Sci-Fi Film Fiesta Volume 9: Accidents and Experiments by Chris Christopoulos - HTML preview

 

 

Terror Is a Man (1959)

 

A sci-fi film with more superior acting, production values and cinematography than one would expect for a low budget film. The film’s fine camerawork, competent acting, its mournful score, and dialogue help to keep the audience’s interest in what might otherwise be in parts a somewhat dull presentation.

 

 

Directed by Gerardo de Leon

Produced by Kane W. Lynn, Eddie Romero

Written by Paul Harber (writer), H.G. Wells (novel: The Island of Dr. Moreau - uncredited)

Music by Ariston Avelino

Cinematogrphy: Emmanuel I. Rojas

Edited by Gervacio Santos

Distributed by Valiant Films (United States); E.J. Fancey (United Kingdom); Astral Films (Canada); Hemisphere Pictures (re-release)

Running time: 89 minutes

Country: Philippines/United States

 

Cast

 

Francis Lederer: Dr. Charles Girard

Greta Thyssen: Frances Girard

Richard Derr: William Fitzgerald

Oscar Keesee: Walter Perrera

Lilia Duran: Selene

Peyton Keesee: Tiago - the Boy

Flory Carlos : Beast-Man

 

What If?…..the events of the film, Terror Is A Man were contained in the pages of a book written by one of the characters after the events had happened? Let’s see as we read excerpts from…...

 

 

The Beast of Blood Island

By

William Fitzgerald

 

Prologue

 

The following account is true and begins with me being a shipwrecked castaway on an island whose native inhabitants had inexplicably fled. It is a story about my secretive host, Dr. Charles Girard and his unholy scientific work. It is a story that also involves Girard’s beautiful wife; his unscrupulous assistant; a female native servant and her young brother.

 

More chilling and shocking still, it is a story of another mysterious presence on the lonely island in the middle of the ocean – a beastly presence with a bloody murderous intent……….

 

 

(The following contains spoilers.....)

 

 

Chapter 1

Isla de Sangre

 

………..As fate would have it, I was the sole survivor of the freighter, “Pedro Queen” that was lost during the dreadful storm I described earlier. There was a sudden explosion on board and I was the only one up top. By some kind of miracle I wound up as the sole occupant of a lifeboat that washed ashore on Isla de Sangre ("Blood Island"), 1000 miles from the coast of Peru.

 

As I lay unconscious in the boat, I was eventually discovered by Dr. Charles Girard and his assistant, Walter.

 

That night as I lay in a bed, I gradually emerged from the mists that had rolled in and shrouded my mind and briefly regained consciousness where I seemed to recall hearing Dr Girard and Walter conferring about the recapture of an escaped laboratory animal. I remember something about Walter hearing it crying and moaning and questioning whether they would want to have “it” back again.

 

The next day I awoke feeling a little bit more like a human being again. The wooden bars on my window seemed to reinforce my strange feeling of being almost imprisoned on this little island what (as I was to soon learn) with no boats or radio being available.

 

I decided to go for a wander around the house only to discover that apart from Tiago, the young native boy, there was only myself and the native servant, Selene in the house. Unable to get any response from her, I then decided to do some exploring. It seemed a bit odd learning from young Tiago that nobody else lived on the entire island apart from he and his sister, the Girards’, and Walter.

 

Before exiting the house, I spotted a staircase that led down to the black depths of a mysterious basement which I decided not to descend. Had I done so, who knows what dark secret I might have been confronted with that lay lurking at the bottom. I had already danced with destiny enough for one life-time.

tside, I eventually came across the rather eerily disconcerting sight of a deserted village. The still-smouldering cooking fires seemed to suggest that the inhabitants had left en-mass and in a hurry!

 

I was to learn later that the villagers had good cause for their hasty departure. Something had been stalking the villagers. Something had emerged from the depths of the jungle and had killed a couple of villagers before retreating back into the jungle.

 

With my mind in a whirl and still feeling the effects of my recent ordeal, I almost fell into a pit trap covered with leaves and branches that had been dug earlier by Dr Girard and Walter……...

 

Chapter 2

My Hosts

 

……...It was at this time that I first met Frances Girard, the doctor’s wife. Something about her drew my attention and interest. I felt that the attraction was definitely mutual! Still, she was the wife of the good doctor and it wouldn’t do to let my eyes linger on her for too long!

 

During dinner that night, I toasted my hosts by declaring that “I’d like to drink to destiny or the fates or whatever it was that brought me ashore to your island.” I then discovered that the next supply boat would not be expected for another two months. Trapped for two long months!

 

I also learned that Dr Girard had been a surgeon and had left a successful surgical practice in New York to conduct his research in seclusion. He felt that he had made too much money and that it was taking him away from what he was trying to do.

 

According to the doctor, until the previous night the island had indeed been inhabited. The islanders left supposedly due to fear and superstition. His only human companionship now being his wife, who acted as his nurse and Walter who was his assistant. As to the actual nature of the doctor’s work - I was yet to find out.

 

After dinner was over I began to learn a bit more about my hosts and what was taking place on the island.

 

 

Chapter 3

An Appeal

 

……...When Dr Girard and Walter left to check the traps, I found myself alone with Frances. She informed me about how unhappy she was with her situation and with her husband’s work. She told me that she was “afraid of the darkness and the night” and that she had to get away on the next boat whether or not her husband had finished his work. The strength of what she was feeling could be gauged from her conviction that she would wind up dying on this island. She then appealed to me for help.

 

I must note at this point that some time later, I came across Frances sunbathing on the beach and the same topic of conversation as the one we had when we were alone earlier came up once again. She told me that she was afraid of her husband and asked me once more if I would help her. It was at this point that we kissed.

 

Yes, I know. You probably think that I was some kind of a sap falling for the oldest trick in the book. A beautiful blonde dame with a beauty contest body finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage feeling alone, isolated and desperate. She spins me a melodramatic sob-story about her dreadful husband, uses every asset she has to sucker me in and wham-o! I find myself moving in on another man’s wife and like the sucker I am I become her lifeline.

 

After all, Frances seemed to have initially viewed her marriage with Girard as a kind of fairy tale in which she would marry a wealthy surgeon and live in marital bliss on an island. She also knew the nature of Girard’s work. And now it was going all sour for her as she found herself stuck with a man who thought more about his work than he did of his own wife. Then I turned up! How convenient for her…..

 

Was I really developing genuine feelings for Frances? Or was I simply allowing lust to lead me away from what I understood to be right and wrong? In that regard was I any different to her husband Girard who as you shall soon see had abandoned his own sense of ethics and morality in pursuance of scientific advancement?

 

Was I unwittingly entering into another kind of trap - a sort of emotional human bondage? Still, when I moved to kiss Frances again she told me before flouncing away from me that she wasn’t “lonely, just frightened.” Man, who knows what goes on in a woman’s mind?…….

 

Chapter 4

Test Subject

 

Girard and Walter eventually returned with a creature secured in a net attached to a pole which they carried between them. As Girard prepared to go down to his basement surgery, he told me that he deliberately used too much sedative on the animal, and had to revive it carefully.

 

Girard passionately indicated that his work was the most important thing in his life. He had came to the island to work in seclusion and not to have his time wasted. With this barb possibly being aimed at the likes of me, I quickly made some excuse that I was exhausted and headed off to bed.

 

With my curiosity piqued, however I soon stealthily made my way down to the sinister dark abode of the basement surgery and witnessed Girard and his wife working on some heavily bandaged creature that seemed to possess an almost human-like form under the sheet that covered its body.

 

My presence was almost discovered but I found a place to conceal myself. From this vantage point I could see the bandaged creature being wheeled into a cell-like room with a heavily barred door. I could also see Frances staring with sadness and compassion through the bars at the creature and hear her whisper, "I'm sorry."…….

 

 

Chapter 5

The Work

 

…….I found myself in Girard’s study where I noticed on a desktop books bearing titles such as, “Phalanges and Hand” and “Osteology.” At this point the doctor entered and instead of chewing me out for having dared entered his private domain, he entered into an interesting discussion with me concerning the nature of his work. According to Girard, “surgery has remained primitive.” His interest was to “bring about the modification of a species” whereby the subject would lose the characteristics of its own species and take on those of another. In order to achieve this, it would be necessary to enlarge and alter the cellular structure of a brain by means of chemicals.

 

Girard had spent the previous two years surgically transforming a panther into a man and had employed the use of chemicals to enlarge its brain. I later learned that Girard had performed 53 operations on the creature during that time.

 

He then declared, “I can alter living matter.” I told him that he had given me something to think about….Evolution would no longer take place by means of natural selection but by Girard’s selection! Should human beings play at being God by wielding such power?

 

By taking me into his confidence, Girard had provided a truly shocking and startling revelation but one that I needed to see with my own eyes. I therefore agreed to sit in on Girard's next surgery……..

 

Chapter 6

The Experiment

 

…….My relationship with Frances moved almost inevitably to the next level and a certain religious commandment promptly bit the dust. With a societal admonishing finger waving in my direction, all I can say it was not something that I was proud of and not something without potential consequences for us and others around us. I guess you can’t help who you fall in love with. I just knew that I would have to talk with Frances about this new turn of events. This would inevitably mean having to talk with her husband about what had happened between Frances and me.

 

My sense of complicity in something that did not square with long held ingrained notions of what is right was compounded by my agreeing to assist Girard with the surgical procedure on an obviously terror-stricken living being.

 

When the surgery commenced I cannot tell you how fervently I wished for some kind of announcement or even an alarm bell to warn me to close my eyes or look away so I could be spared my first sight of a surgical incision! But what other horror would my imagination have conjured instead had I actually closed my eyes? Besides, if you order someone to look away, their impulse is to take a peak at what is too horrible to see! For many people, there is a certain mesmerizing effect associated with horrific and shocking spectacles that make it impossible to look away.

 

Speaking of shocking and horrific, I later learned from Frances that Walter had tried to force himself on her in the surgery when she went down to help clean up after the operation. It turned out that Walter knew about what happened between Frances and I on the beach and was intent on using this to have his way with her. Fortunately for her the creature became agitated allowing her to escape Walter’s clutches. Apparently the creature sensed that Frances felt sympathy for it but that Walter was hated and feared due to his mistreatment of the creature………...

 

Chapter 7

New Man

 

……….The next day, Dr Girard and I engaged in a discussion of his work. What really bothered me the most is that when I gazed into the creature’s eyes, I was convinced that it possessed a….soul! Girard then responded in a triumphant tone of voice, "Then it is a soul that I gave him!" He fervently believed that the creature would be the first of a new race - a man, a truly rational being able to begin a life and build a civilisation unencumbered by the baggage of thousands of years of human evolution and development.

 

My suspicions about the nature of Girard’s work and the effect it was having on transforming his very own humanity seemed to have been borne out by his outburst when he declared, "I am a scientist, not a philosopher. I cannot worry about the moral implications of my work. A tender moment! There will be plenty who will want to do that later."

 

Girard went on to question why any man should value the life of any other man above himself and ask what are the lives of four that were killed by the creature? He admitted that the instinct to kill out of fear cannot be removed by a scalpel. All that interested him was to “succeed in creating a higher, a perfect man.”

 

I wondered if what the doctor had created could be considered as being a man. Girard believed that was what he had in fact created, and to prove it, (having already operated on the creature’s larynx) he proceeded to teach the creature to speak the word, "man." To my utter amazement, it managed to utter the word, “man.”

 

 

Chapter 8

Liberation

 

Suddenly our wonder at what lay before us, was shattered by the entrance of that fool, Walter. At the sight of this….man, the creature became enraged. The poor creature was soon subdued when Walter’s burning torch came into contact with its bandages and coverings which caught alight.

 

“No more of an animal than you are!” Walter certainly proved those words of Dr Girard’s to be true by pulling a gun on Frances and me after I slugged him for mouthing off and acting like a hysterical fool. Walter then returned to the lab with the gun intent on killing the creature but it managed to break free of its restraints, and employed its new (clawed) hands to murderous use……...

 

As if on cue, the house's generator failed, plunging everything into darkness. After the creature fled the house and made it outside, Girard and I set out to re-capture or kill it.

 

In the meantime, it turned out that Selene went in search of Tiago but managed to cross paths outside the house with the creature which mauled and killed her. I carried her lifeless body into the house when Girard and I went back after hearing Frances screaming.

 

It was soon apparent to Girard and I that the creature had come back and attacked and taken Frances. It seemed to me that Girard attached more importance to finding the creature instead of finding his wife.

 

Finally, Girard and I managed to catch up with the creature who to our horror had a hold of Frances and was perilously close to a cliff edge. The creature seemed to have no ill-intent toward Frances and appeared to be trying to avoid having her come to harm. In fact, he put Frances down on the ground when Girard commanded him to.

