Tag Archives: Universal

Retrospective: Monolith Monsters (1957)

16 Sunday Oct 2022

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As 1957 drew to a close, so did Universal’s stories around monsters, giant creatures, and supernatural events in the science fiction realm.

It wasn’t that the production company was short on ideas, and Monolith Monsters is a testament to this, pushing the envelope away from the known and into the unknown. When a meteorite crashes and its material then grows to epic proportions once exposed to water and turns anyone that crosses its path to ash.

Grant Williams who had already starred in the successful The Incredible Shrinking Man would star as the everyman turned hero, Dave Miller. Dave happens to be the head of San Antonio’s geological office, so he’s a man with smarts and just might have the answer to saving humanity from these monumental blocks of stone.

Joining Millar is his girlfriend and teacher Cathy played by American singer Lola Albright who supported Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds in The Tender Trap and was only a few years away from acting opposite Elvis Presley in Kid Galahad. For Monolith Monsters though the lead characters Dave and Cathy would use their combined knowledge along with college professor Arthur Flanders (Trevor Bardette) to find a solution to stop the threat expanding into their town.

A particular highlight is the cameo performance from William Schallert as a benign meteorologist, happily carrying out his day without the slightest notion of the impending danger that is facing humankind. Also keen viewers will note a young Troy Donahue in one of his earlier roles playing a dynamite expert.

Whilst noted for its production design and special effects plus some noteworthy performances Monolith Monsters suffers with execution. It presents a unique story but fails to manifest or produce anything out of this grain of salt idea. As such the sands of time have been unkind over the years, left as a forgotten relic from a decade of dwindling success.

– Saul Muerte

Monolith Monsters is currently available as part of a double feature blu-ray with The Deadly Mantis at Umbrella Entertainment.

Retrospective: The Land Unknown (1957)

02 Sunday Oct 2022

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As Hammer Films were reinventing Gothic horror with The Curse of Frankenstein and awakening old myths with The Abominable Snowman, Universal Pictures were still venturing into humanity striving against gigantic creatures in the sci-fi adventure films. This time around, the exploration would take them into the heart of Antarctica to unleash the fears upon our central characters. 

The Land Unknown, directed by Virgil W. Vogel from a screenplay by László Görög would suffer immensely from its low budget, putting men in  dinosaur suits or shots of monitor lizards to subject our audience with fear. The result would have a poor effect and the film struggles to lift out of the realms of quality, shifting our ability to connect with it. Even retrospectively speaking, there is little substance here of worth.

In essence we join an expedition crew consisting of Commander Harold Roberts (Jock Mahoney), helicopter pilot Lt. Jack Carmen (William Reynolds), machinist Steve Miller (Phil Harvey) and reporter Maggie (Shirley Patterson). Maggie is the token female in the movie and is symbolic of the times playing the reporter, as it gave women a hard-boiled, intelligent edge whilst still needing to be sexually alluring, something that doesn’t go amiss among the male members of the crew, particularly the Commander. Often, there are comments in the script about the differences in the gender of each species they encounter, where each plays a significant role in the survival of their terrain. When the helicopter is forced to make an emergency landing this is put to the test when they find themselves in mysterious volcanic land beneath the icy surface and one that is rich in jungle life, including the aforementioned jungle.

Not only do they have to manage this unknown topography, but they soon discover another living soul who has adapted to life there since they crashed there. Dr. Carl Hunter was the sole survivor and has been used to life on his own, making him a gruff and unapproachable man, His intimidating demeanour softening only towards Maggie.

The rest of the film centres more on these conflicts, along with the volatile land and its inhabitants to play through to the conclusion. One that is a neatly tied bow and as such fails to flicker with the audience. Looking through the retrospective lens, this is definitely one of the lesser films that Universal produced at the time and much like the land in which it is set, has been forgotten over time.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

11 Sunday Sep 2022

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1957 would turn out to be one last hurrah for Universal (for the time being at least) as they produced a number of movies that year. Some were better than others and I would name The Incredible Shrinking Man as one of their more successful outlets, looking back at it for the Surgeons of Horror retrospectives.

