Directed by Edward Nassour, Ismael Rodríguez
Writers: Robert Hill (screenplay), Jack DeWitt (additional dialogue) from an idea by Willis H. O'Brien
Produced by Edward Nassour, William Nassour
Music by Raúl Lavista
Cinematography by Jorge Stahl Jr. (director of photography);
Film editing: Holbrook N. Todd, Maury Wright, Fernando Martínez
Art Direction by Jack DeWitt,
Visual Effects by Louis DeWitt, Jack Rabin (photographic effects); Henry Lyon (model maker); Edward Nassour (stop-motion animation)
Distributed by United Artists
Running time: 81 minutes
Cast
Guy Madison: Jimmy Ryan
Patricia Medina: Sarita
Carlos Rivas: Felipe Sanchez
Mario Navarro: Panchito
Pascual García Peña: Pancho
Eduardo Noriega: Enrique Rios
Julio Villarreal: Don Pedro
Lupe Carriles: Margarita
Manuel Arvide: Martínez
José Chávez: Manuel
Roberto Contreras: Carlos
Armando Gutiérrez: Employee
Guillermo Hernández: Jorge
Margarito Luna: Jose
Jorge Treviño: Shopkeeper
“The Beast of Hollow Mountain” is a 1956 film about an American cowboy living in Mexico who discovers that his cattle is being eaten by a giant prehistoric dinosaur, possibly an Allosaurus.
(Spoilers follow below…)
The scene and mood is immediately set for us, namely in southern Mexico at a place called "Hollow Mountain" about which tales have been told of a curse and where cattle and farmers have been mysteriously disappearing. The mountain has never been explored and there is a swamp at its base that claims the lives of anyone foolish enough to venture too close.
In almost direct defiance of such tales of curses, disappearances and certain death, an American cowboy (Jimmy Ryan) and three cowboys enter the area in search of lost cattle. We are then invited to start joining dots together by the placement of certain clues. First the men find mysterious tracks and then the carcass of a cow stuck in quicksand in a swamp. One of the men falls into a tar pit or quicksand at the base of the swamp and is nearly sucked down into oblivion, but he is fortunately rescued. Is this the curse at work or is the rival ranch owner, Enrique Ríos responsible for what has happened to the cattle?
Later, when Jimmy rides into town, he manages to save a drunken ranch hand named Pancho by stopping his runaway horse that was spooked by a group of young pranksters throwing firecrackers at Pancho and his horse. Pancho and his seven-year-old son, Panchito (whose name you will hear again and again to an annoying degree!) are grateful to Jimmy thereby cementing a bond of friendship. The bond then extends and deepens to encompass someone else when Sarita, the daughter of Pancho's employer, Don Pedro enters the scene wearing a fetching off the shoulder blouse.
The strengthening of this bond will serve to fuel the fires of future conflict when later, at Don Pedro’s ranch, as Jimmy is discussing the matter involving the missing cattle, Enrique angrily bursts in upon the scene, accuses Jimmy of underselling his cattle and warns him to return to Texas. The two almost launch into fisticuffs until Don Pedro intervenes.
Next morning, Jimmy wakes to discover that all his ranch hands have decamped due to fear of the Beast, a beast by the way that stubbornly lurks in the misty realm of superstitious tales and has yet to make an appearance! Have no fear, for Pancho and Panchito are here to replace the cowardly cowboys. Pancho promises not to drink anymore, while Panchito declares that he will be responsible for his father.
The beautiful Sarita angrily accuses Jimmy of luring Pancho away to work for him instead. However, when she learns that Pancho willingly came to help Jimmy, she apologizes to him.
Just as romance begins to reign supreme, Ryan learns that Sarita will be married to Enrique in two weeks and that Enrique can be cute and cuddly when you get to know him. There is a suggestion of obligation rather than love being involved in her engagement to marry Enrique as he has helped her father. Seeds of conflict are beginning to germinate! As Sarita leaves to go home, she finds that her horse is missing and has to ride back to town with Ryan using his horse. Guess you can see where all this is heading!
So folks,..
Is this a Western?
Is it a love (triangle) story?
Is it a science fiction/horror genre film?
It is hardly surprising that when Jimmy and Sarita arrive in town, Enrique spots them and begins foaming at the mouth. A testosterone-fueled melee ensues between Jimmy and Enrique as they both engage in a no-holds barred no-disqualification match in the street. After systematically destroying the livelihood of half the town’s population, Gringo Ryan emerges as Bareknuckle Champion of Mexico. Jimmy then reads a telegram he has just received informing him that the US government has agreed to the price he is asking for his cattle.
Now the pressure is on when Don Pedro in the middle of “his town” tells Ryan that Enrique wants to buy his ranch and cattle for a fair price. Ryan refuses the offer and continues to do so despite the prospect of further conflict if Ryan does not give up the ranch before a new shipment of cattle arrives.
Shortly before the wedding at Hollow Mountain, Ryan and his pal and partner (business sense!) Felipe lead Pancho and his son to their cottage, whose former owner seems to have mysteriously disappeared. A search soon reveals the body of yet another missing cow. Could this be the work of you know what? Ryan dissuades Pancho from trying to explore the swamp claiming it would be unsafe for him to do so.
Back in town, Jimmy attempts to buy supplies but the merchant will not extend his credit. It turns out that Enrique has pressured the banker into not lending him money against the cattle sale. Soon after, Enrique catches sight of Ryan and Sarita talking to each other and he decides to come up with a new plan in which he sends out two ranch hands to steal some cattle while Ryan and Crazy-hat Felipe (whose sombrero takes up half the road!) are away. Enrique’s two henchmen are soon taken on as ranch hands by Ryan and Felipe.
That afternoon, Jimmy receives a note from Sarita to meet with her at the graveyard. When they meet, she warns him to be careful of Enrique and despite her feelings for Jimmy, pleads with him to leave for his own sake. Ryan, however, reads something different into her attempt to convince him to leave and give up his ranch up to Enrique, thereby ending hostilities between himself and Enrique.
Meanwhile at the cottage, Pancho asks Panchito to wait for him while he goes to the swamp in search of the lost cattle. He tells his son that If he is not back by dusk, Panchito is to tell Ryan about what happened. Despite Panchito’s pleas for his dad to not leave, Pancho goes ahead with his plan to search the swamp.
Enter the Beast!
As Pancho makes his way through the swamp, he hears a terrifying roar and discovers to his extreme consternation that the Beast of Hollow Mountain likes to dine out on Mexican cuisine. Our view is not one of the creature itself but is instead a point of view shot suggestive of the Beast descending upon the terrified, cowering and soon to be consumed Pancho.
When Pancho does not return, the frightened Panchito rides back to the ranch where Jimmy has been telling Felipe that he is planning to sell the ranch leaving Felipe in charge. Felipe is aghast at this news. Suddenly, Panchito bursts in crying out that his father has not returned and telling the two men about what has happened.
After riding out to the swamp, Ryan and Felipe find Pancho's hat and assume that he was swallowed up by the quicksand, but decide not to tell Panchito that his father is dead or show his hat to him. Later, a grief-stricken Panchito, tries several times to look for his father in the swamp, but is prevented by Ryan and Felipe each time. It seems that Panchito will not be friends with Ryan ever again.
While a festival is underway in town, Don Pedro has made arrangements for Panchito to be cared for in a foster home. Ryan also informs Sarita and Don Pedro that he will be moving himself and his cattle that very day, leaving the land for Enrique. As Jimmy says goodbye to Sarita, he tells her that he can never see her again or he would never be able let her go.
Although our villain, Enrique is cock-a-hoop to learn that Ryan is leaving, he puts another plan into action to stampede the cattle away from the station.
As Sarita dresses in her wedding clothes and prepares to wed Enrique, it is obvious that she is in love with Jimmy but she pretends to be happy in front of Done Pedro.
Later, after being told bluntly that his father is in fact dead, Panchito decides to go to the swamp to look for his father. Margarita, Sarita's maid, tries to stop him, but he gets away. Margarita then rushes to tell Sarita, who orders her horse to be saddled.
Lo! Behold The Beast!
All hell breaks loose when at the ranch, the Beast appears before us for the first time in the film as it decides to snack on a steer. This then causes the cattle to stampede straight toward the town where the festival is in full swing. Mayhem and pandemonium ensue as the cattle stampede through the town, brushing aside the futile efforts of the cowboys trying to stop them.
So now we have Panchito in the swamp looking for his father, Sarita going after Panchito, Ryan on the trail of Sarita and Enrique and his men following Ryan: A veritable smorgasbord making its own way to the dinner!
Now the pace ratchets up another notch as Panchito is chased by the Beast in the swamp. As he makes it across a river and to the small cottage, he is met there by Sarita and they both decide to hide in the cottage. The Beast arrives at the cottage, breaks through the roof and tries to attack the two humans. Enter our hero Ryan who manages to distract the Beast by shooting at it with his gun. Sarita and Panchito then exit the cottage and make their way to Panchito's horse while Ryan lures the Beast up a mountain.
Meanwhile the indefatigable man-with-a-purpose, Enrique pops up and attempts to kill Ryan, but the Beast’s presence causes his horse to panic and buck him off. Now the Beast, who is spoilt for choice, chases Enrique and both he and Ryan become unlikely brothers in arms – or, in adversity at least!
A wonderful pursuit down a steep slope and into a small cave is followed by a nail-biting scene at the cave entrance with the Beast reaching into the opening, after the two men. The only protection they have is Ryan's knife but it cannot stop the Beast from reaching Enrique, pulling him out of the cave and killing him. Ryan is saved from a similar fate when the other cowboys open fire on the Beast causing it to be distracted.
While the Beast chases the others, Ryan and Felipe make their way to the tar pit but are soon located by the Beast. In a death-defying scene, Ryan throws a lasso around a tree branch and uses the rope to swing back and forth, just out of reach of the Beast's snapping jaws. At a crucial point, the Beast moves forward a few steps too many and gets its feet stuck fast in the quicksand. We are then left with the sight of the Beast roaring helplessly as it begins to sink down and disappear into Nature’s clinging, cloying, enveloping embrace of extinction while Ryan and the others reunited look on sadly and then slowly make their way toward their horses.
Points Of Interest
“The Beast of Hollow Mountain” is the first film to feature both dinosaurs and cowboys and would be later followed by such films as Valley of Gwangi, (1968)
There’d be some people scratching their heads and wondering what genre of film “The beast Of Hollow Mountain” fits into. The film can be seen as being part of what is termed “Weird West” subgenre that combines elements of the Western with another genre, as in this film’s case, sci-fi and horror.
What is refreshing about this film (especially in this tap, click, swipe, instant gratification, CGI saturated, deconstructionist and contrived reality media age) is that one can simply sit back and enjoy a presentation that makes no demands on the spectator other than sheer enjoyment. What we have are the basic ingredients for good entertainment: a genuine western with elements of sci-fi, a villain, a punch-up, a cattle stampede, a heroine who’s nice on the eye, a love story and a mysterious, menacing creature that might or might not be the stuff of legend and tales.
Despite any budget constraints, full marks for effort must go to the effects involving the Beast itself whose movements were quite convincing. Loved the crazy tongue-action! As for the Beast itself, it was animated using two different stop-motion animation techniques. First, in a time-consuming and painstaking process, a two-foot-high armatured, rubber-covered model was moved, exposing one frame at a time. Replacement animation was also used and this involved several different models of the same creature made of plaster, each positioned in a slightly different way to represent a particular movement. An illusion of motion resulted when filmed in sequence for a few frames per second. The breathing effect of the creature was achieved by pumping air into a hollow space within the throat area of the two-foot-high model and then releasing it. Finally recalling scenes from Godzilla, two large rubber feet were worn by a technician in some shots to represent the monster walking.
Because these days we are so used to seeing one damn thing after another happening on our screens, some viewers may be chagrined at the fact that the beast doesn't appear until the last half-hour of the film. Some things however, are worth the wait, especially if the tension and mystery is allowed to build up to an exciting climax, which in the case of this film involves an action-packed running battle between cowboys and the dinosaur.
(End of The Beast of Hollow Mountain)
**********
Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
A film with shortcomings, many plot holes and poor production values but replete with imagination
1957: A Taste Of The Times
In 1957 an average car in the US would set you back by about $2,749 out of your average yearly wages of $4.550.00, but at least it had big fins and a more powerful engine giving it the feel and appearance of a rocket ship! You probably would have purchased your car using credit seeing that 2/3 of all new cars were bought on credit. Speaking of rocket ships, you might’ve heard the news on your car radio that the Soviet Union had launched the world’s first space satellite called Sputnik. If that was too much of a scary prospect, you might’ve turned the dial to listen to some Rock and Roll music from say, an artist like "Little Richard" followed by an ad for a popular toy like a Slinky or a Hula Hoop. Ah! You finally arrive home as you pull in to the driveway of your $12,220.00 new house…..
Directed by Roger Corman
Produced by Roger Corman
Written by Charles B. Griffith
Music by Ronald Stein
Cinematography: Floyd Crosby
Edited by Charles Gross
Distributed by
Running time: 62 min
Budget: $70,000
Box office: $1 million
Cast
Richard Garland: Dale Drewer
Pamela Duncan: Martha Hunter
Russell Johnson: Hank Chapman
Leslie Bradley: Dr. Karl Weigand
Mel Welles: Jules Deveroux
Richard H. Cutting: Dr. James Carson
Beach Dickerson: Seaman Ron Fellows
Tony Miller: Seaman Jack Sommers
Ed Nelson: Ensign Quinlan
Maitland Stuart: Seaman Mac
Charles B. Griffith: Seaman Tate
“Attack of the Crab Monsters” is probably not one of my favourite Corman films, but it is what it is: a low budget teen drive-in flick. Nevertheless, the film does have a good mixture of action and suspense. The low budget consequences such as the crab creature itself were somewhat overcome by the use of tight close-ups of the creature and revealing it in its entirety only until later in the film.
At the end of the day (God, I hate that phrase!), I guess you can’t argue with the fact that even though the film was made on a paltry $70,000 budget, it did manage to return $1 million. Not a bad investment!
(Spoilers by the bucket load follow……)
“Attack of the Crab Monsters” opens with credits overlaid over a montage of abstract drawings depicting enormous and demonic-looking aquatic creatures. This is followed by a warning in the form of scrolling text that serves to introduce an ominous tone and set the scene for what is about to follow.
Playing firmly on the fears at the time surrounding the possibility of atomic apocalypse, the audience is presented with shots of mushroom clouds. The message is that this is what awaits us if we continue to flout the laws of nature. This is then underscored by a final shot of an explosion out at sea followed by a typhoon obliterating coastal houses.