 

Girard attempted to calm the creature down but both Frances and I warned him to keep away from it. He was so intent on his creation that as he was in the process approaching it he was killed by being thrown off the cliff by the creature. I then had no choice but to act quickly by shooting the creature. The gunshot only wounded it and it staggered away.

 

For some reason, it was Tiago who helped the wounded creature into a nearby boat in which it presumably escaped. Why had Tiago done this? Was it his youth and innocence that allowed him to truly empathise with and have compassion for the creature’s predicament and true nature? Had the creature recognised this in Tiago, the boy whose sister he had killed?……..

 

 

 

Epilogue

“The Sun Will Be Up Soon”

 

I finally came across Frances on the beach staring out toward the horizon, searching for a sight of the boat. She simply stated, "He wanted to help me."

 

The ambiguity of those words played on my mind throughout our marriage together. At first I though she meant that the creature wanted to help her – that its humanity had overcome its basic animal instincts and savagery. Could she perhaps have been referring to her dead husband, Girard. Had something human broken through the unemotional and rational scientific shell he had surrounded himself with? Frances never could (or would) explain to me what she had meant.

 

In the years that followed, I just continued to delude myself that a new sun would rise for us in the form of a continuous dawn of a new day that would be our marriage. Little did I realise that the sun must eventually set.

 

Without the bubble of our isolated island prison and its tormented and inhuman heart of darkness, mundane real life in the hum-drum real world took over and we just gradually drifted apart, divorced and went our separate ways in search of new sunrises……..

 

 

Points of Interest

 

 

Terror is a Man was shot entirely in Manila, Philippines. The film was theatrically released in the U.S. in December 1959 on a double bill with another Eddie Romero film, The Scavengers. It was re-released to theatres in 1969 by distributor Sam Sherman as Blood Creature. 

 

Terror Is A Man seems to have been influenced by H.G. Wells novel,"The Island of Doctor Moreau." Unlike the latter story, in Terror is a Man there is only one single victim of scientific experimentation. We therefore don’t have a sense of any kind of society being developed among a collection of new beings. We are left with a creature who is a victim we can feel sympathy for but one that appears to behave like the creatures we are familiar with in "Frankenstein" and “The Mummy.”

 

The fine direction, camera work, music score and black and white photography combine to create an eerie and suspenseful mood and oppressive atmosphere. This serves to prevent the film from becoming too dull as the creature is kept lurking in the background for much of the running time.

 

The script contains some interesting debates and discussions between Girard and Fitzgerald about the doctor’s project and its implications (see above).

 

In terms of good camera work, we have the fine example of the almost continuous sequence shot from the creature’s point of view as it stalked the nearby village, and its killing of two villagers before retreating back into the jungle.

 

Greta Thyssen who played Frances Girard was Miss Denmark of 1954. She played her role as Girard’s dissatisfied wife well despite being used as negligee and bathing suit wearing eye-candy. Greta Thyssen also played in the sci-fi film, Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962).

 

The stand-out performances in the film would have to go to Francis Lederer who plays the role of scientist Charles Girard. He is not your usual stereotypical mad-scientist but instead he comes across as a calm, reasonable and even-tempered surgeon who believes in what he's doing. He honestly doesn’t see anything at all wrong about the nature of his work. He is almost relieved at he prospect of being able to share his ideas and what he has accomplished with Fitzgerald. Although Girard’s experiments cause the creature immense suffering, he does display genuine sympathy and fondness for it.

 

The creature is played in such a way that despite the killings it has committed, we can’t help but feel pity for it considering it had no say in what it became. Its nature is gradually revealed via the make-up effects that at first show bits of its appearance that eventually fall away to reveal more of its combination of human-like and animal characteristics.

 

 

 

 

 

The Hideous Sun Demon (1959)

 

A watchable, well-paced and imaginative low budget sci fi effort with an uninspiring script and questionable acting performances

 

 

Directed by Tom Boutross, Robert Clarke

Produced by Robert Clarke

Written by Robert Clarke, Phil Hiner, Doane R. Hoag, E.S. Seeley Jr.

Music by John Seely

Cinematography: Stan Follis, Vilis Lapenieks, John Arthur Morrill

Edited by Tom Boutross

Distributed by Pacific International Enterprises

Running time: 74 minutes Budget: $50,000

 

Cast

 

Robert Clarke as Dr. Gilbert McKenna / The Sun Demon

Patricia Manning as Ann Russell

Nan Peterson as Trudy Osborne

Patrick Whyte as Dr. Frederick Buckell

Fred La Porta as Dr. Jacon Hoffman

Peter Similuk as George Messorio

Bill Hampton as Police Lt. Peterson

Robert Garry as Dr. Stern

Donna King as Suzy's Mother

Xandra Conkling as Suzy

Del Courtney as Radio DJ

 

 

(Spoilers follow below…..)

 

FROM THE ‘SERMON IN THE TENT’

“THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON”

 

Delivered By

Reverend Leber Tolver

 

[Outside a large tent, a tempest lashes, whips and whacks at the canvas as if desperately seeking to get at its occupants. Inside the tent a kind of tempest has been stirred up by a travelling preacher, as he manages to get at the occupants by lashing, whipping and whacking at the congregation with the word of the Almighty!]

 

“….And so, my brothers and sisters, our consideration of the kind of evil and darkness that can lurk deep within the hearts of each and everyone of us makes it necessary for me to relate to you a trans-formative event from one man’s life that occurred ten years ago and which eventually led me on the path to spreading the Lord’s good word.”

 

[The “reverend” waves a copy of the Holy Bible through the thick sultry, sweaty, stifling air of the big tent’s interior, while the index finger of his other hand describes a wide arch in front of him as if shooting invisible accusatory beams of divine power at the congregation.]

 

“This anecdote will serve as a kind of metaphor for the sort of battle we all find ourselves engaged in: a battle between good and evil; a battle for our very souls; a battle against Satan himself. But take heart my friends, for ‘the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.’ ”

 

[The sides of the tent thwip and thwack with increased urgency and ferocity while the hanging lights begin to sway slightly. The reverend's wife, a woman perhaps well into her thirties with dark hair streaked with gray at the front, looks up quickly and shifts nervously in her seat on the stage to the right of and behind her husband.]

 

“Yes, it was just ten years ago that a rather obscure but clever research scientist full of youthful optimism in what science could offer humanity believed he could harness the very power of God Himself with his hellish experiments with atomic energy and new isotopes.

 

Mankind believed we could even enter and probe the Lord’s realm by piercing it with our technology in the form of satellites and rockets. Our kind of faith was false faith of the kind that the Devil loves!

 

“The alarm bells were ringing loudly but who was paying attention? On one particular day the urgent sound of alarms rent our quiet cocoon of complacency when Gilbert McKenna found himself being rushed to hospital after having fallen unconscious due to radiation exposure during an experiment involving a new radioactive isotope-one that has never occurred in nature before.

 

“Men of science believed that we could guard against the evil of the demon power we harnessed by use of the talismans we refer to as ‘procedures’ and ‘precautions.’ And yet despite this, Gilbert succumbed to a five-minute exposure to radiation.

 

“His colleague and mentor, Dr. Frederick Buckell had on more than one occasion told him that “whisky and soda mix, not whisky and science.” I admit that before I found salvation with the Lord, I myself was a sinner and as such like Gil often sought solace in the demon drink.

 

“Despite our hubris in believing we can know all there is to know about what to expect in life, Gill showed no signs of burns or other effects that would be typical for such exposure to radiation. None of us, dear friends can escape unscathed, for the sins we commit have dire consequences!

 

“Gill had indeed danced with the Devil, brothers and sisters and had lived, but was he left unscathed? Medically at least it was decided that he be kept under observation for a few days to see if he was free of any after-effects. It was what they couldn’t detect with their science that is more pertinent to this evening’s story.

 

“The words from John 3:19-20 hold powerful meaning for the rest of this story: ‘For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.’

 

“Gill was forced to run from the light and seek out the dark. It first happened when he was in hospital and was taken up onto the roof to take in what he thought to be the healing power of the sun’s rays. While Gill dozed off, a hideous demon deep within his soul took advantage of his slumber to take possession of him and transform him into a reptilian creature – a veritable serpent of the Devil!”

 

[The rumble of approaching thunder can be heard mingled with the sharp intake of many breaths among the shocked members of the congregation.]

 

“After Gill fled from the power of the Lord’s revealing light, he stood before a mirror and was confronted by the vision and knowledge of who and what he really was. You see it was, according to the gospel of science at any rate, Gill’s exposure to the unnatural and unholy radiation that had caused a kind of reversal of the evolutionary process. The Lord then cast his light upon him in the form of exposure to sunlight to reveal through him Man’s regression. All now could see what Gill had become – an almost prehistoric-like reptile – the Devil’s serpent, a symbol of Mankind’s degeneracy.

 

“The only way Gill could avoid this transformation was to flee from the light and take refuge in the darkness. Yes indeed, evil hates the light for it is in the light that his nature and deeds will be exposed!

 

“Having reverted to his “normal” state, Gill tended his resignation and descended into an aimless solitary existence only emerging at night. In order to deaden the pain he felt inside, Gill sought out the comfort of alcohol and contemplated the temptations that other kinds of comforts had to offer.

 

“One night Gill entered a bar and his attention was soon drawn to a female piano player. Her sultry siren song seductively slid from her lips while parts of her flesh seemed intent on oozing and sliding out of her dress. This Jezebel who went by the name of Trudy illustrates the warning contained in Proverbs 5:3 ‘For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil.’

 

[The reverend’s wife rises from her seat and walks over to a large reel-to-reel tape recorder and turns it on to play a professional recording of the song, “Strange Pursuit.”]

 

“As was indeed was this temptress’s song,

 

[Loud clap of thunder startles those present]

 

 

Strange Pursuit: The pursuit of love,

Is a strange compelling desire.

Though you're near, you're not mine to hold,

And I want the joy your lips inspire.

 

[Another loud clap of thunder and lights begin to flicker]

 

My heart is bare, you know I care,

Will you take my love, or throw it away?

Please let me know, just "yes" or "no."

Why the great suspense in this game you play?

 

[Howling wind outside accompanied by torrential rain battering the tent]

 

Strange Pursuit: The pursuit of love,

Has me breathless with a burning fire.

On and on, goes the maddening chase.

Never ending is love's strange desire.

 

“The siren’s song during Gill’s second visit to the bar seemed to help lure him further away from the dark abyss into which he had just before found himself staring. There appeared to be no solution to his dilemma to be derived from science. It occurred to Gill that there was only one possible means of escaping his personal torture of loneliness. But that course would be an affront to God! It was God who gave Gill a sign to step away from the precipice into oblivion with the sound of life coming up from below the cliff edge where he had been contemplating his own life’s negation.

 

“Yes indeed, Gill’s longing to seek out companionship drew him once again to the bar and closer to the one who in the eyes of God-fearing people would be called a harlot! And it was this very same harlot that Gill defended and had fought with her male “friend” for offending her. What shocked Gill my friends is how close he had come to killing this man had she not tried to stop him!

 

“Had Gill but heeded the words from Proverbs 18:1 ‘Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.’

 

“And so against all sound judgement Gill fled with the bar singer into the night. After a night on the beach spent washing away good sense with alcohol and satisfying their carnal desires, they both fell asleep on the sand. Such sinful acts did not go unnoticed by the Lord for Gill awoke in the morning horrified to discover His shining light starting to reveal the extent of his sin. Like the coward that he was, Gill tried to flee back into the darkness away from the Lord’s accusing eye, leaving the strumpet stranded on the beach to fend for herself lest she discover his true nature.

 

“The irony of her earlier words “it’s never late till the sun comes up” slapped Gill full in the face as he made it back to his shadowy abode of darkness, but not before the Devil’s serpent had reasserted its presence within him.”

 

[The reverend now draws everyone’s attention to his wife who has in the meantime resumed her seat]

 

“Since those awful days ten years ago, my wife Ann has been a rock of support to me throughout all my own travails. But it was the power of the Lord acting through her that helped her then boyfriend, Gillbert McKenna through those trying times. Her love, innocence and purity of spirit formed a protective shield against Satan’s onslaughts in the form of the hideous demon within Gill!

 

“For me, Ann has always epitomised the words of 1 Corinthians 13:7: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

 

“It was Ann who discovered Gill cowering like a frightened infant in the cellar. It was her faith, her entreaties and her perseverance that helped him to overcome his despondency and changed his mind about refusing to see the radiation expert, Dr. Hoffman who held out the sole hope of being able to remedy his “condition.”

 

“After an examination, Dr. Hoffman ordered Gill to remain in the house at all times as a precaution. Still, he continued to feel the pull of some force or need within him. It felt like a need to satiate the thirst of his inner hideous demon. Ah! But this demon convinced Gill that it was his feeling of guilt for leaving Trudy, that impelled him to once again return to the bar.

