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Dedications
Dedicated in loving memory of my wonderful parents:-
Konstantinos (Dino) Christopoulos who took me to see my very first science fiction film in the early 1960s, The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (1963)
Rosemary Christopoulos who sat with me after school as I watched on TV episodes the first two doctors of the Doctor Who series and insisted on asking me interminable questions about who was who and what was going on! Thanks mum and dad!
The SCI-FI FILM FIESTA eBook series is intended as a salute to the pioneering work of science fiction film makers. May future generations have the privilege of enjoying your work and never stop wondering....What if?
Dedicated also to you, the reader who appreciates these classic gems from the golden age of sci-fi film-making. It is you who help to keep such films alive for future generations to enjoy.
Other eBooks in the Sci-Fi Film Fiesta series:
Volume 1: “Here Be Monsters”
Volume 2: “Into Space”
Volume 3: “Other Worlds”
Volume 4: “Journeys Within”
Volume 5: “Alien Contact”
Volume 6: “Alien Invasion”
Volume 7: “The End Is Nigh!”
Volume 8: “Big Bugs & Crazy Critters”
CONTENTS
Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)
The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957)
Terror from the Year 5000 (1958)
Curse of the Faceless Man (1958)
The Colossus of New York (1958)
The Woman Eater (1958)
SCI-FI FILM FIESTA
Volume 9:
Accidents & Experiments
©Chris Christopoulos 2023
Introduction
This 9th volume of the Sci-Fi Film Fiesta eBook series features classic science fiction films from the 1950s whose subject matter involves discoveries and breakthroughs made through experiments or even by sheer accident. The important point about such discoveries, though are the consequences that result from them.
How far are we prepared to go to make an important scientific breakthrough?
What are we exactly prepared to do to unlock the secrets of the universe and make the unknown, known?
At what point do we stop and consider the potential price to be paid?
What are the limits to be set on how and whether experimentation should proceed?
Under what conditions (if at all) should haste, the pursuit of profit or prestige take precedence over prudence and caution?
What of the moral and ethical questions that arise from scientific advancement?
Just because we can do something, does it necessarily follow that we should?
These are just some the questions that have to be considered as our species progresses and develops its technology. Failure to do so could result in our acquiring a degree of power which we are ill-equipped to handle and may even wind up abusing to the detriment of our own survival. We cannot afford to believe that we can simply forge ahead with impunity without instituting meaningful checks and balances on our scientific and technological research and developments.
Among the principles that should inform or underpin such checks and balances surrounding new discoveries, scientific advancements, research and development of new technologies are;
Improvement in the quality of life for all.
Enhance & further equality of opportunity.
Enable wide access to technological discoveries and benefits derived.
Ensure adoption of new technologies is compatible with health of environment.
Free access to information and knowledge.
Minimise potential psychological and physical harm.
Establishment of agreed moral and ethical parameters for research, development and application of new technology.
Enshrine the right to personal privacy, to determine the ownership and use of personal data and freedom from surveillance by the state and private corporations.
Regulate spread and influence of as well as degree of control exercised by artificial intelligence.
Determine the kinds of rights to be accorded to forms of technology deemed to be sentient.
The Victorian age was one during which amazing advancements were made in the areas of engineering, scientific discoveries, industrial processes and more. However, it also ushered in new and horrible ways to exterminate people; pollution and degradation of the environment; social inequality; exploitation and subjugation of whole sections of society and peoples of other nations.
Many modern scientific and technological developments also arose out of the Second World War while the post-war world of the 1950s laid much of the groundwork for our own modern 21st century era. Think of vaccines, passenger jet flights, space exploration, integrated circuits, random access memory, nuclear power generation and so on.
Unfortunately each era in its rush to forge ahead has tended to leave a mess behind for future generations to clean up. Consider for instance, space junk, catastrophic climate change and global warming, plastic pollution, technology and social media addiction, separation and alienation from nature, social fragmentation and polarisation, surveillance proliferation, loss of personal privacy, threat of nuclear and chemical warfare: These are among the messes / consequences we and our descendants will need to set about cleaning up; compliments of scientific and technological progress in the interests of our comfort and convenience, as well as the vested interests of powerful political and corporate entities.
Let’s face it, despite the marvellous advances our species has made, (and despite our expressions of deep furrow-browed concentration as we ponder our smart phone screens) many of us in our way of thinking have barely progressed beyond an Aristotelian, ancient biblical or even medieval view of the nature of the universe. In fact, many of us still feel more at home in a universe governed solely by Newtonian laws of plummeting apple physics. As for Einstein’s theories of relativity, well over a century or so later it is still viewed as being weird and something that makes our heads hurt – depending on one’s point of view of course. And don’t even get me started on Quantum physics – a magic carpet acid trip ride, man!
A case in point involves the recent development of Covid-19 vaccines. Consider what might have occurred should no vaccine had been discovered to combat this virus. By and large our minds seem to have been firmly fixed in the 1950s at the time when the polio vaccine was introduced by Jonas Salk who took six years to develop and test the first polio vaccine, starting with the isolation of the virus. This does not include the research that began on developing a polio vaccine in the 1930s, resulting in unsuccessful early attempts. By contrast, the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna COVID-19 messenger RNA vaccines were developed in less than a year. Many people could not come to grips with the speed with which these vaccines had been developed and therefore erroneously concluded that they must be dangerous, if not evil. However, since the 1950s great progress had been made in the area of genetic manipulation thereby reducing the length of time needed for study and testing. And so the anti-vaxxer movement was born and grew on a diet of fear and misinformation. Science and reason has increasingly been on the back foot as flat and hollow earthers, conspiracy theorists, creationists and alt-truth proponents held hands and shouted from social media pulpits of stupidity.
By the way, our thumbs had evolved to clutch things like tree branches and assorted tools with which to beat one another over the head and not as we might imagine to merely text and tweet! As for our brains? Well, that’s why we’re developing artificial intelligence, isn’t it? Otherwise, human evolution might just come to a grinding halt before reversing direction, if it hasn’t already!
There was a time when those who made great scientific breakthroughs (ie., Einstein in the early 20th Century) who were lauded as heroes and treated like rock stars! Can you name one person from any country who contributed to developing a Covid-19 vaccine and thereby had a hand at saving countless lives? We can, however name and worship numerous sporting celebrities who earn obscene sums of money for doing what they do!
Well, I guess it’s now time for us to turn our attention to our collection of entertaining cautionary sci-fi screen tales from the 1950’s and see what they offer up on the matter of humanity’s drive to command, control and master nature and treat it as if it exists purely for our own benefit, while often ignoring the price to be paid for doing so.
The Magnetic Monster (1953)
Intelligent & well-paced
Plausible-sounding science
Builds up to an excellent climax
Director: Curt Siodmak, Herbert L. Strock
Producer: Ivan Tors, George Van Marter
Writer: Curt Siodmak, Ivan Tors
Narrator: Richard Carlson
Music: Blaine Sanford
Cinematography: Charles Van Enger
Editing: Herbert L. Strock
Distributor: United Artists
Running time: 76 minutes
Budget: $105,000 approx.
Cast
Richard Carlson: Dr. Jeffrey Stewart
King Donovan: Dr. Dan Forbes
Jean Byron: Connie Stewart
Harry Ellerbe: Dr. Allard
Leo Britt: Dr. Benton
Leonard Mudie: Howard Denker
Byron Foulger: Mr. Simon
Michael Fox: Dr. Serny
John Zaremba: Chief Watson
Lee Phelps: City Engineer
Watson Downs: Mayor
Roy Engel: Gen. Behan
Frank Gerstle: Colonel Willis
John Vosper: Captain Dyer
John Dodsworth: Dr. Carthwright
Robert Carson: the Pilot
Donald Kerr: Nova Scotia Lab Worker
1953: Taste Of The Times:
Trade unions gained strength with greater numbers of workers belonging to unions. (How times change!!!)
Unemployment was at 2.9%.