Just in case we missed the point, a stentorian voice emanates from an ominously dark clouded sky and dishes out a dose of Genesis, (or at least a version of it);
"And the Lord said, I will scorn man who I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them."
*****
“I Will Scorn Man”
The fear we feel of what lurks around the corner:
The force of consequence awaiting our transgression
Of laws forbidding self-destruction,
On pain of divine execution.
*****
“You are about to land in a lonely zone of terror... on an uncharted atoll in the Pacific! You are part of The Second Scientific Expedition dispatched to this mysterious bit of coral reef and volcanic rock. The first group has disappeared without a trace! Your job is to find out why! There have been rumors about this strange atoll... frightening rumors about happenings way out beyond the laws of nature...”
A launch from a seaplane approaches a beach on a small Pacific Island. When the boat reaches the beach, a group of men and one woman disembark. They are part of the second expeditionary team to visit the island. We have leader and nuclear physicist, Dr. Karl Weigand (Leslie Bradley); geologist, Dr. James Carson (Richard Cutting); meteorologist, Jules Deveroux (Mel Welles); biologists, Martha Hunter (Pamela Duncan) and her fiancé, Dale Drewer (Richard Garland). We also have the radio man, Hank Chapman (Russell Johnson) and the demolition experts, seamen Jack Sommers (Tony Miller) and Ron Fellows (Beach Dickerson).
The seaplane pilot, Ensign Quinlan (Ed Nelson) wishes to leave due to an approaching storm. He had been on the island on a previous occasion to rescue the first team of scientists who were sent to study the island. No trace of this first group, however, has ever been found.
The setting of this small South Pacific island is close to a recent US Navy H-bomb test-firing site. The island received the worst of the fallout from the explosion, and the military sent the first team of scientists to check out the island. The disappearance of the first team is thought to have been due to them being carried away when a typhoon suddenly struck the island. The project is considered to be too important to be abandoned, so that is why this second team has been sent there.
Jules Deveroux: “Strange. We can see only a small part of the island from this spot, “but yet you can feel lack of welcome - lack of abiding life, huh?”
Ensign Quinlan: “Yeah, I felt the same when I came here before to rescue your first group. I not only knew that they were gone but that they were lost, completely and forever, body and soul.”
Back on the beach, Jules wonders if the ghosts of the scientists from the first team are still on the island. “Maybe their bodies are gone, but who can tell of their souls, eh? Maybe if I call to them, they will answer - their ghosts will answer.” He shouts the name of Dr. MacLean, one of the members of that first team, but receives only the squawking response of sea birds.
As a second launch approaches the shore, it seems to be experiencing some difficulty. Suddenly, a sailor stands up in the boat, loses his footing and falls overboard. Under the water, the sailor looks down only to see a giant crab looming towards him. He frantically tries to swim to the surface, and is eventually pulled out of the water, minus his head!
The inexplicable and troubling aspect of this tragedy is that apart from noisy seagulls and beady-eyed land crabs, there is no evidence of any other marine creature that could inflict such a mortal injury.
We have only been given the briefest of glimpses of the kind of menace that will be featured in this film. This will serve to maintain the suspense and audience expectations. Being a rather ordinary prop, an initial brief glimpse will (not very successfully) also lessen possible audience disappointment or expressions of mirth.
Dr. Karl Weigand: “Lieutenant, I don't want to annoy you again, but nothing was left? Not a hair nor a fingernail clipping? Only McLane's journal?”
Ensign Quinlan: “The Navy thinks they were all at sea in their small boat when the typhoon hit. "Lost with all hands" is an old story.”
Later on, everyone assembles on the beach to see Quinlan off. He promises to return in no more than a month. Suddenly, the island is rocked by an earthquake and series of explosions causing a rock slide close to the sailors. From the cliffs the scientists watch the seaplane depart.
Hank explains what has led to everyone being on the island:
Hank Chapman: “Well, you remember that first big H-bomb test - the one that blew Elugelab Island right out of the ocean?”
Seaman Ron Fellows: “Well, who forgets that?”
Hank Chapman: "A tremendous amount of the radioactive fallout came this way. A great seething, burning cloud of it sank into this area, blanketing the island with hot ashes and radioactive seawater. Dr. Weigand's group is here to study fallout effects at their worst. Dr. James Carson is a geologist. He'll try to learn what's happening to the soil. The botanist, Jules Deveroux, will examine all the plant life for radiation poisoning. Martha Hunter and Dale Brewer are biologists. He works on land animalism while she takes care of the seafood. Dr. Karl Weigand is a nuclear physicist. He'll collect their findings and relate them to the present theories on the effects of too much radiation……."
The scientists wave to the departing seaplane, but soon after it lifts off, it explodes. They now find themselves being isolated on the island. Weigand reacts quickly by instructing Hank to get on the radio.
Just as a storm hits the island, Hank tries to send out a message but the radio can only receive local commercial radio stations. It seems that electrical interference is blocking any signals being sent out.
Their isolation is compounded by the fact that rather than the navy eventually sending out a search party once the seaplane doesn't return, it will simply assume that the landing party had decided to stay on the island to wait out the storm.
There is nothing now to be done except for the scientists to begin their investigations, including the reading of MacLean's journal;
Dr. Karl Weigand: [reading McLane's journal aloud];
"Friday, March 12: This afternoon Professor Carter found a large piece of flesh having the same composition as that of the common earthworm, but measured twenty-four inches by eight. With this section as a measure, the worm-like creature would be more than five feet in length. Most intriguing is the tissue's consistency: it proved impossible to cut - knives passing through the flesh leaving no mark. Fire was applied to the tissue and the corollary result..." The journal ends there. (Mid-experiment!)
The sense of unease and tension is suddenly heightened by ominous rumblings.
The journal’s contents seem to rule out the Navy’s explanation of the previous scientists’ fate. It is clear that they were not carried off by a typhoon. The strange finding is that of a mass of tissue similar to earthworm flesh, but of such size that only the largest of deep-sea tube worms could possibly account for it. The tissue was also impossible to cut because any incision made in it immediately resealed itself!
Tension is built again a bit later when Karl and Dale hear a strange noise coming from outside. After a few anxious moments staring out into the shadowy darkness, they notice a vine scraping against the cabin wall due to the wind. The sense of relief is dampened as the camera pans back to the offending vine, perhaps suggesting that something else may be lurking among the shadows.
The next morning, Dr. Martha Hunter dons scuba gear and ventures out into the ocean waters alone to begin her exploration of the sea. We next have a scene featuring Martha swimming around with schools of fish and manta rays. Suddenly, there is a brief partial shot of the crab monster, but the tension soon dissipates as Dale joins her on the bottom. After some exploring they return to the beach where Martha gives Dale an earful: "You nearly frightened me to death….. I was using a large black rock as a landmark, but when I swam back it was gone." Dale then informs her that something was moving by her when he swam up, but he didn't get a good look at it.
Weigand and Carson call to the couple on the beach, telling them that they really need to come and see something important. The couple follow Jules, Jim, Carl and the sailors to an enormous pit that has mysteriously appeared where there was no pit before. It's approximately 50 feet deep and has occurred on the very spot that Martha walked over on her way to the beach. Carson wants to explore, but Weigand forbids it stating that any further disturbance might cause a cave-in that could trap anyone unfortunate enough to venture down. Carson observes that the rocks are unusual, that they have been glazed over as if they had been fired in a kiln.
Later at night, Martha is awakened by a ghostly voice that calls out her name and pleads for her help. It appears to be the voice of the missing Doctor MacLean. Martha gets up, changes into her clothes and searches through the woods to locate the source of the mysterious voice of MacLean. But why go alone?
Dr. James Carson: “So you heard it, too?”
Martha Hunter: “Yes, it was Oliver McLane's voice.”
Dr. James Carson: “He called me as plain as day.”
Martha Hunter: “Strange... because I only heard him call my name.”
Equally surprising is the fact that Martha comes across James who also heard MacLean's voice calling to him, leading him to also venture out alone without informing anyone else about what was happening!
Apart from Martha’s help, James doesn’t bother to get anyone else’s assistance when he impulsively decides to try and solve this mystery by climbing down to the bottom of the pit. He dismisses any possibility of a cave-in. For scientists, these people have very low IQs!
*****
Harsh Judgments
Actions and decisions
Harshly judged
By amnesiac jurors
Forgetful of lives lived
Irrationally,
Illogically,
In-advisably.
*****
Suddenly another earthquake strikes causing Martha to fall and strike her head on a pick ax while Carson’s scream is heard coming up from the pit. The rest of the team arrives and Martha recovers to tell them the whereabouts of James, "He's in the pit; I saw the rope go slack." They call to James who informs them that his leg is broken.
Despite everyone's eagerness to rescue Jim, Karl is against making such an attempt using the rope claiming that it may not be long enough to reach the bottom. Instead, he suggests making a rescue attempt by going through the caves down by the seashore. He is confident that the caves must connect to the pit as he believes that it has been artificially created. The two sailors arrive on the scene to report that whole sections of the island are crashing into the ocean. The rescue party then proceeds into the cave system.
*****
Tsk! Tsk!
We know we feel superior
When we long to state the obvious
And “tsk tsk” a by-gone era
It’s views of “she” erroneous,
But will fingers of the future
Wag at us too, smug and vigorous?
*****
Yes, Martha is accompanied back to the house while most of the men traipse off to do secret “men’s’ business.” Yes, it was the 1950s: a different era with different attitudes! So what? Get over it!
Anyway, before entering the caves, Hank catches sight of a crab and throws a rock at it. Karl tries to stop him stating that he hates to see any living thing killed, even if it’s repulsive. Jules comments that crabs are harmless, but one of the sailors believes that crabs are in fact ruthless killers that will tear a man apart if given the opportunity. I hereby swear off eating crab ever again!
House
Dale and Martha go over MacLean's journal and learn about cave formations only happening at night. Suddenly they hear a booming sound and the strange scraping noise heard earlier on. This is soon followed by the sound of wood splintering coming from an adjoining room in the house. Dale then enters with gun at the ready to investigate when suddenly a giant crab claw snaps out at him Bruce Lee-like from off-screen causing him to let go of the gun. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, Dale beats a hasty retreat back to the living room.
Cave
The men venture into the caves and soon spot a strange light ahead. The rescue party calls out to Dr. Carson who replies and tells them to come quickly.
House
A fuse fails and Dale and Martha are left in the dark but the noises finally end.
Cave
At the spot where Carson was lost, the rope is found to be still hanging from the pit’s opening along with blood on the cave floor. So, the rope was in fact long enough to reach down to the bottom of the pit! Not being able to locate any other trace of Carson, it is decided that they will return in the morning. Hank doesn't like the idea of leaving a man with a broken leg down in the caves all night, but Karl insists they leave the caverns by climbing up the rope instead of retracing their steps. Karl doesn’t explain why. One of the sailors objects and points out that their tent is on the beach and closer to the cave but nevertheless submits to Weigand’s orders.
House
Dale re-enters the room to find its contents have been smashed up. Even the radio seems to have been deliberately wrecked, putting paid to any attempt to call for help.
Martha Hunter: “I suppose you can tell us what tore up this room last night?”
Dr. Karl Weigand: “No, I cannot tell you that... but I can tell you this. Everything that has happened from the death of the first sailor to the destruction of our radio must be somehow related. They are too far from the normal scheme of things to be separate accidents.” (See what a good education and degree can do for you!)
House
The next morning the scientists inspect the room more thoroughly. There is a hole in the wall to the outside through which Martha is looking out of. It was made by whatever attacked last night.
Deveroux asks Hank if he can fix the radio; Hank isn't sure and feels that it will have to be practically rebuilt. Dale wonders what prevented the creature from smashing through the door and coming after him and Martha. Karl conjectures that a lot of energy such as what the lights of the cabin could produce might deter such a creature. This thought leads him to speculate that the attacking creature is afraid of electricity. Dale then wonders if electricity could prove be a defense against the creature. If only someone had told the giant crustacean which disappeared as soon as the electricity was cut off!
As Martha is looking outside, she notices that an entire mountain has disappeared, “Yesterday, when we came to this island, there was a mountain out there. Today there's no mountain.”
The scientists decide to leave the house for yet another rescue attempt for Dr. Carson. At the cave, just as Karl concludes that Jim is beyond any help, another earthquake strikes causing Deveroux to fall and have his hand severed by a large boulder. As the others set about wrapping up the wound, the two sailors arrive on the scene. It turns out that they had been lured into the caverns by Jim's voice.
Jules is carried back to the house and is now in bed. Martha has given him a shot to help him sleep. He mumbles in French before falling off to sleep.
Seaman Ron Fellows: “Okay, whadda ya got?”
Seaman Jack Sommers: “Three queens!”
Seaman Ron Fellows: “Well, big deal. So you finally won a hand. I'm still 100 sticks of dynamite and one wild explosion ahead of you.”
*****
An Unlucky Hand
On a beach two sailor boys play cards
With stakes set so high,
Gambling with their lives,
Playing with dynamite
While something crab-like comes closer,
Its claw dragging a stuttering stick
Along a picket fence.
With fear-wracked features
In the light of a lamp
They come face-to-face
With Fate and ill-fortune,
Both boys dealt an unlucky hand.
*****
Back in Jules' room, we find that he is awakened by the voices of the two sailors telling him that they've found Carson and that he must quietly come to the pit. Jules agrees to go alone.
Just as Jules approaches the pit and calls out to the voice that has led him there, he is attacked by a giant crab claw which latches on to his neck. Martha is awakened by his screams and soon everyone rushes out into the living room. They hear the chattering voice of Deveroux emanating from his room, despite it being empty. Karl picks up a metal dish on the bed stand that Jules' voice seems to be coming from. When asked where he is, Jules' voice replies that he is where they shall all be soon enough and that they will hear again from him tomorrow night.
The next day the scientists discover that the sailors are missing, along with most of the dynamite. The grenades, however, are still there.
Dr. Karl Weigand: “No. No, I do not believe in ghosts. We are dealing with a man who is dead, but whose voice and memory live. How this can be I do not know, but its implications are far more terrible than any ghost could ever be.”
The next night we find with Karl, Martha, Dale, and Hank sitting around a table waiting. Jules' voice suddenly projects out of a gun on the table. It seems that the mysterious voices can only be broadcast through metal. Why? Who knows?
Jules' voice invites them to come to the caves again, where all will be explained. When they ask about Carson, Carson replies in his voice. claiming that they will be reunited with him, too. This all seems like an obvious trap, nevertheless the men head off to the caves, feeling that they have no choice if they want to find out what's going on.