 

“As if in punishment for Gill’s sins, the Lord decreed that he be beaten for what he had done to Trudy. And that is what her male companion and his friends did to Gill outside the bar. Perhaps he deserved no less. God does indeed work in mysterious ways, my friends!

 

“The next morning Gill awoke in Trudy’s apartment. Even she with her moral turpitude, licentiousness and vindictive nature and who had every reason to feel anger toward him, actually felt compassion for the one who had done her wrong. As we are reminded in Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

 

“Ah, but the Lord had not done with Gill yet, for soon after Trudy’s “friend” arrived at her apartment and upon seeing Gill, forced him at gunpoint out into the daylight – the very place that would cause to be revealed the evil demon within him. After Gill transformed into the hideous demon serpent, he murdered the evil-doer. Evil begat evil and was in turn murdered by evil – revealed for all to bear witness to!

 

“After Gill fled into the hills, he returned to the house where my wife Ann, Dr. Hoffman and Dr. Frederick Buckell were waiting.

 

Gill eventually returned to his normal state, but I use the word “normal” loosely. Both his mind and his soul were strained to the limit what with the murder he had committed and the arrival of the police bearing an arrest warrant. In a fit of hysteria, Gill fled from the area in a car but managed to accidentally run down a police officer in the process.

 

“If only Gill had understood then what is revealed to us in Ephesians 6:10,11, to “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil!”

 

“But no, Gill chose to run and run until he found himself hiding inside a hut located at an oil field while the police searched the area. Suddenly a little innocent angel of mercy discovered Gill in the hut and tried her best to help him. Gill realised that he could not let any harm come to the innocent girl what with the arrival of the police. He carried the girl out of the hiding place out into the sunlight where he then let her go.

 

“In the full glare of the Lord’s revealing light, Gill’s inner hideous demon manifested itself for all the world to see.

 

"During a struggle with one of the policemen, the demon managed to kill him and was almost successful in killing another officer who was somehow miraculously able to shoot it in the neck. The fatally wounded demon then plummeted to its death from the tower where it had been shot."

 

[The rain and wind begin to subside and only the ever receding rumble of thunder can be heard]

 

“Ann has not uttered a word since that fateful day. We all know that a hideous demon had come into the world and before its evil had spread too far, the power of the Almighty vanquished it. But for Anne, it meant the death of the one she loved who had struggled valiantly against evil incarnate!

 

“And that is my message to you all my friends! Struggle against the hideous demons that are at this moment trying to take possession of you! Struggle against the evil of The Beast who these days does not go by any number or any mark.

 

“The Beast operates in the full glare of the light! He is revealed to us in the light! He revels in the light! The Lord shines his light on the Hideous Beast to illuminate his evil doings and nature to us! The Beast and his hideous demons have no need to hide in the shadows! Why? Because we have been too blind to see - even with the benefit of the Lord’s guiding light!

 

“See the hideous demons for what they are whenever:

Man kills and robs his fellow man;

Nations dispossess and cleanse people from their homes and lands;

Leaders lie and manipulate the populace;

There exists the politics of division and hatred;

Powerful elites enrich themselves at the expense of the majority;

People discriminate on the basis of race, creed, gender, age and sexuality;

Those who seek our protection and compassion are instead punished;

Others are demonised, scapegoated and blamed for problems they have not created;

Walls and barriers are erected between peoples;

Greed and pursuit of profit chokes our environment;

The State tramples on the rights, privacy and liberties of its citizens;

All that makes up an individual is reduced to a mere commodity;

Leaders and nations anoint themselves as being the chosen ones;

We see and hear only with the eyes and ears of the tribe,

And when we stand idly by and let these things come to pass.

 

“When each of you leave this tent, I want you go out into the world with open eyes and shine your own light on the evil doings of the hideous demons out there. Resolve to do all you can to struggle and overcome them before they become too powerful. Struggle against them so that they will once again learn to fear the light!

 

“In closing friends, take heart in the words from Psalm 146:5-9:

 

"….The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; The Lord raises those who are bowed down; The Lord loves the righteous…...But the way of the wicked he turns upside down."

 

[After the sermon ends, the congregation disperses into the darkness of the night. Each can feel the eerie oppressive silence that has replaced the earlier tumult. It is as if the night has become a slumbering creature awaiting the coming of a new day where it can open its eyes and emerge into the light……..] 

 

 

Points of Interest

 

The story for The Hideous Sun Demon was apparently inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

 

Other proposed titles for the film were Saurus ( taken from the Latin word meaning "reptile") Strange Pursuit and Terror in the Sun.

 

The film's crew consisted of University of Southern California film students, while the cast was made up of unknowns and Robert Clarke's family and friends. The film was shot during 12 consecutive weekends when Clarke and the crew were free and ended up costing $50,000.

 

The Hideous Sun Demon premiered on August 29, 1958 as part of a double bill with Roger Corman's Attack of the Crab Monsters which is featured else wherein this ebook series.

 

Due to the film's low budget, the cast and crew were only paid $25 per day and clothing and make-up were provided by the film's stars themselves.

 

Production designer, Richard Cassarino designed the title monster’s suit which was created for $500. It was built over a diver's wet-suit and was extremely hot inside especially in the humid weather.

 

One strength of the film lies in its focus on the effect the transformation has on Clarke's character both emotionally and morally such as in his excessive drinking, succumbing to lust, committing murder and enduring loneliness and isolation.

 

The film also presents a good variation of the werewolf stories in that this time we have the rays of the sun turning Clarke’s character into the hideous creature!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Killer Shrews (1959)

 

A mediocre film with laughable creatures, minimal tension and underdeveloped characters but with numerous martinis and a well stocked bar being the only redeeming feature! A film best enjoyed after several martinis.

 

 

Directed by Ray Kellogg

Produced by Ken Curtis, Gordon McLendon

Written by Jay Simms

Music by Harry Bluestone, Emil Cadkin

Cinematography: Wilfred M. Cline

Edited by Aaron Stell

Distributed by McLendon-Radio Pictures Distributing Company

Running time: 69 minutes

Budget: $123,000 (approx.)

Box office: $1 million (U.S.)

 

Cast

 

James Best: Thorne Sherman

Ingrid Goude: Ann Craigis

Ken Curtis: Jerry Farrell

Gordon McLendon: Dr. Radford Baines

Baruch Lumet: Dr. Marlowe Craigis

Judge Henry Dupree: 'Rook' Griswold

Alfredo de Soto: Mario (as Alfredo deSoto)

 

 

A remote and isolated island,

Infested with flesh-eating monstrous giant shrews!

Populated by a small band of humans,

Cut off and stranded by a hurricane!

 

How did the vicious shrews come to be there?

What will become of the trapped humans?

 

 

(Spoilers Follow Below....)

 

Yet Another Authoritative-Sounding Narrator

 

The film opens with a narrator informing us that;

 

“Those who hunt by night will tell you that the wildest and most vicious of all animals is the tiny shrew. The shrew feeds only by the dark of the moon. He must eat his own body weight every few hours - or starve. And the shrew devours everything: bones, flesh, marrow... everything. In March, first in Alaska, and then invading steadily southward, there were reports of a new species:

The giant, killer shrew!”  [Underscored by the sound of thunder. (Whooooo!)]

 

“Automatic pilot can't play Dixieland jazz on them banjos like I can!” - (Yep, Yet Another Jolly Affable Black Side Kick ) 

 

On board a supply boat, Captain Thorne Sherman and his side-kick deckhand and mechanic, Rook Griswold discuss the weather and how the “pressure’s dropped so fast” due to an approaching hurricane which like most hurricanes has “definite ways of telling you it’s there.”

 

Yet Another Isolated Island Setting

 

Their destination: a small isolated island inhabited by a research team headed by Dr. Marlowe Craigis. After reaching the destination, they secure the boat for the storm, row ashore in a dinghy and tie up to a small pier. The unloading will take place the next day.

 

Sherman and Griswold soon spot a small group approaching, and Sherman observes that something seems strange about it: “Now that's a rather strange set up, wouldn't you say?” To which Griswold replies, “Looks like somebody's getting rid of somebody, huh captain?”

 

Yet Another Maverick Scientist, Blue-Eyed Blond Beauty Love Interest & Nasty Assistant Combo

 

When Sherman and Griswold meet with the approaching group, it can be seen from the meaningful glances and stares that Sherman is taken with Dr. Craigis' daughter, Ann. As the introductions and conversation proceeds, Sherman continues to stare at Ann while Craigis’ assistant, Jerry Farrell stands close by and cuddles his shot gun. He has the demeanour of one who was born with a foul temper.

 

Craigis informs Sherman that he wants to send his daughter back on the boat but Sherman replies that they are not leaving today or unloading supplies as the approaching hurricane will delay everything.

 

Sherman asks Rook if he wants “to shake the kinks out” and “limber up a little” by stretching his legs. He also advises him to wear a gun if he comes ashore later. There’s a definite sense of trouble brewing hanging in the air that Sherman can’t quite put his finger on.

 

The group proceed to the house, the exterior of which is set up like a fortress. Sherman inquires if they were aware of radio reports about the approaching storm but he is told that they have been out of communication for a week as the radio is “totally out of commission.”

 

“Perhaps the captain would enjoy a drink.”

(or 3 or 4 or 5….)

 

Mario makes an appearance and being Hispanic, is of course portrayed as being slobby and overweight. He is clearly there to do the bidding of the gringos such as fetching things and mixing martinis and such.

 

There is also something ominous about the high fence and the way Jerry deliberately locks the gate and checks that it is in fact securely locked.

 

“I've never been known to turn down a drink yet”

(or 3 or 4 or 5...)

 

Craigis informs Sherman that they are self-sufficient having “cows for fresh milk and chickens for eggs” – a sort of world all their own which is exactly what he has tried to create. Sherman observes that they “picked a lonely little island.” Ann excuses herself and goes off to change her clothes. Craigis suggests to Sherman that Ann is a little worried because the captain isn’t leaving until the next day but Sherman believes that “there's something else bothering her.”

 

“Must be very interesting work”

 

Enter Dr. Radford Baines who is completely engrossed in his research work and is totally oblivious to his surroundings. After introductions, Baines, a biologist who specializes in genetics and heredity, tells Craigis that they have had “two new litters since lunch” and that “both support GT116” and that they “can breed them to the 205 group in about three weeks.”

 

Yet more scientific gobbledygook

 

Graigis discusses the practical applications of his research by first asking Sherman to consider “what would happen if you could isolate and identify” the inherited factors in each gene. He goes on to explain that in the case of “mammals, the smaller the size, the higher the metabolism and shorter the life span.” Graigis’ research involves “attempting to decrease the size by maintaining a low metabolism and result in a longer lifespan.” The reason behind Graigis’ research is “overpopulation” that will in time become a problem. According to Graigis, their objective as practical research, is to decrease an animal’s size, but keep a low metabolism so an existing food supply will go further with a longer life span.

 

“And if you'll freshen Ann's drink...”

“Oh, Captain, let me freshen you a drink”

“One for the road”

(or 2, or 3, or 4…..)

‘Hick!’

 

Re-enter Ann sporting a change of clothes. Craigis tells Sherman that they’ve “only been here nine months” and that “this place has been unoccupied for years.” Sherman then gives (now long discredited) advice on preparing for a hurricane. Somewhat strangely, Ann informs her father that she's invited Sherman for dinner, which is news to Sherman. Hhhmmm! Mighty fishy!

 

"Looks like a small rat, but smells like a skunk."

 

Baines suddenly comes bounding into the room bearing a shrew, the species used as the subjects of the research. This one “is the sole survivor of group 30 and is 28 months old today, the equivalent to 140 years to us” but which “still maintains low metabolism without any sluggishness.”

 

This sorex soricidae has a birth cycle of 10 to 14 days and is used to establish traits and can allow Craigis to “trace the progressions through a number of generations over a short period of time.” More significantly, this specimen is ….an ADULT! Rather ominously we learn that it bites “only when he is hungry” and that “all he knows is his next meal” and that having been fed “he'll be all right for another eight hours.” On that note a shutter crashes against the house causing Ann to scream. There is obviously more to this than meets the eye!

 

“I could use another martini”

(or 3, or 4, or 5...)

 

And no wonder considering what Craigis has to say about the shrew's behavior;

“They are not climbers, they are digging animals, like the mole. They feed only at night unless they are starving, and when they are hungry enough, they'll tackle anything regardless of size…..If you leave two of them in a cage for 12 hours without food, the stronger will eat the weaker…..Their intense activity requires a tremendous amount of energy to supply. They must eat three times their own weight in food every 24 hours or starve…..Some call them bone eaters. When the flesh is gone, they'll eat the bones for marrow. All they leave are teeth, horns, hooves...”