Standards of living continued to grow seemingly without limits.
The yearly Inflation Rate in the US was 0.82%
A new house could set you back at $9.550.00, while a new car could cost you $1,650.00. which you could run on 20 cents per gallon of petrol.
You could expect to earn on average $4,000.00 per year.
(Spoilers are contained in the following;)
Office of Scientific Investigation
Official Summary Report
Operation: “Magnetic Monster”
TOP SECRET
EYES ONLY
Background To Investigation:
On the morning of July 18, 1953, ‘A-Man’ agents, Jeffrey Stewart and Dan Forbes received a report from the power company representative, Chief Watson as part of a DIRECTIVE 149 response, concerning a local hardware store where all of the clocks had stopped at the same time.
Investigation revealed that a strong magnetic field had magnetized every metal item in the store and that the source of this was traced to an office above the store.
An examination of the room revealed the presence of scientific equipment, as well as a dead body.
Detection of radioactivity was confirmed, the cause of which was not immediately apparent.
Initial fears centered on the possibility of someone trying to build a small atomic bomb.
Further investigation based on information received from a taxi driver and an examination of airport facilities led investigators to an airline flight carrying a research physicist, Dr. Howard Denker and more importantly, to the contents of his suitcase.
Dr. Denker had developed signs of radiation sickness due to an artificial radioactive isotope, serranium, which in an experiment he had bombarded with alpha particles for 200 hours. This deadly microscopic product of his experiment was contained in the suitcase in his possession.
Dr. Denker died from radiation sickness on board the plane while passing on information to the agents about his creation.
Nature of Emergency:
Based on the findings fed into the MANIAC system, it was able to deduce that the element would double in size and mass every 11 hours by absorbing energy from its surroundings.
The process of transformation released deadly radiation and extremely intense magnetic energy.
Danger Posed: Extreme
OSI determined that, if left unchecked, the element would have eventually become large enough to affect the Earth's rotation and cause the planet to spin out of its orbit.
Course Of Action:
The isotope could not be destroyed or rendered inert by any known means.
It was decided there was no option but to use a Canadian experimental power generator then being constructed in a cavern under the ocean. It was intended to use this to bombard the element with as much energy as possible in one surge in the hope that this would neutralize it.
With US and Canadian government cooperation, the isotope was transferred to the new (“Deltatron”) project facility.
Dr. Benton, in charge of the project, when shown how much energy would be needed, raised objections and voiced concerns about the safety of the personnel involved.
Due to the urgency of the situation, Agent Stewart took it upon his own authority to assume control of the experiment himself despite the risks to his personal safety.
Despite Dr. Benton’s efforts to thwart him, Agent Stewart was able to activate the machine and seal the device off from the rest of the underground operation and the project workers.
Outcome:
The isotope was successfully stopped.
Deltatron was destroyed as a result of the operation.
End Notes:
A full report of the above operation will follow at the conclusion of OSI internal investigation of operation, ‘Magnetic Monster.’
As part of the report, the following items will be included;
Recommendations of ways & means to meet such future challenges to our existence.
Elimination of opportunities for “lone wolves” to conduct nuclear research.
Managing the dissemination of information to the public via media outlets.
Commendations for those who took part in the success of operation, ‘Magnetic Monster.’
End Summary Report
Points of Interest
The main character, Jeffery Stewart narrates the story in a manner similar to a detective-crime genre film complete with lines like, “July 18: The morning quiet,…peaceful…The world seemed safe and good.”
We also learn with due seriousness that in order to combat threats that pose a “challenge to our existence,” a new agency has been created, The Office of Scientific Investigation (OSI). As if taken from the pages of the creation of the FBI, the men who work for this agency are known as A men, who perform as “detectives of science,” something akin to J. Edgar Hoover’s G-Men.
In the case of the FBI’s formation, science in the form of forensics became the key weapon in the fight against crime. Science is also the weapon of choice for the OSI in the film, “Magnetic Monster.” For instance, we see many examples of gadgetry being employed such as an electronic counter to determine that there were “2200 disintegrations per minute” occurring as well as traces of radioactive dust. There were gadgets to monitor the speed and distance of particles and to examine dust particles and fingernail scrapings. An electronic microscope was used to examine the element whereby the investigators could see that it was “adding new structure to the old,” that “mass is forming into supposedly empty space” and that with this tool of science they were “witnessing the secret of creation.”
The silence that followed the last statement above was laden with profound implications. At what point does science cross over into areas where some people believe it should not and cannot cross. The name given to this new breed of investigators is A-Men which as we are told by the narrator, “sounds like the final word of a prayer.” Perhaps it is no wonder that people sometimes worry that materialistic science seems to assume the mantle of a new kind of religion. After all, the world and what seems to be inexplicable appears to be able to be explained by the new religion of science and its own version of the priesthood. In the face of the hysterical and panicked reactions of those in the hardware store, we have the calm and methodical resort to paper, tacks, fishing poles and Geiger counters to locate the epicentre of magnetic force in the store. In days gone by people would have been reassured by the priesthood that certain inexplicable occurrences were part of God’s will or the result of the Devil’s work, often resulting in the immolation of innocent people to rectify the perceived problems.
In the area of science, there is a certain unease of the times being reflected in the film. After all, it was scientific research that produced an element that even in the initial stages resulted in the production of radiation that was “strong enough to kill us or wipe out a few city blocks.” Whether done independently or not, science had created something new that “turned out to be unstable,” that was “monstrous” and capable of “reaching out with invisible fingers” to kill! If only such research was removed from the hands of “lone wolves” and placed in the all-knowing secure embrace of government scientific centralised control!-at least as implied in the film. Similarly, once upon a time all knowledge about the world remained securely within the province of the church and its priesthood. “Lone wolves” and the threat posed by the spreading fingers of their devil’s work were dealt with using the tried and tested tools of the time.
The unease of the times is further highlighted by the fact that the element created by Dr. Denker appears to be as Forbes exclaims, “a live thing!” If it is not “fed” it draws on available energy and causes an implosion. Even the plan to destroy the element involves an attempt to “overfeed it until it bursts.” Instead of the usual monsters from space, the ocean depths or from under the ice, we have an impersonal, apparently indestructible and unseen monster. For many, the products of science and technology seem to take on a life of their own, growing more powerful, demanding more and more from us, reaching out and infiltrating all aspects of our lives and even threatening our own existence.
In “Magnetic Monster” and many other similar films of the time, it seems as if it is felt that people’s fears and concerns can be assuaged by controlling how much and what type of information they are to be exposed to. In the film, the city is put on alert but people are informed via radio broadcasts only that the authorities are “conducting a test.” Even today we find ourselves grappling with issues of freedom of information and are left wondering how much information is being withheld from the public about matters that effect all of us; how truthful the information is that we are being presented with and whether or not matters of “national security” should override our need or right to know the truth. Such matters are frequently put to the test in relation to the treatment of whistle-blowers. For some people, organizations and governments, they are seen as traitors, while for others they are simply upholding the principles of free speech and the right to know and who often pay a high personal price for their bravery. One can only hope that we don’t have a re-emergence of the kind of witch hunts that were prevalent at the time of the making of “Magnetic Monster.”
“Magnetic Monster” was shot in eleven days. Footage from a clip of an atom smasher from the 1934 German film, “Gold” was used in the scene of the Nova Scotia Deltatron. It seems to have been quite a seamless fusion of the footage in the film.
The "M.A.N.I.A.C." computer with the “cathode ray memory unit” consisted of footage featuring a computer being developed at the University of California in Los Angeles. Glad to see scientists and technicians (film makers?) have a sense of humour and irony!
Donovan's Brain (1953)
A solid science fiction film containing elements of horror in the tradition of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A refreshing departure from the typical 1950s era mutant monsters and alien invaders style of film.
