ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Another story about a person who survives an atomic blast and then turns into something bizarre.

Thank God radiation doesn't really do crazy things like that to people — because if it did, Japan would have been overrun with mutated survivors of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

That would have made a great idea for a movie — if it weren't so insensitive to the actual tragedy those poor people suffered.

Anyway, in this movie, Ron Randell (as a gangster on the run) does better than most A-bomb survivors; he becomes invulnerable (ala Superman). He uses this condition to get revenge on his underworld buddies who framed him and sent him to prison.

The cast is a strong plus. It includes the great Morris Ankrum, veteran of 15 sci-fi movies from the 1950s (the record holder for that honor) and the lovely Debra Paget ("Princess of the Nile", "From the Earth to the Moon").

Despite an interesting concept and a potentially good cast, director Alan Dwan demonstrates so little skill that most of the scenes look like clumsy screen tests. The script by James Leicester and Phillip Rock imposes a wealth of bad dialogue on actors who deserve better.

Illogical plot developments occur more often than commercial breaks during a late late show. The music by Louis Forbes is consistently limp and sleepy. The only special effect (a mediocre one) involves a scene in which Randell's enemies try to kill him by luring him onto an electrified metal plate.
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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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Couldn't find a trailer, but here's an eight minute excerpt from the movie.

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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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IMDB has two interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ According to director Allan Dwan, producer Benedict Bogeaus tricked him, the actors and crew members into working for low pay by claiming the project was actually a two-part pilot for a TV series. Bogeaus was caught by the heads of the Mexican movie unions, who read the script, realized it was for a feature film, and demanded that everyone employed on it be paid the higher feature-film rates. As a result, Dwan had to shoot the film in one week instead of five, and use only already existing sets.

Note from me: Well, he was a con man, but he was pretty resourceful.

~ Made in 1958 but not released until 1961 because of the financial failure of producer Benedict Bogeaus' original distributor, RKO. Bogeaus sat on the film for three years until he was able to sell it to Columbia for a flat fee in 1961.

Note from me: It was a shame about RKO. They made so many great movies over the years.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)