 

Yet Another Love-Triangle Complication & No-Good Dastardly Assistant Shenanigans

 

Ann tells Jerry “because of your drunken stupidity” (due no doubt to a surprisingly well-stocked bar!) “in leaving the cage door open, you created the horrible situation that now exists.” Some of the shrews have as a result been let loose and they've grown into the monstrous critters that now threaten the people on the island. Added to this dilemma is the complicating factor that Jerry and Ann are engaged to be married, and Jerry suspects that Ann has more than a passing interest in Sherman. When he spots Ann and Sherman talking together he sarcastically remarks, “this is certainly a cozy little scene. Might even be called intimate: Boy meets girl...”

 

Inevitable Fate Of A 50’s B-Grade Black American Side-Kick

 

Meanwhile Rook has come ashore and tied the boat’s check line to a nearby tree.

 

Suddenly he hears a strange sound and then fires his gun at something. A pack of what appears to be dread-locked pooches pursue Rook into the woods. He then manages to climb what is little more than a sapling tree while the Rasta dog-shrews try to reach him. The wind, rain and thunder whip away his screams for help while the inadequate sapling gives way and poor Rook falls victim to the not so “little monsters” -sorex soricidae.

 

Cue: The Unforeseen Consequences

 

Sherman informs Ann he's returning to his ship. She tries to persuade him not to and has to resort to pulling a gun on him to prevent his departure. Outside, the shrews are getting restless. Ann finally discloses the truth to Sherman about the nature of the research being conducted on the island. She tells him that “there are 200 or 300 giant shrews out there, monsters weighing between 50 and 100 pounds” and that “they are beginning to starve.”

 

Dr. Craigis enters and tells Sherman the rest of the story: Six months before a litter of giant shrews escaped and began to breed. Their food supply is nearly gone, which is why they are waiting by the house.

 

“Six months ago we managed to isolate the path to controlling size. Two litters were born; six individuals kept for study. They were about the size of buckshot at birth, but the rate of growth was abnormal. They continued to grow and grow. They were mutants, but they inherited all the negative characteristics of their breed. Somehow they managed to escape. About a month later we saw one of their offspring. They were multiplying. We did everything in the world to exterminate them, but no apparent luck.”

 

It seems that the shrews’ available sources of food on the island are nearing depletion which will result in them exterminating one another over the period of a couple of days. The group of humans will have to…...wait until it's over!

 

Ah, Yes! The Requisite Manly Hero

 

Ann considers Sherman to be “a strange man,” who seems “so disinterested in everything.” Naturally, he plays up to this assessment by stating, “I’m only interested in anything that concerns me. Then I do something about it.” Yep, despite the usual confected tension, we know full well that Sherman is interested in Ann and that they’ll wind up together. It’s the phoney masculine disinterest that probably attracts her. No surprises or spoilers with this relationship outcome.

 

The Besieged

 

The shag-pile doggy-shrews suddenly launch an attack on the barn and eat the livestock. Sherman goes outside after hearing what he thinks is a human voice, but is attacked by Jerry who tries to stop him from opening the gate. Once back inside the house, plans are made for their escape next morning. To be on the safe side, during the night patrols of the house are organised to be conducted in hour and a half shifts.

“Have a drink”

(or 2, or 3, or 4….)

“It'll help you to relax”

 

When Mario completes his rounds at 3.00 am, he goes to get Jerry for the next shift. Jerry however, is very drunk but manages to convince Mario to take his shift after mumbling and grumbling about Ann and Sherman and how he and Mario will outlast the rest of them and so on and so on.

 

Another Minority Group Bites The Dust!

 

A shrew engages in a bit of breaking and entering of the premises and makes its way down into the cellar. Mario notices the broken shutter through which it entered and realizes that a shrew is now in the cellar. He goes to see Sherman to enlist his help in killing the shrew. While both men search the cellar, Mario is attacked and bitten by the shrew. Sherman manages to shoot and kill the creature, but poor Mario collapses. Craigis comes on the scene and pronounces Mario dead. The likely cause: hemotoxic syndrome. An autopsy will confirm the cause of death.

 

“I'd take a dull alive woman every time”

 

Ann explains to Sherman that she is a zoologist and confides to him that she also played a role in the doctor’s research, with her specialty being the creatures’ diet. Not surprisingly Ann feels that she has “had a hand in this too” and that as a consequence she’s “partly to blame.” She swears to Sherman that she’ll never have anything to do with such research again.

 

[WARNING!

ALL FEMINISTS PLEASE AVERT YOUR EYES LEST YOUR HEADS EXPLODE!]

 

Ann then declares that she would rather “live normally, like normal women do.”

 

“More poisonous than snakes.”

 

The autopsy has determined that “Mario was killed by poison.” This poison had been concocted and put out as bait with the intention of eradicating the giant shrews. Instead, the creatures’ system was able to assimilate that poison where it “remained in the salivary glands of their jaws.” Just one bite or even a scratch from one of the shrews would prove lethal to anyone so exposed.

 

“Stay away from her, or when the shrews get through with you, they won't even find a buckshot”

 

The shrews manage to gain entry into the house and everyone has retreated to the living room. A decision is made to bait the outside using the dead shrew that killed Mario. The bait remains untouched for twenty minutes, so it is felt that while there is a temporary lull, a run for the boat should be made.

 

It is decided that Sherman and Jerry will leave the house. (What could go wrong with that?) Not long after they depart, Jerry who is eaten up with jealousy threatens Sherman with a gun, but he is quickly disarmed by Sherman.

 

“Since last night you won't find much of him”

 

Both men walk further on to the beach and call for Rook. After a search they only find some clothing and “the gun we had on the boat.” It soon becomes obvious that Rook had come ashore and was killed and eaten by the shrews. It is wryly observed that “they don't leave much, do they?”

 

Moral Decisions

 

Pursued by a pack of hairy shrews, Jerry and Sherman return to the house. Jerry is the first to arrive and being the utter bastard he is, he shuts the gate leaving Sherman trapped outside to face certain death at the hands / paws / claws of the approaching doggie-shrews. Sherman manages to shoot and kill a shrew, before scaling the fence. Once over the fence, he attacks Jerry, beating him to a pulp. Sherman then carries him up to the top of the fence and stands ready to throw Jerry over to the ravenous pack of shrews below. Suddenly he thinks better of it and having reawakened his sense of humanity, he puts the unconscious Jerry down.

 

“He just ripped my trousers, that's all”

 

Back in the house, Jerry is placed on a couch and Anne enters the kitchen to make some coffee. She unwittingly lets a shrew into the living room where it bites our ever distracted Dr. Baines. It is no surprise to see Baines quickly sicken and die as a result. Holding true to the spirit of science, he had “recorded every symptom and reaction right up to the moment of his death.”

 

“I need a drink. Anybody else care for one?”

(or 2...or 3...or 4….)

 

Sherman exercises his second amendment rights on the offending shrew and even Jerry gets in on the act by firing his gun wildly while under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol. All that amounted to, however was “a stupid waste of ammunition.”

 

Meanwhile, an enterprising shrew has begun digging through the wall into the living room. The party of humans are now forced to retreat outside the house to the fenced area.

 

A Cunning Plan!

 

While barricading the wall to the house, they discover some metal chemical drums which could be converted and used as individual tanks to provide them with a means of escape. The plan involves lashing the drums together, getting inside, slowly “duck walk” Chuck Berry style down to the beach and once there, swim out to the boat.

“I told you, I'm not going. I'm staying here”

 

As the doctor, Sherman and Ann prepare to leave, Jerry climbs up on the roof and steadfastly refuses to join the others. Suddenly the others notice a shrew digging through the wall to the outside area so they decide to leave Jerry to his fate on the roof and escape.

 

“Don't let their head get under! They'll flip us over!”

 

Once outside the gate, the armour-clad group are immediately set upon by the pack of savage shrews. (You can’t help but expect one of the disguised dogs to lift his leg up and take a leak on the outside of one of the drums!) After a couple of close shaves, they make it to the beach and out into the water. As soon as the water is judged deep enough, the escapees exit the drum and swim to the boat.

 

The Inevitable Comeuppance For The Villain

While Our Hero Gets The Girl

 

With no shrews in sight, Jerry comes off the roof and dashes towards the beach. He only manages to get a short distance before he is attacked and killed by a pack of killer shrews. Meanwhile, Ann, Sherman and Dr. Craigis climb aboard the boat. Craigis explains that in “24 hours, there'll be one shrew left on the island, and he'll be dead of starvation. An excellent example of overpopulation.”

 

With a cringe-worthy reply from Sherman that he’s “not going to worry about overpopulation just yet,” he and Ann kiss before the big fade out…….

 

 

Points Of Interest

 

Hand puppets were used for the close-ups of the giant shrews and Coon dogs were used to play the killer shrews. (Hhmm. Have to rename those dogs like they did with the brand of Coon cheese named after its creator. ‘Cheer’ dogs perhaps? That’s how stupid things have become!) 

 

The Killer Shrews was intended to be distributed as a double feature with The Giant Gila Monster (1959), which features elsewhere in this eBook series.

 

A sequel, Return of the Killer Shrews, was produced in 2012, which once again starred Best as Thorne Sherman. The almost 54 year gap between the original film's release and the sequel's release is one of the longest between film sequels in film history.

 

The film was shot at Cielo Ranch, a 100-acre estate on the shore of Lake Lewisville just North of Dallas, Texas which was owned by Gordon McLendon who was the producer and who also played the part of Dr. Baines.

 

Sure, this film can be seen as being just a bit of harmless entertainment, which it is. It will no doubt be viewed as being so bad that it’s so good. No, not really. Like many films from any era, including our own, it is so bad because it’s just plain…..BAD! This is true despite our capacity for self-delusion. These days we have the advantage of dressing up crap with whiz-bang effects. But no matter where dog shit comes from – a coon / cheer hound or a pedigree show dog – it’s still plain old dog shit. That applies to all areas of life from entertainment through to politics.

 

We often find ourselves drawn to films and other aspects of life that have a predictable and formulaic quality about them. I guess we like a measure of certainty and knowing what to expect. Unfortunately, a constant diet of predictable and formulaic junk food can eventually make us intellectually, morally and spiritually sick. Reliance on such things is just too easy and convenient and real progress and innovation suffers as a result.

 

Sadly, that is the feeling I get as I write about sci-fi films from the end of the 1950s. The early initial spark of creativity and innovation that had been evident during the early and mid-1950s seems to be lacking toward the tail end of that decade with the result that we have such films as The Killer Shrews. It is a feeling I also have concerning sci-fi on film right now over sixty years later! Despite the dazzling computer generated special effects, many recent sci-fi films have a predictable and formulaic feel to them overlaid with any number of 21st century politically correct propaganda messages. Nothing, however can replace relatable characters with depth, meaningful dialogue, good solid story-telling, a sense of fun and something that makes the viewer think, reflect and feel. Instead, all too often we are presented with uninspiring rehashed rubbish. Who knows what the rest of the 2020s nd beyond will bring or will reality have outstripped sci-fi’s capacity to surprise and engage?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tingler (1959)

 

A well-paced, imaginative, creepy, absurdly funny and weird offering

 

 

Directed by William Castle

Produced by William Castle

Written by Robb White

Music by Von Dexter

Cinematography Wilfred M. Cline

Edited by Chester W. Schaeffer

Distributed by Columbia Pictures

Running time: 82 minutes

Budget: $250,000

 

Cast

 

Vincent Price as Dr. Warren Chapin

Judith Evelyn as Mrs. Martha Ryerson Higgins

Darryl Hickman as Dave Morris

Patricia Cutts as Isabel Stevens Chapin

Pamela Lincoln as Lucy Stevens

Philip Coolidge as Oliver "Ollie" Higgins

 

 

Fright-Filled SHOCK Thriller!

Ghastly Beyond Belief!

Amazing NEW TERROR Device

Makes You A Living Participant

In the FLESH-CRAWLING ACTION -  

“PERCEPTO!”

 

In

Screamarama!!!!

 

Can You Take PERCEPTO?

 

BRING YOUR DATE AND WATCH HER TINGLE !

SEE

The screen's first

BLOOD BATH IN COLOR!

 

Fun Film Fact

 

"Percepto!" was a gimmick whereby electrical "buzzers" were attached to the underside of some seats in theaters where The Tingler was screened. The buzzers were small World War II surplus airplane wing de-icing motors. This vibrating device was activated with the onscreen action.

 

(Spoilers follow below..…)

 

PROLOGUE:

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

 

"I am William Castle, the director of the motion picture you are about to see. I feel obligated to warn you that some of the sensations—some of the physical reactions which the actors on the screen will feel—will also be experienced, for the first time in motion picture history, by certain members of this audience. I say 'certain members' because some people are more sensitive to these mysterious electronic impulses than others. These unfortunate, sensitive people will at times feel a strange, tingling sensation; other people will feel it less strongly. But don't be alarmed—you can protect yourself. At any time you are conscious of a tingling sensation, you may obtain immediate relief by screaming. Don't be embarrassed about opening your mouth and letting rip with all you've got, because the person in the seat right next to you will probably be screaming too. And remember—a scream at the right time may save your life."