Director: Felix E. Feist
Producer: by Allan Dowling, Tom Gries
Adapted from: Curt Siodmak’s 1942 novel
Adaptation: Hugh Brooke
Screenplay: Felix E. Feist
Music: Eddie Dunstedter
Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc
Editing: Herbert L. Strock
Studio: Dowling Productions
Distributor: United Artists
Running time: 83 minutes
Cast
Lew Ayres: Dr. Patrick J. Cory
Gene Evans: Dr. Frank Schratt
Nancy Reagan: Janice Cory (as Nancy Davis)
Steve Brodie: Herbie Yocum
Tom Powers: Donovan's Washington Advisor
Lisa Howard: Chloe Donovan (as Lisa K. Howard)
James Anderson: Chief Tuttle (as Kyle James)
Victor Sutherland: Nathaniel Fuller
Michael Colgan: Tom Donovan
Peter Adams: Mr. Webster
Harlan Warde: Treasury Agent Brooke
Shmen Ruskin: Tailor
Don Brodie: Detective Who Follows Dr. Cory from Hotel
William Cottrell: Dr. Crane
John Hamilton: Mr. MacNish, Bank Manager
Sam Harris: Man leaving Fuller's Office
Paul Hoffman: Mr. Smith, Treasury Dept.
Stapleton Kent: W. J. Higgins
Faith Langley : Fuller's Receptionist
Mark Lowell : Allied Supply Clerk
Frank McClure: Man leaving Fuller's Office
Walter Merrill: Town House Desk Clerk
Charles Sullivan: Auto Passenger at Accident Scene
Max Wagner: Station Agent
“Donovan’s Brain” is the kind of film that under other circumstances could allow the viewer’s attention to wander. However, the good performances of Lew Ayers as the possessed Dr. Cory and Gene Evans as Dr. Frank Schratt add significantly to the film’s appeal.
Lew Ayers played both "minds" extraordinarily well with his seamless shifting from mild-mannered researcher Cory to the despicable Donovan. Without any overt fanfare or unnecessary special effects, we know when Donovan’s brain takes control simply by the controlled and subtle nuances of Lew Ayres’ performance such as a mere in change of posture or a hardening of his expression.
Another example of the film’s subtle communication with the audience is the scene with Herbie Yocum when he confronts Cory/Donovan for a blackmail payment. Notice that he is wearing a shabby and worn out suit. When he later returns for another blackmail payment, he is seen wearing a pretty sharp and expensive-looking suit. No need for any lengthy explanations!
“Donovan’s Brain” is still a very relevant film as it reminds people of any era that there is a cost to any aspect of human progress. The question is; is it a cost we would wish to bear even if we go into it with our eyes open?
Plot
“Donovan’s Brain” is a film about Dr. Patrick Cory, a middle-aged physician who experiments at keeping a brain alive.
A millionaire by the name of W.H. Donovan crashes his private plane in the desert near the home of Dr. Cory.
Dr. Cory is unable to save Donovan's life, but removes his brain in the slim hope that it might survive. He places Donovan’s brain in an electrically charged, oxygenated saline solution within a glass tank.
The brainwaves suggest that thought and life continue and Cory makes several unsuccessful attempts to communicate with the brain.
Finally, one night Cory receives unconscious commands and he writes down an instruction containing people’s names in Donovan's handwriting.
Cory successfully establishes telepathic contact with Donovan's brain, much to the concern of Cory's alcoholic assistant, Dr. Schratt.
Gradually, the malignant intelligence of Donovan takes over Cory's personality and uses Cory to do his bidding such as signing checks in Donovan's name, and continuing the reprehensible millionaire magnate's illicit financial activities.
Cory becomes increasingly mentally and physically like Donovan himself, even down to his limping.
How far will Donovan's criminality extend?
Will Donovan assume complete control over Cory’s mind and body?
Can Cory find a way to resist the brain's power?
Can Cory do anything to destroy the brain?
Witness the unfolding terror of humanity’s struggle against the self-destructive and unforeseen consequences of its own genius!
Donovan’s Brain -
A ‘What If?’ Alternate Reality
For the whole world, everything changed in the latter part of the 21st. Century.The year now is 2153 and unimaginable advances have been made in the fields of science, technology and communications.
One advance in particular that is the subject of this narrative concerns the preservation of human consciousness after physical death. People now have the option to continue their existence over and over as many times as they wish within their own unique virtual world.
Virtual immortality!
It is where we find ourselves now at the Cory Human Consciousness Afterlife Exhibition Building, standing immersed within an exhibit dedicated to the history and development of this once controversial technology.
Exhibit Guide: Welcome everyone to our interactive exhibit which we are sure you’ll find to be both informative but also entertaining. Please be patient as you download the virtual component of this exhibit into your Nano cerebral storage devices. Once this is done, you can transition instantly between the real-time and virtual parts of the exhibit.
As you are aware, in the middle of the 20th century when the United States of America began its century-long period as a world super-power, the first steps toward the preservation of human consciousness were being taken.
You should now be able to see reconjec-images (reconstructed and manipulated) based on actual photographs of Dr. Patrick J. Cory, his wife Janice Cory and a map showing Green Valley, AZ, USA. Images and graphics will appear to you throughout the presentation. Of course, a lot of what you will see will be based on conjecture and interpretation for your viewing benefit and understanding.
It was with the little monkey that the Cory’s brought home with them that they hoped to extract its brain and keep it alive, since four previous attempts on older subjects resulted in failure. With the assistance of Dr. Frank Schratt, they placed the monkey brain in a large tank and hooked it up to support equipment. At first there was no activity so they increased the voltage and a strong alpha wave appeared and remained steady.
We are fortunate to have here the very notes Cory’s wife took as her husband dictated the details of the procedure. Not only that, but we have another primary source in the form of Dr. Cory’s very own diary to help us understand this very important period of time in human history. Please feel free to browse the physical exhibits during this presentation.
As fate would have it, Dr. Cory was at that point called away to help out at an airplane crash. One body was carried away from the smoking wreckage on a stretcher and conveyed to Cory's house which had its own lab with a fully equipped operating room.
As you can see from Cory’s diary, he was told that Warren H. Donovan was supposed to have been worth a hundred million dollars (what passed as currency in those days) and that the sky would be the limit on his fee.
Question Upload From Exhibit Visitor: Did the prospect of making money influence Cory at any stage of his research?
Exhibit Guide: I’ll answer this and further questions orally if that’s OK with everyone. You’ll still be able to access any question from your fellow visitors.
Cory lived in a time when making personal wealth almost defined who a person was. Donovan was one of the worst examples of this. Initially, Cory just wanted to save a human life, no matter who he was. I suppose Cory’s motivation later was to see if keeping a human brain alive could be done and how that could add to the sum of our scientific knowledge. It was the pioneering experiment and the discovery that mattered above all else. As it turned out, and unforeseen by Cory, more than just keeping the human brain alive was the result of Cory’s experimentation.
As a result of the accident, Donovan had lost both legs and his chest was crushed. While Cory and Schratt operated, his pulse stopped. Incidentally, what we know about Dr. Frank Schratt is that he was a practicing physician, but he was also an alcoholic. People had any addictions in those days from tobacco, alcohol through to opioids and barbiturates.
[Gasps and shaking of heads]
Amazingly, alpha waves were found to be present on the recently deceased Mr. Donovan. Cory decided to try and talk Frank Schratt into helping him remove Donovan's brain. Frank and Janice were horrified at such a prospect as it was against the law, and he could’ve lost his medical license. Janice had told Cory more than once, that he was carrying things too far. However, Cory got his way by explaining that, [from diary] "If this brain lives, maybe we can discover how it thinks.” With such research, it would, according to Cory, hold out the possibility of a cure “for Frank and every other alcoholic.”
Question Upload: If his wife raised objections and the procedure would’ve had such drastic personal and legal ramifications, then why did he proceed with it?