The three men enter the caverns once again where they soon hear the strange ticking or tapping sound. Suddenly they are attacked by a giant land crab of which we have our first full shot. Now it is on for young and old! Guns are fired and grenades are hurled but nothing seems to have any effect on the giant crustacean. As luck would have it, a grenade thrown by Dale blows some rocks loose from the roof of the cavern, which crashes down on to the Crab Monster. It turns out that a piece of jagged rock pierced the creature’s head and struck its brain. It is feared that if this rock were removed, the crab monster might return to life. Why? Who knows?
Karl uses a camera to take some happy snaps of the creature and then uses a pick-ax to amputate one of its claws.
Suddenly a second crab monster looms out of the darkness and Karl gets it to pose for a photo before all three men make themselves scarce. A charge of dynamite is then set off which destroys the cave while the voice of Deveroux tells them they have destroyed McLane and his party.
Dr. Karl Weigand: “Any matter, therefore, that the crab eats will be assimilated in its body as solid energy, becoming part of the crab.”
Martha Hunter: “Like the bodies of the dead men?”
Dr. Karl Weigand: “Yes - and their brain tissue, which, after all, is nothing more than a storage house for electrical impulses.”
Dale Drewer: “That means that the crab can eat his victim's brain, absorbing his mind intact and working.”
Dr. Karl Weigand: “It's as good a theory as any other to explain what's happened.”
As Hank works to get the radio operational, Weigand analyzes some of the crab monster's tissue in a microscope and performs tests on the claw. He concludes that radiation poisoning caused the crab monster's atomic structure to be completely disrupted. Karl explains that since electricity is the flow of free electrons, the crab is composed of free atoms, making it like a liquid that's held within the container of its body and other such scientific-sounding nonsense. The crab monster is able to assimilate other creatures into its body, including their brains and can absorb the minds and memories of people it devours. The crab monster that was destroyed had absorbed MacLean and the two sailors.
Martha notices that one of the crabs is about to reproduce thereby proving that it is a female. Hank attaches the claw to a battery causing it to glow, and then be reduced to ashes. This eventually leads to the idea for the construction of an electrical device with which to destroy the crab.
Karl has also worked out that the crab monsters are able to throw out arcs of heat which they have made use of to create the pit and the caverns.
*****
Once They Were Men
“Once they were men;
Now they are land crabs.”
From monsters of our making
Have men been made monsters,
Sucked dry of heart and soul
Scuttling along under another’s will,
Encased in hard shells of ill-will,
Emptied of all free will,
Waving claws of clamping hate,
Absorbing minds
In a mindless fate.
*****
Dr. Karl Weigand: “No, thank you, Martha. I have no ambition toward becoming a mad scientist, but I do think we ought to try and capture the thing. Would you not like to examine a live specimen?”
Martha Hunter: “Certainly I would, but I had a chance to see how the "specimen" examined the lab wall last night.”
It is felt by most of the group that the crab monster must be destroyed. Karl, however, who was brought to the atoll to study the effects of radioactivity, feels that the crab monster would afford him an opportunity to do just that. Karl, therefore, prefers to capture the creature alive. This is a very risky option considering, as Martha points out, what the creature did to the wall of the house.
*****
Decision
What’s your decision?
Faced with death and destruction,
With each sinking option,
Taken by tides of desperation,
Carried on waves of emotion,
Hungry for retribution,
Lack of imagination
In search of a final solution
That will bring us salvation:
What’s your decision?
Step back from……. Confusion,
Limitation,
Restriction,
Enter into the equation,
Ask a bold question,
Call for information,
Join in cooperation,
Seek a resolution
Of a stupid situation
What’s your decision?
*****
Karl’s plan is to make a trap that uses a positive charge powerful enough to disable the crab monster but without killing it. Despite still trying to get the radio working, Hank miraculously constructs such a device, which is then tested in the forest. It is soon decided to prepare the trap down in the caverns during the day when crab monsters supposedly aren't active. It’s a bit difficult to see how Karl arrived at his conclusions and how he seems to have miraculously managed to cover all the possible variables in his plan!
Hank and Martha don scuba gear and descend into the pit with the trap leaving Dale and Karl on the hill. Hank and Martha don’t seem to have their minds on the task at hand as they chat about loneliness and finding that special someone. Perhaps the idea of heading down a dark pit while carrying dangerous baggage might be someone’s idea of a metaphor for some types of relationships? I’m just saying!
The Crab Monster is soon encountered having 40 winks and incredibly Dale sets about obtaining yet another specimen for Karl to study. All he really had to was set the device up and use it. Why tempt fate? Perhaps there are things more important than just immediately wiping stuff out? Perhaps there is an opportunity to learn things for the future? Or who knows, it could even be a lame device to keep the tension going….I’m just saying!
Hank sets off on his mission to do some good, but in an ironic twist, the crab monster's eye suddenly opens. By pretending to sleep, the crab monster has set a trap of her own! Don’t underestimate your foe!
Hank and Martha high-tale out of the cavern with Mrs. Crab Monster in hot pursuit. Unable to climb out of the pit in time, they both head for the water. They make it on to shore, followed soon after by Mrs. Crab Monster.
Dale grabs a rifle and manages to lob several shots at the crab monster but it's useless as the bullets merely pass right through the beast's body. The crab monster magnanimously congratulates the humans success in taking one of her claws, but points out to them that it will grow back in a day, whereas the humans won't be able to grow back the lives that they are soon going to lose. Dale must have kept the claw tucked away like Gollum’s “precious” seeing that there wasn’t any footage of him hacking the claw off the crab monster!
Back at the house there’s a discussion about how the island is steadily shrinking as large chunks of it have fallen into the sea. Later on Hank asks Martha how she met Dale. She tells him that they studied at the same school for which they are now both researchers. She sure sits pretty close to Hank and seems to be giving some mighty mixed messages. What might be going through the minds of the two men right now? Both might be considering a plan that uses each as bait for the crab monster!
While exploring what little of the island remains, Dale and Karl make their way to the cave entrance and spot two streams of oil, leading Karl to conjecture that the explosions and seismic activity had tapped into some subterranean oil source. Karl suddenly goes into action-man mode and insists on investigating his hypothesis. He waves away any objections by stating that the crab monster is like a rattlesnake that can be heard long before she can approach close enough to pose a danger. He also claims that she is destroying the island in order to trap the scientists who will have no place to run. Karl believes he and Dale will be able to easily avoid falling prey to the creature if they keep their wits about them. Karl and Dale then surprisingly decide to split up with each following one of the oil streams.
After a short while, Dale hears the sinister sound of the creature and after spotting her, rushes off out of the cave where he runs into Hank and Martha. Dale then insists on re-entering the cave to warn Karl that the creature is making its way towards him. Martha is told to stay outside, but after briefly hesitating, she runs after the two men. Go girl, tell ‘em to get stuffed! What so you say now “tsk-tskers”?
Meanwhile, Karl comes across the electronic trap that Hank and Martha left behind earlier on. Seeing this as an opportunity to capture the creature, Karl tries to get it working. Suddenly, he is interrupted by the sound of the approaching crab monster.
In his attempt to escape, Karl is zapped by the trap, which he now knows works only too well. The electrical charge paralyzes Karl and he is left to scream in terror and no doubt contemplate the little twists of irony that life and 50s sci-fi films seem all too frequently to offer. What he set out to study now advances towards him and sets about Borg-like to consume him.
As Dale, Martha and Hank flee, Dale pauses long enough to set fire to one of the oil streams referred to earlier. This trap, however, fails to have any effect on the crab monster.
The Crab: [with Karl's voice] “And as with McLane, there will be no evidence of how you vanished, or of my existence. We will rest in the caves and plan our assault upon the world of men!”
When the surviving trio makes it back to the house, Hank attempts to send a message via the radio but he is unsure if it is working. Suddenly, the crab monster communicates to them using the voices of Karl and Jules. They are informed that their efforts are all in vain as the atoll will soon be completely destroyed, along with any clue as to what happened to both expeditions. Furthermore, Hank, Martha and Dale will be absorbed into the crab monster, and their combined assimilated minds will assist with the impending invasion of all of mankind. Resistance is futile……
As the island rumbles, rips apart and tumbles bit by bit into the ocean depths, our three survivors make it out of the house before it collapses and traps them.
The three humans make their way up the remaining island peak that's still left above water. Once at the top, they can see a solitary radio transmission tower through which the crab monster transmits its taunting messages to them.
Dale and Hank decide it’s better to die fighting on their feet rather than submit to the crab monster. They decide to fight back by using their remaining grenades and a hatchet which is retrieved from a toolbox by the tower.
The grenades have no effect on the crab monster but in the ensuing struggle Hank somehow manages crawl over to the transmission tower and throw a switch that turns on the electricity. Hank then begins shaking the tower in an attempt to topple it over.
As the crab monster moves away from Dale and Martha and heads toward Hank. Hank manages to send the tower crashing on to the crab monster, which finally destroys it but which also results in the death of Hank.
Although safe from the crab monster, Dale and Martha appear now to be trapped and in danger of perishing.
Or are they……..???????
(End of Attack of the Crab Monsters)
**********
20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
An entertaining, fast-paced, well-made, and intelligently crafted sci-fi film
1957: A Taste Of The Times – Sci-Fi Films
Four sci-fi films from 1957 in particular stand out for me and have remained etched in my memory for almost 60 years. They are, “20 Million Miles to Earth,” “The Incredible Shrinking Man,” “ Kronos” and “The Monolith Monsters.” I first saw them in the early 60’s and they scared the heck out of me.
Back in 1957, there was probably enough going on in the world to scare the heck out of people despite a lot of optimism. Many of the sci- fi films at the time played upon the concerns and perceptions that people had. One major concern would’ve been about the possible use of atomic and hydrogen bombs and their likely consequences in terms of the dangers of radioactivity and the possible destruction of humanity.
Science fiction films for the year 1957:
The 27th Day |
The Invisible Boy |
She Devil |
Kronos |
The Amazing Colossal Man |
The Land Unknown |
The Astounding She-Monster |
The Monolith Monsters |
Attack of the Crab Monsters |
Monster from Green |
Beginning of the End |
The Monster That Challenged the World |
The Black Scorpion |
The Mysterians |
The Brain from Planet Arous |
The Night the World Exploded |
The Cyclops |
Not of This Earth |
The Deadly Mantis |
Quatermass 2 |
From Hell It Came |
The Secret of Two Oceans |
The Giant Claw |
The Strange World of Planet X |
Half Human |
The Unearthly |
The Incredible Shrinking Man |
The Unknown Terror |
Invasion of the Saucer Men |
20 Million Miles to Earth |
Directed by Nathan H. Juran
Produced by Charles H. Schneer
Written by Charlotte Knight, Ray Harryhausen.
Screenplay by Bob Williams, Christopher Knopf
Narrated by William Woodson
Music by Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Cinematography: Irving Lippman, Carlo Ventimiglia
Edited by Edwin Bryant
Production company: Morningside Productions
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Running time: 82 minutes
Cast
William Hopper as Robert Calder
Joan Taylor as Marisa Leonardo
Frank Puglia as Dr. Leonardo
John Zaremba as Dr. Judson Uhl
Thomas Browne Henry as Maj. Gen. A.D. McIntosh
Tito Vuolo as Police Commissioner Unte
Jan Arvan as Contino
Arthur Space as Dr. Sharman
Bart Bradley as Pepe
Ray Harryhausen cameo (zoo)
What if........
Nocrus & Eliosh are beings from a civilization many light years distant from Earth. Their planet is part of a confederation of planets, each of whose dominant, intelligent and advanced forms of life have managed to achieve varying degrees of interplanetary space travel.
Nocrus & Eliosh are now engaged in their final series of observations that will be incorporated in their report on the small blue planet which is the third planet of the unremarkable yellow sun’s system of planets in an equally unremarkable sector of the galaxy.
Nocrus & Eliosh have been tasked with observing the little planet’s dominant and technologically developed sentient bipedal life form which has given itself the label, 'Homo Sapiens.' They have faithfully performed this task for the last 5000 years. It is the only fair way for them to gain a true sense of human progress and development as opposed to their ability to engage in brief insertions into humanity's time periods.
Their own species’ life-span and concept of time is vastly different to our own, as is their chemical and molecular composition and structure. Unlike our own linear perception of time, Nocrus and Eliosh's civilization as a matter of course, view the past, present and future as existing simultaneously and they generally live their lives accordingly. If they wish, they can insert themselves into any point in time. Nocrus and Eliosh, like the rest of their species, have a fluid and viscous molecular composition which they can reconstitute into a variety of shapes and forms, including our own if they wish to.
What is of prime interest to Nocrus & Eliosh at this point in time is the fact that the intelligent primates of earth have finally managed to look upward, imagine the possibilities, reach out beyond the confines of their home world and venture out into the void that separates one world from another.
(Spoilers Follow.....)
Nocrus: The humans’ primitive ship is entering the planet’s atmosphere. Our bio-drones are observing it as it breaks though the cloud cover and crashes into the sea near a fishing village in a place they call Sicily. So much for our little ape’s attempt to move out of his orbit to a point little more than 20 million miles to earth!
Eliosh: See how those fisherman are beginning leave the area, but as soon as they realize that there might be people trapped inside the wrecked vessel, they now decide to go back to investigate. Our remote sensors picked up the words of one of the fisherman: “What are we, children or men of the sea? We go back!”
See their courage as they locate a hole in the hull and enter to search for survivors. See how they descend through a tangle of pipes and steam into what must be for them a form of hell as they make their way to the control room. They have at least managed to find two badly injured men alive.
Notice the crossing sign one of the humans is making? It signifies a form of religious worship of which we never managed to achieve the status of deities as we did with those religions of the Egyptians and Greeks millennia ago.
Nocrus: Yes, since the good old days, the adoption of that damn monotheism took away all the fun. Still, no need to mention that little episode in our final report!
Eliosh: Perhaps this form of faith - “Christianity” I believe they call it - acts to sustain them and gives them the necessary courage to face danger and rescue the injured crew men just before those explosions rock the vessel and cause it to sink.
Nocrus: More likely a superstitious appeal for protection in the face of perceived evil. How do these beings cope with all these different faiths; different sects within each religion; different regions defined by boarders; multiple languages and customs and each one believing that it has right on its side! And we’re contemplating admitting this divided and backward species to the Galactic Confederation?
Nocrus: One of our hybrid clone operatives stationed close to the seat of power in this planet’s major tribe, has sent me a neuro-telepathic message from the capital city called Washington DC. Tap into this and you’ll see that at a meeting with a military man by the name of Major General McIntosh and a Doctor Uhl it had been assumed the human space craft was lost with all hands. A report has subsequently arrived identifying the location of the crash as being in Sicily. It seems that McIntosh and Uhl will be on their way to Sicily to investigate. Let the game begin!
