ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Well now,let;s consider our options for an enjoyable vacation this spring!.

One possibility would be a guide tour through a spectacular cavern, complete with crystal-covered walls around a beautiful waterfall! And we might even glimpse some of the strange creatures that live in the carvern. Like . . . this one.





Or perhaps we can take a nice ocean cruise to escape from the problems of everyday life . . . like atomic radiatipn.

Maybe a nice trip to the beach would be relaxing. We could join the local residents who walk along the coast and look for driftwood and sea shells and . . . severed heads.





Yep, there are certainly many wonderful vacation options to choose from.

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Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

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Of all the film adaptations of a sci-fi Jules Verne tale, this came closest to matching the success of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). Around the World in 80 Days in 1956 was also a great success but was not really sci-fi.

James Mason also returns from his stint as Capt. Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to portray the character of Prof. Lindenbrook, the one who drives the tale.

The story takes place in 1863 Edinburgh, where Lindenbrook is the premiere geologist and university lecturer. His student (Pat Boone) gifts him with a rock he bought in a curio shop, and this rock turns out to contain evidence of a journey into the Earth taken by the famous Arne Saknussem, 300 years earlier.

Lindenbrook and his pupil journey to Iceland to retrace Saknussem's steps. However, once there they find competition, intrigue, and murder. They finally begin their descent with the wife (Arlene Dahl) of their competitor and a tall local Icelander (Peter Ronson) and his duck.



The film becomes a kind of unique travelogue. The audience waits to see what next interesting or astounding thing the explorers will encounter.

The film benefits from some good humor — mostly from Mason's irascible, impatient, and stuffy professor, but also from the other characters. Boone's young man is afraid of heights, for example.

Boone was at the height of his singing career here but didn't have a long film career, and the real star is Mason. Dahl also does well as the female member. Diane Baker plays the young lady waiting for her uncle and fiancee to return.

There's also a sense of constant danger, of this underground world constantly throwing another obstacle or threat against the group. The foursome eventually encounter another kind of threat, a 5th explorer — a descendant of Saknussem (Thayer David), a count who practices deceit and eats the duck. By the end, there are large lizards and a volcanic upheaval.

BoG's Score: 8 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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On the Beach (1959)

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_________________ Trailer 1959 On The Beach


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The big budget effort of the fifties in depicting the aftermath of World War III (all other fifties films in this genre were small low-budget affairs, including The World, The Flesh and the Devil).

In this scenario, the nuclear exchange among the world's powers had already happened a month or so before the story begins. Most of the planet's lifeforms are dead, the exception being those in the extreme southern hemisphere, as in Australia.

But the radioactive fallout is drifting southward and those still alive have about 5 months before it reaches them.

The main character is the commander (Gregory Peck) of the last U.S. nuclear submarine. After a signal is detected in San Diego, his sub is sent on an expedition to find out what's what, including getting data on the fallout. There is no good news in the findings.



Other characters are the commander's new girlfriend (Ava Gardner), a scientist (Fred Astaire) and a young officer (Anthony Perkins).

The film emphasizes the human drama of such a scenario as all hope fades and survivors wait for the inevitable end — now swiftly approaching. The story doesn't fail to mention how death from such exposure is not painless. Since, as mentioned, the characters have been aware of what's coming for some time as the film begins, there is already a grim fatalistic approach by all involved from the start.

Perkins explains to his young wife the use of special pills, both for their baby daughter and herself. Peck is in the strange position of having survived his wife and children; as a military man, he always expected to go before them. He cannot bring himself to get fully involved with Gardner.

There are fine moments among the small supporting parts. Especially effective is the brief stopover off the coast of an empty, silent San Francisco. One of Peck's crew elects to remain there since it's his hometown, even though this guarantees his death in a week or so.

The film has a languorous pace in sections and I found it to be way too slow when I was younger. As an older adult, I can sit back and study this deliberate examination of mankind's self-destructive nature (voiced by Astaire at one point in the one moment of anti-war preaching), the way people react to such a grim prospect and the panorama of a sober, quiet doomsday.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10

___ Melbourne Becomes A Dead City - On The Beach Filming


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_________________ On The Beach Grand Prix


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

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A low budget monster pic which is still not available on DVD. I finally checked out a DVD-R version, which looked like VHS quality.

The monster here is often compared to the earlier Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), maybe because the same FX man worked on the monster costume.

The story takes place in a tiny community dominated by a lighthouse. The grumpy lighthouse keeper (John Harmon) is at odds with the rest of the citizens for something that happened in the past.

He has a grown daughter who recently returned from college. Her new boyfriend is the local biologist. It turns out that the locals are right to be distrustful of the lighthouse keeper. He's secretly leaving scraps of food for the local monster. For some reason, this monster, which had confined itself to harmlessly prowling along the beach area for many years, has escalating to killing locals by ripping their heads off.

______ Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959) Trailer


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The film is slow overall, but it does have a few surprisingly effective monster-horror moments. Its other faults are a severe lack of internal logic and unaddressed questions — why does the monster suddenly want to kill everyone? How does it cleanly severe heads (described by the local doc more than once) with its cumbersome claws? How and why does it drain all the blood?

Also, why does the lighthouse keeper help it and keep it a secret for years. Just because he holds a grudge against the community?

Harmon does give a good performance for such tripe, as does Jeanne Carmen as his daughter. And, actually, all the main actors are pretty good, including Les Tremayne as the doc.

The monster? It may scare the little kids, I'll give it that. It's played by Pete Dunn, who doubles as one of the victims. The climactic action is also pretty good, almost spectacular for such a small film.

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BoG's Score: 5 out of 10

Monster Trivia: Don Sullivan, who plays the biologist boyfriend, also starred in The Giant Gila Monster that same year.

Star Trek TOS actor alert: Harmon played a bum in the famous episode, The City on the Edge of Forever.


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)