 

Now That We Have Your Attention…….

 

Pathologist, Dr. Warren Chapin (played by “The Master of Menace,” Vincent Price) is obsessed with the concept of fear. While conducting autopsies on the bodies of executed prisoners, he has observed that the vertebrae crack precisely at the moment of execution, as if they were under an immense pressure. He believes that this is not due to electrocution, but is instead evidence of a fear-generated force that resides in a space at the base of the human spine. Chapin is determined to prove that this force has a physical existence which he has dubbed….

 

'The Tingler'

 

Apart from his work in the prison morgue, Dr Chapin conducts experiments in a home laboratory financed by his wealthy alcoholic, unfaithful lush of a wife, Isabel. Aided by his able young apprentice David, Chapin continues to conduct experiments on fear in living things. Up until now, kidnapped alley cats have sufficed as test subjects, but it soon becomes clear that only human subjects will do.

 

A Parasite That Feeds On Fear?

 

Dr Chapin is certain that a state of extreme fear causes a tingling of the spine due to the growth of a creature, a parasite or “Tingler” that is attached to the human spine. There it resides curled up, feeding and growing stronger whenever its host experiences fear. Without some kind of release, it can effectively crush a host’s spine if curled up long enough. The parasite can, however be weakened by the host’s screaming.

 

We soon see that Dr Chapin’s relationship with his wife is a toxic one, itself a product of a kind of venomous fear. Isabel fears wasting her life with a man (over whom she exercises financial power) who is obsessed with his work, while Chapin as he waits up for his unfaithful wife at nights fears the loss of his wife and marriage along with the kind of humiliation that would bring. The poisoned nature of their relationship is reflected in their contemptuous caustic verbal exchanges:

 

Isabel Stevens Chapin: There's a word for you.

Dr. Warren Chapin: There are several for you.

 

Isabel Stevens Chapin: The only way Dave Morris will marry my sister is over my dead body.

Dr. Warren Chapin: Unconventional but not impossible.

 

Isabel Stevens Chapin: I'm tired, I think I'll go to bed.

Dr. Warren Chapin: Stay up a bit, who knows? The next time you go to sleep it might be forever.

 

Isabel Stevens Chapin: I had nothing to do with my father's death, and you can't prove that I did.

Dr. Warren Chapin: Would you like me to prove it isn't nonsense?

Isabel Stevens Chapin: You can't prove it. Anyway there isn't anything to prove.

Dr. Warren Chapin: But you wouldn't like me to try. And you should remember this, organic poisons are like old soldiers, they never die, they just lie smoldering in the grave, and I'm not bad at autopsies either.

 

Dr. Warren Chapin: Either you give Lucy half of all the money you have and leave her alone, or you commit suicide right now.

Isabel Stevens Chapin: Suicide? You mean murder.

Dr. Warren Chapin: When I finish rearranging things, it'll look like suicide.

 

Chapin and Isabelle’s marriage is clearly dysfunctional. She is unashamedly unfaithful to him and stays out until the early hours of the morning and even gives her lover a farewell kiss outside the front of their residence. The evidence of her unfaithfulness is even carelessly left around the place in the form of two used glasses of wine and a forgotten tie clip which Chapin can plainly see. Isabelle does not deny her unfaithfulness and almost justifies it by accusing her husband of neglecting her by spending so much time secluded in his laboratory. Since he does not seem to crave contact with living people, Isabelle believes that she has no choice but to seek human affection wherever and from whoever she can.

 

Chapin’s primary interest in the human race is determined by the extent it can further his experiments. He continues to suffer the torment and humiliation of his wife’s conduct because he needs her wealth to finance his work.

 

"I was going to use this cat for my experiment, but you made a much better subject. Have you two met, in the same alley perhaps?"

 

As part of a deliberate and calculated scheme, Chapin callously performs an experiment on Isabel, by threatening her and then apparently deliberately shooting her with a gun in order to induce the required degree of fear within her. Isabel, however is unaware that Chapin’s gun has merely fired a blank bullet. While she is unconscious, he X-rays her and discovers a mass at the base of her spine—evidence that seems to validate his hypothesis.

 

Bad Trip, Man

 

Chapin soon decides to experiment on himself with LSD and records his responses to the resulting hallucinations.

 

We then witness Chapin convulsing and thrashing about in his lab in a very exaggerated and stylized manner feeling that he is suffocating and believing that the walls are closing in on him. Before the fear he experiences can reach its crescendo, Chapin lets out a terrific scream.

 

Fun Film Fact

 

[The drug LSD was legal at the time the The Tingler was screened. It is the first major motion picture depiction of LSD use. Writer Rob White had experimented with LSD at UCLA after hearing about it from Aldous Huxley and decided to work it into the script.

 

[The title of the book that Dr Chapin reads before taking LSD, “Fright Effects Induced by Injection of Lysergic Acid LSD25” is printed on the back of the book in order to provide a better shot of the title.

 

[Vincent Price’s on-screen depiction of an LSD trip involves his eyes flitting from side-to-side with growing apprehension of his surroundings. This is followed by visions of windows being nailed shut, and walls closing in on him before he finally succumbs to the urge to scream. Many people have indeed experienced bad trips. One video available on YouTube showing LSD experimentation from the 1950s and 1960s shows a lovely lady from that era recounting her experience as being all too beautiful.

 

[Another early LSD test (also available on YouTube) involved soldiers during an exercise giggling inanely and climbing trees instead of shooting at each other! What an excellent way to bring warfare to an abrupt halt! But in all seriousness, such experimentation and other subsequent military experimentation in many instances was downright irresponsible and criminal.]

 

In the film, the marriage of Ollie and Martha Higgins is also not a very happy one. Ollie Higgins is a silent movie theatre owner and is a friendly acquaintance of Dr. Chapin. He’s an odd little character who doesn’t seem to mind keeping Chapin company during the latter’s autopsy work!

 

Higgins's wife, Martha is a deaf mute and comes across as being a text book case of obsessive, compulsive and phobic traits. Take for instance, her gollum-like possessive hoarding, locking away and constant checking of the proceeds of the ticket sales! At one point Ollie goes as far as to claim that his wife would have killed him if she could!

 

Martha takes on the role of an ideal candidate for Chapin’s research. Like a character in one of her movie theatre's silent films, she can only communicate her thoughts and emotions via a kind of pantomime. More importantly as far as Chapin is concerned, Martha is physically unable to scream, and lacking any real outlet for her fears, she tends to lose consciousness at the apex of the fear that she experiences.

 

Later on, Dr Chapin is informed by Ollie that Martha is feeling unwell. He then pays her a visit and administers a sedative. Martha eventually opens her eyes to a new and terrifying reality in which she seemingly finds herself in a room full of slamming doors and weird supernatural entities and events.

 

A monochrome Martha tries to escape to the monochrome safety of the bathroom only to be confronted by the unnerving sight of a tub full of lurid red blood while bright red blood flows from a black and white sink. Her terror rises as she witnesses something akin to a grotesque version of the lady-in-the-lake hand and forearm rising from the bath-tub - this one, however being coated in red blood.

 

The last thing that Martha sees is the bathroom medicine cabinet door opening to reveal her own death certificate. Unable to scream, she collapses to the floor and literally dies of fright.

 

Fun Film Fact

 

[“The Tingler” was filmed in black-and-white, but the short colour “bloody bathtub” sequence was spliced into the film for effect. This scene reputedly involved having the set painted white, black and grey along with the application of gray makeup to the actress to simulate monochrome. It is also claimed that the scene was merely filmed in black and white and that the "blood" red color was painted on the film. Which do you think seems more likely?]

 

After Chapin has returned home, Ollie arrives there carrying his wife's body. Martha is placed on the examination table in the lab where Chapin confirms that she has been dead for at least an hour. While Chapin records the details for Martha’s death certificate, her sheet-covered body rises up on the table but soon settles back down again. Ollie is convinced she is still alive but Chapin assures him that she is definitely dead. Nevertheless, Chapin needs to know why she moved.

 

Dr Chapin proceeds to conduct an autopsy on the body of Martha. In a visually dramatic scene, he draws screens around the examining table and in silhouette, we witness him extracting a shadowy monstrous form from the deceased Martha's spine.

 

"Strong enough to kill a man, easily and quickly."

 

The Tingler resembles a revolting slug-like earwig with pincers. It is nevertheless a crude effect indeed. There’s no mistaking the wires that pull it around nor its obvious rubber construction. Still, it manages to exude a sufficient degree of nightmarish repulsiveness for audiences caught up in the story.

 

Before Chapin can secure the creature, it pinches his arm causing him to scream which in turn results in the creature releasing its grip on his arm before falling seemingly lifeless on the table.

 

A little while later after the creature has been secured in a wire mesh carrying case, Isabel manages to spike her husband’s drink while they have a somewhat distrustful celebratory drink. Chapin soon passes out while Ollie is explaining to him over the phone that Martha is at a funeral parlour and that he has called the police.

 

We next see confirmation of Ollie’s role in his wife’s death as he gathers up the items he used to scare her to death. Meanwhile, as Chapin lays unconscious on the couch, Isabel approaches with The Tingler in its wire mesh carrying-case. She then lets it loose to inch its way over to Chapin.

 

When it reaches the doctor’s throat, the creature proceeds to strangle him with its pincers. At that moment Dave’s fiance, Lucy arrives home, hears Chapin struggling and screams causing The Tingler to loosen its grip on the doctor's throat and fall to the floor.

 

“To break the laws of nature is always a dangerous thing. We've not only broken laws, we've violated some basic principles. We had to, but now we're going to stop.”

 

The next day in the lab, Dr Chapin tries to destroy The Tingler with a blow torch but soon realises that “nothing affects it” and that they “can't destroy the thing." Chapin, unlike your typical on-screen mad scientist, decides that he is not going to share the discovery with anyone in any way for according to his way of thinking,

 

"The Tingler exists in every human being we now know…. It's an ugly and dangerous thing. Ugly because it's the creation of man's fear. Dangerous because a frightened man is dangerous. We can't destroy it, because we've removed it from its natural place."

 

Chapin decides that the Tingler must be put back inside Martha's body where it will hopefully be re-absorbed. After learning from Lucy that Isabel has moved out. Chapin takes the caged Tingler and departs for Ollie's place.

 

Ollie as we know is a small theatre owner who works hard for little real return. It is a hard life and one from which he hopes to escape and this seems to provide the motive for his murdering his wife by frightening her to death knowing that she could not scream on account of her being mute.

 

We next see Ollie at home packing and emptying the safe of cash. Chapin soon arrives and confronts him. It quickly becomes obvious to him that Ollie tried to frighten his wife to death. As the two men argue and before the procedure to return the Tingler can be performed, the creature escapes from its cage and gains entry to the theatre below by means of a loose floor board.

 

Showdown!

 

The climactic movie-within-a-movie scene is a clever piece of audience participation. There is a dual opposing process going on in which the audience is being encouraged to be drawn into the action of the film and yet it is being made plainly clear that this is nothing more than a…...movie! It’s as if there’s barely a discernible distinction between the film’s actual live audience and movie audience within the film itself!

 

Having already been primed to “remember the instructions” as to “how you can guard yourself from attack from... The Tingler,” the Cold War ‘duck and cover’ generation is only too willing to comply!

 

The Tingler has inched its way into the theatre and has begun crawling up a girl's leg, Chapin suddenly pulls the lights and the theatre along with the very screen we are watching is plunged into blackness. Deprived of the power of sight our imaginations are fired up by the sound of screaming coming from the sound track. Despite Chapin’s reassurances that there is no cause for alarm, you add your screams to the screams from the soundtrack as the "Percepto" device is triggered.

 

Meanwhile, the Tingler has managed to crawl into the projection booth and break the film print off the projector. On both our screen and the screen of the movie-theater-within-a-movie, there appears the huge frightening shadow of the Tingler. Suddenly darkness descends once more as Chapin announces;

 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please don't panic, but SCREAM. Scream for your lives. The Tingler is loose in this theatre. If you don't scream, it will kill you."

 

What’s a young movie-goer living in a repressed conservative world going to do? Any opportunity to let loose with a scream and do what everyone else is doing! Beats being told to shut up or keep quiet all the time. Nothing like a good old hysterical primal scream to release pent up tension and fears.

 

Fun Film Fact

 

[It’s important to remember that The Tingler was not intended to be viewed at home alone via a streaming service. It was intended to be screened and seen in a theater full of people. It was therefore intended to be part of a shared experience involving a measure of audience participation.

 

[This is evident during the climax of the film in which The Tingler is unleashed in the movie theatre, while the audience watched Tol'able David (1921), in which a young woman escapes the unwanted advances of her boyfriend and is targeted.

