1950s Sci Fi/Creature B Movie Flicks HoF

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THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS
(1953, Lourié)



"A prehistoric animal would be presumptuous to be alive today and upset your neatly cataloged theories."

That is how physicist Thomas Nesbitt (Paul Christian) sums up another scientist skeptical reaction to the alleged appearance of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, a prehistoric dinosaur awakened by a nuclear bomb test. The film follows Nesbitt's attempts to alert everybody after his first encounter with the beast in the Arctic. An encounter that everybody dismisses as a moment of delirium.

And there is a good deal of that skepticism, as Nesbitt goes around from his military friends to fellow scientists. He is eventually joined by Dr. Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) and his young assistant Lee (Paula Raymond), but the film takes almost an hour to finally confirm the existence of the beast to the higher uppers, when it is already too late.

But regardless of the scientific push-and-pull from the story, this is a film about a giant lizard wreaking havoc, and in that aspect, the film delivers. The special effects and stop-motion animation of the beast are quite impressive and wonderful to look at. One notable example is the moment when the beast destroys a lighthouse, which results in a very visually striking moment (hence my inclusion of it here), but the scenes in the city halfway through, or the closing ones in Coney Island are just as good.

The toxic blood in the last act was a nice twist, but I don't think the way it was executed and eventually solved was that effective. Still, at 80 minutes, the film doesn't overstay its welcome and offers enough destruction and solid special effects for any fans of the genre.

Grade:
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How interesting to see the patterns between some of these I mean, scientists investigate X thing in the Pacific, Arctic, whatever... nuclear tests awaken monster... monster wreaks havoc... scientists stop monster.

Also, the way these films pretty much end abruptly. Crab Monsters ends literally two seconds after one of the main characters sacrifices to kill the crabs, 20,000 Fathoms ends as the beast is ablaze... I think The Deadly Mantis has a bit of a more relaxed closing, but it's interesting to see all those connections.



I watched The Deadly Mantis. I love praying mantids, I've kept quite a few as pets, and currently have three, an adult Texas unicorn mantis (she's very cool looking), and two Australian rain forest nymphs, tiny now but will be quite big when they become adults...
That is very cool. I looked up both species and wow! They're intimidating looking even when they're not 200 feet long. They must be rare where I live, W. Washington state, as I've lived here all my life and only seen two of them...and that was in the last 10 years. I don't know if they are indeed uncommon in the wild here, or aren't native and are just moving into the area. I took this picture of one who was on the side of my house happily hanging out upside down.



I mainline Windex and horse tranquilizer
How interesting to see the patterns between some of these I mean, scientists investigate X thing in the Pacific, Arctic, whatever... nuclear tests awaken monster... monster wreaks havoc... scientists stop monster.

Also, the way these films pretty much end abruptly. Crab Monsters ends literally two seconds after one of the main characters sacrifices to kill the crabs, 20,000 Fathoms ends as the beast is ablaze... I think The Deadly Mantis has a bit of a more relaxed closing, but it's interesting to see all those connections.



What always interested me about 20,000 Fathoms is that when the creature gets wounded, its blood causes a contagion to be released which kills even more people. The majority of giant monster movies is just them smashing everything in sight, but with the added threat of a prehistoric disease as well, it makes it a more interesting movie to me.



I guess it's not unlike Godzilla and company's radioactivity being as much of a threat as a fire breathing nuclear powered iguana.
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What always interested me about 20,000 Fathoms is that when the creature gets wounded, its blood causes a contagion to be released which kills even more people. The majority of giant monster movies is just them smashing everything in sight, but with the added threat of a prehistoric disease as well, it makes it a more interesting movie to me.



I guess it's not unlike Godzilla and company's radioactivity being as much of a threat as a fire breathing nuclear powered iguana.
Yeah, I brought up the "toxic blood" in my review, but I think that twist could've been executed better. In the end, it didn't seem to make much of a difference when it came to just shoot the beast (by none other than Lee Van Cleef! in a very small role)



THE DEADLY MANTIS
(1957, Juran)



"I'm convinced that we're dealing with a Mantis in whose geological world the smallest insects were as large as man, and now failing to find those insects as food, well... it's doing the best that it can."

The Deadly Mantis follows a team of scientists and military personnel as they try to find and stop the titular creature as it starts attacking several military bases in the North Pole. The military team is led by Col. Joe Parkman (Craig Stevens) and General Mark Ford (Donald Randolph), but they are joined by paleontologist Ned Jackson (William Hopper) and journalist Marge Blaine (Alix Talton).

I read an article on praying mantises that opened with the following sentence: "From extreme camouflage to sexual cannibalism". Obviously, this unique insect has fascinated people since forever, not only because of their appearance, but also for their behavior or skills, as mentioned on this quote. Unfortunately, this creature feature resorts to a more traditional portrayal of it as a big "anything", instead of capitalizing on its uniqueness.

