Bruce_Cook's reviews

This well-made British science fiction story concerns the crew of a test rocket on which a lady reporter (Lois Maxwell) stows away. Kieron Moore plays the pilot of the rocket sent into orbit in connection with the test of a new "Tritonium bomb". Donald Wolfit plays the bomb's inventor.

After releasing he bomb, it's internal propulsion system fails and it becomes attached to the hull of the spacecraft. All attempts to dislodge it are unsuccessful, so the bomb's inventor takes drastic action to deal with the situation.

Director Paul Dickson presents an exciting and intelligent story. The special effects are both competent and exciting -- which is no surprise in view of the fact that their creator, Wally Veevars, later worked on "2001".

The special effects include the space scenes, an underground space complex, and a rocket which is launched from a horizontal track, similar to "When Worlds Collide". Well-designed sets and props (especially the ship's interior and the spacesuits) enhance this wonderful British entry.

Currently this exceptional film is not available on either VHS or DVD. Hopefully, Mr. Wade Williams will eventually offer it as part of his wonderful, high-quality collection.

The title and the poster tend to set the viewer up for a large disappointment with this one, a less-than-gripping film from director Terence Fisher, laudable mostly for the fact that it was made so early in the 1950s. The story is based on a radio play by Charles Eric Maine, with a plot that smacks just a little of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Howard Duff plays an American scientist involved with the British space program (they actually had one of those, once). His wife is having an affair with another scientist (Andrew Osborn) who is also a spy. When both wife and lover disappear, an investigator (Alan Wheatley) suspects Duff of murdering them and disposing of the bodies by placing them in a new satellite which is sent into orbit!

There's only one way Duff can clear himself: blast off in a rocket, retrieve the satellite, and bring it back for inspection. He takes Eva Bartok (heroine of 'The Crimson Pirate') with him.

I won't divulge the ending, but it is a twist. The film's slow pace lessens the tension, and the special effects consist largely of stock footage and a few scenes cribbed from 'Rocketship X-M'. Definitely a case of the poster being far better than the movie -- but what a poster!

This rip-roaring sci-fi adventure scores high marks in several categories. The story concerns four people whose helicopter lands in an unknown prehistoric valley, a freak temperate zone located thousands of feet below sea level in the Antarctic, kept warm by volcanically-heated water and a permanent cloud layer that traps the warm air.

The special effects are by Universal's FX wizard Clifford Stine, and even though the dinosaurs are not animated, they aren't badly done. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is a man in a suit, the flippered dinosaur is fairly convincing puppet, and the rest are enlarged lizards. All the dinosaurs are skillfully integrated with live action shots.

Stine loaded the film with wonderful scenes of the fog-shrouded prehistoric landscape, using marvelous matt shots and impressive sets, creating a Skull Island atmosphere.

In some ways, this is the perfect 1950's sci-fi film, because it proudly presents a wealth of facts about the Antarctic before it begins its fanciful story.

The music by Joseph Gershenson is extremely effective. Director Virgil Vogel ("The Mole People") keeps the action moving right along. Hero Jock Mahoney (who later played Tarzan) is a stalwart hero, and Shawn Smith (the stern lady astronaut in "It! The Terror from Beyond Space" and the luscious babe in a mini-skirt in "World Without End") makes a gorgeous heroine. Henry Brandon does a commendable job as a half-crazed survivor from a previous expedition -- and I read somewhere that he was actually a member of the 1947 Bird Expedition to the North Pole. Don't remember where I read it, so I might be misinformed.

I had high hopes for this movie, since it was the product of the folks who gave me two other masterpieces.

And yet, I sat there for two hours wondering how the people who made "Independence Day" (loved it!) and "Godzilla" (loved it even more!!) could make such a pompous, scientifically flawed, dramatically ridiculous movie.

Ironically, the friend I went to see it with said he enjoyed it -- despite the fact that he thinks 'Independence Day' is a pompous, scientifically flawed, dramatically ridiculous movie.

So, was this just a matter of differing tastes?

Well, let's look at the facts. 'Independence Day' was intended to be a light-hearted, thrill-packed comedy/action/sci-fi adventure. When my friend went to see it, he was expecting a somber, thought-provoking, highly dramatic demonstration of the consequences of alien invasion.

Because of his misconception concerning the film's intent, he was extremely disappointed. I, on the other hand, apparently had a better understanding of what ID was supposed to be -- so I loved it.

On the other hand, 'The Day After Tomorrow' was intended to be somber, thought-provoking, highly dramatic demonstration of the consequences of global warming.

That's exactly what I expected.

Did it work for me in that respect?