 

[In the theatre, a woman would scream and pretend to faint. She was then taken away in a stretcher, which was all just a pre-arranged part of the show. Castle hired fake screamers and fainters which were planted in the audience. There were also fake nurses stationed in the foyer and an ambulance outside of the theatre. The pretend fainters would be carried out on a gurney and taken away by the ambulance only to reappear for the next showing.

 

[Vincent Price’s voice would then be heard referring to the fainted lady and would request the audience to remain seated.

 

[After the film-within-a-film resumed, it would be interrupted yet again with the film appearing to break as the shadow of the Tingler moves across the projection beam. The image of the film would then go dark, and all lights in the theater would go off! There would just be Price's voice warning the audience,

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic. But scream! Scream for your lives! The Tingler is loose in this theatre!"

 

[Suddenly the Percepto! Buzzers would be activated giving some audience members a jolt. The screams and shrieks of the theatre audience along with the voices of equally scared theatre goers coming from the screen, would be replaced by the voice of Price explaining that the Tingler had been paralysed and that the danger was over.]

 

Epilogue

 

After Chapin reinserts the Tingler into Martha’s body in order to neutralise it, he departs leaving Oliie alone. Suddenly, the door slams shut and locks itself followed by the window closing by itself. The tingler then causes the body of Martha to rise from the bed and stare fixedly and horrifyingly at her husband. Echoing what had happened to his wife, Ollie is so terrified that he is unable to scream…….

 

With the fading of the screen, the voice of Vincent price warns us;

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, just a word of warning. If any of you are not convinced that you have a tingler of your own, the next time you are frightened in the dark ... don't scream."

 

Mwahahaha!!!!

 

 

 

The Head (1959)

(Die Nackte und der Satan, or  

The Naked and the Satan)

 

A rather salacious and mildly atmospheric film with a silly premise

 

 

Directed by Victor Trivas

Music by Willy Mattes

Cinematography: Georg Krause

Distributed by Prisma Film

Running time: 1h 37min

Country: Former West Germany

 

Cast

 

Horst Frank as Dr. Brandt - alias Dr. Ood

Karin Kernke as Schwester Irene Sander

Helmut Schmid as Bert Jaeger

Paul Dahlke as Police Commissioner Sturm

Dieter Eppler as Paul Lerner

Kurt Müller-Graf as Dr. Walter Burke

Christiane Maybach as Stella - alias Lilly

Michel Simon as Prof. Dr. Abel

 

A serum that keeps a dog's head alive after its body dies!

A mad scientist!!

Serum’s inventor loses his head – literally!!

Human experimentation!!

At what cost?

 

 

(Spoilers follow below....) 

 

 

From The Personal Journal Of Dr Brandt / Ood

 

Entry

 

It was a night of a full moon whose face shone down through the gaps between black clouds as I first approached under cover of shadows the laboratory of renowned Professor Doktor Abel, the lead scientist of a medical team.

 

Suddenly a little tortoise caught my attention and as with all living things, I regarded it with a certain…. fascination. I then slipped away into the shadows again upon the arrival of Dr Abel's hunchbacked nurse, Irene Sanders who came to visit Dr. Abel, and her cousin, Dr. Walter Burke.

 

I followed the nurse and managed to overhear her conversation with Dr. Burke. She was inquiring whether Able could cure her hunchback deformity with an operation…...

 

Entry

 

I discovered that Professor Abel was completely obsessed with perfecting what he called "Serum Z" that was used to keep the severed heads of canines alive. In many ways he may have been a weak old fool but there was no mistaking his genius.

 

The good doctor had even constructed an automatic operating table that did not required medical assistants! Can you believe that? All that remained for me was to take up a position in the team and convince Abel and Burke that my sole interest involved operations to save live tissues for ailing patients…….

 

Entry

 

After Professor Abel accepted the offer of my services, I moved into his laboratory /residence and began work immediately. It turned out that the Professor had a heart condition and was in desperate need of a heart transplant. The professor also had a donor available. For me this seemed like a happy coincidence - along with my interest in his “serum Z”…….

 

I assisted Dr Burke in the operation but as we began to attempt the heart transplant procedure on Professor Abel, the donor succumbed. That fool, Dr Burke tried to abort the procedure but I was determined to carry on with it. We managed to get into a physical struggle during which I struck Dr Burke and killed him. Burke may not have received a Christian-style burial but he was buried nonetheless………

 

Entry

 

After Burke’s impromptu internment, I continued with the procedure with the assistance of Abel’s somewhat brain-damaged mechanical engineer, Bert. Unfortunately (or perhaps for my purposes, fortunately) the operation was not succeeding. I then had no choice but to sever Professor Abel's head and attach it to the same device that Abel had used to keep the laboratory dog alive. This, together with improvements to the Serum Z formula, the possibilities that opened before me seemed limitless!

 

Unfortunately, that sentimental fool Abel was too horrified to find himself sans body upon awakening. There his stupid walrus-like head sat with tubes and wires attached to the back of his skull and all he could do was babble on about it being no life for him and pathetically pleading for death. And this from someone who calls himself a scientist? Bah! I let him slowly stew and simmer in the corner of the laboratory until he decided to see reason and make himself useful to me!

 

Entry

 

My little sojourn to the local “Tam-Tam” club afforded me a wonderful opportunity to put my scientific theories and plans into practice. I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I beheld the sight of a striptease dancer called Lilly dancing with some inconsequential artist or sculptor. For one thing, her near-perfect body would be ideal for the deformed Irene’s body-transplant. It was Irene’s intellect I was drawn to but I thought, why not provide her with an ideal female body into the bargain?

 

Even more significantly,  there was the little matter of me recognising Lilly as the woman who once went by the name of "Stella," who had poisoned her husband. She had me to thank for changing her face so that she could escape and begin her life anew, a life she seemed to have been wasting on working in seedy establishments, along with too much drinking and partying......

 

Excerpt From Irene’s Statement To Police:

 

…..I know now that Ood the monster had gotten a striptease dancer drunk, brought her back to the laboratory and attached my head onto her body in a fiendish experiment. It might be hard to believe but someone had died – had been murdered so that I could be given a perfect body. My God, how horrible!

 

For me it began when Ood kept on convincing and persuading me into agreeing to be operated upon by him. When I awoke, he informed me that I had been in hibernation or a coma for 117 days while he operated on my spine.

 

I had awoken to find that I now had a perfectly beautiful body but everything felt strange – my hands and feet were so different! I even smoked a cigarette which I had never done before.

 

Initially I was grateful to Ood for the miracle he had performed for me, but that soon turned to fear when he kept pursuing me around the residence in the hopes of seducing me to gratify his own obsessive selfish desires.

 

Luckily, I managed to escape and make my way home but all the time I could not shake the feeling that something was wrong. Suddenly some strange inexplicable force seemed to be impelling and drawing me to the “Tam-Tam” club, a place where I had never been before! That was where I met Paul……...

 

Excerpt From Paul’s Statement To Police:

 

…...As Irene and I slept, Ood came back and tried to set fire to the place. These events I previously outlined along with Irene’s purse having belonged to Lilly and the suspicions surrounding the news that Lilly had supposedly died on the train tracks clinched it for us as to Ood’s murderous involvement. We decided to return to the laboratory to confront Ood……...

 

Die Welt

 

MAD GENIUS SCIENTIST PLUNGES TO HIS DEATH

DURING LAB INFERNO!

 

 

Points Of Interest

 

The Head fits into a long tradition of sci-fi / horror books and movies that deal with disembodied heads and brains and human body transplants, ranging from Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein through to films such as, The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), Donovan's Brain (1953), The Brain from Planet Arous (1957), Fiend Without a Face (1958), and The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958).

 

The Head has a somewhat Gothic feel to it but it’s urge to titillate its audience tends to almost override any other aim it might have had. What we are left with is the usual fare of decapitated heads, body transplants and a mad scientist.

 

Being a German film from a particular era, there’s a temptation to launch into learned references to Expressionist influences, Goethe's Faust, wartime Nazi atrocities, all things Teutonic and blah, blah, blah. I don’t think a film like this demands that much over-egging! It is what it is and basically it really isn't all that good!

 

The film in fact really does lack a consistent style, and has an almost silent movie era feel about it together with its exaggerated acting performances.

 

The Head does at least have a couple of interesting things to say that are of relevance of audiences of any era:

 

First of all, in our striving for physical perfection, what kind of cost are we prepared to pay? Industries worth billions of dollars are geared toward conning us into swallowing pills, rubbing lotions into our skin, cosmetic nipping and tucking bits of our bodies or being zapped with lasers. All this for the promise of eternally youthful perfect looks. And as we wake up each morning and emerge from our deluded dreams of achieving age-defying eternal youth, what of our attitudes to the natural ageing process and those who don’t fit into the ideal concept of bodily perfection? Then there’s the promise of genetic manipulation in which a lucky class of “beautiful” ageless people perhaps wont even have to tolerate ugliness and deformity and where only physical "perfection" is valued. The Nazi dream fulfilled perhaps?

 

Secondly, there are the moral and ethical questions inherent in the role and purpose of scientific advancement. Namely, not just whether we CAN do something, but whether we SHOULD do something. Just because we can perform a scientific miracle does it necessarily mean we should?

 

For instance, if we have the power to resurrect extinct species should we then be able to exercise that power by acting like gods and bringing those species back to life in the world? Would it be OK if we did it to species whose extinction was caused by our own activities? Would we have the right to bring back into existence species such as dinosaurs or the woolly mammoth that had died out long ago due to natural extinction events? What kind of life or role would such creatures have in a world far removed from the era in which they existed? Should we human beings take on the God-like responsibility for making such decisions?

 

Films like The Head raise exactly such questions that can be applied to just about every facet of scientific advancement and that should be considered thoroughly before progressing. In short, we should always ask the question, WHY should we proceed and what are the likely consequences if we do?

 

 

CAN WE? SHOULD WE?

 

As far back as 1954, Joseph Murray was the first to perform a successful kidney transplant on twins, with the organ functioning for 8 years after the operation. Such attempts as these were criticised by those who believed that scientists like Murray were playing God and violating the laws of Nature. Since then the first heart transplant, hand transplant and facial transplant were initially met with serious reservations.

 

So what of a procedure that involves something as radical-sounding as a head transplant? Sounds like something out of a horror or science fiction movie like The Head?

 

Not long ago two surgeons, Ren Xiaoping and Sergio Canavero claimed that monkeys and dogs were able to walk again after their spinal cords were “fully transected” during surgery and then put back together again. This despite the long-held belief that a severed spinal cord cannot be mended in any way. The highly experimental procedures took place at Harbin Medical University in China.

 

The next steps to such experiments would be to treat previously considered irreversible spinal-cord injuries, including the world’s first human head transplant.

 

One can readily see the benefits of such research in terms of potentially helping patients with spinal cord injuries should the researchers claims hold up to scrutiny. A real dilemma, however begins to emerge when we start considering the possibility of conducting human head transplants. Such a concept raises profound moral, ethical and psychological questions for humanity.

 

The cost of such a procedure has been estimated at US$100 million and would involve the healthy body of a brain-dead patient being matched for build with a recipient’s disease-free head. The spinal cords of the donor and recipient would be simultaneously severed with a diamond blade. The recipient’s brain would be protected from immediate death before it is attached to the body by being cooled to a state of deep hypothermia.

 

It is what Sergio Canavero proposed to do to the nerves that would make the difference. In short, he proposed to bathe the ends of the severed nerves in a solution that stabilises the membranes and put them back together where they will be fused, but won’t regrow. This would be done in the spinal cord, where there’s multiple types of nerve channels.

 

So, IF such a procedure could possibly be done, SHOULD it be done? This is not a question to be left up to individual scientists, or even individual countries to answer. It is one for humanity to agree on based on sound information and after careful consideration of the likely future implications. Ah, but once the door opens even just a crack………..?????  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wasp Woman (1959)

 

Although not a Corman classic, “The Wasp Woman” is an under-rated, low budget and entertaining film with good pacing but pretty tacky special effects

 

 

Directed by Roger Corman, Jack Hill

Produced by Roger Corman

Screenplay by Leo Gordon

Music by Fred Katz

Cinematography: Harry Neumann

Edited by Carlo Lodato

Distributed by Filmgroup, Allied Artists Pictures Corporation

Running time: 73 minutes

Budget: $50,000 (approx.)

 

Cast

 

Susan Cabot as Janice Starlin

Fred Eisley as Bill Lane

Barboura Morris as Mary Dennison

William Roerick as Arthur Cooper

Michael Mark as Dr. Eric Zinthrop

Frank Gerstle as Les Hellman

Bruno VeSota as Night Watchman

Roy Gordon as Paul Thompson

Carolyn Hughes as Jean Carson

Lynn Cartwright as Maureen Reardon

Frank Wolff as Delivery Man

Lani Mars as Secretary

Philip Barry as Delivery Man

Roger Corman as Hospital Doctor (uncredited)

 

 

The perils of fading beauty!

