ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Bogmeister does a bang-up job of presenting the pros and cons of a great science fiction classic, then an unusual sci-fi movie, and finally a complete looser which proves that stupidity and sci-fi are incompatable.
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Them! (1954)

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________________________ THEM! trailer


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This begins as a mystery in the desert and escalates into a threat of worldwide proportions.

The film is a fine example of how to use sound and atmosphere, making this probably the definitive monster film of the fifties which warns us about the possible dangers of the atomic era. It also benefits from an excellent performance by James Whitmore as a local cop who is caught up in the whole nightmare of giant insects — ants.

Whitmore behaves as if it's all really happening, and he was one of the best actors around. He has great support from Edmund Gwenn as the scientific authority, Joan Weldon as Gwenn's daughter and fellow scientist, and a very tall tough guy — James Arness (just before Gunsmoke) as the FBI agent assigned to the 'case.'



There is also a one-scene role for Fess Parker just before Davy Crockett, and a brief scene with Leonard Nimoy, a decade before he first played Spock on TV. William Schallert also shows up in a scene.

Directed by Gordon Douglas.

Many years later, Director Joe Dante created scenes for a make-believe film from this era called "Mant" The scenes were in the film Matinee (1993). "Mant" was mostly a parody of THEM! and Schallert appeared in some of the scenes, playing a dentist.

Robert Cornthwaite (The Thing from Another World) is hysterical as a know-it-all scientists who loves to explains things to the less-knowledgeable folks around him.

BoG's Score: 8 out of 10

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Them Trivia: In the same year as THEM! was released, another film about killer ants also came out - The Naked Jungle. That one was less sci-fi and more jungle adventure, but was produced by George Pal, Mr. Sci-Fi of the fifties.

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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus ____________________________________________________________________

Devil Girl from Mars (1954 England)

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As with a good number of British sci-fi pics about alien invasion, this takes place in an isolated location, centered around an inn — this time in the Scottish countryside.

A group of disparate characters happen to coalesce around this inn at the point where an alien spacecraft lands nearby. This flying saucer is from Mars, and it's operated by a Martian female (hence, the film's title).

The characters include an escaped convict/convicted murderer (Peter Reynolds), his sometime girlfriend (Adrienne Corri) who works for the inn's owners (an older couple), a scientist (Joseph Tomelty), and reporter (Hugh McDermott) sent to investigate a fallen meteorite (a piece of the ship) and an actress (Hazel Court).

A limping, mentally-challenged handyman, but he's quickly disposed of by the Martian female (Patricia Laffan, best known as Nero's creepy wife in Quo Vadis).



The Martian keeps the others alive, possibly just to torment them with a display of her various weapons and powers.

She throws up a force field around the area and shows off her robot, which shoots a beam from its head that disintegrates various large objects (similar to Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, but with astrong resemblance to large upright freezer).

But she may not even need the robot — she herself is shown to be invulnerable to bullets and electricity. She's part of an advanced guard, and her goals are simple — her planet needs men, since the matriarchy on Mars went a bit out of control.

This plot is a reversal on the usual sci-fi trope of aliens seeking our women.

Her original mission had been to London, but our atmosphere damaged her ship, forcing her to land in this isolated spot. Eventually, she decides to make do with one man — the heroic reporter. However, his attempts to trick her alters her plan and it looks like all of the group are doomed.



Since she is just a sort of "vanguard" for an larger invasion force, it's made clear that eventually the Martians will cometo conquer the Earth. This is a somewhat offbeat-yet-suspenseful depiction of alien invasion, with an entertaining antagonist in the form of this alien female. She is at once emotionless and arrogant, looking down at what she regards as lower lifeforms.

But we can't escape the evidence that Earthlings seem completely powerless against her abilities — it does look like a no-win scenario as the story draws near its conclusion. The climax veers close to a deus ex machina-style ending, but it's a good ride.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10

Trivia From Mars: Based on a play, which explains the theatrical style of having the Martian woman repeatedly entering the inn from stage left, making her pronouncements, leaving, and then returning in the same way.


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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Robot Monster (1953)

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_______________ Robot Monster (1953) trailer


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This movies is almost as infamous as Plan 9 From Outer Space as perhaps the worst sf film of all time — but, like Plan 9, there are qualifications to such an extreme claim to infamy.

Most of the film, after all, is a representation of a child's dream — that of a small boy — and many of the elements in this one are eerily appropriate when viewed in such a context.

The film begins in a quasi-reality with a small family on a picnic. They all decide to take a nap. That's when it goes off-kilter, as the boy wanders to a nearby cave, where lurks the awful Ro-Man, conqueror and destroyer of Earth's populati!

We are now in the boy's dream — unless we haven't figured that out. And, the weird tale fits in with a small boy's conception of what an invasion of Earth would be like — all revolving around his family and the immediate area (mostly filmed in Bronson Canyon, where many low budget efforts were filmed).

Things were already weird before the dream, including the uncomfortable spot where they all decided to nap for some reason.


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However, as a dream, it mostly works: people in reality become different in their relationships in the dreamworld.

A mere acquaintance prior to the dream — a professor — is now the father in the dream.

Mother and daughter wear the exact same dresses — and the daughter looks a lot better. A young man and woman work on an electronic transceiver, and all we see are their hands as they work and speak, with the woman dominant and in charge.

The young man is played by studly George Nader, who gets shirtless just as Ro-Man puts the kibosh on him — as the just-married couple begin their honeymoon. Ro-Man has already killed the little girl by this point. Then, there's a near rape.

But suddenly the Great Guidance puts an end to the plot by ravaging the Earth even more with his electric rays and stock footage. Ro-Man never gets the girl, although she might have acquiesced eventually, because she found Ro-Man to be very strong.

BoG's Score: 2 out of 10

Robot Trivia: an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in its first season - Episode #107


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