Exhibit Guide: As with the early development of genetic engineering and human cloning, there were laws preventing scientific pursuits such as that undertaken by Cory. Objections were raised by ethics committees and religious denominations as to the moral implications of such research. Public opinion was strongly against it-for a while at least. Signs and banners, as well as various forms of social media of the time containing messages such as, “What about the human soul?” “Unnatural & Unholy” and “We are not God!” greeted the first proposals for preserving human consciousness. Remember, Cory was attempting and succeeded in preserving a human brain. Even his friend Frank suggested to Cory that he was really “looking for the soul” and that he was “trying to play God.” Interestingly enough, there’s an entry in Cory’s diary in which he states, “I couldn’t have gotten this far without God’s help.”
Advances in technology have progressed since those times, thereby negating the need for hanging on to that portion of our biology, since we now understand most of the workings of the human brain and we can now extract, preserve and transfer its consciousness. Once the technology advances and a few independent or even rogue researchers, organisations and governments undertake once previously taboo forms of research, the door is inevitably opened up a bit wider. The once unacceptable soon becomes the accepted and established way of doing things. Questions of morality become just that little bit more blurred.
Questions of ethics and morality were evident when Cory assured Donovan's son and daughter, Chloe and Tom that everything possible was done for their father, except for the fact that he had taken his brain. Cory had to add this deception to his moral, ethical and professional misconduct. Yes indeed, there are consequences, foreseen and unforeseen, in most human undertakings.
A certain individual by the name of Herbie Yocum, a freelance photographer who was following Donovan's death, had already visited the morgue and noticed that Donovan had stitches in his head, even though the plane crash injuries did not involve his head. Cory eventually agreed to Yocum's request to take his pictures of the operating table. While doing this, he covertly took a picture of the tank with Donovan's brain.
In those days representatives of the media called journalists actually did investigative work in person out in the field. Unfortunately over time the mass media degenerated to being purveyors of propaganda and editorial mouth-pieces of their influential owners. The real work of informing the public was done by individual and organisational whistle-blowers. These days we rely more on remote tech surveillance and citizen reporters who operate on an almost freelance basis like Yocum.
I also refer you all to the link to the draft copy of Yocum’s article, DEAD MAN’S LIVING BRAIN!” This would have appeared in what was called a newspaper which was actually made out of paper. A far cry from the plethora of sources of news and information which we can access, share and upload directly into our devices and brains today.
Over time Donovan’s brain started to respond to outside stimuli, grow in size and absorb nutrients. Cory eventually wanted to try telepathy to communicate with the brain.
The record shows that W.H. Donovan was a very cruel and unscrupulous individual who was even hated by his own children. No wonder Cory’s wife and Frank objected to Cory’s plan to establish telepathic communication. Not only that, but he was also a tax cheat and the IRS had an ongoing case against him.
You may wish to conduct a quick THEMIS search for the term “taxes” and the abbreviation, “IRS.”
Today, such a person as Donovan would not be permitted to have his consciousness preserved. Repeat criminals, murderers, sex offenders, paedophiles, those convicted of violent crimes, fraud and so on, have been over the years, automatically excluded from the consciousness preservation program. Fortunately, such crimes are far and few between these days.
As you are aware, all possible forms of communication between the real and virtual human consciousness worlds is strictly prohibited and safeguards have been put in place to prevent this from ever occurring.
With Cory’s attempt to actively communicate with Donovan’s brain, he awoke one morning to find a slip of paper with "get to N. Fuller, WH Donovan" written on it. He soon discovered from a magazine article that the writing on the paper and Donovan's handwriting and signature matched.
Question Upload: Didn’t that raise the question in Cory’s mind as to who was really in control? I ask this because I notice that there’s an entry in Cory’s diary referring to Frank’s comment to him, “Do you control it, or does it control you?
Exhibit Guide: Definitely a question human-kind has had to grapple with from the time we fashioned our first piece of technology. Every new advance, invention and idea eventually becomes a double-edged sword for us. For Cory, his ideas held out the hope for increasing our understanding of the human brain and thereby improve the human condition. Little did he know that he would be drawn in too far with his experiment by being possessed by Donovan, who used him to access Donavan’s account to withdraw cash; to virtually walk, talk, dress and act like Donavan; to make Donovan’s tax problem disappear with the aid of a payment of $250,000 so that arrangements would continue as usual involving the Attorney General; to use the power of blackmail, only to be blackmailed himself by Yocum, and to eventually resort to murder by arranging for Yocum to be eliminated, not to mention being forced to almost kill his friend, Frank!
Somewhere deep inside Cory there was a human need to resist and regain control which surfaced when he recorded a message to his wife informing her that he was finding it harder to resist Donovan's influence, and that he might not return to be himself again. On the recording he told her of his plan to use a lightning rod on the house. Later on, after he was followed, he deliberately exited the cab he was in and was hit by a truck. When he woke up in hospital he was briefly himself again and told Janice that he was afraid until Donovan again took over.
With the help of a plan cooked up between Cory’s wife and Frank Schratt, along with Cory’s idea involving a bolt of lightning striking the house and blowing out the equipment supporting the brain, the brain and all that was W.H. Donovan was destroyed.
Although Cory faced disciplinary procedures and a loss of his medical licence, over subsequent years, the results of his work were taken up by the Centre for Consciousness Studies which helped to refine work being conducted in the area of human consciousness. The result is that each of us today has the opportunity to, in a manner of speaking, cheat death and explore our full potential unhindered by the limitations of our biology.
Thank you everyone for attending our exhibit which will be open until 16.30 today. Be sure to go on a virtual re-visit and remember that all of the exhibit’s features can be accessed anywhere any time via your preferred devices.
Four Sided Triangle (1953)
A thought-provoking and engaging film despite its low budget constraints and disappointing ending.
Director: Terence Fisher
Producer: Michael Carreras, Alexander Paal
Written by Paul Tabori
Based on William F. Temple’s novel
Music: Malcolm Arnold
Cinematography: Reg Wyer
Editing: Maurice Rootes
Studio: Hammer Film Productions
Running time: 81 minutes
Cast
Barbara Payton: (Lena Maitland/Helen)
James Hayter: (Dr. Harvey)
Stephen Murray (Bill Leggat)
John Van Eyssen: (Robin Grant)
Percy Marmont: (Sir Walter)
Glyn Dearman: (Bill as a child)
Sean Barrett: (Robin as a child)
Jennifer Dearman: (Lena as a child)
Kynaston Reeves: (Lord Grant)
John Stuart: (Solicitor)
Edith Saville: (Lady Grant)
Premise
“Four Sided Triangle” is a story involving a love triangle which soon develops into a four sided love triangle with the addition of a complicating fourth side. The film is in the tradition of Frankenstein-type films in which a man almost takes on the role of God and creates life with terrible consequences for himself and those around him.
(Warning: Spoilers Follow below)
Preparing The Ground For Planting
“Four Sided Triangle” opens with credits behind which we see a pan of the English countryside. This is followed by a title card with gothic lettering proclaiming,
"'God hath made man upright; but they have sought out too many inventions.'- Ecclesiastes."
We immediately know from this opening that whatever takes place will involve something deemed to be ‘unholy,’ as being against God’s intention and somehow immoral.
The story of “Four Sided Triangle” begins with Dr. Harvey ("Doc") narrating the events that that occurred in the peaceful village of Hardine (Hardeen?) The shots we have of the village confirm that it is a place where nothing much happens. ‘Grant House,’ or the Manor exudes pride and tradition. The sleepy village has a local squire, Sir Walter who has a son named Robin. There's a woman whose husband is a drunk and they have a son called Bill. Doc Harvey addresses us directly and reinforces the impression that nothing interesting happens in his village, except for………….a burnt out barn....
By setting the story of ‘Four Sided Triangle’ in a sleepy little village, a stark contrast is provided between the timeless, traditional rural lifestyle and the modern high tech world that exists beyond the little village’s rustic confines. The intrusion of scientific advancement will soon turn the placid certainties of life upside down, leading to tragedy as indicated by the out of place burnt out barn. It may indeed presage a time when they will have “pity for the living” and “envy for the dead.”
