ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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[color=greenBogmeister[/color] did his homework before creating the three reviews below. He finds interesting things to say about a strange sea creature that kills people with radiation!

And he sums up the pluses and the minuses of a movie about a lost city far under ground.

Finally there’s the comedy / sci-fi with nasty aliens who inject their victims with alcohol from the needles in the fingers!

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Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1956)

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______ Phantom from 10,000 Leagues, The 1956


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A lot of this takes place on the beach. Bodies end up there after encountering some goofy-looking monster in the ocean.

It begins with a fisherman getting tossed from his little boat. The monster doesn't chew him up, though. The plot concerns radiation the monster gives off — which kills the man and subsequent victims.

A scientist (Kent Taylor) sent by the government to investigate teams up with another agent who starts out suspicious of him (they were unaware of each other — a mix-up).

The local scientist seems to be hiding something. His snoopy secretary is actually spying on him. Then there's another sneaky character (Phillip Pine) who likes to shoot people with a spear gun.

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All this sounds exciting, but it's very dull, with a slow pace and a low budget. The story structure is a little strange, seeming to begin at a point as if the first 10 minutes are missing. The investigating scientist is already there, having met a couple of characters before the film begins.

Some of this also reminded me of Ed Wood's style, staging, and methods — like putting up a sign titled 'County Morgue' on a brick wall behind two talking characters. Other stuff is almost nonsensical, such as stock footage of an exploding ship.

Taylor's character begins a relationship with King's daughter (Cathy Downs) and they're both stiff and slightly amateurish, though Taylor at least projects some authority.

Trivia From 10,000 Leagues: Star Trek TOS actor alert - actor Pine appeared in the episode The Savage Curtain

BoG's Score: 2 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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The Mole People (1956)



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
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Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)



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Odd mixture of sf alien invasion thrills and comedy, this is best known nowadays for the featured role by Frank Gorshin, who later became famous as the Riddler on the Batman TV show.

The plot is very similar to next year's The Blob. The young people are privy to the unexpected appearance of an alien threat — little green men — but are met with disbelief by the older generation and the establishment (the police).

This all takes place during one night, so most of the scenes are annoyingly dark. When I first watched this as a little kid, I admit that the alien's hands, with their bio-stingers, creeped me out.

Much of the plot involves a severed alien hand crawling around, usually inside a car. If it injects someone, that person probably will die, or so it seems.

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On the downside, the bulk of this film is pretty slow and just dull. There are numerous scenes, such as with a local farmer, that drag out and seem pointless. The highlight, late in the film, is a confrontation between one of the aliens and a bull.

But this is very low budget and even these scenes do not impress, coming across as silly and laughable. Though the aliens are of short stature, they are tough — bullets do not harm them — and the young folks need to find out their vulnerability to do them in.

There are parallel scenes of an army squad dealing with the landed alien saucer, but these are even more dull.

BoG's Score: 3.5 out of 10

_________________ Invasion of the Saucer Men


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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)