No. It was a pompous, illogical, melodramatic attempt to take a trendy social concern and turn it into a grave warning about Armageddon.

Gorgeous scenery, familiar stars, and a spirited plot make this one just as enjoyable as many other Columbia westerns from the 1950s.

Roy Roberts is great as the rotten villain. Phil Carey is the hero who teams up with sweetheart Dorothy Patrick and Billy Gray ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") to stop bad guys from illegally capturing wild horses in Utah.

Gray does a fine job in a very interesting roll.

Sci-fi fans will recognize musical themes used extensively in "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" and "20 Million Miles to Earth" during two battles between a black stallion and the titular white stallion. Columbia reused these frequently during the 1950s.

But there isn't an inch of stock footage in this film, unlike the afore-mentioned sci-fi classics. It's 100% pure American West.

If you're a Westerm fan, you'll enjoy this one. And you haven't lived until you've seen the part in which an abused horse ties a man to a tree and gets its revenge on the low-down side-winder!

All in all, not your typically predictable Western . . . no sir, partner!

If you're a die-hard Westerns fan (which I am), you'll manage to get through this one -- but you'll hate yourself in the morning.

Rory Calhoun spends a few weeks tracking down his father's killers, taking a bullet in the shoulder during one shoot out, until he finally goes back to his old homestead to settle down with his gorgeous former sweetheart.

And he never changes clothes once through the whole film. The bullet hole in his favorite shirt heals up as fast as his chest wound. Nice trick, huh?

Hokey dialog flies thicker than the bullets, and Calhoun is as wooden as a hitching post. If you make it to the final shoot out, you'll get to watch the worst shots in the West manage to miss each other so often they run out of bullets.

Calhoun finally takes a few slugs, but he still manages to crawl -- yes, crawl -- across an open street, straight toward the bad guy, who misses him repeatedly with a RIFLE from twenty feet away!

When Calhoun's sweetheart and the town doc (sci-fi veteran Thomas Brown Henry in his smallest role), examines the wounded Calhoun, he says, "He'll be alright as soon as I get all those holes plugged up."

What a man! What a movie . . .

For all those film critics who claim that Hollywood is scared to try new ideas, here's proof that Hollywood will try anything. After making monster movies which feature every imaginable kind of vermon and pest, Hollywood got desperate and made one about monster rabbits.

(Monster RABBITS?)

That's right, the word "lepus" means rabbit. The story concerns a group of scientist who try to solve a rabbit over-population problem in the Midwest by injecting the bunnies with a hormone intended to decrease their breeding abilities. Instead, the hormone increases the rabbits' growth rate until they weight 150 pounds, stand four feet tall, and roar.

(ROARING rabbits?)

Right! That's part of what makes them MONSTER rabbits. The special effects involve a combination of real rabbits on miniature sets and actors in monster rabbit suits.

(Monster rabbit SUITS!?)

The National Guard is called in to battle this menace to mankind.

(The National Guard battles BIG BUNNIES!!?)

Yes, indeed. Producer A. C. Lyles and director William F. Claxton knew full-well that a distinguished cast was needed to lend credibility to this bold and risky venture, so they hired Stuart Whitman ("City Beneath the Sea"), Janet Leigh ("Psycho"), Deforest Kelly ("Star Trek"), Rory Calhoun ("The Texan"), and Paul Fix (numerous westerns).

These fine stars did their best, but alas it wasn't enough, and "Night of the Lepus" is considered a failed experiment. What the film needed was Morris Ankrum as an army general who uttered lines such as,

"Good Lord, if we don't stop these monsters, there won't be a single carrot left on the planet!"

Now that I would love to see.

Ever wonder what Fu Manchu would look like if Christopher Lee looked just like Bette Davis?

Stop wondering, here's the answer. Ms. Davis plays the evil Madam Sin, an oriental villainess who is plotting world conquest from her Scottish castle, fully equipped with laboratory, sonic weapons, hypnotic drugs, etc.

She abducts Robert Wagner, an ex-CIA man whom she frames as a defector. Then she dupes him into helping her kidnap a naval officer and steal a nuclear submarine. European audiences paid to see this pilot for an unsold TV series.

At last, somebody was bold enough to make a movie in which cave people speak English!

Heck, why not? Movie goers have heard English dialogue spoken as the apparent native language of Indians, Africans, Egyptians, Romans, Japanese, Chinese, Martians, Venusians, and Metalunans.