Seeds Are Sewn
We are given a flashback to a time when. Bill and Robin are boyhood friends who compete for the affections of an eleven year old girl called Lena. She's sitting on a makeshift throne of hay bales, wearing a crown. Two boys, Sir Robin and Sir Bill, are armed with wooden swords. Lena addresses them and declares they must fight for her affections by duelling with the swords. Robin eventually beats Bill, who yields. Lena places a laurel wreath on Robin's head while Bill receives an oak leaf crown. Bill, the “defeated knight,” kisses her hand, and then runs away, obviously upset at losing out.
This flashback is important as it shows us some of the “material that fate furnished for the four-sided triangle.”
We gain the impression from Doc’s narration that Robin is level-headed and dependable while Bill is more spirited and impetuous. In fact, Bill is also a genius, but in a frightening sort of way. This is highlighted by his correct diagnosis and explanation of the simple fracture to his wrist, his rapid intellectual outpacing of Doc Harvey and his wild and unpredictable manner.
Nurturing & Husbandry
Doc eventually takes in Bill as an informal student and later he becomes his guardian when Bill's mother dies. Lena's mother takes her back to America and when the boys are older they go to Cambridge to study science.
It is apparent that Bill seems “born to do great things,” but it has to be wondered how much direction Doc Harvey provided to Bill’s upbringing. He certainly provided Bill with encouragement in relation to his intellectual pursuits and natural curiosity. However, how often did he say “No” to Bill? Were boundaries ever set for Bill?
While Bill’s intellect and material needs were being catered for, how much attention was given to his ethical and moral development? As we see throughout the movie, Doc Harvey acquiesces to just about every request that Bill makes of him. A certain amount of personal self-discipline and responsibility is essential in any well-rounded adult, no matter how much of a genius they are purported to be.
Bearing Fruit
Lena returns one day as an adult but she has had a tough time. Her mother has died and she is very pessimistic, even to the extent of declaring that she didn't ask to be born and so she has a right to die. Lena blames herself for all that has happened.
Robin and Bill have also returned and they have been working on an invention called the ‘Reproducer’, a machine that can exactly duplicate physical objects. After Doc and Lena go to the barn to see the two young men, Doc suggests to Lena that they need someone (her) to keep them human.
When Robin and Doc go see Lord Grant to obtain more funding so they can keep working on their project, Lord Grant refuses their request because the work hasn’t produced any results. In keeping with his character and relationship with Bill, Doc goes to see Simpson the solicitor to sell his practice for the much needed finance.
Back at the barn-lab, Bill and Eric have acquired some impressive pieces of equipment.
The equipment in the barn-lab looks quite convincing, much of it consisting of what appears to be comfortably familiar army surplus pieces. There’s nothing better than oscilloscopes indicating whatever we are told they’re indicating; big gauges with jittery needles; transparent domes containing something sinister or from which something ‘not good’ will emerge; insistent flashing lights; and big tactile knobs and switches that seem to take the exertion of the whole body to activate. The world of the mad scientist and Frankenstein’s monster is never far away no matter what era we live in.
Which leads us to the question that is inevitably asked: What exactly is the contraption that Bill and Robin have been working on? They can give it a name, ‘Reproducer.’ However, they suggest that it'd be far too technical to explain. Plank, Einstein and Faraday are mentioned as the scientific foundation on which the Reproducer device has been built.
Bill and Robin manage to duplicate Doc’s pocket watch and chain which materialises in the second display case. The second watch is an exact replica of the original watch even down to its FLAWS: one of the links being bent in exactly the same way as the original chain.
Bill explains that they've found a way to create matter from energy, a reverse of the familiar principle of creating energy (movement, force) from matter. With their device they can reproduce anything. Lena suggests that they could reproduce precious metals and diamonds while Robin suggests that works of art could be created.
Here we have the unfolding example of the kind of dilemma that humanity is faced with: practical applications of scientific theoretical concepts and whether they are for good or for ill. For instance, an equation leads to the splitting of the atom, which then leads to the development of atomic weapons that could result in the destruction of the world. Then again that same form of power can generate electricity and aid in medical treatments.
In the film, ‘Four-Sided Triangle,’ the ‘boys’ have built their device using principles developed by the pioneers of physics. They did it because they wanted to see if they could do it and they could. Only now do they turn their minds to what their discovery could be used for. Perhaps, as in the case of many scientific breakthroughs, they needed to rethink the steps in the process. Just about anything conceived of by the mind of “Man” will amount to becoming a double-edged sword containing any number of unforeseen implications and consequences.
Later, the process is repeated in the presence of Sir Walter using a blank cheque which has been endorsed on the back. The result? Two identical cheques! Bill declared that they're not in the forgery business, but the fact that it can potentially be done raises some interesting implications. Sir Walter himself raises some potentially dangerous consequences that could result from the new invention such as atom bombs and guns possibly being reproduced.
Yes, a universal duplicator could make readily available what was previously in short supply such as vital organs for transplant that would not be rejected by the recipient’s body. We could potentially have a world like the one envisioned in ‘Star Trek’ where all our material needs could be replicated in a world which is “a place of peace and plenty” But life is not a TV sci-fi utopia. There’s a price to be paid. Reproduce works of art for everybody? Sure! Reproduce gold and other precious metals? Sure! See how fast both of these would lose their respective values. What would happen to economies that depend on precious metals? How would you stop countries and terrorist groups from endlessly reproducing the means to destroy their perceived enemies?
Be careful what you wish for, you may just get much more than you bargained for……..
As Bill is to find out when he admits to Doc that he wants Lena. He's never told her how he feels and he asks Doc to probe her. This is no surprise considering Doc’s track record that he doesn’t refuse and tell Bill to just be a man and find out for himself by telling Lena how he feels.
Reap What You Sow
Bill is becoming bored with their new invention and wants to start on something else, whereas Robin wants him to focus on what they've achieved in creating “something for all mankind” and how it could in Sir Walter’s words, to “transform the world into a place of peace and plenty.”
Later, at the dinner party, Sir Walter makes a speech in which he states that he “had faith” thereby conveying the impression that it was he who saw the potential of the invention. Next comes the issue of who controls the use and implementation of the new device. Bill and Robin are informed that the government will let them do whatever they want but that they are to place the blueprints for their invention under government control. The two inventors are to be stationed in London.
A major complication in the story occurs when Bill is confronted by the fact that Lena loves Robin and intends to marry him. His desire for what he now knows he cannot have leads him to make decisions involving his invention which will have far-reaching consequences for himself and others.
Based on an earlier consideration of how far could they could take the Reproducer, the possibility of duplicating living things occurred to the two young men. It would be necessary to pass a great deal of current through the original living thing, thereby causing it considerable pain. Robin didn't want to proceed with it. Bill, however, came up with the idea of doping the animal first. A week previously, this was tried on a guinea pig it with positive results once the dope wore off. Unfortunately, the duplicate didn't live.
Bill came up with his own “autojector” which would pump the blood of the duplicate animal while waiting for the heart to start. The process is soon used on a rabbit with success and it doesn’t take much of stretch of the imagination on the part of the audience or Doc to predict what Bill intends to do with his new duplication process.
Bill knows that it is too late to late to win Lena for himself when Lena marries Robin, He therefore sets about convincing Lena to allow him to duplicate her, so that he can at least have a copy of her for himself.
Here we see a man being driven by a force he couldn’t control. As we see Bill operating the equipment, the effect of light and shade on his face reminds us of the classic mad scientist films in which the mad scientist is impelled by his hubris and personal desires to make an unethical and immoral decision and to embark upon a course of action involving an irresponsible use of his new-found power that results in tragedy. Aren’t we all at some level subject to the force of our own wants and desires, often resulting not in the obtaining of happiness and fulfilment, but instead in personal unhappiness and misery?
Using a larger version of the autojector, the duplication process is performed on Lena.
