ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Scary and sometimes disturbing film in which scientist Boris Karloff's wife dies in an auto accident and he believes she's trying to send him a message from beyond the grave. Despite the ridicule of other scientists, he attempts to contact her by using a bizarre invention which records brain waves.

The film's most disturbing element is the device which Karloff uses; he places recently deceased bodies into metal spacesuit-like shells which are electrically connected to a similar suit containing a live subject. The live subject Karloff uses is a spiritualist (Anne Revere) who can tolerate large doses of electricity.

The scenes depicting this bizarre process are impossible to forget (electricity effects emanating from the shiny, cadaver-filled suits while they twitch and leap because of the voltage coursing through them). The household maid is accidentally locked in the lab with the metal-suited cadavers, and it drives her crazy. Karloff's assistant is brain damaged during one of the experiments, leaving him mute, and the lady spiritualist dies from electrocution. Karloff adds her to the ranks of cadavers which occupy the metal suits.

Obsessed with his desire to contact his wife, Karloff then forces his daughter (Amanda Duff) to serve as the human receptor, but her fiance' arrives in time to save her, and the machine explodes in a spectacular climax. Directed by Edward Dmytryk ("Captive Wild Woman") from a screenplay by Robert D. Andrews and Milton Gunzberg, based on a story by William Sloane entitled "The Edge of Running Water".
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Rick]

Most of the folk in the know seem to really like this one and consider it the best of Karloff's Columbia mad doctor movies. But it never did much for me. Oh, it's okay, but I never saw what was so special about it.

It does have that rural, old dark house thing going for it, so that's nice. But the 'brainstorming' scenes which seem to give most folks the chills don't impress me very much.

I'm certainly not claiming that my opinion is more right than others'. Matter of fact, I regret that I can't see what others do here. I think it's okay, just not special.

I also read the book which, while quite good, also fell short of matching the praise I'd read of it.

Oh, well. Not everything is for everyone I guess.
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Man need not kneel before the angels,
Nor lie in death forever,
But for the weakness of his feeble will.

[Robert (Butch) Day]

The "head shot" of the device you how looks like a unique way to permanently get your hair waved! (Only you'd have to use White Rain.)
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Bud Brewster]

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The first video below is listed on YouTube as a trailer, but it's actually a two minute clip. However, it certainly makes me want to see it.
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_________The Devil Commands (1941) - Trailer


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