Eliosh: Indeed! Let’s see how this investigation transpires and how these humans will handle what is to come (literally!) from their first foray to another world…..
.........................................
Eliosh: One of our operatives has informed me that a Commissar Charra - apparently some kind of official - is collecting information from the rescuers about what they saw inside the ship. It is surmised that the crew had to be bigger than just the three men due to (for them) the sheer size of the ship.
Nocrus: Oh yes! Officialdom and bureaucracy. The one thing to spoil anyone’s day and foul up whatever is working just fine. That’s something we have in common with humans!
Eliosh: One of our bio-drones has spotted one of the immature humans, who the others in the village call Pepe and who we saw during the rescue attempt. Ah, he’s located the canister on the nearby beach and is now burying it. But why? He doesn’t even know what’s inside it!
Ah, it looks like he’s been called away now to answer some questions about an American doctor who is visiting the area. What do they call him: “The old man with a house on the wheels?” Ha! Ha! Apparently this man is called Dr Leonardo and is a doctor of zoology. He is also accompanied by his granddaughter who has been described as being ….”almost a doctor!” Ha! Ha! Ha! It looks like Pepe has been told to go and fetch the American doctor to treat the injured human crew men.
Nocrus: Now, here’s something interesting. On the way to the doctor, our friend Pepe is making straight for the canister. Now he opens it up and removes its precious gelatinous contents which he proceeds to wrap in a blanket. Now why would he do that, do you suppose?
Eliosh: Well, let’s see as Pepe has managed to locate our good Doctor Leonardo. It appears that he being a zoologist, it would be better that his “almost a doctor” granddaughter would be more suited to the task of caring for the injured humans. She is called Marisa and is what’s termed a “medical student.”
Nocrus: I don’t know how these humans can be so used to having their skills and knowledge subjected to such degrees of specialization and fragmentation. Our own development and understanding of the universe has sprung from a unified and holistic approach instead of being the result of the sprouting of individual branches of knowledge. How I miss those humans from the historical period they call 'The Renaissance!'
Eliosh: Especially our good friend, Leonardo Da Vinci. What a mind for a human! So open to new ideas…..
Nocrus: We’d better leave that out of the report too! Speaking of Leonardo, it seems as if our good Doctor Leonardo has been paying Pepe to recover specimens for his own studies. So now we know why Pepe has been doing what he has been doing. See how he shows the doctor the contents of the canister and negotiates to sell it for “200 lire” which we have often witnessed is how these humans engage in commercial transactions.
So, let’s recap. The earth’s first contact with a life form from another planet has resulted in that life form being ripped from its home world; secured in a container; washed ashore from a wrecked space vehicle; half buried in sand and bartered by a child who wishes to buy an over-sized hat from a place called “Texas” and who by the way also idolizes weapon-wielding thugs whom he refers to as “cowboys!” And all this before the little Venusian “Ymir” has had a chance to hatch from its gelatinous sac and ask to be taken to their leader! Potential members of the Galactic Confederation – Really!
Eliosh: Never mind that right now. One of our insect bio-drones is transmitting from the village hospital where we can see Marisa trying to make the injured humans as comfortable as possible. One of the males is called Col Robert Calder and the other survivor is a Dr. Sharman whose condition is “critical.” Not surprising considering how primitive their medical treatments are, not to mention their own pitiful capacity for self-repair and maintenance. It seems that 8 crew members have previously perished from a fatal disease and Sharman has now become the 9th. victim.
Eliosh: Our arachnid drone is providing us with a marvelous view of the miracle of the hatching of our little Ymir from the gelatinous mass. Let's listen to the humans' reactions;
Dr Leonardo: “No scientific record of such a creature.”
Nocrus: Seems like the older human is more fascinated by the anatomy of the beast and sees it more as being a scientific curiosity or discovery.
Eliosh: Yes, but listen to his granddaughter;
Marisa: “So very ugly and yet it seems so frightened.”
Eliosh: Evidence of a capacity for empathy despite repulsion based on physical appearances?
Nocrus: At any rate, Leonardo is moving the Ymir to a cage where it will be left overnight until further examination can be made of it. How many creatures of their own planet have these humans locked up, caged, confined, tied up and conducted their experiments on!
.............................
Next Day
Eliosh: Welcome back Nocrus. While you were on the other side of the planet, I was observing Dr Leonardo examining the cage and you should have seen his expression when he discovered how much the creature had grown in just a few hours. I made a recording of it for you.
Nocrus: Think how surprised they'll be to learn that there are beings on planets who live their whole life cycle (growth included) in the space of less than one earth day. Remember that planet whose evolution proceeded at an extremely rapid pace with species developing and becoming extinct in months and with even civilizations rising and falling in a matter of weeks? Our old human friend Shakespeare summed it up well when he wrote: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” He certainly loved our conversations and derived a great deal of inspiration from them! Perhaps we should have asked him about humanity's suitability seeing as he seemed to have had such insight into the human condition.
Eliosh: Dr Leonardo has now gone off to locate Pepe to learn exactly where the creature was found.
Nocrus: Eliosh, plug into this report from the local human clone operative. It seems that McIntosh and Uhl from Washington have arrived and have met with Col Calder. The representative of the Italian government, Commissario Charra has been briefed on events, including the fact that a biological specimen has gone missing and that it is an unborn life form from the planet Venus.
It appears that Pepe has admitted that he was the one who found the cylinder and that he sold the specimen to Doctor Leonardo who is now on route to Rome with the creature. A nocturnal bio drone should be transmitting about now.....
Eliosh: Ah, there's Leonardo. He seems to have come to a halt on the side of the road and is refastening one of the ropes on the cage which has come loose. So, he theorizes that the creature is a mutation or a throwback to something prehistoric.
Nocrus: It's amazing how many blunders these humans have made and will no doubt continue to make as they persist in making conclusions about the rest of the universe (let alone any other universe) based on their limited experience on this speck of a planet!
Eliosh: Look! Our intelligent but not so little Ymir is using the opportunity to break free and escape! Leonardo is just checking on Marisa who was injured by the creature. Here comes Calder who is having the latest episode explained to him. Off he now goes in search of the creature through the nearby farmlands.
Nocrus: Now we should see just how these humans respond to a life form from beyond their own planet. I bet I can guess.....
Eliosh: Perhaps, but take note of what Marisa just said: “I guess I frightened it as much as it frightened me.” Surely an indication of some capacity to empathize with and understand another creature's point of view?
Let's watch the Ymir as it makes its way toward a farm. See how the horses and sheep, I believe they're called, flee from it whereas a solitary little lamb appears unafraid. It is innocent and has not had time to learn fear. The Ymir must instinctively know this and will not harm the inoffensive little creature.
Nocrus: The Ymir appears to be confused and now finds itself in a barn causing the other animals to become agitated. It is now moving towards what appears to be a storage area where it has located a bag of.....(obtaining remote analysis....) sulfur. It's beginning to consume the contents, so now we know what its nutritional requirements are.
Oh, here we go! One of those noisy unpredictable quadrupeds favored by the humans as pets is attacking the Ymir. All I can see now is a shadow on the barn wall which suggests that the Ymir has fought back and has either killed or injured the ….”canine” I think they call them.
Eliosh: Then why is that farmer who has been drawn by the noise of the two animals fighting calling it a “Carlo?”
Nocrus: Sometimes you can be a real idiot, Eliosh! It's the canine's name! Speaking of idiots, the farmer is attempting to shoot the creature. But wait! Here comes Calder on the scene. Let's hear what he is saying;
Calder: “The creature has to be taken alive.......They're not ferocious unless provoked.”
An attempt at capturing the creature is now underway and they appear to be poking and prodding the Ymir in order to maneuver it into a cage on a cart. And this an example of not provoking it?
Of course the ignorant farmer has decided to get in on the act and has just now plunged a pitchfork into the creature, causing it to attack him. How did they expect it to react?
Oh look at that, they now decide it would be a good idea to belt the Ymir over the head with a farm implement to save their fallen comrade! How often have we witnessed wars erupt on this planet in a similar manner throughout the last 5000 years!
After distracting the beast with gunfire, Calder has managed to rescue the farmer and they now all flee the barn, locking the Ymir inside. Welcome to the planet Earth. Hope you enjoy your stay......
.......................…
Eliosh: That's it, run little Ymir! See Nocrus, he's managed to escape during the night. The humans have learned from Dr Sharman's notes that the creature lives on sulfur and they have surmised that it is probably heading for sulfur deposits around a place called Mount Etna, (accessing cerebral information storage implant) the tallest active volcano on the continent of Europe.
Nocrus: Hardly worthy of the term “volcano” when compared to volcanic activity elsewhere in this solar system and throughout the galaxy. Well, what a surprise! Charra has informed Calder that the Italian government will not allow any further attempts to capture the creature. It is felt that the creature is far too dangerous. Can you believe that? Only the Ymir knows what it must think of the strange human creatures shooting, prodding and poking at it, not to mention chasing and trying to capture it.
Eliosh: Well, there's some hope as Calder has made a deal that if he can locate the creature first, he can attempt to capture it before Charra's forces set about destroying it. If I understand Calder's plan correctly, it involves the use of two primitive and ungainly aerial vehicles called 'helicopters.' One will be loaded with sulfur as bait in order to entice the creature. The second craft will have a net that will be dropped onto the creature once it is distracted.
Nocrus: Yes, it appears that the Ymir is susceptible to the force of an electric shock and that the nets will be electrically charged. What a choice: death or electrocution followed by capture. Don't we want species in the Confederation that have the capacity to communicate, cooperate and befriend those from other civilizations in the galaxy? Upon their first formal contact with the inhabitants of another planet, this lot will probably try to – how does that saying go? “Shoot first and ask questions later.”
Eliosh: Well, the shooting has well and truly started with the arrival of Charra's forces. One of our drones has been inadvertently destroyed by gunfire. Their primitive percussion weapons, however are not sufficient to vanquish the creature.
Calder's group has now arrived and the sulfur bait is having its desired effect. There goes the net. The Ymir is struggling but not for long as the electric shock running through the net has paralyzed it.
Nocrus: You know, with a few tweaks we could redesign that method of immobilizing and incorporate it into a device much like a hand gun. We could have the plans for its construction implanted in one of our hybrid science operative's mind and the humans could use it as part of their non-lethal law enforcement arsenal.
Eliosh: You know we can't – er not supposed to do things like that. Besides, they'll eventually figure it out for themselves over time.
Later
Eliosh: Where has Nocrus disappeared to now? I can't seem to establish a neural telepathic link with him. He has switched off access to that portion of his mind for now. I hope he isn't working on that stun-gun idea of his. We've made enough unauthorized “contributions” to human progress over the last 5000 years! I'll just upload my observations to our shared neural information & communication repository. Nocrus can access it when he is ready.
Upload Commencing.......
A hybrid clone operative posing as a media representative is now reporting from the US embassy in Rome where General McIntosh is briefing the press on the whole situation. I can see and hear events as they occur via the hybrid's ocular and aural implants. What luck! The operative has been selected as one of the press representatives permitted to visit the zoo where the Ymir is being held.
Oh my! Perhaps you were right about these humans after all, Nocrus. It sickens me to see the poor creature being chained down and kept unconscious with a continuous electrical current while tests are being performed on it.
Calder is now introducing the press to the scientists who are examining and experimenting on the creature. The scientists have established that the creature's metabolic rate has been upset by the Earth's atmosphere; that it has a highly developed olfactory sense; that its respiratory system blocks out poisons and that it possesses a network of tubes instead of heart and lungs.
Nocrus, I know that you would be disgusted to learn that these barbaric creatures have attached a wire to the Ymir's wrist, allowing 1800 volts of electricity to course through its body in order to keep it immobile.
Another experiment is being performed on the hapless creature and...Wait a moment,......some mishap has caused the equipment producing the paralyzing electrical current to be destroyed. The Ymir is beginning to revive and is breaking free of its bonds and …...…
Elsewhere
A Special Report From Radiotelevisione Italiana
We are sorry for this interruption to normal programming, but an incredible event has occurred at the zoo in our capital city of Roma! We now cross over to our live broadcast unit and our reporter on the scene, Liberto Canzano.
Liberto: Thank you Giuseppe. A strange and terrifying creature has apparently broken out of the Zoo here in Roma and is engaged in a titanic battle with one of the zoo's enraged elephants.
There is absolute pandemonium as zoo patrons panic as the battle between the elephant and the creature continues.
Word has just come to me that an Americano general by the name of McIntosh who has been working in conjunction with the armed forces of Italia has authorized the use of tanks and artillery to destroy the creature.
As you can see the elephant has been fatally wounded by this monstrous creature which seems to have fled somewhere into the city.
It now appears that the creature has disappeared into the Tiber River and troops can be seen blasting the river in an attempt to force the beast to the surface. Yes, I believe this measure has worked! The creature is now emerging from the river and is pushing up though the bridge. It is now making its way toward the Coliseum.
We are now at the Coliseum and can see infantry together with a flame throwing tank attacking the creature. Two Americano officers appear to have taken charge of the operation and the troops are attempting to locate the creature which has for now disappeared.
We can now see the beast as tries to escape by climbing higher up the Coliseum's structure. There is nowhere for it go and it has become a target for the barrage of bazooka and tank fire. Mama Mia! The noise is deafening. The creature appears to be wounded, but wait! The creature is now toppling from its last refuge as it appears that it has received a direct hit from a shell..........
*************
Eliosh: Nocrus, you're back! Have you downloaded all the information I supplied? Where and when were you? Why did you cut off access to your neural telepathic link? What were you doing while this disgraceful atrocity was being performed? Are you alright?
Nocrus: See how quiet and subdued the onlookers seem to be as a blanket of silence wraps the ghastly scene on the very spot where cruel games of combat and sacrifices of innocents were performed. Do you think these spectators have been sufficiently entertained?
Where was I? Fortunate that a stray projectile that wound up in just the right place and the right time managed to strike the creature. Better that the Ymir face the peace of eternity than the possibility of a life in confinement on this primitive backwater of a planet as just a specimen for these alien creatures to use for their own ends.
Eliosh: Yes, fortunate indeed and that is what our report on this incident will contain. We do also have to complete the report on the humans' potential for membership of the Galactic Confederation. But I think the words of Dr. Judson Uhl somehow best sum up what can generally be concluded from our observations of 5000 years' worth of human progress and specifically from their first contact with an extraterrestrial life form; “Why is change so costly for man to move from the present to the future?”