A very effective use of close-ups of the characters’ faces, along with musical cues during the lengthy duplication process adds to the dramatic impact of these scenes. Notice also that when a pair of spikes is pushed into the duplicate woman's neck, we are not shown the actual insertion. Instead, this part of the process is suggested or indicated by the use of a high, sustained musical cue thereby heightening the emotional impact of what we can imagine is happening.
The experiment is a “success.” Bill has his Lena and by a recombination of the letters of her name the duplicate Lena is named, “Helen." HOWEVER it soon transpires that Helen, is such an exact copy of Lena that she also loves Robin, not Bill!
While on holiday with Bill, Helen appears to be increasingly distracted and silent. One morning when Bill opens the curtains in her room, as she is waking up she addresses him by mistake as, “Robin darling.” Later, while on a beach-side picnic, Helen goes for a swim and keeps on swimming further and further away from the beach until Bill swims out and saves her. It is apparent that she was trying to kill herself.
Helen’s inner-struggles with her sense of self and Bill’s attempt to deal with this provide the viewer with finely acted drama. Helen’s torture is laid bare as she comes to the realisation that she does not have her own identity. She is in love with Robin only because her duplicate loves him. All that she is consists of is what Lena was before she married Robin.
Bill tells Doc that he only wanted two things in life, namely, knowledge and Lena. He used the knowledge he gained in order to obtain the object of his personal happiness, Lena. The result was unhappiness and misery as we now have two women who love the same man, and one of those women was ready to end her own life rather than live without Robin or live a life not of her own making. With this in mind, Lena’s words come back to haunt us, “I didn’t ask to be born; I have the right to die.”
Bill resorts to a radical experiment in order to make things right. With Lena’s help he uses a process that employs electro-shock treatment to erase Helen's memory. Just as the process appears to be working, the apparatus begins to overheat, smoke and then explodes, resulting in an intense fire.
Meanwhile, Robin arrives with Dr. Harvey to see the whole barn in flames and manages to rescue one of the women from the fire. Bill and the other woman perish in the conflagration.
As the woman who was rescued has no memory, there is some uncertainty as to which woman, Lena or Helen, was saved. However, Dr. Harvey recalled that Bill had to start Helen's heart with a device that he attached to the back of her neck which left two scars. It turned out that there were no marks on the neck of the woman who was rescued. Of course it was….. Lena!
“Four-Sided Triangle” ends with a Gothic script title card:
"'You shall have joy or you shall have power, said God; you shall not have both' - Emerson"
How much better it would have been had the film had a more dramatic ending whereby we could have been left guessing much longer as to who the surviving woman was? Imagine the possibilities if the duplication process hadn’t left any scarring and may or may not have worked? With a fade out on an enigmatic expression on the woman’s face, could we have had the possibility of a Helen living out Lena’s life?
As to possibilities? Well, someone a few years later thought about what would happen if you combined a human being AND a fly in a duplicating machine! But that’s the subject for another film………
The Atomic Man
aka "Timeslip" (1955)
An average Cold War mystery, espionage sci-fi thriller
1955: A Taste Of The Times
Military developments & international affairs would go on shape the world for subsequent years to come:
USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut.
The Pentagon announces a plan to develop ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) armed with nuclear weapons.
United States Congress authorises Eisenhower to use force to protect Formosa (Taiwan) from the People's Republic of China.
The Seventh Fleet of the United States Navy assists the Republic of China evacuate Chinese Nationalist army and residents from the Tachen Islands to Taiwan.
U.S. President Eisenhower sends the first U.S. advisers to South Vietnam.
Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (S.E.A.T.O) is established.
Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom due to ill-health at the age of 80. Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Eight Communist Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defence treaty (Warsaw Pact) in Warsaw, Poland.
West Germany becomes a sovereign country recognized by important Western countries, such as France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The President of Argentina, Juan Peron, is overthrown in a military coup.
Ngo Dinh Diem declares Vietnam to be a republic with himself as its President and forms the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
US begins sending $216 million in aid to Vietnam.
US intervenes militarily in Iran!
US installs powerful radar system in Turkey to spy on the Soviet Union
Director: Ken Hughes
Producer: Alec C. Snowden
Written by Charles Eric Maine (novel The Isotope Man), Charles Eric Maine (screenplay)
Cinematography: A.T. Dinsdale
Editing: Geoffrey Muller
Running time 93 minutes (UK): 76 minutes (USA)
Cast
Gene Nelson: Mike Delaney
Faith Domergue: Jill Rabowski
Peter Arne: Dr. Stephen Rayner / Jarvis
Joseph Tomelty: Detective Inspector Cleary
Donald Gray: Robert Maitland
Vic Perry: Emmanuel Vasquo
Paul Hardtmuth: Dr. Bressler
Martin Wyldeck Dr. Preston
Gordon Bell: Assistant Surgeon
Ian Cooper: Anaethetist
Philip Dale: Dr. Peters
Patricia Driscoll: X-Ray Assistant
Vanda Godsell: Stenographer
Charles Hawtrey: Office Boy
Philippa Hiatt: X-Ray Assistant
Carl Jaffe: Dr. Marks
Mary Jones: Sister Brown
Barry MacKay: Inspector Hammond
Launce Maraschal: Alcott, the Editor
Brian O'Higgins: Pat the Barman
Dervis Ward: Allegan
Leonard Williams: Detective Sergeant Haines
Anthony Woodruff: Nuclear Physicist
The Story
(Contains Spoilers)
An atomic scientist, Stephen Raymer is fished out of the Thames with a bullet in his back. His status is considered to be that of “just another body.”
After briefly flat-lining in hospital during an operation to remove the bullet, Raymer suddenly revives when his heart restarts but he apparently has no memory of what has happened.....
It transpires that radioactivity has put Raymer seven-and-a-half seconds ahead of the rest of the world in time. His mind has slipped into the future as determined by the fact that he is answering questions 7.5 seconds before they are asked.
Despite being told to lay off the case, reporter Mike Delaney and his photographer/girlfriend investigate a plot involving scientist Raymer’s evil double from destroying his “alchemist”- like experiments involving the creation of elements (artificial tungsten) which could have “a profound effect on the economy of the world.”
The film’s impetus is provided by reporter Mike Delaney who like a dog with a bone is motivated to solve this mystery. For him it is simple: “If you gotta a hunch, follow it up. Baby, I’ve gotta hunch.” Like any good reporter, he sets out to find the answers to fundamental questions that need to be asked:
What’s Raymer doing here?
How did he get shot?
Who shot him?
Why?
The answers to these questions are gradually pieced together through a series of clues which although not really very surprising to the audience are nevertheless presented as if they are completely revelatory.
The Clues
A photo of Raymer with a radioactive halo around his body suggesting exposure to radioactive materials.
The impostor Raymer explains that the injuries sustained to his face were the result of a car accident in which he was hit from behind. Delaney, however, suggests that if “Raymer” were hit from behind, he would have moved backwards and not forwards through the windshield as was claimed.
During the x-ray of Raymer’s head, the presence of radioactivity or isotopes was detected. The x-ray itself was later found to be blank which suggested it was affected by “outside contamination” such as radioactivity.
It is determined that Raymer has symptoms of radioactive poisoning.
As mentioned above, Raymer’s answers to the questions posed to him don’t seem to make sense or suggest that he does not understand what he is being asked.
After questioning impostor Raymer, Delaney spots a hat with “EV Harreros-Buenos Aires” printed on its inside. This points to none other than Vasquo, the instigator of the plot to destroy the real Raymer’s experiments.
Delaney’s crafty questioning of “Raymer” reveals that he could not have been at Columbia University in 1949 as he claimed since at the time the real Raymer was in the “South Pacific blowing up A-bombs.”
A picture of the impostor Raymer taken by photographer, Jill Rabowski reveals no presence of the effects of radiation.
Playback of a tape recording and transcription of the questions and answers reveals that Raymer was answering questions put to him before actually being asked them. His answers came about 7 seconds after the questions; the same amount of time he was clinically dead.
