
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Bud....You glorious guy! You get it! That IS the correct answer to that punultimate question!
The ultimate question of course is :
"What is the meaning of life?"
Of course everyone knows it's 42.....
But actually it's:
"So the Universe is able to know itself." |
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Bogmeister
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| Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 5:18 pm Post subject: |
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This one is on the slow side.
It begins with a 4-minute lecture by Dr. Frank C. Baxter, the host of wonderful The Bell System Science Series, which consisted of nine television specials made for the AT&T Corporation that were originally broadcast in color between 1956 and 1964.
Dr. Baxter lectures the audience of the subject of theories dating back 200 years about the interior of the Earth, such as ERB's Pelucidar. This addition to the 1950s sci-fi movie was a nice touch — a science lecture at the beginning of science fiction movie.
The credits begin to role, after which we then switch to Asia, where an archaeological expedition find several rare artifacts following an earthquake. The guy calling the shots (John Agar) determines that they must research higher up the mountain. Then there's an avalanche, more artifacts, and finally one of the archaeologists falls to his death through a hole.
The expedition members climbs down into the Earth, hoping to rescue the scientist who fell. At the bottom they find the strange lost city, populated by Sumerian albinos (no sunlight).
The Mole People of the title are a slave race used by the inhabitants. There are numerous scenes of the poor creatures being whipped.
The Mole creatures tend to come up from beneath the soft portions of the Earth, at times dragging someone underneath. I bet Stan Lee was influenced by all this when he wrote the story for the first issue of The Fantastic Four in 1961, which featured the Mole Man villain.
Agar's archaeologist gets the bright idea to use his flashlight as a means of intimidation (it's too bright for the underground dwellers) and the two surviving explorers are regarded as immortal messengers from the goddess Ishtar.
  
This all recalls some of the more memorable pulp sci-fi adventures, those about finding lost civilizations. There always seems to be a troublesome high priest character in these stories. In this case, it's Elinor (Alan Napier, later to play Alfred on the Batman TV show).
He's on to the mortality of the 2 visitors and makes plans against them. There are also similarities to some of the old serials. This has a surprising and somewhat baffling last minute ending involving the female lead (Cynthia Patrick).
BoG's Score: 6 out of 10
Mole Trivia: The other surviving archaeologist is played by Hugh Beaumont, who would start playing Beaver's dad in a year on Leave it to Beaver.
BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
Last edited by Bogmeister on Mon May 20, 2019 2:14 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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