Nocrus: I feel that the cost to the universe itself would be too much to bare should we permit these humans to interact with other species beyond their own planet..…
Points Of Interest
The city of Rome was chosen as the location for the filming of “20 Million Miles to Earth” because Ray Harryhausen wanted to vacation there.
“20 Million Miles to Earth” had been released under the title of “The Beast from Space.”
The working title of the film was “The Giant Ymir,” but in the film version that was released, the creature is never called a Ymir. It was felt that the word "Ymir" sounded too much like the Arabic title of "Emir" and that this might cause some confusion.
Ray Harryhausen wanted the film to be shot in color, but the film's budget would not have made this possible.
“20 Million Miles To Earth” stands as a showcase for the work of Ray Harryhausen, the master of stop-motion animation. Ray Harryhausen trained under Willis O'Brian (“The Lost World” 1925 &” King Kong 1933”) who pioneered the stop-motion process.
In many respects “20 Million Miles To Earth” stands as a homage to “King Kong” and nowhere is this more evident than in the battle scene between the Ymir and the elephant and the final battle scene between the Ymir and the military at the Coliseum. We also wind feeling sympathy for both King Kong and the Ymir who are characters in their own right and cease to be merely special effects stop motion models.
The Ymir is also similar to the creature in the film, the “Creature from the Black Lagoon.” You can't help but empathize with the Ymir as it is evident that the real monsters are the human beings. It is this stranger within our society that is essentially harmless unless provoked and is humanity's conduct and attitudes towards this stranger that are being commented on.
The movie stars William Hopper who featured in “The Deadly Mantis” and Joan Taylor who co-starred in “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.”
The young character Pepe aspires to a kind of capitalist ideal of accumulating wealth in order to buy symbols of status which in his eyes is a big Texas hat. Pepe looks up to a symbol, an idealized vision of self in relation to the rest of the world: an American cowboy straight off the silver screen blasting away with his guns at the bad guys. Little boys, however grow into big boys and become politicians and military leaders who come to believe that the problem of the big bad Ymirs of the world can be solved by recourse to force of arms. And while being mired in conflicts far from home in foreign lands, is any thought given as to who might have been responsible for causing the problem of the big bad Ymir turning into a fully-fledged monster in the first place?........
VENUS FACT FILE
Venus (the goddess of love and beauty) known as Aphrodite by the ancient Greeks and as Ishtar by the Babylonians
Regarded as Earth's sister planet but is certainly no identical twin
One of the least hospitable places for life in the solar system
Second planet from the Sun
Sixth largest planet in the solar system
Brightest object in the sky except for the Sun and the Moon
Most circular orbit of any planet
Geologically quiet for the past few hundred million years, but still volcanically active in some places
Like Earth, contains an iron core about 3000 km in radius and a molten rocky mantle
Shows phases when viewed using a telescope
Distance: 108,200,000 km from the Sun
95% of Earth's diameter: 12,103.6 km
80% of Earth's mass
Similar density and chemical composition to Earth
Atmosphere: Dense with pressure at the surface being 90 atmospheres which is equivalent to the pressure at a depth of 1 km in Earth's oceans. Composed primarily of carbon dioxide with cloud layers many kilometers thick composed of sulfuric acid which obscure our view of the surface.
Surface temperature: Over 740 K which is hot enough to melt lead. Produced by run-away greenhouse effect.
Surface conditions: Dry but once may have had large amounts of water that boiled away. Surface consists of gently rolling plains with little relief and few craters due to earlier extensive volcanic activity. Much of the surface of Venus is covered by lava flows with the oldest terrains being about 800 million years old.
Venus does not possess a magnetic field (Why?) nor does it have any satellites (Why?)
Venus’ rotation consists of 243 Earth days per Venus day, slightly longer than its year
The planet also always presents the same face toward Earth when the two planets are at their closest approach
Mariner 2 (US) was the first spacecraft to visit Venus in 1962. Venera 9 (USSR) returned the first photographs of the surface.
(End of 20 Million Miles to Earth)
**********
The Giant Behemoth (1958)
An entertaining sc-fi film hampered by cheap special effects and a lack of originality
Director/Screenplay – Eugene Lourie.
Produced - Ted Lloyd, David Diamond.
Story - Robert Abel
Screenplay - Daniel James
Edited by Lee Doig
Cinematography – Ken Hodges.
Music – Edwin Astley.
Special Effects – Irving Block, Louis De Witt, Willis O’Brien, Pete Petterson & Jack Rabin.
Makeup – Jimmy Evans.
Art Direction – Harry White.
Production Company – Artists Alliance.
Distributed by Allied Artists
Running time - 80 minutes
Cast
Andre Morell as Professor James Bickford
Gene Evans as Dr Steve Karnes
Leigh Madison as Jean Trevatharn
John Tumer as John
Jack MacGowran as Dr Sampson the Palaeontologist
Maurice Kaufmann as Mini Submarine Officer
Henri Vidon as Tom Trevethan
Leonard Sachs as Scientist
Dead fish washing up on the Cornwall coast?
Radioactive fish?
Locals suffering from radiation burns?
Reports of a monster?
A dinosaur revived by atomic radiation?
A behemoth heading towards London, destroying all in its path?
“SEE the Beast that shakes the Earth!
LIVE in a world gone mad!
WATCH the chaos of a smashed civilization!
FLEE from the mightiest fright on the screen!
NOTHING so Big as Behemoth!”
*****
The Coming of the Behemoth
A parish priest battles his way
Through a sweat-soaked nightmare;
His soul wavers above North Atlantic waves
Until blasted by God’s dire warning:
“Behold now the Behemoth, which I made with thee!”
But try as he might to shut out the light
And block out words that fill him with fright:
“As with Job, none of thee can hope to control
Behemoth nor escape my divine wrath!”
Cascading flashes of suns sear into retinas;
Insistent claps of thunder pound on ear-drums;
Skin bubbles, blisters and peels from his body
In a blast-furnace maelstrom that scatters his remains
In a cremation he would never have wished for.
Then from out of multiple mushroom clouds
He abruptly emerges from the nightmare vision
Proclaiming a coming calamity closing in on the world.
*****
(Spoilers follow below…..)
DAILY HERALD
A TIME FOR US TO WAKE UP -
URGES US SCIENTIST
At the London scientific symposium on atomic weaponry held last Monday, visiting American marine biologist, Professor Steve Karnes began his lecture with a film presentation featuring a series of nuclear blasts followed by footage of men in lead-lined radiation suits taking readings among the resulting damage.
The professor stated that since the invention of atomic bombs, over 150 have been tested. In addition, there has been a substantial amount of radioactive material that has been buried at sea. There is therefore, cause for concern as to how the radiation is being transferred up the food chain.
Professor Karnes warned his colleagues in the audience that the particles from the many atomic tests that have been conducted have indeed contaminated the world’s oceans and that this fact has the potential for disaster.
He concluded his lecture with the following warning: “Gentlemen, we are witnessing a biological chain reaction; a geometrical progression of deadly menace!”
The Cornish Guardian
“BEHEMOTH” BLAMED FOR BAFFLING BEACH DEATH
On Monday _____tragedy struck on a quiet stretch of beach in Cornwall. A young girl, Jean Treventhan and her father Tom had just come ashore to begin sorting their catch. Jean’s father then sent his daughter to their house with one of the fish to cook.
As time passed, Tom’s daughter became worried that her father had not returned home.
According to Jean, “I decided to head off to the local pub to find father. At the pub I met my friend John and some of his drinking pals. I asked John if he had seen father, but he told me that except for the morning, he had not seen him all day.”
When asked what she decided to do next, Jean replied, “John offered to go with me to search the beach. It wasn’t too long before we stumbled upon the badly burned body of my poor father. He just had enough life left in him to say to us that whatever caused his injuries had come ‘From the sea … burning like fire.’”
When pressed about exactly what her father might have been referring to, Jean quoted her father as saying “Behemoth!”
This baffling incident has left us with more questions than answers. Had Jean’s father indeed seen something strange in the water? What could have caused such terrible injuries? We are at this point in time left wondering what has happened and if this could ever happen again.
At Tom’s funeral, a certain priest reads the story of the Behemoth from the story of Job in the Bible. After the service, Jean not wishing to go home yet, goes on a walk with John.
Later on, from a cliff top vantage point, they spot a large number of dead fish that have washed up onto the shore. Moving closer to investigate, they discover an unidentifiable pulsating mass. John touches the weird substance with his hand, causing his hand to become badly burned.
Professor Karnes’ Diary Entry
While at my hotel waiting for a confirmation of a flight out, I noticed a report on the TV concerning some strange events in Cornwall. They seem to be somewhat similar to what I once observed at Bikini Atoll. I then quickly contacted my British colleague, Professor Bickford for a meeting.
Professor Karnes’ Diary Entry
Met with Bickford who filled me in on the rest of the story surrounding the strange events at Cornwall. What was left out of the mainstream national media reports was the death of the old fisherman and the peculiar radiation-like burns on his body. Seems like a whiff of the old national security suppression of truth in the supposed interests of avoiding wide-spread panic kind of non-sense! More often than not a good whack in the face with a fistful of truth is exactly what people need!
My first instinct was to dash down to Cornwall to investigate but Bickford informed me that a Royal Commission had already been established. He then invited me to travel with him to the site of the strange events on a kind of fact-finding mission.
Professor Karnes’ Diary Entry
Arrived in town to be greeted by a surly and aggressive bunch of local fishermen. They absolutely refused to go out in their boats and wanted the government to do much more than just perform tests. They told us that dead fish had been found all over the ocean and that their boats had not been out for 5 days! Understandably they are worried about how they are supposed to feed their families.
Unfortunately, there are no samples for us to analyze and the only unusual thing that has been seen are strange lights beneath the water.
One of the locals by the name of John took Bickford and me to meet the town doctor, who informed us that the old dead fisherman was covered with 2nd and 3rd degree burns, and that to his way of thinking it could have been the result of an allergic reaction to a jellyfish sting.
The doctor then drew our attention to John who took us to see the doctor. He also had a similar burn on his hand. After examining the wound, we recommended John be taken up to London for proper treatment.
Professor Karnes’ Summary Notes:
Results of examination of cove & beach site location of dead fish and strange substance: No residual radiation.
Sample testing of coastal seawater: No evidence to explain radiation burns or reported presence of strange creature as being a causal factor.
X-ray photography of fish for presence of residual radiation accumulation in bone structure: One fish sample displays glowing mass inside similar to substance that burned Cornwall local man’s hand.
Conclusion: Evidence suggests that further investigation is warranted.
The Cornish Guardian
Wrecked Freighter Mystery!
Reports have been received concerning the wreck of a freighter sailing under the name, Valkiria that ran aground after suffering substantial damage in a collision with an unknown submerged object.
According to reports, the force of the impact can be gauged by the fact that the ship’s quarter inch thick steel plating had been crushed. In addition, the bodies of the crew display evidence of horrific injuries.
Coincidentally, it has also been reported that a visiting American scientist by the name of Steve Karnes hired a boat at Plymouth in order to try and identify the location where contaminated fish had been caught.
An unidentified member of the fishing vessel, the Molly T stated that after the boat had come to a stop, a radiation counter on board began to sound an alarm. Suddenly, according to the eye-witness, the captain spotted something in the ocean. Professor Karnes also reportedly spotted a strange-looking creature diving under the waves. The Molly T then gave chase but the creature quickly out-distanced its pursuers until the signal was eventually lost.
Significantly, after this incident Proferssor Karnes proceeded on to the site where the Valkiria had been washed up and abandoned in order to inspect the wreckage.
Thus far no-one has been able or willing to shed light on how the running aground of the Valkiria and mysterious activities of an American scientist in the waters off Plymouth might be connected.
BBC Television News Report
……..and a report has just come through to us concerning a most unusual and tragic event on a remote farm in Dover.
A farmer, his wife and their son along with the family dog have apparently been killed but the police are unable to ascertain by whom or why.
The manner of the family’s death appears to be quite unusual in that it has been reported that they had been killed by some type of radiation burning.
The evidence suggests that the family had been sitting down to dinner but were alerted to something that needed investigating. It appears that when the farmer and his son went out to investigate they came face-to-face with whatever killed them.
There is also an unconfirmed report that footprints of an immense size have been located at the scene of the tragedy.
If and when more is known about this incident, we’ll inform you in our next bulletin…….
Professor Karnes’ Diary Entry
Since I’ve been back in London, a theory is beginning to take shape in my mind about what might have been behind the wrecking of the Valkiria. Evidence of cells of the stomach lining of an unknown creature taken from the fish at the lab seem to confirm my firm belief in the existence of a huge marine creature that was responsible for the attack on the freighter and the death of the old fisherman.
Professor Karnes’ Diary Entry
Looks like my theory about a huge marine creature might be right after all. I’ve learned about the incident at the farm in Dover and I have obtained aerial photographs of what appears to be massive footprints from the area that are each large enough to contain several cars!
Bickford and I took the photographs to a paleontologist from the British Museum by the name of Sampson and it was he who identified the creature responsible as being a Paleosaurus. He believes that the creature is between 150 and 200 feet in length!
Sampson’s head nearly fell off when we informed him that the footprint in the photograph is not a fossil but something actually living. Based on the information we gave him, Sampson believes that the creature is moving into the Thames, most likely to seek out some place suitable to die. “That's where their skeletons have been found - some irresistible instinct to die in the shallows that gave them birth.”
Just before we departed, Sampson gave us a rather ominous warning about the creature being electric as is the case in some eels. As for its radioactive properties, Sampson could offer no explanation.
Professor Karnes’ Summary Notes:
Nature of Anomalous Creature:
“Behemoth” identified as Paleosaurus, aquatic sauropod dinosaur.
Creature previously believed to be extinct for 130 million years.
Atomic testing and burial of atomic waste at sea.
Radioactive contamination of creature’s ecosystem.
Transferal of radiation up the food chain.
Paleosaurus creature being top of food chain
Confirmation of my theory of a biological chain reaction occurring.
Professor Karnes’ Diary Entry
After our visit to professor Sampson, Bickford and I headed off to the Admiralty to try and convince them to close the estuary. The Admiralty refused our pleas and instead demonstrated the wide radar tracking system that controls all traffic in the Thames and trumpeted their faith in its infallibility.
Professor Karnes’ Diary Entry
It turned out that professor Sampson had arranged a helicopter to try and spot the creature. We soon received a radioed report of their sighting a luminous shape moving under and through the water. As Sampson’s copter gave chase, watch stations on the ground reported that they could see only the helicopter! Suddenly all contact with the helicopter was lost. It seems that poor Sampson and the crew were killed due to the helicopter having exploded mid-air. At least we have some idea as to the probable location of the creature.
"Extra! Extra! Monster attacks London!"
