ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Some low budgets are worth watching, despite being far from perfect. Some movies have interesting elements amid numerous flaws. And some movies . . . just sucked.

The Killer Shrews is an example of the first statement. The Giant Behemoth fits the second sentence. And the The Return of the Fly . . . just sucks.
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Return of the Fly (1959)
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_______________ The Return Of The Fly Trailer

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This sequel to The Fly (1958) is in b&w, unlike the 1st one which was in color. But it is in widescreen.

It starts off at the funeral of the wife/widow of the ill-fated scientist of the previous film. She was more the main character in the first film. It's suggested by her brother-in-law Francoise (Vincent Price) that death was a merciful thing for her by this point, as she lived with the nightmare of the first film's events.

The son (Brett Halsey) demands to know the details of his father's mysterious death, and Francoise relents, taking him to the father's old lab, long in disuse.

It doesn't take a great intellect to figure out that the son intends to continue his father's work — the ol' matter disintegration-reintegration device. The son has a phobia about flies, but that's not his main problem. His problem is that his assistant (David Frankham) is an unscrupulous criminal. Before long, there are detectives being reintegrated with guinea pigs, and it's a foregone conclusion that the son will suffer a similar fate to his father's.

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This sequel has less of the eerie scares and more simple shock effect and cumbersome (if typical) fifties monsters, notably another Fly/Man hybrid.

The script is also cumbersome and clumsy. During their experiments, the scientists decide to try a delayed reintegration for a guinea pig. Why this was important to them is unclear, but it facilitates most of the remaining plot.

As happens in such low budget fare, the criminal is always confronted by others in some secluded place, so he can gain the upper hand with no one else seeing or intruding. In addition, the villain (Frankham) turns out to be some kind of freaky sadist, not simply a criminal, and purposely causes the son to transport with a fly — I guess he really didn't like him.

Finally, the head of the Fly-man is larger than the one in the first film. This may have something to do with a gigantism problem which the scientists encountered in this version (the first porting attempt with a guinea pig resulted in a very large guinea pig).

The film has many of these throwaway scenes, most evident with its version of the little fly yelling "Help me! Help me!" But, even more, the Fly-man kills a couple of men. Sure, the victims are bad guys, but it's still murder, and he gets away with it because this time, the errant little fly with a man's head is found.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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The Giant Behemoth (1959 England)

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This was, essentially, a British remake of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, which had come out only half-a-dozen years earlier. The Brits seem to be a bit behind the times in this area — they then came up with Gorgo, which was their version of the Japanese Godzilla.



The film moves at a leisurely pace in the first half, as the plot concerns itself with the radioactive traces left by the Behemoth near a peaceful fishing village.

You see, besides the tromping this Behemoth is prone to do, it also gives off lethal radioactive barrages, burning hapless citizens on the spot! It's like dragon that spews out radioactivity instead of flames.

Don't ask me why . . .

Since it appears to be a sea dinosaur, it's designated a Plesiosaur, but once it's on land, it behaves more like a hostile Brontosaurus or Brachiosaurus. Willis O'Brien (King Kong), mentor to Ray Harryhausen, did his last FX for this. As seemed to be the case in much of his later work, he was plagued by time & budget constraints. He previously worked on The Black Scorpion.

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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The Killer Shrews (1959)

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___________The Killer Shrews Animated Poster


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I watched this when I was a kid (a Lon-n-n-g Time Ago. ) James Best stars as a boat captain who is delivering supplies to a small group of scientists on a forlorn island.

Yes, there are flimsy costumes on the dogs (giant shrews), the photography is pedestrian, and the budget is very low.

But there was always an extra edge to this one and, as Bill Warren writes in his book, Keep Watching the Skies, a logic informing much of the film.

The climactic action, when the survivors are escaping under some garbage cans, is the source of derision nowadays. But the scenes stay true to the internal logic of the film. The big shrews are not superhuman, but they have the equivalent strength of large dogs. It does make sense. Bullets can stop these things, but you need a lot of bullets — there are a lot of these critters.

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Myself, I always identified with the guy who chooses to stay on the roof, waiting for the proper moment to make a run for it. When I watched this, I thought —

'Would I have the guts to eventually climb down and run? Or, would I stay up there forever?'

Keep in mind, this is from the perspective of a 10-year old. If a film works, whatever your age, it works. It's very well paced, with a couple of genuine shocks. There's ample tension generated, especially in the last 10 minutes, when it's a desperate gamble to reach the water (duck-walking in large cans). The fear conveyed by the characters is effective.

The entire plot of people trapped inside a steadily crumbling fortified house' was utilized later in such famous films as Night of the Living Dead (1968).


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Also, according to Warren's Keep Watching the Skies, it was budgeted at $123,000. The director, Ray Kellogg, later helped John Wayne to direct The Green Berets (1968)

I was well acquainted with the character of Festus on the TV western series Gunsmoke (again, as a kid). It wasn't until much later that I realized it was the same actor (Ken Curtis) playing the scumbag in this little film. Curtis was very good at playing creeps early in his career. Curtis was also producer here. This does have similarities to the FOOD OF THE GODS premise.

BoG's Score: 6.5 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)