Part of this appeal, I believe, is down to the penmanship of Richard Matheson, who would go on to write I Am Legend; A Stir of Echoes; and Hell House, to name but a few. TISM would be his first venture into  screenwriting duties, and as such, would share the screenplay credits with Richard Alan Simmons; a gun for hire at the time.

Jack Arnold would once again take on directing duties, being called upon to repeat his scifi horror genre flicks success bearing the Universal name: It Came From Outer Space; Creature From The Black Lagoon; Revenge of the Creature; This Island Earth; and Tarantula!

The latter would prove to have its merits as once again our protagonist would come up against a giant from which to defed himself. 

Our protagonist in question is Scott (Grant Williams) who is coated one day in a mysterious mist; a macguffin for the film and serves as the agent of Scott’s mysterious shrinking. At first, it’s the small things, such as his waist size, and losing a few inches of height which he notices when standing next to his wife, Louise (Randy Stuart). Over time things get steadily worse, and Scott becomes smaller and smaller, at one stage living in a doll house and fighting off the house cat, before being swept away down the basement and presumed to be dead.

The smarts behind this feature come from the psychological trauma that this has on Scott and to some degree Louise. Scott battles constantly trying to deal with his bizarre affliction, even straying away from Louise at one point when he meets a ‘circus freak’, Clarice (April Kent), who has dwarfism, seeking solace in someone who may understand him. His ailment continues however and he must once again face up to his torment and try to make peace with his woes. It is this rather gloomy aspect to the film that would hang heavy on cinema goers at the time, but one that smacks of a realistic portrayal of the ‘what ifs?’ Scenario that is presented. I am often drawn to movies that leave you feeling disconnected and a star reminder of how small we are in the grand scheme of things, and TISM is the epitome of this example and why I believe it ironically stands head and shoulders above its equivalent features of the late 50s. 

It certainly heralds an impact worthy enough to hold discussions about a potential remake. John Landis himself had one in production which unfortunately didn’t manage to see the light of day. 

Its resonance is still strongly felt though in the genre community and I wouldn’t be surprised to see something of similar ilk come about eventually. 

Unlike Scott, the film is unlikely to disappear into uncertainty, especially among film scholars and science fiction lovers.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Deadly Mantis (1957)

03 Saturday Sep 2022

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Ever since I saw Kamacuras stalking around in the Kaiju movie Son of Godzilla, I’ve had a deep dread of this (let’s face it) fairly timid mantises. Whenever I watched the movie, I must have been at that impressionable age where this triangular headed insect embedded into my mind. Its essentially one of the things that initiated my aerozoophobia.

So imagine my trepidation upon learning that amongst Universal Pictures scifi horror canon during the mid fifties is movie entitled The Deadly Mantis.

Set in the South Seas, a volcanic eruption unearths a 200 foot long praying mantis that has been frozen in ice for hundreds of years.

When one of the remote Canadian outposts fails to return any calls, Col. Joe Parkman (Craig Stevens) is sent into investigate. Upon his arrival, Parkman discovers no sign of life and strange marks imprinted in the snow.

Later, an Air Force plane is grounded by the giant insect and Parkman notices the same slash marks he’d witnessed from the outpost. Only this time who also finds a five foot long spur. Fuelled by curiosity, he hires his top scientist to work our its origin but without success. So, in steps paleontologist Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper) who traces it to the praying mantis species.

When another attack happens at an Inuit village in the Arctic, the press become interested and magazine editor Marge Blane (Alix Talton) talks her way into joining the expedition posing as a photographer.

Its indicative of the time when Marge turns up to the base, all the men are instantly smitten by her presence, but its out hero Parkman that is the most taken by her, and the feeling is mutual between them. As with most trauma based narratives, these events often draw people together and as the the story unfolds between military and mantis attacks, their bond becomes further united.

The films conclusion smacks of earlier giant creature movies, most notably King Kong and Them, where the military bombard the monster with aero dynamic arsenal, this time forcing the Deadly Mantis into the Manhattan Tunnel. Trapped inside, Parkman takes a number of troops inside to kill it once and for all, armed with rifles and chemical bombs.