BBC Television News Report
Bartholomew Winterbottom: We interrupt this program for an urgent breaking news story. We go now to our reporter David Gumball who is at present reporting from Woolwich.
Gumball: Pandemonium has broken out here, Bartholomew. The Greenwich car ferry has just sunk! What was supposed to have been a routine and quiet journey on the Thames has turned into a nightmare with the loss of the ferry and with over 80 people missing or dead!
Eye-witnesses claim to have seen a giant prehistoric creature rearing out of the water and then attacking and sinking the ferry.
I can confirm that police have closed off the river to all traffic, civilians have been evacuated from river front homes and that the Military have begun deploying units along the river to engage the creature if it should re-emerge.
Bartholomew Winterbottom: Thank you David. This is most shocking and unbelievable news. We will bring you updates on the situation when there are further developments……
Excerpt from radio interview with Professor I.M. Snyde
……although we shouldn’t be surprised considering what the world had to face just a few years ago with the Godzilla and Rodan creatures in Japan as well as the terrifying events in America involving the Rhedosaurus. Perhaps we became smug and complacent over time just being content with having our heads buried in the sand. It’s all too easy for us to dismiss such occurrences as being little more than “fiddlesticks!” And so now we find that history is repeating itself and it’s all coming back to sink its teeth into our collective posteriors…….
Professor Karnes’ Diary Entry
The conference meeting with the Admiralty sure got my colleague, Bickford’s dander up! The military guys were all for using bombs and explosives to destroy the creature. Bickford objected on the grounds of it being a dangerous move since explosives would result in spreading radioactive material all over London. Bickford pointed out to them that “a million radioactive particles blown into every corner of London” would mean that “the whole city would be poisoned for God knows how many years!” He then went on to explain that the creature is already dying from the intense radiation inside its body and that the process could be accelerated if they can inject a lump of radium into the creature. It was eventually decided to use a mini sub with a modified torpedo to accomplish this task.
BBC Television News Report
David Gumball: (Sound of chaos and scenes of pandemonium)
We are now in close proximity to Tower Bridge and as you can see some kind of an enormous creature is making its way ashore………people are fleeing in panic……no-one is safe……civilians and military alike succumbing to what seems like a form of radiation…..(Loss of picture)
Bartholomew Winterbottom: David? Are you there, David? David? Are you there? I’m sorry, but we seem to have lost our broadcast of the horrific scenes that have taken place around Tower Bridge.
David? Are you there, David? David? Are you there?
David Gumball: Yes….Yes…..the creature has continued with its relentless rampage and is now situated on the bridge….wait! (Sound of cracking, crumbling and crashing). What you are witnessing is the bridge structure collapsing and it’s causing the creature to fall back into the Thames!!!!
BBC Television News Report: Post Crisis
David Gumball: I have with me one of the heroes who saved London from what many are dubbing, “The giant Behemoth!” Mini-Submarine Officer, Werner von Schmidt, What does it feel like to be a hero?
Mini-Submarine Officer: Nine, nine…I mean no, no! It’s Smith! As for being a hero? There were so many involved in putting together and executing a plan to rid the world of this menace.
David Gumball: Please tell us a bit about how the plan was executed.
Mini-Submarine Officer: Ya….Yes! When the Behemoth re-entered the Thames, we maneuvered our mini-sub in for the kill. As we pursued our quarry, the Behemoth suddenly turned on us and tried to destroy the sub before our torpedo containing radium could be fired.
Luckily we managed to extricate ourselves from this perilous situation, release the torpedo and score a direct hit on the creature.
David Gumball: Thank you, Herr Schmidt. In most of our viewers’ minds, you and all those involved are indeed heroes.
Mini-Submarine Officer: Smith….It’s Smith!
Radio News Report Excerpt:
…..huge numbers of dead fish have washed ashore on the east coast of America………
Points of Interest
Director Eugene Lourie made his directorial debut with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), a sci-fi film that ushered in the era of the atomic monster movie featuring resurrected dinosaurs or giant bugs unleashed on the world by means of atomic radiation.
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, was followed by two other Eugene Lourie monster films: the movie featured here, The Giant Behemoth (1958/9) and Gorgo (1961), as well as the science-fiction film, The Colossus of New York (1958).
The live-action scenes were filmed in Great Britain, including London while the model-animation special effects were shot in a Los Angeles studio, where they were optically integrated with live-action footage.
The Giant Behemoth is basically a rehashing of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms with only the location moving from the USA to the UK and with The Thames substituting for Coney Island.
Even the Behemoth’s ability to emit its radioactivity is a kind of reworking of Godzilla’s atomic breath emissions. We are also reminded of Godzilla when the Paleosaurus forces its way through high-tension electrical towers and power lines.
The original script for the film involved an invisible radioactive ocean-dwelling monster but the film’s backers turned the script down, citing the fact that they didn't like the idea of an invisible monster.
Although the acting performances are quite capable the actual characters are fairly bland and one-dimensional.
Jack MacGowran who played Sampson also appeared in The Quiet Man and Lord Jim and appeared as the alcoholic director, Burke Dennings in The Exorcist (1973). MacGowran died while making that film.
Instead of resorting to the cheaper option of using optically enlarged bugs/lizards, Lourie made use of Willis O’Brien, the creator of King Kong (1933) for the stop motion animation work on the film. Unfortunately, budgetary constraints and Willis O’Brien’s age and health problems meant that the final result was not of the best possible standard.
It was refreshing to see scientists in a film like Karnes and Bickford conduct their investigation in a more or less realistic-looking forensic and scientific manner: collecting eye-witness testimony, examining scenes of interest, taking water samples and wildlife specimens, as well as consulting experts.
Finally, one might point to the feeling that Karnes’ speech at the start of the film is a bit too hectoring, lecturing and preachy. It did after all express the Cold War fear of atomic radiation and its consequences. However, the idea that the Paleosaurus has become radioactive due to the progressive concentration of toxins at each level up through the food chain has been and is still unfortunately being played out in real life! Atomic radiation, pesticides, air and water pollution are still real threats, but these Behemoth’s are all too often smugly and cynically ignored as the pursuit of profit and power takes precedence and the despoilers of our planet are rewarded with tax cuts and the lifting of regulations. Acid rain, DDT, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima, Exxon Valdez, Fracking, Global Warming, plastics and PCB ocean water contamination–gradually fade into distant memories as we ride high in the stock market and are made to feel great again until…..huge numbers of dead fish wash ashore……….
(End of Beast from 20.000 Fathoms)
**********
The Giant Gila Monster (1959)
“The Giant Gila Monster” is a film that tries to rise above the typical B science fiction film of the 50's. It contains relatable characters who have interesting relationships rather than just pure stereotypes. The settings have an air of authenticity and the eerie background music adds to the atmosphere of the film. Despite the dismal special effects and a largely unconvincing and almost irrelevant monster, it is pretty darn hard to hate the film.
Directed by Ray Kellogg
Produced by Ken Curtis, B.R. McLendon, Gordon McLendon
Written by Ray Kellogg (story), Jay Simms (screenplay)
Music by Jack Marshall
Cinematography: Wilfred M. Cline
Edited by Aaron Stell
Distributed by McLendon-Radio Pictures Distributing Company
Running time: 74 minutes
Budget: $138,000 (estimated)
Cast
Don Sullivan: Chase Winstead
Fred Graham: Sheriff Jeff
Lisa Simone : Lisa
Shug Fisher: Old Man Harris
Bob Thompson: Mr. Wheeler
Janice Stone: Missy Winstead
Ken Knox: Horatio Alger 'Steamroller' Smith
Gay McLendon: Mom Winstead
Don Flournoy: Gordy
Cecil Hunt: Mr. Compton
Stormy Meadows: Agatha Humphries
Howard Ware: Ed Humphries
Pat Reeves: Rick
Jan McLendon: Jennie
Jerry Cortwright: Bob
(Spoilers Follow below..…)
Thank goodness for the grand disembodied voice of the narrator! If only life in today’s bewildering and over-complicated world had the comforting baritone voice of an all-seeing narrator to waft over us as it explains to us what the hell is going on……And what do we have instead? Bloody Alexa and Google Assist! God help us!
The story starts off with a teenage couple’s romantic shenanigans about to be rudely interrupted when their car is pushed over and down into a ravine. Their existence is about to be obliterated by a giant claw-like object that descends upon them.
At a soda shop we see a group of teens (the “gang”) doing what supposedly passes for teenager stuff. After Chase Winstead and his girlfriend Lisa arrive in Chase's roadster, he asks the others about Pat and Liz’s (the couple at the start) whereabouts. Bob speculates that, “maybe their car broke down?” to which Chase responds with, “Hey! I worked on that car myself!” Ah Ha!
Ooh La La Lisa is an exchange student from France and works for the Wheeler family. Mr. Wheeler is her sponsor. She informs the “gang” that Pat Wheeler didn't come home for dinner. Something definitely fishy here!
Old Man Harris rolls up in his 1932 Ford which Chase would love to transform into a hot rod. Chase wants to buy his car, but Harris is not keen on selling it. No Siree!
Sheriff Jeff meets up with Mr. Wheeler who informs the sheriff that both his son Pat and his son’s girlfriend didn't come home last night. The sheriff seems to believe that they may have eloped while Wheeler holds Chase responsible as he thinks that Chase has too much influence over his son and the rest of the kids in town. The Sheriff points out that Chase is a good kid who is responsible and has worked hard after his dad died on one of Wheeler’s drill rigs.
The Sheriff then pays a visit to Chase at Compton's Garage. Chase tells him he doesn't know the whereabouts of Pat and Liz, but he doesn’t believe that they eloped.
I know it sounds corny in this day and age, but wouldn’t it be good to have a mutual regard, respect and trust between members of the community (as is the case between the Sheriff and Chase) and those in positions of authority instead of the all too often instances of mistrust and lack of respect?
Also, wouldn’t it be good to see more young people and marginalized groups in society being given and exercising a sense of responsibility and purpose in their lives. Sure, in this jaded day and age Chase comes across as being a bit dorky but at least he’s a good fella with a sensible head on his shoulders who seems to know where he’s heading in life. What’s wrong with that?
The Sheriff’s next stop is the Humphries' farm where he meets with Ed Humphries and his wife Agatha concerning their missing daughter, Liz. They are a considerate and understanding couple, but they also have no idea where their daughter is.
As he leaves, the Sheriff comes across a somewhat jolly and tipsy Harris at the wheel of his old car. Going well beyond the call of duty, the Sheriff asks to smell his breath! Without so much as a breathalyzer or sobriety test, the Sheriff sends Harris on his way. The Sheriff is barely out of the scene when Harris takes a swig out of a bottle before driving off.
Mr. Compton, the owner of the garage has just returned with a load of four quarts of nitro-glycerin which Wheeler had ordered should there be a blowout and oil fire. Compton thought it would be a great idea to take the nitro out of the safety cases. Who wouldn’t? This is one case where an expletive or two would be warranted, but Chase acts immediately based on what his dad had taught him, and he places the volatile substance in the shed and in their safety cases.
When the phone rings, Chase recognizes it as the Sheriff's ring code and eavesdrops on the party line. (These days he’d be using a mobile phone and a scanner.) There would be a tow job in it for him should there be a report of an accident. It turns out that there is and so Chase races off to the scene of the accident in his roadster with Compton following in the tow truck.
Chase is already at the accident scene before the Sheriff arrives. They discover that the wrecked car’s engine is still warm. Chase then points out to the Sheriff the skid marks on the road. They appear to go at a direct right angle to the direction of travel. Most peculiar indeed! There is also the presence of blood on the car’s upholstery.
As Compton is driving down the road in the tow truck, he passes a man on the side of the highway with a suitcase. Unknown to the stranger, a Giant Gila Monster lies in wait in the underbrush. As the man lights up a cigarette, he hears something, but is unable to determine the source of the noise. Suddenly the Monster approaches and the man tumbles backwards into the brush, his suitcase left standing like a silent sentinel – the sole remaining witness of its owner’s terrible fate!
While heading home after having hooked up the wrecked car to the tow truck, Chase spots the suitcase on the side of the road and stops. The Sheriff also pulls up. He thinks that the case might belong to the person who stole and wrecked the car. A quick inspection of the area turns up a single cigarette together with a half pack of cancer sticks. The Sheriff and Chase put the case in the Sheriff's car and leave the scene.
In the meantime, a problem of a more personal nature is beginning to rear its ugly head. It seems that Mr. Wheeler has demanded that Lisa stop seeing Chase whom he holds responsible for Pat's disappearance.
While Chase is driving the tow truck, a beautiful beast of a Cadillac zaps past him. Suddenly the driver notices the Monster on the road ahead and swerves to avoid it only to wind up crashing into a fence.
When Chase stops to offer his assistance, it quickly becomes apparent that the driver is more fueled up than his car. The man is none other than Horatio Alger "Steamroller" Smith who swears he has seen a big pink and black thing blocking the road. Yeah, of course you did! And I bet it had a trunk and big floppy ears! If ya’ drink and drive, you’re a bloody idiot, mate!
Being the kinda guy he is, Chase hooks up the caddy with Shickered Shmitty in it and tows it back to the garage.
I know that about up to this point some us might start shuffling our feet and squirm uncomfortably in our seats at the seemingly corny portrayal of 1950’s Hicksville small-town life. But I ask you, what is wrong with people looking out for and helping out other folks even if they are strangers? What’s wrong with knowing the names of our neighbors, knowing who they are and greeting one another in a friendly manner instead of nervously scampering by each other with our noses in some device’s screen?
BANG! BANG! BANG! goes Chase’s hammer as he works on the fender of Smith's car. Now here’s where I do squirm and become almost homicidal – whenever Chase opens his mouth and starts singing which he does now as he hammers away. He manages to wake up a hungover Smith, who actually likes Chase’s singing. He gives Chase his card and tells him to look him up. He also tips Chase $40 before he leaves. Oh, come on! This will only wind up encouraging him!
The Sheriff enlists the help of Chase with the search for Pat and Liz. During the search, as Chase and Lisa walk down the ravine and along the wash, Chase spots clues that suggest that something large had been dragged along. Chase then tastes some water in the stream, but it tastes bitter and strongly of minerals.
Meanwhile, Gordy has found Pat's car at the bottom of the wash about two or three miles back by the old reservoir. He and Chase pull it out with the tow truck’s winch. After that they bring the wrecked car back to the garage. The Sheriff then arrives and notices the same kind of damage as was the case with the other cars.
While on a fuel oil delivery run, Compton’s fuel oil truck is knocked off the road by the Big-Less-Than-Friendly-Monster. The wrecked truck along with its hapless driver is engulfed in a fiery conflagration.
