ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958)
Article #152 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-15-2001
Posting date: 12-29-2001

A woman encounters a giant space alien that is after the valuable diamond she wears. When he finally retrieves it, the woman becomes fifty feet tall.

This is certainly one of the most supremely silly science fiction movies of all time. It’s not the worst, by any means; there’s some good performances, and the direction by Nathan Juran is energetic; he keeps things moving even though the attack of the title doesn’t occur until the last ten minutes of the movie. The special effects are quite awful; you find yourself wishing that Bert I. Gordon had been in charge of them, as he would have done a better job. I don’t buy for a second the claim that this movie is a feminist statement of sorts; though it is possible to look at the movie in that way, it requires far too much squinting for me to believe that it was intended as such.

On the plus side, it has Alison Hayes and Yvette Vickers, two very appealing actresses of the period. Yvette Vickers seems to have developed a cult following based on this picture and THE GIANT LEECHES, a lot of it centered on her somewhat slutty sexuality, but I actually think she was a hell of an actress on top of that.

One of these days, I would like to look into how the various communication media are used to drive plots in movies like this. If I do, you can be sure I’ll mention the newscaster in this movie, who gears his reports so intently on the events of the movie, that we actually have a scene of him taunting Alison Hayes from the television set. If my suspension of disbelief hadn’t already been dissipated by the time I reached this scene, this one would have done it.

THE APE MAN (1943)
Article #151 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-14-2001
Posting date: 12-28-2001

A scientist’s weird experiments have caused him to turn into a hairy bent-over half-man, half-ape creature. In order to return to normal, he needs some of that panacea for all ills of medical dementia, human spinal fluid.

And now, for the third time this week, a half-man, half-other-species movie, this time from Monogram and with Bela Lugosi as the afflicted scientist. Though it isn’t a remake of Karloff’s THE APE, there’s no doubt that parts of that movie were borrowed for this one, especially the spinal fluid angle. It’s interesting to compare the two, actually; I can’t help but notice how the Karloff movie is more or less serious, while this one seems a lot sillier and more melodramatic. There are some nice moments in this one, though; the scene where Lugosi first takes the fluid and is able to straighten out of his bent position is actually a good moment of physical acting on his part. I also have to admit a certain fondness for that bizarre comic relief character who seems to be everywhere and know everything; my favorite moment is his warning a woman not to go down a certain street where Lugosi and his pet gorilla (Emil Van Horn, though I would have guessed George Barrows) are waiting to pounce. Also on hand this time around are Minerva Urecal as Lugosi’s long-suffering sister, and Wallace Ford as (once again) a wise-cracking reporter. William Beaudine strikes again.

THE AMPHIBIAN MAN (1962)
(a.k.a. CHELOVEK-AMFIBIYA)
Article #150 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-13-2001
Posting date: 12-27-2001

A boy who has been transformed by his scientist-father to live underwater meets and falls in love with a woman. He runs into problems when he leaves his water environment to track her down.

This movie links up nicely with two other movies this week, being a Russian film (like AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS) and another half-man, half animal-elsewhere-on-the-evolutionary-scale movie (like THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE; incidentally, we have another one of these coming up shortly). It’s half a love story and half a fish-out-of-water story (and no, I didn’t have to strain to come up with that phrase). I’ve seen the movie only once at this point of time, and I enjoyed it well enough, but I prefer to reserve my judgment at this poiint, as I believe it needs a second viewing for me to really decide; at this point, I think the characters are quite well-developed and multi-dimensional, but I’m less impressed by the story as a whole, but that could easily change with another viewing. Though the dubbing has no doubt interfered with the movie’s impact, the movie does feel more-or-less intact. It’s also nice to see a Russian science fiction movie from this period that wasn’t pillaged for footage.

THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE (1959)
Article #149 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-12-2001
Posting date: 12-26-2001

When a woman’s husband leaves her during their honeymoon after he receives a mysterious cable, she tracks him down to a plantation. There she encounters a doctor performing unorthodox experiments with alligators.

I have a bit of fondness for this flawed little SF movie, perhaps because of some little touches here and there that I like. The presence of the always-welcome Beverly Garland is definitely one of the plusses, and I also like George Macready, who, though he usually plays villains, here gives the doctor a slightly sympathetic edge; he really is trying to take responsibility for the mistakes he’s made. I’m less taken with Lon Chaney Jr.’s performance in this one; his hook-handed, I-hate-gators cajun is fairly one-dimensional as written, and he plays it way too broadly for my taste. I also feel very uneasy about the psychological viewpoint expressed in this film that repressed memories contribute to living normal, happy lives; I wonder what mental health experts would say about that theory.

AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS (1924)
Article #148 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-11-2001
Posting date: 12-25-2001 (MERRY CHRISTMAS)

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS MUSING & RAMBLING

No other movie means Christmas quite as much to me as that silent Russian epic, AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS. There’s nothing like a movie that purports to be a science fiction epic but actually spends two-thirds of its running time dealing with the trials and tribulations of a post-revolutionary married couple engaged in the rebuilding of Moscow while dealing with an unsavory boarder who not only contributes to tension in their marriage but steals sugar from his comrades to make me feel the warm glow of the Chirstmas Season. And when the protaganist disguises himself as his bearded but missing best friend to help build a rocket to go to Mars, doesn’t he remind you of that jolly old St. Nick? Watching our hero then lead the oppressed proletariat on Mars on a workers’ revolution, and then following this up with an ending that is guaranteed to leave smudges on your TV screen when you toss the patented DS Rubber Brick at it is bound to make you want to go out in the street and sing Christmas Carols until your voice goes out or you die…

Okay, I admit it; I don’t gear this column towards the holidays.