The feature didn’t live up to its gigantic proportions in the box office however, and failed to ignite massive interest. Looking back at it now, one can’t help but identify with this reaction as i struggled to connect with the plight, nor any fear that it tried to invoke, despite my own animosity.

Much like other sci-fi features of the era it would find itself subject to ridicule in Mystery Science Theatre 3000, a symbol of how these movies were received and the fall from grace that Universal was starting to find itself in.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Mole People (1956)

27 Saturday Aug 2022

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Universal Pictures would round out 1956 with another sci-fi horror entitled The Mole People, which these days may evoke visions of The Underminer from The Incredibles.

The production house’s only other genre feature that year was the final instalment to the Creature series, The Creature Walks Among Us. Retrospectively looking back now, I find that The Mole People has little residual effect on my cerebellum. This says a lot about the feature and it’s slow demise from horror into science fiction, a mantle that would give way to upcoming British horror production outfit, Hammer Films.

Loosely based on the concept of a hollow Earth where an alternate human race has evolved and existed deep beneath our planet’s surface.

Part of its dissociation from the audience stems from the narration at the beginning of the movie, detailing the premise of life underground, by Dr. Frank Baxter to add weight to the theory and ironically ground the movie in a hypothetical truth. Instead it just distances us from the story with an unnecessary breaking of the fourth wall.

When the story does pick up however, we follow John Agar as Archaeologist Dr. Roger Bentley who along with his associate Dr. Jud Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont) discovers a Sumerian albino race. This ancient race keep mutant mole people as slaves to harvest mushrooms to er ahem.. serve as a “food source”. Yeah right.

This primitive race is devoted to Ishtar, Goddess of Love, Fertility and War, and it is to this divine presence that they sacrifice young women from their tribe. This also paves way for the love interest in the movie when Bentley falls for intended oblation, Adad (Cynthia Patrick), a fair-headed damsel in distress. 

Apart from their blind devotion, these underground dwellers are also addled by any source of light. Their choice of abode, in the darkness, has led them to be afflicted, and it is through the archaeologists’ flashlight which keeps them at bay; at least until the High Priest (Alan Napier) discovers the use of this tool and that their Godly pretence is a falsehood.

It is the film’s climax however that potentially leaves the biggest mark of ambiguity, when fleeing towards freedom and life above ground, Adad who has chosen to joining Bentley and Bellamin, is suddenly stuck down, when she begins to question her intent. A feeling of unease swiftly follows when the realisation that there will be no happy ending, and the wonderment around the exact purpose of the film.

The Mole People is currently available as part of a blu ray double feature alongside, The Land Unknown at Umbrella Entertainment.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie Review: The Black Phone (2022)

14 Thursday Jul 2022

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Crafted from the short novel by Joe Hill (Horns), The Black Phone has been given the feature length treatment from a screenplay by Scott Derrickson and C. Thomas Cargill. The novel itself is only 45 pages long, but the writing duo manage to expand on this to produce a descent film that embellishes the characters on display with great success/.

Derrickson (Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) also takes on directing duries and with this weighty script, manages to accentuate some cracking performances from his lead cast, two of whom are child actors. It is an area often remarked as problematic when working with young actors, primarily in capturing natural performances, but Derrickson shows no such obstacles in the final product.

Mason Thames deserves high praise for his portrayal of 13 year old Finney; a boy who falls into the shadows of American suburbia, often bullied reducing his frame further still. Finney isn’t completely invisible though, and there are those who are aware of his kind-hearted nature. Chief among them is his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw, another fine performance) who also has a supernatural and psychic gift. She is even more than a one note mystique though as Gwen is a strong, defiant, physical and yet comical character, providing Finney with the crutch he so needs to survive. The question is whether he can survive when Gwen is not physically there to support him. Their relationship and this paranormal link between the siblings  is integral to the movie, championing their individual strengths and providing the heart of the film, which beats steady and strong throughout hte narrative.