The Deadly Mantis follows a template, and it does so fairly well. However, its pace is a bit more clunky than, say, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. At times, it feels like it kinda sputters often, before actually getting things going. In addition, none of the main characters are that memorable. There's also the frequent objectification of Marge, which we are meant to take in stride because she does so as well, all while dozens of soldiers ogle and leer at her.

The special effects are not as great as other similar films, but they are effective. Director Nathan Juren tries to make the most out of his limitations, while still giving us decent amounts of destruction and chaos. It's not enough to put this in the same category as other similar films, but well... it's doing the best that it can.

Grade:



That is very cool. I looked up both species and wow! They're intimidating looking even when they're not 200 feet long. They must be rare where I live, W. Washington state, as I've lived here all my life and only seen two of them...and that was in the last 10 years. I don't know if they are indeed uncommon in the wild here, or aren't native and are just moving into the area. I took this picture of one who was on the side of my house happily hanging out upside down.

Very nice mantis there. It looks like a female, so maybe she'll have babies, but yeah, you're pretty far north, and they definitely like warmer climates. I live in the desert, in Nevada, so we don't have a lot here either since it's so dry, but the first mantis I kept was actually wild caught, what I'm certain was an Arizona mantis, and she is still the best mantis I've had in terms of being fun to handle and watch eat. She ended up laying three egg cases, and I kept one of them, hoping she had mated prior to her ending up in my shoe in my garage where I found her, but it turned out not to be fertilized. I did raise some Chinese mantids from an egg case. Here is how I found her, just noticing her before putting on my shoe:


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Very nice mantis there. It looks like a female, so maybe she'll have babies, but yeah, you're pretty far north, and they definitely like warmer climates. I live in the desert, in Nevada, so we don't have a lot here either since it's so dry, but the first mantis I kept was actually wild caught, what I'm certain was an Arizona mantis, and she is still the best mantis I've had in terms of being fun to handle and watch eat. She ended up laying three egg cases, and I kept one of them, hoping she had mated prior to her ending up in my shoe in my garage where I found her, but it turned out not to be fertilized. I did raise some Chinese mantids from an egg case. Here is how I found her, just noticing her before putting on my shoe:


I love that photo, I could just image putting on a shoe and seeing that face peak out at you. I'll have to keep a sharp eye for any mantis this summer, I do live out in the country surrounded by foliage/trees and so who knows maybe one will hang out in my garden and eat those stinky shield bugs, I've put two of them in my mouth by accident! I was picking and eating fresh raspberries and didn't see them. They sure taste bad! I wouldn't mind a mantis hanging out and eating them.






The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1954)

A dinosaur gets unleashed from the artic and a team have to come together and take it down. This is one of those films where everything is forgettable except for the special effects which is kinda a problem but for this hall it makes sense.

The film is very similar to King Kong and Godzilla but it doesn't really do the little things that those films did. I think if the film had a better score or it didn't feel like it had a predictable plot I would have enjoyed it move. Some of the cinematography was impressive for the time but once again comparing it to the other works in this hall...it's lacking.

I kept waiting to become engaged with anything in the film and it just didn't happen. It's not good or bad just really average.






THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958)

This was a great film, I'm glad I watched this after the earlier Harryhausen film because this fixed and improved on most if not all of my issues with Beast from 20,000 leagues. This film tells the story of Sinbad as he goes on several quests to stop the Cyclops, defeat the evil wizard, and return his betrothed to her normal size.

The production values here are strong...likely the strongest of all the noms. You have multiple monsters that generally look great I think my favorite is the two headed bird creature thing. The film also has a proper score, a fully developed cast and a number of different set pieces and locations. Visually the film is perfect...I just had two issues with it.

The first is the obvious everyone in this film is in brown face. While I can somewhat accept this for films in the 30's this was the 50's and it becomes a little gross. My other issue with the film is the pacing, act 1 and act 2 are perfect but act 3 is all over the place. It has what feels like three different endings which is weird for a 90 minute movie. It was like they had so many cool tricks to do that the filmmaker wanted to show and do it all rather than tell a cohesive ending to the plot.




So that's 10/10 and my rankings would be

1. The Abominable Snowmen 5/5
2. The Tingler 5/5
3. The Creature with the Atom Brain 4/5
4. THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD 3.5/5
5. Attack of the Crab Monsters 3.5/5
6. The Blob 3/5
7. Destination Moon 2.5/5
8. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms 2.5/5
9. The Deadly Mantis 2/5
10. Gog 1/5




THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958)

I'm glad I decided to watch this last night as I'd thought I'd seen it many time...wrong! I must've had it mixed up with Jason and The Argonauts (1963).