After Chase closes up the garage, he heads off home and is playfully greeted by his mother who has a surprise for him: His little sister, Missy is sporting new leg braces which Lisa bought for her. Missy makes a couple of attempts to cross the room before Chase punishes us all by singing her a song.
Well, despite the syrup, Chase is at least a great older brother who has had an excellent upbringing from his father (now dead) and his now widowed mother. Sure, the father is no longer around, but he still looms as a positive influence in his son’s life and memories. These days he would be portrayed as being alcoholic, absent, irresponsible and largely irrelevant! Half the battle in any person’s life is won by having good role models and a loving family early on in life, including as is more than often the case portrayed these days- fathers!
Reports soon fly thick and fast. First, there is the report of the accident involving the fuel truck. Second, there’s been a report that livestock have gone missing. When Chase, Harris and the sheriff arrive at the fuel truck accident scene, they find a still burning wreck but no sign of Compton.
Later on, we see Harris merrily driving down the road, singing a little ditty and lubricating his tonsils with a swig of the finest pink elephant (Gila Monster) brew. He spots a train and decides it would be a Jim dandy idea to race it to the crossing. Luckily, calamity is avoided when the train misses his vehicle. Unluckily for the crew and passengers of the train, the Monster damages an overpass as it slides under it causing the train to derail. Many of the passengers are killed and eaten.
After witnessing the carnage, Harris drives back to the Sheriff’s office and makes a report. The Sheriff suspects that Harris was affected by alcohol and locks him up. One hopes he applied the earlier nose test to determine the DUI conclusion on this occasion.
We once again assemble at the Sheriff’s office a bit later to find the Sheriff and Chase mulling over the possibility of a creature developing a form of gigantism due to an out of control pituitary growth linked to salts washed into the valley being absorbed by the plants and then transferred to the animals, causing them to grow to gigantic proportions like our lizard friend. Sounds absolutely plausible – right? Of course it does, especially when you combine it with the fact that said gigantic creature has managed to stay out of sight in the underbrush all this time!
Harris, along with some of the train wreck survivors, claim to have seen a creature that would fit the bill. Chase adds credence to such a possibility by recounting Steamroller Smith's story of an encounter with what he described as being a large pink and black creature. This is a veritable dot-joining fiesta!
Back at the garage, Wheeler confronts the Sheriff over the fact that his son’s car was moved without a proper investigation. He then accuses the sheriff of protecting Chase and is convinced that his son is dead. Taking note of the stolen tires, Wheeler demands that the Sheriff arrest Chase otherwise failure to do so may cost him his job. Both men then drive over to the barn dance hop to make the arrest.
At the barn dance, the place is jumpin’ with music and dancing. DJ Smith spins a platter and asks the audience to name the singer. Ooh La La Lisa takes a crack at it and guesses that it is Chase. Of course, this sets Chase off and he picks up his bloody little ukulele / banjo thingy and starts singing. I would love to suggest a couple of things he could do with his little ukulele / banjo thingy which would give us all “Deliverance” from his singing!
At least the kids in this film are not attached to devices, staring at screens, texting or sharing narcissistic pouty-lipped photos. They are actually out and about, socializing face-to-face, doing stuff for themselves and others and using their initiative. And shock – horror, the girls are treated respectfully!
As the Sheriff and Wheeler arrive at the barn dance, the Gila Monster approaches the barn and crashes through the wall causing panic among those inside.
The Sheriff grabs his shotgun, and in Chuck Connors Rifleman style blasts away at the Monster. However, he only succeeds in chasing it off.
The Sheriff then deputizes Wheeler and instructs him to stay there and keep everyone else there as well.
Meanwhile, Chase has a cunning plan. Remember that nitro-glycerin he stored away earlier? Of course, you do! Chase heads off to the garage to retrieve the four quarts of nitro-glycerin. Laden with the volatile cargo, Chase and Lisa race along the bumpy road in his car (nothing could go wrong there, of course) until he spots a break in the fence and notices the damaged Blackwell residence, where his little sister Missy was visiting. He then sees the Blackwells and Missy running across a field.
Suddenly, Missy falls and while Lisa covers her, Chase aims his roadster at the Monster. He just manages to jump clear before it hits the creature and explodes. There’ll be barbecued Gila Monster at the barn dance tonight!
The Sheriff arrives and asks Chase, "What did you hit him with?" Chase responds with, "my brand new, 100% completed hot rod." The Sheriff comments, “You'd have had to start in the next county to get up enough momentum to do that to him.” To which Chase then replies “not with 4 quarts of nitro-glycerin riding with me.” Incredulously, the Sheriff asks him, “you drove across that rough field carrying nitro?.... Do you realize what could have happened?” Chase simply replies, “it did. I lost my car!”
With Compton now dead, Chase is unemployed, but not for long as Wheeler tells the Sheriff that he has a job for him. One hopes it isn’t the same job his father had or that they at least have improved occupational health and safety at Wheeler’s rigs!
The Giant Gila monster is merely an innocent movie that was aimed at a teen audience and intended for the drive-in circuit On that basis it should be enjoyed for what it is - if that is possible in these cynical fun-sapping times.
(End of The Giant Gila Monster)
**********
The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)
A likable low budget monster movie with limited ambitions.
Directed by Irvin Berwick
Produced by Jack Kevan
Screenplay by H. Haile Chace
Cinematography: Philip H. Lathrop
Edited by George A. Gittens
Production company: Vanwick Productions
Distributed by Filmservice Distributors Corporation (United States), Grand National Pictures (United Kingdom)
Running time: 71 minutes
Budget: $29,000
Cast
Les Tremayne as Dr. Sam Jorgenson
Forrest Lewis as Constable George Matson
John Harmon as Sturges, the Lighthouse Keeper
Frank Arvidson as Kochek, the Storekeeper
Jeanne Carmen as Lucille Sturges
Don Sullivan as Fred
Pete Dunn as Eddie/the Monster
Joseph La Cava as Mike
Wayne Berwick as Little Jimmy
(Spoilers follow below....)
TONIGHT ON…….
MONSTER HUNTERS!!!
“The Monster Of Piedras Blancas”
With your host…..
Fergus Fontaine!!!
Fontaine: Good evening to everyone and welcome to tonight’s episode of “Monster Hunters” where we take you to the ends of the earth in search of strange and mysterious monsters, and where we try to separate fact from fiction and truth from myth and legend.
We now look back at the year 1959 and examine unbelievable events that were reported to have occurred in the sleepy lighthouse town of Piedras Blancas over 60 years ago.
It is said that a superstitious lighthouse keeper was in the habit of leaving food (at first fish and then later exclusively meat scraps) for a sea monster that inhabited a nearby cave.
Of great concern to the locals was the fact that dead bodies kept turning up in the town and on the beach. It was claimed that these people had been killed by the monster.
What exactly was the nature of this alleged monster? From where had it originated? A clue fortuitously turned up when a local aspiring scientist whom we’ll meet shortly, identified a scale located near one of the dead “victims” as belonging to a "diplovertebron," a supposedly extinct prehistoric amphibious reptile that lived in the Late Carboniferous period, about 310 million years ago. The Diplovertebron was a medium-sized animal, around 50 cm in length that was thought to have inhabited European Carboniferous swamps in what is now the Czech Republic.
So how could such a creature supposedly have existed in mid-20th Century coastal California?
As you watch tonight’s program, you might well be reminded of our previous program featuring the 1954 capture of a supposedly extinct prehistoric amphibious creature dubbed “The Gillman” or “The Creature From The Black Lagoon.”
Tonight, we’ll piece together our story of the “Monster of Piedras Blancas” from local news and police reports and eye-witness accounts from locals at the time, as well as the recollections of those few who are still alive. We have some photos of the participants in the event of 60 years ago as well as reconstructions of certain incidents from that time.
In fact we have two of those very people right now, Lucille and Fred Sullivan. [Camera view shifts to an elderly couple in their late seventies.] Thank you for taking the time to join us tonight Mr & Mrs Sullivan. We’ll start with you, Lucille. Can you tell us what your role was in the story of this mysterious creature?
Lucy: Oh dear, yes, but please call me Lucy. Of course I was much younger back then and had not long returned from boarding school after a ten year absence to live with my father who everyone just simply called “Sturges.” I was just plain old Lucy Sturges back then. I’d only recently started returning home for summer vacations.
On one particular fateful day my father went riding into town on his bike after warning off some kids who were walking along the nearby cliffs. It became a bit of habit with him and earned him a reputation as being a cranky crazy old man! Dad then rode to Kochek’s store to pick up his meat scraps, but I seem to recall that he was told that they had been sold to someone else, I think.
Fontaine: A fateful day it certainly was, for on that day according to Constable George Matson’s report, two bodies each with their “head ripped clean off” were located on the beach by a small fishing boat. The constable noted that the bodies looked like they had no blood left in them.
The two deceased men were the Rinaldi Brothers and their corpses were brought into the store in a wheelbarrow where the proprietor Kochek placed them in the refrigerator until an autopsy could be completed.
Lucy: Yes, and after leaving Kolchek’s store, dad came down to the Wings Café where I worked behind the counter. When I told him I had to work late, he seemed to be very concerned about me returning home in the dark. He could be very over-protective at times but on this day something else seemed to be playing on his mind. I tried to assure dad that I would be fine.
Fred: I offered to bring Lucy safely back home in my jeep. I’ve retired from my work as a marine biologist but at the time I was just a biology student – that aspiring scientist you referred to! I managed to convince Lucy to join me in collecting marine specimens. At least that was my excuse! I much later eventually convinced her to actually marry me!
Fontaine: According to Constable Matson’s report, he questioned your father, Lucy about the Rinaldi Brothers and whether he saw them or knew anything about the circumstances surrounding their deaths. He denied knowing anything but the Constable felt that perhaps he was holding something back. Either that or it was just his irascible nature.
Matson also obtained a statement from Kolchek concerning the Rinaldi brothers which the latter also related to your father, Lucy and to whoever else would listen. I quote;
“I went out on the pier to look at my lobster traps, when I see the boat way out over there by the breaker line, but it was low in the water and looked like it was empty. But I did not pay much attention until it drifted near the pier. Then I seen them. Like slaughtered steers! Their throats cut clean! Funny thing though, not much blood around.”
It seems that the constable was of the belief that the Rinaldis were caught in a squall and wound up on the rocks. Kolchek’s statement, however makes it clear that he felt the brothers’ deaths had nothing to do with rocks and squalls and that instead, it was “something living that did it.”
We next have a signed report from the local MD, Dr. Sam Jorgenson who conducted an examination of the Rinaldi Brothers corpses at Kochek's store. In the report, he confirmed that their heads had been cleanly and expertly severed and that death was instantaneous.
Lucy: I noticed that when dad came home after his visit to Kolchek’s store, he was in a particularly irritable mood. As I said before, he’d always been a bit over-protective towards me, but on this occasion when I told him I had to work late, he made a point of telling me that he didn’t like me coming home after dark and ordered me not to come home late.
Fred: I also know that Lucy’s father didn’t think too much of me at the time, so it was no comfort to him that I would be bringing her home.
Lucy: Well, dad was not exactly the friendly type. I remember when I was at work I overheard Constable Matson asking dad about what time the squall started and when he started up the fog horn and if he had seen anything unusual. This just set dad off complaining about how nobody ever listened to him and warning that someday “they” would learn. When I think back though, dad’s behavior did seem to be a bit at odds with what I knew of (or what I thought I knew of) him as his daughter.
Fontaine: Going back to Dr Jorgenson’s medical autopsy report, both victims’ jugular veins, carotid arteries, esophagus and trachea, “were cut straight across. There was a complete transection of the spinal cord.” In other words, viewers, [looking directly at the camera] their “heads were severed from the trunks” and “death was instantaneous.” It almost appeared that they were like 19th century, “victims of the guillotine.” An accident? Not likely as “the manner of death was identical in both cases and it had all the earmarks of a conscious act” perpetrated as some folks in the town like Kolchek began to fear, by some kind of inhuman beast.
What logical explanation could account for the fact that despite the victims’ heads being severed from the trunks almost as if by a surgeon's scalpel, “the main arteries were distended several inches…..as if something had been attached to pump out the blood!?” After all, it is generally well known that “when a person is killed the heart stops pumping almost immediately” and “there's always some blood left in the body.” In the case of the Rinaldi brothers’ corpses there “wasn't any blood left in them.”
I understand, Lucy that you experienced a strange feeling after you came home from your time at the beach with Fred.
Lucy: Why yes. Fred and I had a wonderful time at the beach, you know being young and in love and all! Fred brought me back to work in his Jeep and then in the evening he brought me home. I would have invited him in but it would have only upset dad. After Fred drove off, I decided to go for a swim instead of going directly inside the house. You know, I had the strangest feeling that I was being watched by someone or…. [Pauses and looks down before going on]. After my swim, dad not surprisingly lectured me about swimming at night and actually threatened to send me back to boarding school! My, was he angry! I know I came inside the house quite late after a night time swim, but still…..
There was clearly some reason for why dad was the way he was at that time. But it wasn’t always so. “When I was a child he was lots of fun…...I remember, it was just before my 9th birthday. Father hadn't been feeling too well that afternoon. There was a ship in trouble off the coast and [father] had to stay in the tower. Mother got worse, but wouldn't let me call him until early morning. He phoned for the doctor, but they refused to come out in the storm. When they returned, Mother was dead. They were so much in love. When [father] was first transferred [to Piedras Blancas] he wouldn't have anything to do with anybody. Shortly after, I was sent away to boarding school.” It must have been really lonely for him.
Fontaine: Well, Lucy, it seems that your dad may have had some grounds for being concerned for his daughter’s welfare. I have here a clipping from a local newspaper from the time, The Piedras Blancas Bugle which carried the following report. It’s quite brief and viewers can see it on their screens while I read it:
MYSTERY MURDER
ROCKS OUR TOWN!!
Yesterday morning local Piedras Blancas storekeeper, _____ Kolchek was found dead in the rear office area of his store.
That morning the funeral of the recently deceased Rinaldi brothers was held after their caskets had been brought over to the cemetery from the church. It is claimed by some people that their deaths had occurred under mysterious circumstances despite the official cause as being due to both men having been washed up on rocks while fishing in their boat during a squall.
A young boy by the name of Jimmy _____ had entered Kolchek’s store intending to buy candy. Not being able to raise Kolchek, the boy looked around the store until he stumbled across the gruesome sight of Kolchek’s headless corpse.
Jimmy immediately headed toward the cemetery and informed the local physician, Dr. Jorgenson that Kolchek had been murdered.