This Hammer production was made on the same sets as "One Million Years B.C.", released the year before. Martine Beswick is featured in both films. Pretty girls abound in this story of two all-female tribes -- one all blond, the other all brunette. The brunettes are ruled by Miss Beswick in royal bear skin cap and a crown of big animal teeth. Her tribe enslaves the blondes, including the well-endowed Edina Ronay. This manless society of frustrated females is discovered by hunter Michael Latimer.

Ah ha! This movie isn't about prehistoric times, it's just about prehistoric women. No wonder they speak English!

James Bond is a character often imitated, never duplicated -- especially by this unskilled production which offers spy fans Paul Mantee ("Robinson Crusoe on Mars") as agent Dick Dagger (!) and his female ally, Terry Moore ("Might Joe Young").

Mantee is armed with a laser-firing watch, but he doesn't use it often. The villain is played by Jan Murray, whose role wins him the dubious distinction of being the least believable Nazi war criminal in movie history.

But the story does succeed in creating a disgusting villain; Murray's meat-packing business is processing meat from human bodies, and he serves a fillet mignon to Mantee obtained from sexy Maureen Arthur! (Yuck). Murray's sexy accomplice is Sue Ann Langdon ("A Guide for the Married Man"). Directed by Richard Rush. Co-star Terry Moore, a former wife of Howard Hughes, later posed for a photo spread in Playboy magazine, looking remarkably good for a woman over fifty.

Another one of those 1960s sci-fi movies whose poor production standards set your teeth on edge -- but in this case the cast is a hoot!

A space expedition comprised of the prolific John Agar, Wendell Corey ("Cyborg 2087"), Lyle Waggoner ("The Carol Burnette Show"), night club comedian Paul Gilbert (the comic relief), and Stuart Magolin (Angel from "The Rockford Files") lands on an alien world (a studio set), populated by dinosuars (stock-footage lizards) and prehistoric humanoids.

The astronauts provide assistance to two local inhabitants, a man and a woman who serve as a kind of Adam and Eve for this strange world -- which turns out to be Earth! This twist ending was done so often on the Twilight Zone it will never surprise anybody again.

The male humanoid's name is Tang and the female's is Linda ( . . . Linda?). Admittedly the story attempts to interject a few interesting elements; in addition to the roaring lizards, there's a carnivorous plant and a king-sized spider. Remember, I said they TRIED, okay?

How could you not like a movie with such an outlandish plot and such an infamous cast.

Mamie Van Doren is scrumptious as the Navy nurse heroine. Anthony Eisely ("Journey to the Center of Time") is the hero. Popular song-and-dance man Bobby Van ("Kiss Me Kate") is comic relief. Billy Gray ("Father Knows Best", "The Day the Earth Stood Still") is one of the brave young sailors who battle the Night Monsters (invading plant-creatures from space, ala "The Thing").

The monsters resemble huge mobile weeds (ala "The Day of the Triffids") which have acid for blood (ala "Alien"). The setting is Antarctica (ala "The Thing" . . . sort of), but the climate is a warm and well-lit (ala a studio set).

If all this sounds silly enough to be fun, take heart, it is (but beware of several gory scenes). The film was released by a company called Realart (this is "real art"?).

Extremely obscure, low-low budget cheapie with an amusing history. It started out as "Terror at Halfway", but it only got halfway finished.

Producer Herschell Gordon Lewis bought the half-movie, filmed the other half (more-or-less), and recorded a narration to make the plot less confusing. The star is Henry Height, "the tallest man in the world", as an astronaut who suffers the mutating effects of cosmic rays and returns to Earth as (what else?) a giant.

"Monster A Go-Go" was given a very limited release, playing to less than half the country, with good reason, since it is a complete waste of time. Don't bother. Lewis shared directing chores with Bill Rebane.

Even though this is a low-budget programmer, it does offer some interesting non-animated monsters. As in "Them", the monsters are full-sized, mobile mock-ups. The story describes them as prehistoric sea slugs, but they look more like caterpillars, complete with huge insect eyes, pincher-mandibles, and a double row of caterpillar-like legs.

Navy frogmen encounter the creatures on the floor of California's Salton Sea after an earthquake releases several trapped eggs which hatch in the warm water. The monsters migrate inland via waterways and underground springs, and the Navy must stop them before they overrun the planet.

Tim Holt is the stalwart Naval officer who spearheads the investigation into th mysterious deaths of several fluid-drained victims. Mr. Holt was well-known in the 1940s as the star of a series of low-budget but highly enjoyable Westerns. Typically his character was intelligent and good-natured, working undercover to solve a crime that had been committed.

Audrey Dalton is the pretty widow he romances. Hans Conried ("The Twonky") is the scientist who studies a batch of unhatched eggs in a temperature-controlled tank of water. A laboratory mishap causes one of the eggs to hatch, and the creature corners Dalton and her daughter in the lab.