The promise of anti-aging miracles!

A serum derived from the enzymes of wasps??

The first human trial of the miracle serum!

An unexpected turn of events!

The consequences of vanity…...

 

 

(Spoilers follow below.....)

 

 

“Wasps? You better be careful, they can sting a man to death.”

“Don't worry, we understand each other.”

 

As the credits roll over BEES in a hive, Dr. Eric Zinthrop can be seen walking around in search of something. He soon spots a wasps’ nest and uses smoke to subdue the inhabitants before placing the nest in a sturdy case.

 

Zinthrop then walks back to Renfro, the bee keeper’s hive operation where he chats with him about the wasps he has collected.

 

Shortly after, a car pulls up with a Mr. Barker from the commercial honey company’s “front office.” Barker congratulates Renfro on what a good job he has done for having “turned in over a thousand pounds of orange blossom honey and 400 of beeswax last month” and for having “made the top of the list again.” Success measured in quantifiable, measurable and tangible commercial terms! Good boy!

 

“I told you he was a crackpot”

 

But what about this fellow Zinthrop who is “paid to do research on royal jelly” and has not bothered to send in a progress report for a month?

 

When Barker gets to the Zinthrop’s workshop, the doctor explains that he has “almost perfected a new method of extracting royal jelly from the queen wasp” instead of from bees as he was supposed to do. He claims he can stop aging and soon will be able to reverse it. By way of demonstration, he draws Barker’s attention to a puppy and a dog. He goes on to explain that the two dogs are in fact exactly the same age but that the puppy has been regularly injected with Zinthrop’s serum.

 

Barker can only see as far as practical commercial realities allow him to. As far as he is concerned, queen bee royal jelly is “a health food, a cosmetic.” Nor is it in his opinion “a miracle drug or an elixir of youth” as he in line with orthodox thinking believes “that sort of thing is impossible.” Mentally myopic Barker sees no option but to fire Zinthrop. In time-honoured corporate world false consensus parlance, Barker informs the maverick Zinthrop, “you just don't seem to be one of the team.” (I kinda like Zinthrop just on that basis alone!)

 

“Not even Janice Starlin can remain a glamour girl forever”

 

We now find ourselves in New York during a board room meeting of Janice Starlin Enterprises where a suitably austerely but stylishly attired knocking-on-the-door-of-forty-ish Janice Starlin is reprimanding her staff about the declining sales of their beauty products. Janice informs the ‘gentlemen” at the table that “sales for the last fiscal quarter have dropped 14 and one half percent” whereas “there's not been a corresponding drop in our competitor's sales.”

 

Janice holds a somewhat unusual position for a woman in the 1950s as corporate head and owner of a major company. One of the corporate circling sharks at the table by the name of Bill Lane somewhat smugly and cockily informs Janice that he will elaborate on the reasons for the fall, so if the little lady will kindly step aside......

 

Oh look! A bar-graph chart! That graphic should convince anyone! Lane proceeds to inform Janice bluntly that the responsibility for the sales decline lies with her. It seems that Janice feels that she is succumbing to the ravages of time and can no longer be considered as being suitable as THE face on the company’s beauty products. So, when she took her face off the products, sales took a downward trajectory.

 

Lane goes on to explain that Janices’s firm became “a multi-million-dollar-a-year business on the strength and appeal of one person, Janice Starlin” and that up “until February of this year, only one woman's face was used to advertise those products: Your face, Miss Starlin.” After 16 years the public see a different face and they don't trust it, “they feel cheated. The simple fact is that Starlin Cosmetics should have Janice Starlin's picture advertising them.”

 

And so the pressure is on for Janice to live up to public expectations, maintain social acceptance and achieve corporate survival. All that’s needed now are the miraculous means to achieve this unlikely outcome!

 

Enter Dr. Zinthrop who is now at reception awaiting his appointment with Janice. But first Janice has a quiet word in her office with resident expert Arthur Cooper to discuss the possible therapeutic properties of royal jelly. Arthur cautions Janice that “no two people react in precisely the same way.” When she questions him about royal jelly obtained from a queen wasp and its possible rejuvenating effects, Arthur warns her to steer clear of wasps due to the fact that “socially the queen wasp is on a level with the black widow spider’ in that “they're both carnivorous, they paralyze their victims and then take their time devouring them alive.” In addition, “they kill their mates in the same way too.” As to the “possibilities of using enzyme extracts from royal wasp jelly, commercially,” Arthur tells Janice bluntly to “forget about it.” Yes, you can warn people about the potential dangers of their actions until you’re blue in the face but pride, vanity, stupidity, desperation, self-interest and self-delusion tend to rise to the surface and clog up the smooth workings of fact, truth and reason. From ordinary punters to presidents!

 

“Such proof you shall get, Madam, and more”

 

When Arthur departs, Zinthrop enters Janice’s office. She informs him that she cannot give him much time but he replies that it is HE who can give the time – 10 or even 15 years of time. Having hooked her with the bait, Janice tells Zinthrop that she nevertheless must have “absolute proof” of what he claims.

 

We now move to the laboratory where we see Zinthrop injecting a shaggy rat that looks suspiciously like a guinea pig. Before Janices’s eyes the creature turns into an active young rat. Janice is amazed and Zinthrop conducts the same procedure on a second “rat” with the same result.

 

A gob-smacked Janice Starlin is completely convinced. Zinthrop is virtually at liberty to dictate his own terms and he informs Janice that he merely wants “a laboratory equipped with everything I need for my research” and if successful, “a little percentage. But I must get full credit for my discovery, that is most important to me.”

 

Even more surprisingly, he states that he has no need for a formal contract to be drawn up and that Janices’s word will be good enough for him! This is not your typical deranged mad scientist aiming for unlimited wealth and power. All he seems to crave is the opportunity to conduct his research and obtain recognition for his achievements. His lack of interest in obtaining legal protection for himself and his interests shows his naivety. As far as Janice is concerned, he simply tells her, “I know you're a good woman, even if you do not like other people to know it.”

 

There is, however an important disclaimer that Zinthrop discloses to Janice and this is quite crucial to the film’s plot. Zinthrop’s “formula may not be good for human beings” and that he has not tested it yet. Despite Janice offering herself as a guinea pig, he refuses on the grounds that “there might be danger.” Yes, we know where this is heading!

 

“There's something about this whole business that doesn't smell right”

 

At the next staff meeting, Janice introduces MR. Zinthrop to the others. Could it be that there is a question mark concerning his true credentials? At least if he is simply known as MR instead of DR. then there may be less chance of anyone wanting to snoop around for information about the nature of his qualifications.

 

Janice informs the others that Zinthrop is “working on the final stages of a development that will revolutionise the cosmetics industry” and that “he's to have a free hand in his experiments” and will be answerable only to herself.

 

She goes on to tell them that she cannot divulge the nature of Mr. Zinthrop's experiments except to assure them that “it will bring world-wide recognition to Janice Starlin Enterprises.”

 

It’s pretty obvious though that the other staff members are less than impressed with the newcomer and the role he is about to play. Secrecy and lack of information will no doubt lead to an increase in curiosity and the spread of rumours.

 

In the time-honoured tradition of corporate office political undermining and back-stabbing, but this time in a good cause, Bill and secretary Mary meet and Bill confides to her that he thinks Zinthrop is a conman. While on a dinner date, Bill asks Mary to “keep an eye on what goes on” or to put it simply, to spy on Janice. Arthur then walks in on them and agrees to this proposal. Arthur is concerned that Zinthrop is a quack who unlike a “confidence man” could prove to “be fatal.”

 

The disconcerting mystery surrounding Zinthrop has made its way through the corporate grapevine as we hear the conversation between two less than overworked secretaries. One of them tells the other that “Morton thinks he's a crackpot” and that she had “heard him telling Cooper so.” It seems that according to their gossip that “old bug eyes really has the execs worried’ but that no one's sure about what?

 

Well, even two empty-headed nonentities like those pretty secretaries have enough superficial beauty to attract the unwanted attention of an old crackpot geyser like Zinthrop. Don’t worry Janice, even though being a good woman isn’t enough, you’ll soon have Zinthrop’s fountain of youth to ensure you obtain enough superficial beauty to have your face back in its rightful place on all of your products! So let’s see how this miracle will unfold…...

 

Later on at the lab, Zinthrop shows Janice the test results on a cat. I can safely say that the animal is a bone-fide feline. Not only that, it is now a cute kitten. It appears that the formula is now ready and so it is time to give Janice her first injection…..DA, DA, DAAAAA!!!!

 

“We must tread lightly, with care”

 

In the interim, it appears that Zinthrop has been spending money like he’s Mike Bloomberg. For instance, $2,300 has already been spent on enzyme extract. His spendthrift ways, however are covered by Janice who informs accounting to pay whatever he demands. It seems that others in the company have also heard about it on the grapevine….

 

“My dear, Starlin will be world famous, bringing you to millions”

 

Three weeks later it can be seen that Janice is becoming impatient about the progress of the anticipated transformation of her appearance, leading Zinthrop to issue a rather complimentary comment,” you look at least five years younger than you looked three weeks ago.” Janice, however wishes to “increase the dosage” to “step up the process.” Zinthrop urges caution pointing out the differences in metabolism between her as a human being and a kitten. He then informs Janice that he has a stronger “concentrated solution of the enzymes... a great deal more powerful than the solution I've been using in your injection’ and that “as an emollient lotion it'll make estrogenic creams and all such products old fashioned.”

 

Meanwhile, secretary Mary has been busily rifling through Janices’s desk and manages to locate the original letter from Zinthrop. She then meets up with Bill and Arthur and they discover from the letter’s contents that Zinthrop “claims he can stimulate the processes of rejuvenation through the use of enzymes extracted from wasps.”

The conspirators believe they have worked out the whole dilemma involving their boss and Zinthrop who they firmly believe is some kind of a shyster. They figure that Janice is “so intent on holding back time she's ready to fall for the first phony line she hears” and that having “built her whole life on youth and beauty” and the fact “that she's losing them, she's scared to death.”

 

How ironic that Janice appears to be falling victim to a process upon which the success of companies like hers bases its success on: generating fear of losing both youth and beauty and feeling the need to turn to false and illusory remedies claiming to reclaim that supposedly lost youth and beauty. The only winners are the purveyors of such snake oil nonsense who grow wealthy out of people’s stupidity and desperation. Speaking of desperation……….

 

We see Janice late one night entering the lab and injecting herself with Zinthrop’s stronger formula!

 

"Return to youth with Janice Starlin."

 

The next morning, the effects of the injection are obvious with Janice’s younger-looking and beautiful appearance.

 

After putting her new look on display and outlining the new campaign for her cosmetics, Janice receives an abundance of personal affirmation from the comments and reactions of all those around her such as;

 

“It's amazing”

“Why, it's wonderful”

“Absolutely amazing”

“You look marvellous”

“It's a miracle, a wonderful, incredible miracle!”

“It's like a dream”

 

One could almost imagine such words and phrases being incorporated into an advertising campaign for a brand of cosmetics. After all, isn’t that what many advertising campaigns aim for: a sense of personal affirmation, social approval and acceptance?

 

“Do you think that will happen to Jan?”

 

Later on Zinthrop enters the lab only to be assaulted by a crazed and demented feline. Zinthrop kills the cat and comes to the realisation that the formula is not ready for use on humans. This fact is reinforced by the conspiring trio who discuss an incident where “30 years ago a bunch of quacks were treating people with monkey glands. Seemed to work for a while, then the deterioration set in.” Bill, Mary, and Arthur are determined to save Janice. The answer must lie in Zinthrop’s lab and if Arthur can get in there he’d be able to “run a breakdown on what he's using.”

 

When Zinthrop leaves his lab in a state of obvious shock, Arthur conducts a bit of breaking and entry and begins snooping around the laboratory. Arthur quickly hides when Janice suddenly enters the lab and resumes his search after she leaves.

 

Zinthrop, in a zombie-like state, walks across the street oblivious to the traffic and is hit by a car and is badly injured. When he fails to return from lunch, Janice hires PI Les Hellman to find him. Rather meaningfully, Janice points out to Hellman that “time is vital, Mr. Hellman. Every hour he's gone, it means more than you can possibly imagine.” When Janice looks for the letter for Hellman and finds out that it is missing, Mary is brought in for questioning. She soon confesses to stealing the letter for Bill and Arthur. Hellman and his cronies are soon on the job turning the city upside down for Zinthrop who is finally located in the hospital – a John Doe in Central Emergency. The doctor (my God, can that be Roger Corman himself?) declares that Zinthrop has a “head injury, general contusion to the body” and that “he's had a severe injury and there's definite brain damage, just how much we can't tell as yet.” Understandably Janice is determined to spare no expense saving him.