Seriously, folks, I was disappointed to find out that this movie was a lot more of a soap opera than the full-blooded SF epic that it promises. And even though it was still possible to make good films while being hamstringed by the necessity of adding Soviet propaganda to the proceedings (after all, look at the films of Eisenstein), the final trip-to-Mars sequence largely consists of nothing but that propaganda, making it less satisfying than the soap opera portion of the film (which actually, for what it was, wasn’t too bad). The sets and costumes during the Mars sequence are impressive, and I did find some of the comic relief in the movie quite amusing; nonetheless, I think anyone interested in viewing this film under the belief that they’re going to see a science fiction epic should be warned ahead of time about the exact nature of the film. Consider yourself warned.

And a Merry Christmas to you all!

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF (1949)
Article #147 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-10-2001
Posting date: 12-24-2001

The bellboy becomes the prime suspect in a murder when he was heard threatening the victim shortly before the murder took place.

SPOILER

All right, let’s take care of the obvious fact first; Boris Karloff is not the killer (and I hope I haven’t ruined the movie for anyone). He’s that most mundane of characters for horror stars to take in comedies; the red herring. In fact, that is one of the problems with Abbott and Costello’s follow-up to their meeting with Frankenstein (actually, they don’t do that either; another inaccurate title); unlike that movie, which was a real horror movie on top of being a horror comedy, this one is nothing more than a by-the-numbers horror mystery comedy. Karloff does figure into my favorite scene, in which he tries unsuccessfully to hypnotize Lou Costello into committing suicide. Other than that, far too much of the comedy revolves around disappearing dead bodies, a trick that gets pretty tiresome before it’s all through. However, the scenes in the caverns towards the end of the movie are certainly beautiful to look at.

 An escaped convict finds himself under the control of a megalomaniacal criminal who is trying to use a scientist’s experiments with invisibility for his own purposes. He has the convict rendered invisible so he can steal radioactive materials for him.

You know, if I were a megalomaniacal criminal intent on using invisibility to take over the world, I wouldn’t render an ex-convict hostile to me invisible to steal material for me; I’d most likely turn invisible myself. Of course, maybe that’s why I’m not a criminal mastermind; what do I know about such things? This was one of Edgar G. Ulmer’s last directorial efforts, and there’s very little to recommend here; it’s dull and implausible, the special effects are nothing special, and it’s all rather uninspired and stodgy. Perhaps “amazing” isn’t the best word for this one.

This movie has one of the most notorious props in SF film history; namely, the giant hypodermic syringe used near the end of the movie. My wife also has a fondness for the Amazing Colossal Man growth chart that the scientists keep in their laboratory (every home should have one). Me, I love the scene where the scientist tries to explain how a heart is made up of a single cell, a theory that defies being taken seriously even among laymen. Yes, it’s quite easy to pick holes in Bert I. Gordon’s reverse take on THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, but even if I wouldn’t call it his best film, it is one of his most irresistible, and I really think he tried his best with this one. There is a real attempt to delve into the same issues that its model explored, and for a while it actually succeeds on this level. Unfortunately, the payoff is lame; the attack on Las Vegas is fairly anticlimactic, only coming to life when the above-mentioned prop comes into play, and it ends with a dull thud. Nonetheless, it’s one of those touchstones of fifties SF that is worth seeing irrespective of its flaws.

Several scientists are trapped on an isolated island inhabited by giant crabs intent on destroying them.

I remember enjoying this movie when I was a kid, but what surprised me the most when my local creature feature reran it a few years later was how much I enjoyed it the second time. It was then I noticed how scary some of the concepts were, specifically the fact that the crabs absorbed the minds and memories of the humans they ate, and were able to use their voices to lure further people to their doom. I still find it enjoyable many years later, and in particular I noticed this time was how well the movie uses sound to build up suspense; the clicking sound made by the crabs is genuinely unnerving. In fact, I’ve always felt that sound can be a lot more effective than visuals in creating an atmosphere of dread and suspense. It’s these touches and the strong script by Charles B. Griffith that make this movie work; it’s certainly not the lame-looking clumsy creatures themselves. This is one of my favorites of Corman’s early films.

A scientist trying to cure a girl from a crippling illness discovers that human spinal fluid is the key ingredient to the cure. When he kills an escaped gorilla in his home, he uses its hide as a costume to procure the spinal fluid.

I don’t know if this was the first horror movie to use spinal fluid as its secret ingredient, but I haven’t seen an earlier one. This would be Karloff’s only horror movie with Monogram, and it’s interesting to compare this with Lugosi’s Monogram horrors. One thing I notice is that the movie seems more geared to Karloff; the doctor is given a kindly quality that would most likely be absent if Lugosi was playing the role. I really responded to this one as a kid; I recall almost crying at the end of it. Nowadays, I see that it’s pretty silly, but I enjoy it all the same.