The main problem with "The Monster that Challenged the World" is that the plot moves like the creatures -- at a snail's pace. Director Arnold Laven created a bland monster movie, sadly lacking in traditional elements such as theremin music, skeptical sheriffs, and Morris Ankrum as an army general.

Having no money to spend on special effects or makeup, producer-director William Lee Wilder did his best to entertain us with this light-weight tale about an alien who crashlands near the Griffith Observatory and tries to allude pursuing scientists.

To save money, the filmmakers (a) never actually show the spaceship and (b) make the alien invisible.

The scientists get hold of the alien's spacesuit (which is not invisible) and examine it in their lab. The alien can't live on Earth without it (so he was pretty stupid to take it off, right?), and he tries to get it back, but the helmet is accidentally destroyed.

Dying from asphyxiation, the alien is finally cornered on a catwalk in the observatory. The scientists use ultraviolet light to make the alien visible -- but he's just a man in a rubber cap to make him look bald-headed, and a flesh-colored swimsuit to make him look naked.

The mind boggles at the idea of a sci-fi movie in which the costume man, the make-up man, and the special effects man had nothing else to do but make an invisible alien look bald-headed and naked!

Boy, we weren't the ONLY ones who got gipped, huh?

Scientist Robert Shayne developes a serum that reverses evolution. He uses it on his housekeeper and regresses her to a cavewoman state, then he tries it on himself and ends up stalking the area as an ugley, hairy-faced monster.

Several transformation scenes are shown, but they aren't very well done, and the makeup consists of a stiff mask, completely without mobility. He uses it on his house cat and produces -- a saber toothed house cat!

Co-starring Richard Crane (TV's "Rocky Jones - Space Rangers"). Directed by E. A. Dupont, who did much better things earlier in his career.

Ah, but just for fun, suppose Shayne had used the serum on a few lizards, a squirrel, and an elephant in the local zoo. Persto! A herd of stop-motion dinosaurs, a giant tree sloth, and a wooly mammoth!

Gee, why am I the only one who thinks of these things?

Imagine "One Million B.C." (1940) with fewer dinosaurs but more pretty girls -- and in color!

Presto! "Prehistoric Women". And of course, tradition demands that none of the characters speak English. (Trivia note: Only two out the six "prehistoric" movies ever made allows the characters to speak English, one of which is the 1967 Hammer production, "Prehistoric Women", ironically enough).

At least this seldom-scene 1950 production provides a narrator to tell us interesting things about evolution that our school text books neglected.

An oversized caveman developes an interest in Mara Lynn and Luarette Luez, the principle females, who provide nice eye-candy for the male viewers. This is a recommended second feature for "Mesa of Lost Women" for obvious reasons. And Allan Nixon stars in both films!

This is movie number ten for the great Ray Harryhausen, who provides his usual stunning animation, although the plot is a bit cynical for some taste, lacking the cheerful charm of such movies as "Journey to the Center of the Earth". In this one we get animated Selenites, giant caterpillar-like "Moon Cows", and a big-brained Grand Lunar on his regal throne. The special effects in the scenes of Professor Cavor's spherical spaceship en route to the Moon are beautiful.

The opening scene is clever: the "first" astronauts to land on the moon (an international group) is stunned by the discovery of a tiny British flag on the lunar surface. A message attached to the flag identifies the real first Moon landers, and the authorities on Earth get in touch with one of them, an aging Edward Judd, who tells the strange tale of his turn-of-the century expedition with Professor Cavor (Jeffries) and Judd's fiance' (Hyer).

An artifact from the planet Venus is found buried on Earth, and scientists learn that the object is the log of an alien spacecraft which crashed. After attempts to contact the Venusian civilization are unsuccessful, a multi-national (and multi-racial) flight to Earth's sister planet is launched.

When the expedition arrives on Venus they find a dead world whose civilization has been destroyed by some kind catastrophe. The story contains good ideas, but the plot seems to race along with no regard for dramatic timing or narrative clarity, undoubtedly because of the thirty minutes of footage which were removed from the American version. The obvious dubbing is a major distraction, and the sound effects are garish and unappealing. For some reason, there are very few shots of the rocket traveling through space during the voyage. Generally speaking, the special effects run hot and cold.

The spaceship itself, however, is a beauty (both the interior and exterior), rivaling the best rockets for the 1950s. The little robot is memorable and well designed (it looks like a miniature tank).

The exterior shots of the strange Venusian surface are imaginative, with superimposed wisps of vapor constantly drifting past. Listen for several segments of music borrowed from "Destination Moon" and "This Island Earth".

