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[Bud Brewster]

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What the heck is happening around here! We’re besieged by faceless fiends, monsters from the cosmos, and a beast of colossal size who goes on the warpath!

Take cover, folks! All hell’s breakin’ loose in today’s Featured Threads!

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Fiend Without a Face (1958 England)

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What's that sound? Is it, perhaps, the sound of your brain being sucked out?

Try to imagine that sound. Well, you don't have to imagine it — not if you watch this delightful little film on the possible problems of introducing a new lifeform to our planet.


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ABOVE: Townfolk are worried; a Professor Walgate tries to explain his interesting theories; Marshall T. goes exploring

The place is the U.S.-Canadian border. A conflict soon arises between the military personnel of a radar base and the locals.

You see, strange deaths have occurred. We, the audience, have the privilege of witnessing these, along with the ghastly sound effects (sort of a 'thump-thump>sluurpp' kind of vibe).

These are invisible creatures, apparently. Initial blame is on atomic fallout and there's even talk of jets flying overhead, causing cows to behave strangely.

But, it's none of the above. Instead, a local professor ends up offering a long explanation on his theories of thought materialization. Seems like he, uh, materialized a lot more than anyone would have wanted.


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The film is creepy enough until this point — these little killers can't be seen and can therefore sneak up on people easily enough.

Then the local nuclear reactor's power is boosted and the things become visible. They appear to be moving brains, with spines attached. Their only desire is to fling themselves at people and try to suck their brains out, usually via the back of the neck.

The final battle is an intense, early example of bloody, grisly cinema at work. Bullets CAN kill these things, thankfully, and they tend to expire with a lot of blood oozing out. All this cinematic wonder is accomplished with stop-motion animation — not quite up to Harryhausen standards, but effective in its own little creepy way.

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The most disturbing scene for me, however, was at the midway point, when a local tough guy gets half his brain sucked out (see photo above). He ends up severely mentally deficient — it's a truly unsettling, uncomfortable moment and a further reminder of the dangers posed by radical science and scientists (according to this film, at least).

Some of these concepts, sounds and creature FX were copied by the British Sci-Fi Horror film Island of Terror (1966), another stab at science-created monsters.

BoG's Score: 8 out of 10

_______________ Fiend Without A Face Review


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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[url= https://www.allsci-fi.com/viewtopic.php?p=26764&highlight=#26764] The Cosmic Monsters (1958 England) [/url]

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_______________ The Cosmic Monsters trailer


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I finally got around to seeing this one during the TCM Sci-Fi marathon on June 9th. This one is British, but it stars Forrest Tucker, who also starred in The Trollenberg Terror (a.k.a. The Crawling Eye).

I read beforehand that it's talky, and indeed it was for its first hour. There's one amusing early scene when the two scientists are outraged over the prospect of a female replacement (Gaby Andre) for an injured assistant.

Later, she solves a power source problem and impresses one of the guys, though the reluctant Tucker is the one she falls for. Actress Andre, btw, had her voice dubbed over.

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!n the plot, the scientists open up some kind of rift with their experiment, allowing cosmic rays to affect the size of insects in the area (mostly some local woods).

At least one male character (a local bum) also becomes homicidal due to all this. And there's an alien visitor (played memorably by Martin Benson) who is here to help. He starts out with this sinister goatee, but after a remark from a local girl, he makes the beard disappear.


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Most of the giant insect action kicks in at the 1-hour mark. These aren't particularly huge insects but they do some grisly work, like chewing off the face of a soldier. The Brits were less restrictive than the USA back in the fifties in showing such graphic scenes.

This shot copies from a similar melting face scene in X the Unknown (56). In his book, Keep Watching the Skies, Bill Warren writes that this film does indeed swipe from the earlier one.

However, the last act is eerie and frightening to some extent, with a couple of the female characters in serious peril. But it's brief and the ending is abrupt.

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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War of the Colossal Beast (1958)

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______ ____ War of the Colossal Beast | Trailer


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This is the sequel to The Amazing Colossal Man (1957).

Someone (meaning director Bert I. Gordon) must have thought things out all the way through to a possible sequel while still making the first film.

Near the end of the first film, one of the Colossal Man's problems were solved with a giant needle and they never saw his dead body at the conclusion after he took a big fall. So, it's all quite feasible that he returned in this sequel — albeit a bit worse for wear.


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This is a very short film and has about 5 minutes of flashbacks to the first film, so new footage totals about 65 minutes.

Tthe action begins pretty early, and there are few slow spots. There is no sign of the fiance here. Instead, the ex-colonel's sister is now trying to locate him.

The giant man is now a giant beast, horribly scarred on the right side of his face and with an I.Q roughtly equivalent to bear. Gordon managed to make him quite grating on the ears, amplifying (rightly so) the noises he makes, which consist of growling and grunting.

He is more menacing here than in the previous film and you truly fear for the characters in a couple of scenes. The FX are the same, of course. The story is very simple, with the giant captured a couple of times and then escaping.

The ending switches to color in the last minute.

BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10


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)