It is concluded that the impostor Raymer is a “broken down scientist” who has undergone plastic surgery to look like the real Dr. Stephen Rayner. He is an essential part of a plot to blow up Raymer’s laboratory when the reactor is switched on.
BUT WHY?????
The discovery that the UTC (United Tungsten Corporation) which produces 2/3 of the world’s tungsten would be “put out of business overnight” if Raymer’s experiments for producing synthetic tungsten succeed.
Knowing what they now know, can intrepid reporter Mike Delaney and his beautiful photographer/girlfriend Jill Rabowski do anything to thwart Emmanuel Vasquo and UTC’s evil global corporate plans?
Can the real Dr Raymer regain his memory?
Will all of his work and experiments have been for nought?
Will the imposter be revealed?
Points Of Interest
Faith Domergue has also appeared in “This Island Earth” and “It Came From Beneath The Sea,” both released in 1955 and both of which feature in this eBook series.
You will also notice the familiar face of Charles Hawtrey. You might expect Sid James and the rest of the “Carry On” gang to follow him on screen and add a bit of bawdy British humour to proceedings. Sorry, not this time!
Speaking of humour, there is one unintentional moment in the film when a scientist is presenting his theory of what has happened to Raymer. With straight face, stereotypical German-sounding accent and Marcel Marceau hand gestures, he goes on to explain how Raymer’s physical reactions appear to be ahead of time; how time moved but he had stopped when he died for 7 ½ seconds; how his brain had not lost time; how he had moved forward 7 ½ seconds ahead; the effects of intense atomic radiation and so on. During all this time it is a wonder how the others manage to sit still listening to him ramble on nonsensically without falling all over the place in fits of laughter! What the hell was that guy talking about? Watch him in action in the film and try to keep a straight face.
At the time of the mid-fifties when “The Atomic Man” was shown, ideas such as nuclear radiation, atomic terrorism and medical / technological advances such as plastic surgery were quite novel and the fears surrounding them reflected the paranoia of the time.
It is amazing, however that even today as we seem to be taking our eye off the ball and casting our collective gaze firmly, comfortably and complacently on our mobile devices, we nevertheless occasionally walk into an oncoming event that serves to remind us that threats to our survival in the real world don’t just magically disappear with a mere swipe of the screen. Nor do they just vanish with the passage of time.
In the modern era we have had our own versions of potentially threatening events and scenarios as Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster; the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine; The Three Mile Island partial nuclear meltdown; reports of missing nuclear material from the former Soviet Union; serious consideration of the possibility of terrorist groups assembling so-called dirty atomic bombs; innumerable instances of global state, industrial and corporate sabotage and espionage and the rise of smaller unstable nuclear armed states at a time of global instability.
Do you ever get the feeling that in life that we are simply playing roles in yet another version or remake of the same film? Roll credits……..
Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)
A low budget, entertaining, fast-paced and tongue-and-cheek horror/sci-fi film. A film that has much to say to us.
1955: A Taste of the Times:
World Population: 2.780 billion
Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois.
US President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
US Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
US Population: 165,931,202
US Life expectancy: 69.6 years
US Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.5
Albert Einstein dies
In the US, 7 out of 10 families own a motor car.
The average wage (US) $3,851 per year and the minimum wage raised to $1.00 per hour
Yearly Inflation Rate USA: 0.28%
Average cost of new house: $10.950.00
An exiled American gangster!
A former Nazi scientist!
Revenge!
Radio-controlled atomic-powered zombies!
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Produced by Sam Katzman
Written by Curt Siodmak
Screenplay by Curt Siodmak
Story by Curt Siodmak
Cinematography: Fred Jackman Jr.
Edited by Aaron Stell
Production company: Clover Productions
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Cast
Richard Denning : Dr. Chet Walker
Angela Stevens: Joyce Walker
S. John Launer: Capt. Dave Harris
Michael Granger: Frank Buchanan
Gregory Gaye: Dr. Wilhelm Steigg
Linda Bennett: Penny Walker
Tristram Coffin: Dist. Atty. MacGraw
Harry Lauter: Reporter #1
Larry J. Blake: Reporter #2
Charles Evans: Chief Camden
Pirre Watkin: Mayor Bremer
(Spoiler Alert!!!)
“Creature with the Atom Brain” opens at night with the steady menacing approach of a lone silhouetted figure accompanied by the rhythmic sound of a heartbeat,
A car then drives down an empty highway and comes to a stop near a lamp post. The driver possessing a long surgical scar on his forehead exits the vehicle. We are given point of view shots of his destination as he walks with a blank expression on his face towards a building which turns out to be a casino. The man, Willard Pearce is being monitored remotely in a lab.
In the casino, a cashier hands his boss, Jim Hennessey a case containing $20,000. Hennessey places the cash into the wall safe. Pearce smashes through a window and enters Hennessey’s office. He tells Hennessey, "I told you I'd come back….Remember Buchanan?....I promised to see you die and I will!” Hennessey then fires three bullets into Pearce but with no effect. Pearce picks Hennessey up and breaks his back, the full horror of which is suggested via shadow-play on the wall. Pearce grabs the cash from the safe and exits as two casino employees enter the office and fire at him.
At the lab, gangster Frank Buchanan directs Pearce to return. Ex-Nazi scientist, Dr Wilhelm Steigg takes the microphone and directs Pearce to get into the car. Steigg explains that Pearce will automatically return to his source of feeding when his energy runs low. Steigg and Buchanan put on radiation suits and crawl through a tunnel into the main lab where we see two men with surgical scars on their heads sitting hooked up to IV lines.
For Steigg, such creatures can be used to “help people live.” For Buchanan, on the other hand, they are to be used for the removal of “particular people.” The creatures however can only be kept going for a few days as their “glands deteriorate” and the “brain always dies first.”
[Here we have an instance of technology not of itself being inherently good or evil. Instead, it is the use to which the technology is put that determines how it is to be assessed.]
At the casino, the burglary and murder is being investigated by the police. Dr Chet Walker and Capt Dave Harris discuss the case with District Attorney MacGraw. Chet discovers that the killer’s fingerprints on the windowsill are luminous, and Dave notices that the footprints and blood are also luminous. During a forensic examination of the evidence, Chet concludes that the blood is a “chemical composition” possessing “no hemoglobin” and that the “so-called blood is highly radioactive - +9.”
[Forensic science at the time was becoming an established method of criminal investigation employed by the FBI and law enforcement agencies. The kind of impact such technologies were having then is akin to the kind of impact that the use of DNA technology is having on 21st Century criminal investigations and their depiction in films.]
The story is so unbelievable that even seasoned reporters don’t initially take it up when they are informed in an off-hand jocular manner that the case involves “a creature that cannot be killed by bullets” and that it is “charged with atom rays.”
Unlike depictions of the restriction of press freedom to report the truth in many films at the time and the practice of authorities since then to suppress certain kinds of information, the biggest scoop in history is at first virtually ignored by virtue of its being so unbelievable!
Later on at Walker’s place, Dave reveals that there was a match on the fingerprints. Astonishingly, they match a dead man's prints. It turns out that according to the “Bureau,” the dead man is Willard Pearce, who was tubercular, had died from asphyxiation and had been dead for 24 days!
After receiving a phone call, Dave and Chet leave to listen to a Dictaphone recording made during the casino robbery and murder. On the recording they hear Pearce’s mechanical-sounding voice, “like a recording of a recording.”
Meanwhile, District Attorney MacGraw is confronted and killed by another zombie-like creature, in his garage at home. Before dispatching him, the creature informs MacGraw that “I’m from Buchanan. If you know that then you know why I’m here.”
When informed of this latest crime, Chet and Dave go to MacGraw’s place. The coroner is able to determine the cause of death, but cannot explain how a human grip could cause such severe injuries. After examining MacGraw's car with a Geiger counter. Chet instructs Dave to call the inspector to meet with him and to “ask him to have the Mayor and the commanding General of this military area” in attendance since “we're going to need all the cooperation we can get on this one."