Robert Lansing plays a scientist whose brother is trying to perfect a way to make solid objects pass through each other. Lansing finds out about his brother's radical concept and tries some experiments of his own. He succeeds so well that he takes the idea a step further: he makes himself pass through solid objects.

The process has an adverse affect on his mind, and he starts walking through the walls of banks at night, stealing the cash. Unfortunately, the use of his new power causes him to age rapidly, and the only way he can rejuvenate himself is to absorb life-energy by passing through another human being -- even though this kills the victim.

Robert Lansing's performance is quite good, and so are those of co-stars Lee Meriwether and Patty Duke (age 12). Robert Strauss ("Stalag 17", "The Seven Year Itch") is sadly miscast as an unscrupulous fellow scientist. Director Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr. created a good film on a meager budget, just as he did with "The Blob".

The special effects are impressive (and in color), devoid of any cheap "see-through" superimposed images. Whenever Lansing walks through a wall, he looks like he's stepping into an opaque liquid. Watch for an eerie scene in which Lansing walks slowly across a room towards an intended victim, passing through tables and chairs.

Beautifully filmed, SuperCineColor production from Columbia pictures, with a good cast. George Montgomery and Noah Berry are ex-outlaws-turned-Texas Rangers, sent out to help round up the gang they used to ride with. Gale Storm plays a feisty newspaper lady who don't cotton much to Montgomery on account of he was with the outlaws who gunned down her father, the Sheriff, before Montgomery turned into a good guy.

Montgomery plays one of those a man-in-the-middle characters: he infiltrates the outlaw gang, but the Texas Rangers think he's gone bad again. Nobody believes he's a good guy except the lovely and faithful Miss Storm, after Montgomery works his charm on her. Meanwhile, the outlaw boss knows Montgomery is a spy, so they plan to kill him after he helps with a million-dollar train robbery

Action? Dern tootin', pardner! After being shot several times and almost falling off the train, Montgomery slugs it out with an outlaw for control of the engine while the rest of the gang rides alongside, shooting at him. The outlaw tries to feed him into the boiler! Montgomery wins the fight when he sticks the outlaw's gun down the man's pants and pulls the trigger! Ouch .. . ('This is for shootin' my kid brother in the back, you low-down varmit!')

Not exactly 'The Magnificent Seven', but good Western fun from the colorful 1950s.

Typical fast-paced Tim Holt B-movie Western. Tim is tracking down a missing engraver who's being forced to print counterfeit money. The engraver's daughter (cute little Marjorie Reynolds) is looking for him, too.

Lots of pretty cowgirls -- all wearing pants, despite the historical period -- although the characters talk about making phone calls, so I'm not sure when the story takes place. I think I saw a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall of the bunch house.

Western music fans will enjoy the snappy tunes from singing cowboy costar, Ray Whitley. Lee 'Lasses' White provides comic relief. Lovely Louise Curry has her eye on Tim, but he's too busy for romance (and that's far too busy for me, yessiree . . . ).

I've yet to see a Tim Holt Western that didn't deliver a wagon load of fun. The only thing this one needed was Richard Martin as Tim's sidekick, Chito Jose Gonzalez Bustamante Rafferty (his father was Irish).

Dean Martin's last outing as Matt Helm -- a horny, alcoholic photographer who occasionally moonlights as a spy. This was America's jokey answer to the suave and handsome James Bond. Strangely, this one is devoid of the usual `spy movie' trappings that the genre's fans expected: no high-tech gizmos, no futuristic sets, no special effects of rockets or laserbeams. Even the traditional `Matt Helm joke weapon' (backwards-shooting guns, built-in bra cannons) is a big disappointment in this movie. Matt carries black silk handkerchiefs that explode.

Like, wow . . .

Although Dean makes fewer of the trademark corny jokes in this one, the soundtrack occasionally offers Dean singing short, comic versions of classic songs. The fight scenes are embarrassingly bad – which is amazing since they were supposedly choreographed by Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.

The Helm series ran hot and cold as far as the girls it offered male viewers to ogle, and this one offered a slightly over-the-hill Elke Sommer, a fresh-from-"Gilligan's Island" Tina Louise, a China-doll-cute Nancy Kwan -- and a very lovely Sharon Tate as Dean's klutzy-but-gorgeous sidekick.

Male viewers might have dozed off during other parts of the film, but none of them slept through the scene in which Miss Tate shakes her boody for Dean, dressed in a paper-thin, fanny-high minidress! They woke up again at the end of the film, when Sharon wiggles around on a bed wearing high heels and a pink babydoll nightie.