 

“It's my decision”

 

It’s been three days and Zinthrop is still in a coma. Janice says that Arthur can take over the lab in 48 hours if Zinthrop doesn’t regain consciousness.

 

Soon after, Janice goes to the lab and gives herself another injection. When Arthur takes over the lab, he notices that the vials are almost empty. Suddenly, before he can say “qualitative analysis” Arthur is attacked by a black clad female figure sporting a wasp’s head. The Wasp Woman then proceeds to feed on the blood from Arthur’s neck. After returning to normal, Janice injects herself with the serum once more.

 

“Janice Starlin Enterprises is going to bring the most fantastically sell-able product ever developed by modern cosmetics to the public”

 

It seems that a line is being crossed from what is considered to be the offer of a harmless cosmetic product to the promise of a medical cure of what will become to be seen as a condition, in this case the natural ageing process! In a burst of hubris, Janice even declares at the next meeting that “I don't intend to be restricted by timidity on the part of my own staff, is that clear?” How many business and political leaders have we witnessed over the years (and quite recently!) who don’t take kindly to criticism and contradiction and seek to ensure compliance from their underlings?

 

“It's just a little headache, Mary. I'm fine”

 

By this stage, Janice has the appearance of being like a drug addict. In fact, in a way she is addicted to Zinthrop’s formula along with the personal high she receives from the perceived results and the approval of those around her. We’re familiar with the addictive nature of the beauty industry whereby so many normally sane people spend so much time and money trying to live up to false expectations and concepts of perfect physical youthful beauty. Social media even helps to recruit more and more addicts to seek the means of achieving unrealistic outcomes and the false promise of personal happiness and fulfilment associated with them. For many, the end result is often a sense of frustration and personal dissatisfaction. Just consider those pathetic souls who put themselves through multiple sessions of cosmetic surgery and the grotesque results that are obtained from it!

 

Janice decides to move Zinthrop into her office to be cared for by a private nurse. The room is fitted out with medical emergency equipment. Meanwhile the night watchman while fiddling with his cranky portable radio is attacked. So now we have two missing people – victims of THE WASP WOMAN! DA, DA, DAAAAA!

 

Bill is quite worried about Arthur who has been missing for the day, particularly as he is a “conscientious guy” who “if he felt sick or something he'd have called in.” Later on, after breaking into the lab (by now a crime hot spot what with multiple break-ins and murders!) Bill and Mary find Arthur’s pipe, a precious object that any self-professed academic intellectual-type would never be without. As Bill comments to Mary, “he'd sooner go out without his pants than leave that pipe behind.” He must, therefore be somewhere in the building. The plot thickens!

 

“Something's happening. Something's happening to me, I can't control it”

 

OK, time for some more dead bodies. Not able to get any assistance with her dilemma from a mentally scrambled Zinthrop, Janice transforms into…..THE WASP WOMAN and kills the nurse.

 

While Bill and Mary go to Zinthrops’ room, Janice makes her way down to the lab to take the last remaining shot. A distraught Zinthrop warns Bill and Mary “you do not understand, Miss Starlin, she's in danger, I must warn...” Mary then elects to go to Janice’s office to call the police while Bill stays with Zinthrop.

 

“The enzymes, the enzymes, they're going crazy”

 

A clearly agitated Zinthrop warns Bill that Mary is in danger and that “Miss Starlin will kill her and tear her body to shreds” because “Miss Starlin is not a human being any longer. The enzymes have changed her. She will destroy the girl as an evil wasp would destroy her enemies, and then devour the remains.”

 

In the meantime, Janice learns from Mary that Bill had found Zinthrop’s notebook in Arthur’s desk and all that followed from that discovery. Janice then sets out to fulfil Zinthrop’s prophesy on the hapless Mary.

 

But wait! Here comes Bill flying up the stairs to the lab and adding to the number of steps on his Fitbit while Zinthrop the lazy malingering old bastard takes the elevator. The showdown is on with Zinthrop and Bill double-teaming their opponent….THE WASP WOMAN!

 

Zinthrop decides to fight dirty by launching an attack on the wasp woman with carbolic acid while Bill uses the old lunge-your-opponent-out-of a-window-with-a-stool-maneuver. Mary is thankfully alive to be one day slapped in the face once again should she ever decide to turn on the female hysterics. Amazing how many times that happened in films back in the day! Explains a lot in terms of gender attitudes over the years in real life unfortunately. The last image is of a close up shot of the wasp woman’s face as it dissolves to an image of a…...BEE colony.

 

Points Of Interest

 

Susan Cabot finished her film career with this film before returning to the theater in New York. Later in the 1980s, she was reportedly bludgeoned to death by her dwarf son.

 

The film’s rather manic and hectic musical score seems to consist of Beat-style jazz. It may come across as a tad over-bearing but it does somewhat help to increase the tension.

 

The story has elements of a morality play together with tragedy. It is developed gradually and in some detail with the central character being treated sympathetically.

 

It appears that some of the film was shot some time later in the 1960s if the cars shown during the search for the missing Zinthrop are any indication.

 

One central idea of the film is quite relevant in almost any era: the exploitation of people’s (often women’s and often manufactured) need to hold on to their youth, and that in our culture ageing is equated with being invisible and not of much worth. Even someone like Janice Starlin who might be expected to have everything in life feels that her 40 year old face will not sell her own company’s products.

 

The film highlights the fact that what we strive for thinking we will achieve happiness often proves to be merely illusory. Janice Starlin is a woman possessing wealth, power, and prestige and whose intelligence, business acumen and beauty got her to where she is. Physical beauty is something that is admired in our culture but it is transitory and impermanent like much else we strive for. Janice has made her living from her looks and is prepared to do anything to maintain those looks despite the very high price to be paid.

 

The character of Zinthrop is hardly your usual mad scientist who like in the film, The Head sets about abducting, exploiting and victimising some hapless female and forcing her against her will to become the subject of his deranged research. It is Janice Starlin who elects herself as the human guinea pig in an experiment that will turn her into a monster. All Zinthrop desires is somewhere to conduct his research unimpeded in return for some recognition and validation. In fact, it is he who wishes to set limits on how the experiment should proceed. It is Janice who lacks prudence and caution and who rushes headlong toward her fate by her own actions and decisions. Still, we cannot blame her in that she is somewhat a product of a system imbued with skewed values.

 

And 60+ years on? What shape are our society’s values in?

 

 

Wasp Fact File

 

“I'd stay away from wasps if I were you, Mrs. Starlin. Socially the queen wasp is on the level with a Black Widow spider. They're both carnivorous, they paralyze their victims and then take their time devouring them alive. And they kill their mates in the same way, too. Strictly a one-sided romance.”

 

Is Arthur Cooper correct?

 

Wasps, known by their scientific name, Hymenoptera are omnivores and are up to 1.5 inches in length.

 

Wasps live everywhere but the continent of Antarctica.

 

In my own country Australia, we have to be careful of European wasps that sport bright warning colours, can get pretty angry and threaten us with painful stings if provoked.

 

Most wasps, however are solitary, non-stinging varieties and are quite beneficial by controlling pest insect populations for food or as a host for its parasitic larvae. In fact, the agriculture industry often employs them to protect crops.

 

Wasps are distinguishable from bees by their pointed lower abdomens and the narrow waist part of their bodies called a “petiole,” that separates the abdomen from the thorax.

 

Like our friends, the European wasp, the brighter coloured species are generally the stinging variety of wasp.

 

Wasps build nests which they construct from wood fibers such as strips of bark which they scrape with their mandibles and chew into a pulp. Bees, on the other hand secrete a waxy substance to construct their nests.

 

Wasps are divided into ‘social’ and ‘solitary’ sub-groups. Social wasps form the minority of species and include colony-builders.

 

A social wasp colony is started each spring by a queen who was fertilized the previous year and has managed to survive the winter by hibernating in a warm place. She then emerges and builds a small nest and rears a starter brood of worker females who begin expanding the nest, building multiple six-sided cells into which the queen continually lays eggs. By late summer, a colony might consist of more than 5,000 individuals, all of whom, including the founding queen, die off at winter. In spring the process begins anew with a fertilised queen that has survived the cold.

 

Solitary wasps by contrast do not form colonies. Stinging solitary wasps use their venom to hunt whereas the social varieties use their stingers only for defense. Unlike bees, wasps can sting repeatedly.

 

A social wasp in distress emits a pheromone that sends nearby colony members into a defensive, stinging frenzy. Only females have stingers, which are in fact modified egg-laying organs.

 

Take care when leaving food or open soft drink containers unattended. These can be quite tempting to wasps and could prove disastrous for an unwitting human!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this volume of Sci-Fi Film Fiesta.

Keep an eye out for Volume 10: “Supersized & Miniaturised”

 

 

Useful Resources

 

Abbott, Jon., Giant Bug Movies of the 1950s., 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.

 

Chambers, Jim., Recollections: A Baby Boomer's Memories of the Fabulous Fifties,    Lulu.com, 2009

 

Fischer, Dennis., Science Fiction Film Directors, 1895-1998, McFarland, 2011

Christopher, Frayling., Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema,  Reaktion Books; 2006 

 

Fuller, Jean Overton., The Comte De Saint Germain, Last Scion of the House of Rakoczy., East-West Publications Ltd, 1988.

 

Geraghty, Lincoln., American Science Fiction Film and Television, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009

 

Glassy, Mark C., The Biology of Science Fiction Cinema., McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2001

 

Hendershot, Cyndy., Paranoia, The Bomb, And 1950s Science Fiction Films, University of Wisconsin Press, 1999

 

Hogan, David J. (Editor)., Invasion USA: Essays on Anti-Communist Movies of the 1950s and 1960s, McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2017

 

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; Illustrated edition 2020

 

Moore, Theresa M., & Carlyle, Patrick C., Science Fiction Films of The 20th Century 1950-1954,  Antellus, 2019

 

Moore, Theresa M., Science Fiction Films of The 20th Century 1955-1956, Antellus, 2019

 

Moore, Theresa M., Science Fiction Films of The 20th Century 1958 Anrellus, 2019

 

Seed, David., Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction., Oxford University Press, 2011

 

Siodmak, Curt., Donovan's Brain, Pulpless.com (first published)1942 

 

Warren, Bill., Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties:  McFarland; 21st Century Edition, 2016

 

 

 

 

Useful Links To On-Line Resources

 

1. The Magnetic Monster (1953)

 

@IMDb 

 

1000misspenthours.com 

 

 

2. Donovan's Brain (1953)

 

@IMDb 

 

1000misspenthours.com 

 

 

3. Four Sided Triangle (1953)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

Scifist.net 

 

 

4. The Atomic Man

aka "Timeslip" (1955)

 

@IMDb 

 

 

5. Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

 

@IMDb 

 

1000misspenthours.com 

 

scifist.net 

 

 

6. The Gamma People (1956)

 

@IMDb 

 

scifist.net 

 

 

7. X: The Unknown (1956)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

 

8. The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957)

 

@IMDb 

 

 

 

 

9. The Unearthly (1957)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

 

10. Teenage Monster (1958)

 

@IMDb 

 

Movies and Mania 

 

 

11. Terror from the Year 5000 (1958)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

 

12. Curse of the Faceless Man (1958)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

 

13. Giant from the Unknown (1958)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

moviesandmania.com 

 

 

14. The Colossus of New York (1958)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

1000misspenthours.com 

 

 

15. The Fly (1958)

 

@IMDb 

 

Horror Obsessive 

 

Filmsite.org 

 

 

16. The H-Man (1958)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

1000misspenthours.com 

 

 

17. The Woman Eater (1958)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

 

 

18. 4D MAN (1959)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

 

19. The Manster (1959)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

@1000misspenthours.com 

 

 

20. Terror Is a Man (1959)

 

@IMDb 

 

@1000misspenthours.com 

 

 

21. The Hideous Sun Demon (1959)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

 

22. The Killer Shrews (1959)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

@1000misspenthours.com 

 

 

23. The Tingler (1959)

 

@Wikipedia 

 

@IMDb 

 

@horrorfilmhistory.com 

 

The Sound Of Vincent Price 

 

 

24. The Head (1959)

 

@IMDb 

 

 

25. The Wasp Woman (1959)

 

@IMDb 

 

@horrorfilmhistory.com 

 

 

************

 

 

1.Gamma Radiation

 

Wikipedia 

 

NASA SCIENCE 

 

 

2. Teleportation experiments

 

Scientific American 

 

 

3. Fly facts

 

Wikipedia 

 

4. LSD 1950s & 60s tests

 

YouTube Video 1 

 

YouTube Video 2 

 

 

5. Ren Xiaoping and Sergio Canavero spinal cord experiments

 

New Scientist 

 

USA TODAY 

 

 

6. Wasp Facts

 

Wikipedia