ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Looking for movies with unusual premises?

How 'bout movies with eyes that crawl, skies that explode, and cavemen with acne?

All Sci-Fi's Featured Threads are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get!
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The Crawling Eye (1958)

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This sci-fi film (with touches of horror) is unusual because it's like the final act of a longer story. The characters discuss a previous event, a similar situation in the Andes, some time ago, which involved a radioactive cloud like the one they discover in the European location of this story.

The film is derived from a 6-part TV Serial broadcast in 1956.

Speaking of radioactivity — it's referred to here, but there's never any plot about the cloud posing a radioactive threat to humans! Mostly it's just about the extreme cold that the aliens also project.



In the film, another cloud has appeared on the Alpine peak Trollenberg, overlooking an Austrian town of the same name.

The first scene may be the one most fans recall best as kids . A trio of climbers on the mountain encounter the cloud just above them. One of them climbs a bit higher than this friends, disappears into the cloud, and meets a grisly demise.

Tucker plays an American traveling to the area by train. Also on the train are two
sisters (Jennifer Jayne & Janet Munro) who work a mentalist act. The true esper is Munro's character, who suddenly feels strangely compelled to get off the train at Trollenberg for reasons she can’t explain.



It turns out that these alien monsters, hidden in the cloud, have some psychic connection to Munro's character, but I never really understood why the creatures were so intent on doing away with her.

The truly creepy aspect of the story is that the aliens are able to reanimate the humans they kill and send them to do their bidding (like killing Munro's character).

This is graphically demonstrated when one of these controlled humans strikes his head, receiving a long gash which does not bleed. But the fixation on Munro's character is never really explained, as if a scene is missing.



There is at least one other unexplained instance. At the midway point, a couple of other climbers are in a cabin on the mountain. One wanders out into the cloud, the other one stays in the cabin (which is completely sealed), but then he turns in horror at something behind him.

So, what was it? His fellow climber? An alien's tentacle? In either case, how did he or it materialize behind him in the cabin?

Other characters in the story include an undercover reporter (Laurence Payne) and a scientist friend of Tucker's character. The climactic action is at a scientific observatory on a nearby mountain, and it's not bad, but the clay model grabbed up by one of the creatures is jarring in a bad way.



The zombie-like controlled humans predate Night of the Living Dead by a full decade and are also similar to the eerie space zombies of Planet of the Vampires (1965). Unlike Night of the Living Dead, however, it's tough to pick out a walking dead human in this — they behave pretty normally, able to speak, if just a little stiffly.

The first reveal of a horrid one-eyed alien is also effective. It involves a little girl, and the eye of the alien follows her movements for several seconds of startling monstrosity. Whether by accident or design, this scene conveys a frightening, living, breathing alien intelligence. Thereafter, the creatures become kind of typical fifties schlock. But, I was also reminded of some of Lovecraft's work.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus ____________________________________________________________________

Teenage Caveman (1958)

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"In the beginning, there was chaos and eternal night. And a voice said, let there be light. And the dark was separated from the light. There was created the waters and the land.

And there were made the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night. And the stars to give light to the darkness. The Earth was made to bear growing green things and fruit. The animals were created and they were fruitful, and multiplied. And then there came . . . Man!"

The above narration is not from the beginning of a DeMille biblical epic. No, it's the start o . . . TEENAGE CAVEMAN!

Roger Corman, however, has stated that he directed something called "Prehistoric World" — not this cheesy-titled piece. It's a misnomer, in any case. Robert Vaughn and most of his peers look like they're in their mid-twenties.



Vaughn plays a young member of a small tribe (prehistoric, or so it seems), calling themselves 'The Clan' and living in a canyon which looks suspiciously like an area I've seen in Robot Monster and Invasion of the Star Creatures.

His father is the "symbol-maker" — which makes him a combo of the tribe's interpreter and chief artist/designer, I guess.

The tribe governs itself with various dopey laws and taboos, most of which revolve around forbidding anyone to wander very far outside the immediate area. The further one goes, the more chance they have in encountering stock footage of dinosaur-like beasts from One Million BC (1940).

There's also rumor of some dark god out there somewhere, whose touch means death. Vaughn yearns for more than this limited lifestyle. He questions, he wonders, he daydreams, he rebels.

He says "aye" a lot.



A stumbling block to all of Vaughn's plans is a tribal member nick-named the "Black-Bearded One." This guy uses any excuse to keep the tribe frozen in fear — fear of what's on the other side of the hill, fear of a god out there somewhere, and even fear of other men who may wander in.

This guy may be a caveman-version of today's politicians or religious zealots (but why doesn't everyone have a beard? A question for another time).

Vaughn does lead a small group of young cavemen to the forbidden area, encounters a weird monster, and knocks himself out on a tree. Vaughn's papa follows him to bring him back (a plot turn that seems to repeat throughout the film).

Ed Nelson also pops up near the end as a blond caveman member.



The themes and ideas are (as is usual in a Corman film) undercut by the low budget and silly instances.

The first time Vaughn and his buddies encounter stock footage of giant beasts, for example, Vaughn throws his spear in a limp fashion at monsters which are obviously ignoring him (they're not in the same shot). He just tosses away his weapon for no reason.

Vaughn's performance isn't too bad, actually. He plays it as if he's a bit more intelligent than all the other tribe members, who are all superstitious dolts, but he comes off as a college Joe on summer break, not a struggling caveman.

Here be the SPOILER: In the end, the monster / god turns out to be the last remaining scientist of a scientific party of 23 persons who survived a nuclear war. He wears a strange radiation suit which gives him a monstrous appearance.

This is revealed in an odd manner via more narration, courtesy of the now-dead scientist. The narration explains how the few surviving humans of the atomic war went back to caveman ideals, except for the 23 scientists wearing these radiation suits. The suit also prolonged the scientist's life, perhaps to the tune of hundreds of years.

At this point, we're also shown stock footage from another Corman film, The Day the World Ended (which could be a prequel to this, aye?) and The She-Creature, as it's explained how strange creatures grew from the atomic aftermath — including dinosaurs.

Vaughn also finds a book in the suit, with pictures of Hiroshima.

Finally, new narration kicks in as it's further suggested that these holocausts are cyclical. The events of the film are also — it's revealed — in some dim past, as mankind again advanced after Vaughn and his dad did away with all the superstitions.

"How many times? Will it happen again?" I hope not.

BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus ____________________________________________________________________

The Day The Sky Exploded (1958)

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This is regarded as Italy's first serious sci-fi picture. The DVD copy I have, though an official release, is pretty poor in picture quality, no better than a VHS version, and with jump cuts.

This may affect my estimation of the film. I found it to be pretty boring. A rocket is launched into orbit in the first act, with one astronaut aboard. Not much else happens in the first 15 minutes, besides the astronaut saying goodbye to his wife.

I expected it to pick up after the slow first act but the pace remains the same — deadly slow. The rocket launch is deemed a failure, since it was meant to go further (to the moon), but is canceled following a malfunction.

The astronaut returns to Earth, but the rocket booster continues on to the asteroid belt. Eventually, the impact has detrimental effects on Earth. There's footage of large scale animal movement, indicating the onset of some cataclysm, such as tidal waves.

But, most of the story focuses on dull soap opera (the astronaut, his wife, and another couple), a lot of discussion and footage of technicians working their radios or radar equipment.

There's finally stock footage of massive flooding and fires, as well as cartoon-like special FX of Earth being bombarded, as well as one guy going nuts as the disasters worsen, but it's too little too late.

BoG's Score: 2 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)