A KXIW-TV television broadcast announces a “fantastic story” involving crimes being perpetrated by dead men who are charged with atom rays making them “impervious to bullets.” After watching this broadcast, Steigg and Buchanan conclude that Chet Walker knows too much about their diabolical plans and therefore must be eliminated.
Chet, Dave, Mayor Bremer and General Saunders gather at the office of Chief of Police Camden. Taking a leaf from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Chet uses the Faraday experiment involving the use of electricity on a frog's leg as a way of illustrating the principle of using radioactivity to animate dead tissue. Chet stresses the need to find the source of radioactive emanations by using planes and the resources of the military.
When Chet returns home. His wife Joyce is shocked to read the headlines in the local newspaper, The Star Dispatch…….
DO DEAD MEN WALK CITY STREETS?
Chet believes that there is a pattern to the deaths and that their daughter is in no immediate danger playing outside. Dave then comes by and informs Chet that there is a connection between Hennessey and MacGraw as they both had ensured the conviction of Buchanan a decade earlier leaving Hennessey to become the top mobster. Buchanan swore revenge, “I’ll get you for this!”
[Once a story of this nature falls into the hands of the tabloid press, rational, considered and well-informed thought is soon replaced by superficial, sensationalist, and minimalist ranting that plays on and fuel people’s emotions, especially their fears. Pick up a tabloid today and feast your eyes on the visual, graphic and textual manipulative muck that purports to be news…..And don’t get me started on social media!!]
Three men are later brought in to police headquarters for their own protection: Lester Banning, previously assistant D.A. on the Buchanan case and currently a lawyer in private practice; Jason Franchot, Buchanan's accountant; Tom Dunn, Buchanan's gunsel, slang euphemism for a hired gun or "paid killer." The three men refuse to be incarcerated for their own protection, but they reluctantly agree to around the clock police protection.
Later on a creature disguised as a policeman arrives to relieve the officer protecting Franchot. He kills both Franchot and the officer he was supposed to relieve. One down, two to go.
KXIW-TV television news presenter announces: "...with the murder of Jason Franchot last night I must apologise for my recent scepticism regarding these radioactive creatures. It seems they do exist and are prowling the streets."
While the military use their vehicles and aircraft to locate the source of the radioactivity, Dr. Steigg notices a search vehicle outside the bar at which he is having a beer. He hurriedly pays for the beer leaving a $10 bill in his haste to avoid detection. A sergeant carrying a Geiger counter enters the bar and obtains strong readings on both the glass of beer and the sawbuck.
At the office of Kenneth C. Norton, M.D. at City Hospital, Norton informs Chet that Steigg was a German scientist who had conducted dog and monkey experimentation overseas. Norton then shows Chet an informative film (an almost obligatory feature of sci-fi films of the time) on brain implant research. The film shows a dog with 18 electrodes implanted in its skull and how ultra-sonic waves and impulses of different frequencies are used to induce hunger and other states (amygdala stimulations)
The amygdala is an almond shaped mass of nuclei located deep within the temporal lobe of the brain. It is involved in the processing of emotions such as fear, anger and pleasure, as well as helping to determine what memories are stored and where they are stored in the brain.
When Chet touches on the possible extension of this technology into the realm of human mind control, Norton almost ominously replies;
“We haven’t arrived at that stage of our experiments – yet!”
[It is astounding how much scientific inquiry is devoted to better understanding how the human mind and body works which serves to do so much to improve the human condition but which also provides potential tools with which to control, manipulate and enslave people.]
Back at the lab, Buchanan directs one of the creatures to contact Chief Camden and tell him to withdraw all trucks and planes or many people will be killed. They have one hour – by 3 o’clock – to comply. The authorities refuse to comply with the ultimatum resulting in a series of violent and destructive acts.
PLANE, BUS, RAIL CRASHES STIR PUBLIC!
“As governor, I’m declaring a state of emergency….If you go outside, have identification papers with you!”
[Such a depiction sits uncomfortably close to our modern-day scenario (as if history has not provided enough examples!) involving the perceived threat from certain overseas and domestic extremist groups. In recent times we have been confronted with a group of almost mindless brainwashed thugs being manipulated into committing atrocious acts of violence against innocent people. They appear to be manipulated by those who have perverted the true purpose and direction of that which underpins and motivates their actions. They seem to have been seduced and directed by those who have become adept at using technology to spread their world view of fear and hatred. Unfortunately such messages resonate with a minority of the intellectually and morally deceased of our world. In addition to the violence and destruction caused by such extremist organisations, we have had in response whole nations succumbing to fear, panic and paranoia. Those on all sides seemed to have been turning into different creatures intent on creating hell on Earth.]
Meanwhile, Franchot has himself been turned into a creature and is disguised as a military officer to be used to kill Chet. Instead, he winds up killing Dave who is then taken to the laboratory for surgery.
Dave, now a mindless zombie visits Chet Walker’s place. Chet has already left for the office, but Dave sits with Penny in the living room looking and acting creepy which surprisingly goes unnoticed. Dave leaves after receiving information from Joyce concerning the two remaining men under protective custody. Their likely fate is indicated by the crushed and dismembered remains of the doll. Poor Henrietta will no doubt reincarnate into “Annabelle” some 60 years later!
At the county jail Dave kills Banning and Dunn and soon after drives away with Chet who has jumped into the front seat of the car. Dave is directed by Buchanan to crash the car in order to eliminate Chet, but Chet jumps out in time. After Dave's body is brought to the hospital for examination, he escapes, steals a police car, and makes his way back to the lab and his radioactive power source.
As the police and military surround the lab, Steigg panics and is killed by Buchanan who then directs the remaining creatures to combat the police and military personnel. Dave meanwhile attempts to enter the lab through a window. Chet suddenly enters first and grapples with Buchanan. Dave then enters the lab and kills Buchanan. Chet sets about destroying the lab which deactivates the creatures.
Later at Penny’s birthday party, Penny blows out the candles on her cake and there is a camera zoom-in on the newspaper headline;
CREATURES WITH ATOM BRAINS DESTROYED
Points Of Interest
In the film “Creature with the Atom Brain,” we have the concept of "remote-controlled creatures, their brains powered by atomic energy, roaming the streets, directed from a central point," making the title a very aptly named one. We need to keep in mind that in the mid ‘50s notions of radioactive isotopes and atomic power were a source of fascination and fear. Exploiting such fears and adapting the Frankenstein story with an attempt to resurrect the dead using atomic energy and mid-20th century electronic technology serves to make this a very effective sci-fi / horror film.
The film is also very funny (intentionally and unintentionally) especially for modern audiences considering how attitudes have evolved concerning the way in which gender roles and relationships are presented on film and elsewhere. Contrasted with the horror and chaos happening “out there” Chet gets to occasionally seek the sanctuary of his apple pie white-picket fence enclosing 1950's domestic bliss complete with a pre-women's lib beautiful blonde wife and a cute but annoying kid. Some might well chuckle when Chet declares, "my wife only talks when I'm ready for bed" and when he arrives home only to be presented with a perfect target of his wife’s backside as she is bent over the doorstep. C’mon, what else was Chet supposed to do?! Ask permission and sign a disclaimer?
The climactic scene involving the battle between the zombie army and the police / military personnel reminds us of later horror films such as the "Night of the Living Dead." In this case, unlike most of the film, the action switches to extreme close-ups of the zombie combatants making the audience feel like they are in among the action.
I remember watching an episode from the excellent sci-fi series, “Torchwood” which featured the use of alien technology in the form of contact lenses that allow remote viewing and monitoring via a computer screen of whomever and whatever is being looked at by the wearer of the lenses. Rewind sixty or more years earlier and what do we have in “Creature with the Atom Brain?” The idea of using a TV screen to receive and view images from the zombie creatures’ eyes! It seems that history teaches us that much of what we do, think and see these days is little more than a variation on an old theme……..