Once Derrickson spends quality time in allowing the audience to identify and connect with these characters, including a overbearing, drunk father (Jeremy Davies) who is struggling with his own demons, the rug is pulled from under our feet, as swiftly as Mason is swept into the back of a black van by child serial killer nicknamed The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) disguised as a part time clown. There are indicators here that Finney isn’t going to go quietly however, as he manages to cut The Grabber’s arm with a toy rocket.

Hawke is magnificently haunting as the antagonist, pulting out all the stops in making The Grabber a menacing figure. This is further supported by the manner in which he hides for the majority of the movie behind a sinister mask, designed by the great Tom Savini. Underneath his guise, he also harbours a fractured personality; a combination of sombre, playful and destructiive. This range needs to be in the hands of a master for the threat to have any nearing on Finney, and Hawke plays the fearful tune with heartfelt integrity.

When Finney awakens, he finds himself in  a soundproofed basement, with just a mattress, a toilet, and the titular black phone. The master stroke to the narrative is through the twist in the tale. This is not a straight forward drama, but one firmly entrenched in a spiritual nature, as Finney soon learns that he is not alone in the basement, but is accompanied by the presence of The Grabber’s child victims. One by one, they make themselves known to Finney, providing him with the ammunition he may need to overpower his kidnapper, and maybe, just maybe win his freedom along the way.

This journey is filled with tension and hope, a balance that Derrickson flicks the audience between, sometimes with some much-need humour to juxtapose the weight of the situation. It is this dalliance that is Derrickson’s gift, keeping his audience hooked until the end. 

The Prognosis:

Scott Derrickson once again proves to be a master of the macabre in his latest outing.
In weaving together a spiritual tale about finding your inner strength in order to overcome aversity, with some incredible performances from its lead cast, he has produced one of the greatest films of the year.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: It Came From Outer Space (1953)

18 Saturday Jun 2022

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1953 would prove to be a significant point in Universal horror history with the release of Ray Bradbury’s It Came From Outer Space, mainly because of a notable turn towards science fiction. 

Interestingly the fear factor is reduced with the alien invaders actually being stranded on Earth after crash landing their spacecraft and are trying to get home.

The story joins astronomer John (Richard Carlson – The Ghost Breakers) and a school teacher, Ellen (Barbara Rush) as they go in search of a large meteorite that has fallen in their small town. 

They soon discover however that the meteor is in fact the aforementioned spacecraft, but when John tries to tell his tale to the locals, he is met with a series of doubters. Trouble soon arises when some of the locals start to disappear and return with their personalities altered ala Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This brings the sheriff to suspect foul play and that there might be truth in John’s alien invasion story after all.
Cue miscommunication and preconceptions that could lead to the downfall of humankind, It’s no wonder that this story has been labelled as an anti-communist propaganda film when you look at the underlying subject of alien invasion and the silent threat of destruction that hangs over everyone. 

Despite being a pretty mediocre film, lacking substance ICFOS became an iconic feature for its time, it managed to reach the pop culture zeitgeist and has oft been referenced since.
For me though is a fortunate set of circumstances that led to the creation of the Metaluna Mutant, once considered for the alien design but dropped in favour of the shape-shifting, single-eyed, jellyfish mutants on display. This decision would pave way for the Metaluna Mutant to have a more credible platform to launch its iconic look in This Island Earth… but that’s for another time.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Black Castle (1952)

26 Saturday Mar 2022

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In the following year to Universal’s The Strange Door, the production house would release the last real gothic horror story in their canon, The Black Castle. It would pull out all the stops in another melodramatic tale, harbouring the talents of Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr to steer the film both from a financial and credibility perspective.

The movie didn’t come without its problems however with original director Joseph Pevney stepping aside due his lack of faith in the script to make way for art director Nathan Juran to take the helm for what would be his first time in the director’s chair. Juran would go on to direct The Deadly Mantis; Attack of the 50ft Woman; and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad among his credits. For his initial feature though, he would openly admit that he was guided by the on screen talent to provide their valuable knowledge in the films making.