It's the stop motion animation detail that makes this film so special. The cyclops licking his chops says so much about the cyclops...he really likes barbecued human! All of the creatures in this film had some sort of personality thanks to the artistic genus of Ray Harryhausen. Though emotionally that 'creature detail' worked against the heroic story for me. Example when the first cyclops has it's eye burnt out by Sindbad, the cyclops reacts very realistically, showing pain as it held it's eye and stumbled around blind.

That made feel sorry for the cylops and I'm guessing that's not the film maker's intent. I also felt sorry for the poor dragon that guarded the magician's cavern entrance. It was clever how the chained dragon was cranked over towards the wall by a huge wooden turnstyle that wound up the dragon's chain tightly. At the same time I felt sorry to see this poor dragon treated in such a miserable manner. Usually when there's threatening creature-monsters in these kind of movies they are so threatening and so hideous that I'm glad to see them get killed off. But here most of the creatures seem to suffer and I ended up liking them more than the people. Maybe Harryhausen wanted it that way, I don't know.


Loved the scope of this scene which impressively uses dimensional scale to great advantage.

The sets in the palaces were amazing. There was this one scene in a courtyard with a large pool and that looked like a real building not a matte. Visually this film is a 5/5+++

But on the flip side the story really wasn't compelling or fleshed out, it was just enough story to insert the various creatures into. And the acting was medicore. Sinbad was boring, the miniature princess was cute but what was that hair thing sticking out of her forehead. I did like the magician Torin Thatcher who also wore similar garb in the Star Trek episode The Return of the Archons.

@Torgo I watched it
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THE BLOB
(1958, Yeaworth)



"Well it's kind of a - kind of a mass. It keeps getting bigger and bigger."

That's the way Steve McQueen's character tries to describe the title creature to the police in the 1958 original version of The Blob. As a matter of fact, it isn't called the "blob" at any moment, but is referred to as "monster", "thing", and "parasite", among other things. The "blob" is essentially an amorphous, jelly-like creature that slithers around devouring anything in its path, while getting bigger.

Set in rural Pennsylvania, the film follows "teenagers" Steve and Jane (Steve McQueen and Aneta Corsaut) after they discover the titular "blob", who ends up devouring an old man, a doctor, and a nurse. They then have to face the skepticism and disbelief of the town as they try to alert them and stop the creature from devouring everything around them.

Even though I had seen the remake back in the late 80's, I had never seen the original until 2013. This original version was an independent, low budget film that ended up becoming a surprise hit. It is a mixture of classic horror and sci-fi, but with a certain goofiness to it, which was a bit of a staple of the era. That might help appreciate the film in terms of its place in time, but it doesn't make it any less silly.

Despite that, the film is held together mostly because of Steve McQueen, who delivers a fairly good performance on his first notable film role. Although he doesn't pass as a teenager, he still brings a certain charm and charisma to his character that keeps the film focused and afloat. The supporting cast, on the other hand, ends up feeling wooden and lifeless.

The story is fairly simple, and it has that classic sci-fi charm, but it also suffers from a sorta abrupt and lacking ending. Maybe it's because I'm an 80's kid and I saw the remake first, but this is one of those cases where I feel the remake is significantly better. Still, the original is not bad, and it should be an interesting watch for any fan of horror/sci-fi films or cinema overall.

Grade:



I couldn't get to anything else, so that's it for me. I was going to try to write something about The Tingler, but even though it was my own nomination, it's been a couple of years so I don't have a lot of things fresh in my mind. Anyway, I will add the others to my watchlist and will try to get to them at some point. Overall, I had a lot of fun with what I saw, so thanks to @Citizen Rules for leading this!




I couldn't get to anything else, so that's it for me. I was going to try to write something about The Tingler, but even though it was my own nomination, it's been a couple of years so I don't have a lot of things fresh in my mind. Anyway, I will add the others to my watchlist and will try to get to them at some point. Overall, I had a lot of fun with what I saw, so thanks to @Citizen Rules for leading this!

Thanks! and thanks for your movie, I enjoyed it! I totally get not wanting to write a review for something you've seen a couple of years ago. Heck, even two weeks for me and I writing a review would be hard, I usually like to do write my thoughts the very next day.



Oh boy, why didn't I mention the amazing Burt Bacharach song for The Blob in my review? That alone was worthy of half a popcorn



So here's the results based on the popcorn ratings divided by the number of people who reviewed the movie. Thanks to everyone for participating, I had tons of fun Hope you did too.

The Tingler

average rating: 4.25

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

average rating: 4

Creature With The Atom Brain
average rating: 3.875

The Abominable Snowman

average rating: 3.5

The Blob
average rating: 3.375

Attack of the Crab Monsters
average rating: 3.2

Destination Moon
average rating: 3.16

Gog
average rating: 3

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
average rating: 3

The Deadly Mantis
average rating: 2.7



I'd be taking part in this in a heartbeat if I wasn't trying to lower the percentage of horror movies on my log. I'm trying to get it below 20%, just like I recently did with the metal on my albums log.