The Beast with a Million Eyes

Some viewers of 50s sci-fi may write this one off as being way too low-budget (admittedly, only about $23,000 back in '55) for its ambitions, but in truth the script (credited to Tom Filer) really isn't bad at all, touching upon such subjects as the human capacity for love, the effects of isolation, and the after effects of WWII. Yeah, the spaceship for the alien intelligence is bargain-basement stuff (it's a coffee percolator!), but the filmmakers do show some intelligence, and give the production an intimate feel by focusing on a limited number of characters.

The farming family led by Allan Kelley (Paul Birch, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance") is now being subjected to various animal attacks, including one from the pet dog of daughter Sandra (Dona Cole, in her only credited film role). It turns out that the alien invader can control an unlimited number of Earths' animal species. (A cow also turns against its owner, played by veteran actor Chester Conklin ("The Great Dictator").) Hence, the films' title. It doesn't actually possess one million orbs.

Said alien was created by monster-maker of the era Paul Blaisdell, in his first feature credit. We only see it briefly at the end, and don't get a *great* look at it, but it's pretty cool nevertheless. Incidentally, this was *started* by credited producer - director David Kramarsky, but uncredited executive producer Roger Corman was dissatisfied with what he was turning out, and proceeded to finish the picture himself. Overall, the picture is fairly well made, with Corman bringing the great cinematographer Floyd Crosby (of those Corman-directed Edgar Allan Poe pictures of the 60s) onto the project. The music is also good.

Granted, this flick *is* laughable at times, and certainly not always intentionally. And it can get melodramatic at times, with a florid performance by Lorna Thayer as the farm wife / mom. She later found some fame as the waitress subjected to Jack Nicholsons' "chicken salad sandwich" speech" in "Five Easy Pieces". Birch is a standout; also co-starring are a very young Dick Sargent of later 'Bewitched' fame as the amiable deputy, Bruce Whitmore, who provides the voice for the monster, and Leonard Tarver, who plays the hulking, mute hired hand known only as "Him".

While not particularly distinguished, "The Beast with a Million Eyes" does deserve more respect than it typically gets. It was one of the original productions for American Releasing Corporation, which soon became much more well-known as American International Pictures.

Five out of 10.

The movie is set in an oasis in the desert--somewhere in the California/Nevada area. The story involves a family plus their hired hand--a mute who seems to be a bit touched. Into their boring little world, what seems to be a plane nearly hits their house and soon all the animals on the farm start behaving in a hostile fashion towards the people. Most of the violence comes from the birds and the film is highly reminiscent of the Hitchcock film, THE BIRDS--though this film at least tries to explain why the animals are going berserk. It seems that the plane was actually a UFO and it deposited some weird machine that can make animals and weak-minded people do its evil bidding!!! Despite this great threat, everything just kind of fizzled and everyone was miraculously fine when the film ended--and I felt pretty confused and irritated by the slap-dash ending.

One of the first things you'll notice about this film is that it was shot on a shoestring budget--much like an Ed Wood film. The actors were obviously not professionals and the setting was amazingly minimalistic. Yet despite this, the film had some very interesting story elements and I found myself actually enjoying this film--that is until the movie degenerated into a cheesy and stupid mess towards the end. And, when it's all said and done, that's what you are left with as the final credits roll--a terrible mess that just didn't pay off and could have with a re-write to the last 10 minutes.

Now it is very easy to lambaste this film for so many things. The cheesy special effects(where reviewers have compared the alien spacecraft to a percolator or tea kettle)or how about the cloth birds thrown at Paul Birch's car. That is the extent of the special effect except of course for the "horrifying" finale where the mastermind is revealed. Somebody pinch me so I do not relive that horror another moment. Okay, let's get real. What about the animals - real, live animals - which are supposedly mad and dangerous. A dog wagging it tail in attack mode? The dog looked liked it was being trained in real time and was about as dangerous as the chances of any actors in this film winning an Oscar. A mad bull suppose to be a milking cow moving on in an attack like molasses. Paper and cloth birds and an innocuous crow sitting in a date palm. Scary stuff. The story basically has some alien mastermind introduced at the film's beginning saying he will take over earth for his dying alien race by first mastering the simple minds of the animals and plants and then moving on to the human beings. Whilst its execution is anything but pretty, The Beast with a Million Eyes is really one of the first nature goes awry films - films like The Day of the Animals, Prophecy, Grizzly, and so on owe the film a little bit - okay, a micro-little bit, but it is one of the first of its kind. What does it have going for it? Honestly not much. Paul Birch is mediocre but at least can act. I wish I could say that about the other thespians but would choke if I tried. Lorna Thayer plays his wife with reckless over-acting. She was an actress of some note and today is best known as the waitress from Five Easy Pieces with the notorious chicken salad sandwich scene. Dona Cole plays the daughter Sandy and she is just awful - no wonder her film career was quite limited. Dick Sargent(the second Darren from Bewitched) and Leonard Traver as the hulking, mute, ax-wielding "Him" are barely serviceable. One minor surprise was seeing great silent film comedian Chester Conklin in a brief but satisfying role. He even gets to do a little shtick for us before his udderly ridiculous departure. I have one big question. Why would an alien mastermind trying to take over the world start on a barely populated date farm in the middle of nowhere. Nothing much here in terms of animal/plant/or human life? You can tell the movie was made on a shoe-string budget and has obvious, for many, irrevocable flaws. But despite all of these imperfections, I found the movie to have some heart and think we should all get together and give it some love. Paul Birch's character would be so happy with that.

Most of the reviews of this movie have focused on acting, writing, and production values (or perhaps the lack thereof). This is what makes the film entertaining. In my view, the most interesting aspect of this film is its allegorical quality.

This movie was released in 1955, during the blacklist period and the McCarthy hearings. The title refers to the alien's ability to takeover the brains of the lesser animals (birds, dogs, cows, chickens) as well as the brains of weak-minded humans. Doing this provides him with the ability to see what the rest of us are up to. To me, that seems a lot like informing on our neighbors and co-workers. And what's the defense against this alien threat? We defeat it by staying united and sharing our strength.

Allegory or no, it's fun to watch the rampaging farm animals (perhaps a precursor to "Black Sheep") and the attacking blackbirds (props, I hope, tossed at a car window).

To call this film "cheesy" or imply that it is "worse than Ed Wood" is absurd. The Beast With A Million Eyes may indeed have a pathetic space ship that looks like a coffee percolator, but the film itself is an understated and serious attempt to deal with issues as diverse as individualism, loneliness, guilt, and spirituality. The film doesn't rely on stock footage, giant bugs, prescient scientists, granite jawed generals, or any of the other cliches of 50s sci fi. Shot in the deserts of California on a meagre budget, it manages to convey the depression and decay that have overcome the small, but nuclear, farm family headed by the excellent Paul Birch. Birch went on to play a similar role in the 1956 ARC production, The Day the World Ended--another film that is remembered primarily for its goofy monsters instead of its interesting story. This film scared me to death when I was 10 years old, and seeing it now reminded me of the primal fears of betrayal and disloyalty that were the obvious triggers of my pre-pubescent psyche. By no means a 'classic': simply an outstanding example of low low budget independent filmmaking and intelligent screenwriting.