The plot for The Black Castle is admittedly minimalistic and in that sense, one can understand Pevney’s reservations. It also has similar themes to The Strange Door around imprisonment and escape from an evil antagonist, this time in the guise of Count Von Bruno (Stephen McNally).

The movie has been treated kindly by notable reviewers retrospectively, most notably because of its high quality in most of the production elements, and the cast are strong enough to ground the film. For me, the film doesn’t hold enough appeal to make it an iconic one.
Cinephiles will appreciate it for its cinematic value at the decline of Universal horror which is warranted, but others may struggle to connect to the films narrative.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Strange Door (1951)

26 Saturday Mar 2022

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As Universal creaked into the early 50s, they were taking giant strides towards a new sub-genre sparked by the space race that was capturing the Nation’s zeitgeist. The creatures that the production house had built its name upon had now shifted into more comedic terrain with Abbott and Costello. There was still some room for gothic horror though and The Strange Door based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s short novel, The Sire de Maletroit’s Door would pit veterans Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff alongside one another in a last ditch effort to draw the crowds.

The premise is a slight tale about revenge, mischaracterisation and ultimately love in the face of adversity and is presented more as a melodrama than horror. Laughton also does his best to chew up the scenery and lapping up every moment as Alain de Maletroit, s msn consumed by grief and jealousy over the death of his brother Edmund’s wife. Alain imprisons Edmund (Paul Cavanagh) and raises his niece, Bianche (Sally Forrest) as though she were his child. This is through some warped connection to his sister-in -law that he longs to hold onto.

Everything is a whim or a game for Alain though, spoilt by his riches and living the life of a megalomaniac, content in ruining the lives of others to please his cruel desires.

Part of his trickery involves ensnaring a wayward thief, Denis (Richard Stapley) and convince him to marry Bianche, and then arrange for him to be murdered on the eve of their wdding night. True to the machiavellian style that the film is modelled on however, Alain doesn’t account for Denis and Bianche to actually fall in love. Nor does he foresee that his longtime dogsbody Voltan (Karloff) would have a change of heart and join focus with the lovebound duo in freeing the imprisoned Edmond and foil Alain’s plans.

While The Strange Door was well received at the time, upon recent viewing, you can’t help but notice that it is missing that special je ne sais quoi that was reminiscent in their earlier movies despite having stellar performers in Laughton and Karloff in the cast. 

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Brute Man (1946)

22 Wednesday Dec 2021

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The Brute Man would mark Rondo Hatton’s final film credit having tragically passed away due to heart problems. Cast in a number of films due to his physical presence which would make him an ideal on screen villain, which started out as supporting roles for a few crime, mob-related features. By the 1940s, Hatton would see his star elevated to leading roles for movies such as The Pillow of Death and House of Horrors, the latter of which alongside this movie would see him as the iconic Creeper character. This character would be so embedded in Universal’s golden era that it would be homaged in the 1980s feature film, The Rocketeer played by Tiny Ron.

Here, Hatton’s Creeper is out for revenge for those he believes disfigured him, starting with Professor Cushman (John Hamilton). Among those whom he pursues is a couple, Clifford (Tom Neal) and Virginia (Jan Wiley), who form part of a love/hate quadrangle with the Creeper who shows a heart of gold when trying to help Helen (Jane Adams), a blind pianist. This last part of the shaped motif is a little nod to Frankenstein’s monster who also befriends the blind flutist in James Whale’s 1931 version.

Despite these attempts to pay homage to the past and create terror in the cinema again, writer George Bricker (a gun for hire to create Production companies, B-features) would struggle to strike fear in the hearts of the audience. Likewise, director Jean Yarbrough would find it hard to break the mold of the low budget horror features that he had been accustomed to. So paltry was the final product that audiences responded negatively to it, and the film is now more closely associated with being the target for grilling in Mystery Science Theater 3000.

It would be a significant turning point for Universal, who were starting to see the effects of their golden years ebbing away and losing the magic touch it once laid claim to in the field of horror. Throughout the 50s their journey would take them in a completely different direction, but that will  be for another series of articles.

  • Saul Muerte