What is unusual about this event is that it has been suggested by some people that there are disturbing similarities between the manner of death in both Kolchek and the Rinaldi brothers’ cases. At the moment, no further information has been forthcoming from local law enforcement officials.
Next up we have an official police report made out by Constable Matson after he and Dr. Jorgenson arrived at the store and confirmed the death of Kolchek.
Police Report: Constable G. Matson, Piedras Blancas PD
Name of deceased: ____Kolchek
Time of death: 1.00 - 2.00 am approx.
Location of body: Rear office Kolchek store No.__. Main street, Piedras Blancas.
Manner of death: Complete transection of all veins, arteries, esophagus, trachea, and spinal cord by person or persons unknown.
Fontaine: Note the manner of death. Sound familiar? Now, Fred, can you please take up the story.
Fred: Certainly, Fergus. At the murder scene a strange and what seemed to be very large fish scale was found. After Kolchek’s body was placed in the ice room and the store locked up, it was decided to have some tests performed on the fish scale at Dr Jorgenson’s house.
Initially it seemed to be too large to be a fish scale. Jorgenson and I examined the scale and we eventually concluded (to an impatient constable Matson’s immense relief) that “the structure of the specimen we found in Kochek's store (was) essentially the same as that of the Diplovertebron. Only larger.” However, the Diplovertebron is as you earlier pointed out in your introduction, a prehistoric amphibious reptile thought to be extinct!
The specimen we found was living tissue; ergo, it could not possibly be the scale of a Diplovertebron.
Suddenly Lucy came rushing into the house calling out for constable Matson. She was frantic over having found her father unconscious at the bottom of the cliffs near a cave. Naturally we raced to the lighthouse in the jeep, located Lucy’s father, managed to revive him and conveyed him back into the lighthouse, where we set him on the couch. He had a bad gash in his right arm and his leg was hurt. Strangely enough, Sturges’ dog, Ring was missing which was unusual as they were both inseparable.
I stayed with Lucy while Matson and Jorgenson took my Jeep and headed back to town. When Lucy’s father awoke, I asked him about the legend of Piedras Blancas. Somewhat evasively I thought, he only acknowledged that the coastal currents were very treacherous and that the rocks on the seaward side were covered in white with gull droppings so that in bad weather they're almost impossible to see. As a result many a ship had been lost on those rocks before the light was built, with not a record of any survivors. Not surprising with the way the surf conditions and coast the way it was. To Sturges’ way of thinking, despite all of this, “people would rather start a legend” about a monster living in the rocks.
When I suggested to Sturges that I take a look in those caves, he became quite angry and told me in no uncertain terms that they are a part of government land, that no-one was allowed there, that they are dangerous and that he did not want me on those rocks. His anger and concern seemed to be all out of proportion and unwarranted.
Fontaine: Sadly, it wasn’t long before there was yet another victim of this apparent monster. According to constable Matson‘s report, as soon as he and Dr Jorgenson arrived back in town they were greeted by the sight of a man carrying the body of his little daughter followed by a crowd of townsfolk.
After the shocked and distraught man placed the girl's body on a table in the café, he was able to indicate that her mother had sent her to the store, the very place where a young man by the name of….let’s see here….Eddie had been left after Kochek's death.
Lucy: My, the whole affair was beginning to fray people’s nerves. It even began to affect my relationship with Fred. Fred starting asking questions that had a definite purpose behind them such as why dad wouldn’t let me come home during vacations and how long was it after I had moved there that he sent me away to school even though he had seemed to be getting better for a while.
I told Fred that it was “some thing I did...It wasn't anything, just kid's stuff….. When we lived up north he let me play around the rocks and go to the beach alone. But shortly after we moved [to Piedras Blancas] he refused me the privilege. He said it was too dangerous. The cliffs never seemed any bigger than the ones up north. So, I sneaked away one day and got caught in one of the caves by the tide. When he found me it was dark and he was furious. I'd never seen him like that. He sent me to bed without supper and the next morning I was packed off to boarding school. I didn't see him for almost 10 years.” He never gave me any reason at all and I never questioned him.
Suddenly Fred insisted on searching the caves near the lighthouse. I strongly objected to this, because dad had given strict orders that no one was to go in or near the caves. Fred believed that dad was keeping something from him and that he was somehow responsible for three people having met with violent deaths in just a 24 hour period. Fred was doubtful about the legend of Piedras Blancas but had to check to be sure even if meant disobeying dad. Our argument culminated in me telling Fred that he shouldn't come back to the lighthouse again. [Lucy reaches over and affectionately squeezes Fred’s hand].
Fontaine: Well, back in town it seems that the truth of the legend was in the process of being confirmed. Strangely enough, we could not track down any more police reports from constable Matson or any further medical reports from Jorgenson. We only have your recollections, Lucy and Fred as well as some unconfirmed accounts relating to the following incidents from stories that were passed down to the descendants of some of the townsfolk.
One such story recalls how Matson and some town's people went looking for Eddie at the store. While a small group gathered outside, Matson entered the ice room where he was suddenly and viciously attacked and wounded by a terrifying creature. What made this particularly horrifying was that the reported monster was carrying the decapitated head of Eddie in his right claw. [Looks directly into the camera] Had the townsfolk finally found their killer? Or had he or it found them?
Fred: We were sure by now that we were dealing with an inhuman killer that was nearly 7 feet tall and had tremendous strength. And it was on the loose someplace!
Constable Matson came and picked me up in the jeep and we went back to the café where he handed me a rifle while he grabbed a pistol from behind the counter. We got together a small posse and went in search of the creature.
We eventually spotted its foot prints in the sand, but upon entering a cave we were horrified to find another severed head belonging to a man called, Merit, I believe. Unfortunately, another man by the name of Mike had been attacked and injured and had to have his injuries attended to. There was nothing for us to do but to regroup the next day, this time with reinforcements.
Lucy: After Fred left, dad finally told me what he had been keeping a secret for years. According to him there were many caves along the cliffs that he was sure had never been explored. He had noticed one in particular at low tide and one day, when the tide was at full ebb, he waded out through the opening and walked through it. Dad had walked for what seemed miles until he saw a light ahead. He climbed up to it and found a narrow fissure opening at the mouth of the big cave below the lighthouse. It wasn't big enough for him to get through so he had to go back. Just before he got to the entrance, he realized the tide had closed him in. Suddenly, he had the strangest feeling that he was being watched (just like the feeling I had when I went for that night time swim) and he heard sounds like heavy breathing. He then dove through the opening and swam out.
The next day dad went back to the mouth of the cave below the lighthouse and left some fish he'd caught. The following morning they were gone.
Fontaine: Is that why your father packed you off to boarding school?
Lucy: Dad had known that it wouldn't be long until I’d found that opening and squeezed through. He couldn't take a chance on that happening. Poor dad was even more lonely after I left. He even got to worrying about that poor creature in the cave, so he fished every day and left his catch for it. Finally, he just couldn't catch enough so he got meat scraps but it wasn't long before the fish was refused by the creature and he had to get more meat scraps.
Having fed this - whatever it was - all these years, dad felt responsible for what had happened. It was as if he had a protective feeling towards this creature like it was his own. He also felt less lonesome after I left knowing there was some living creature nearby. It was something for him to hang on to seeing that he didn’t get along with the rest of the townsfolk.
I ended up helping dad get to the lighthouse so he could tend to the prisms. He couldn’t bear the thought of a ship going aground while the creature was out hunting as “there wouldn't be a single survivor” left.
Fontaine: In the meantime Fred, you, the doctor and constable Matson concocted a plan to capture the creature using a net.
Fred. That’s right. While the doctor, the local garage owner and I were working on the net, Matson came to the garage and asked me to call Lucy as he did not see the lighthouse light on and was somewhat concerned. I tried to call her on the phone but got no response. The doctor and I decided to take the Jeep to the lighthouse while Matson gathered a posse together and would meet up with us later.
Fontaine: What had happened to you, Lucy?
Lucy: Oh, I shudder to think about it! The creature had come to the lighthouse and forced its way through the front door. I thought it was dad and called out to him but when I opened my bedroom door I was confronted by the creature. I screamed in terror before passing out.
I soon regained my wits to discover that after firing his gun dad was being pursued by the hideous creature up a spiral staircase leading to the lighthouse light. I then ran for help when I suddenly and thankfully came across Fred and Dr. Jorgenson.
Fred: It turned out that Lucy’s father managed to get outside through a steel door which he bolted shut. We all arrived back at the lighthouse to witness the creature banging on the steel door. It was soon able to force the door open and pursue Lucy’s dad up a ladder on top of the light. To our horror the creature picked him up and effortlessly threw him off the lighthouse to his death.
Armed with my rifle, I managed to make my way up the lighthouse to where the monster was situated. Suddenly I noticed the beam from a flashlight of one of the posse below that seemed to distract the creature’s attention or at least sufficiently annoy it. A thought suddenly struck me. I called out to Lucy to turn on the lighthouse beacon. When she did so, this caused the creature to be blinded by the strong light and back away against the railing. As it did so, I lunged at it and pushed it over with the butt of my rifle.
The last I or anyone saw of the creature was its body plummeting into the water below.
Fontaine: What a harrowing account! On behalf of everyone here, I would like to thank you both for your time and your valuable contribution to tonight’s program.
[Looking directly into the camera.] There you have it viewers. Testimonies from the few who were there back in 1959 in Piedras Blancas. Bits of surviving documentary evidence. Stories and accounts passed from one generation to the next.
Whether the Monster of Piedras Blancas be fact or fiction or a bone fide mystery, we can be sure of one thing as Albert Einstein once pointed out: “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.” Until next time, this is Fergus Fontaine wishing you all a very good night and…... don’t let the monsters bite!
Points Of Interest
The Monster of Piedras Blancas was an independent production from Jack Kevan who was former makeup artist at Universal and was responsible for designing and building the Gill Man suit in Creature from the Black Lagoon, as well as the alien Xenomorph from It Came from Outer Space, and the Metaluna Mutant of This Island, Earth -all films that feature in this and other volumes of this ebook series.
The suit for the film’s "diplovertebron" monster consisted of existing molds for the feet that were cast from those of the Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth, along with over-sized hands originally designed for The Mole People).
There’s no mistaking the fact that the Monster of Piedras Blancas, is somewhat of a knock-off of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
It is obvious that some thought had gone into the plot which was fairly consistent and had some logic to it such as the monster’s origins and the reasons behind its murderous rampage. The theme of loneliness and of being an outcast and the kind of desperation it can produce are touched on quite nicely as well.
A couple of quite gruesome scenes for the time included the monster bursting in on the scene carrying a bloody severed human head and a shot of the same head with a crab crawling across the face. Even cute pooches and little girls are not spared from the murderous wrath of the monster!
The film was shot not at the actual Point Piedras Blancas, which is north of San Simeon on the California coast. The lighthouse locations were shot at the Point Conception lighthouse near Lompoc, and the film's "town" was in fact the seaside city of Cayucos, about 30 miles south of the real Piedras Blancas.
Don Sullivan who plays Fred we remember from his role as Chase in The Giant Gila Monster. In this film, however we can breathe a sigh of relief as he refrains from singing!
His girlfriend, Lucy is played by pin-up girl Jeanne Carmen who is certainly easy on the eye in just a simple floral dress or blouse and skirt and sensible flat shoes. No need for layers of clown make-up, skimpy outfits that leave nothing to the imagination or stiletto posture torturers!
To conclude, I must admit that I geared myself up to hate this movie. I really, really wanted to hate this movie but I found that I just couldn’t, no matter how much I tried! I’m really not sure why! I even mildly enjoyed watching this low-budget affair. The acting was pretty ordinary but at least the actors were earnest enough and the pace of the story was OK right up to and including the thrilling and at the same time, quite funny climax.
(End of The Monster of Piedras Blancas and end of Volume 1))
I hope you enjoyed this first volume of Sci-Fi Film Fiesta.
Keep an eye out for Volume 2, Into Space.
Useful Resources
Abbott, Jon., Flying Saucer Films of the 1950s: (Sci-Fi Before Star Wars, Vol. 1) Independently published, 2019.
Abbott, Jon., Giant Bug Movies of the 1950s: (Sci-Fi Before Star Wars, vol. 2), Independently Published, 2019.
Atkinson, Barry., Atomic Age Cinema The Offbeat, the Classic and the Obscure, Midnight Marquee Press, Inc.; 2013
Bliss, Michael., Invasions USA The Essential Science Fiction Films of the 1950s, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014.
Harryhausen, Vanessa., Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema, Nat Galleries of Scotland, 2020
Hendershot, Cyndy., Paranoia, The Bomb, And 1950s Science Fiction Films, University of Wisconsin Press, 1999
Koca, Gary., Good and Bad Sci-Fi/Horror Movies of the 1950s: And the Stars Who Were in Those Films, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017
LeMay, John., Monster Insects of the Movies, Bicep Books, 2020
LeMay, John., The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies, Bicep Books, 2020
Wade, John., The Golden Age of Science Fiction: A Journey into Space with 1950s Radio, TV, Films, Comics and Books, Pen and Sword, 2019.
Warren, Bill., Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties: McFarland; 21st Century Edition, 2016
Links To On-Line Resources
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) at Wikipedia
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms at IMDb
Godzilla at the official Godzilla website by Toho Co., Ltd.
Godzilla at IMDb
Jacobson, Mark (May 16, 2014). "What Does Godzilla Mean? The Evolution of a Monster Metaphor
Rafferty, Terrence (May 2, 2004). "The Monster That Morphed Into a Metaphor". The New York Times.
Furmanek, Bob and Greg Kintz. "An in-depth look at 'Creature from the Black Lagoon'". 3dfilmarchive.com, 2012.
Creature From The Black Lagoon at IMBD
Revenge Of the Creature at Wikipedia
Revenge Of The Creature at IMBD
It Came from Beneath the Sea at Wikipedia
It Came from Beneath The Sea at IMBD
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues at scifist.net
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues at IMBD
Rodan at Million Monkey Theatre
Rodan at IMBD
The Beast of Hollow Mountain at Manapop.com
The Beast of Hollow Mountain at Wikipedia
The Beast of Hollow Mountain at IMBD
Attack of the Crab Monsters at 1000misspenthours.com
Attack of he Crab Monsters at IMBD
20 Million Miles to Earth at Wikipedia
20 Million Miles to Earth at IMBD
Planet Venus at NASA
The Giant Behemoth at IMBD
The Giant Gila Monster at Million Monkey Theatre
“GIANT GILA MONSTER - Interview with star Don Sullivan" The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons
The Giant Gila Monster at IMBD
The Monster of Piedras Blancas at 1000misspenthours.com
The Monster of Piedras Blancas at IMBD
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