The Monster That Challenged the World

I found this film about giant snails on the loose in the Salton sea area slightly better than most programmer monster films of the late 1950's. The giant snails are a believable menace in that they are presented as no more dangerous than any other large aquatic predator such a shark or crocodile. They put a fight but can be killed with several well aimed shots from a pistol or a heavy axe. The real danger as pointed in the film, is that snails are extremely fecund, and if they were to enter the ocean , they could reproduce in enormous numbers thus creating ecological havoc. Anyone who has ever had a fish tank knows once you introduce one tiny snail, in a matter of couple of weeks you have hundreds. One odd aspect everyone seems to comment on is that snails look like caterpillars in snail shells. There is a type of aquatic insect larva that uses a discarded snail shell as armour, much like a hermit crab does. Perhaps someone involved with the film had seen these insect larvae and mistook them for snails.

Of course The Monster That Challenged the World is slowly paced. With a budget of about twenty dollars there's a lot of filler. But what little budget there is, is well used in creating a great animatronic monster.

The story is basic but well-structured and it works. I can watch this one over and over without wanting to throw things at the screen or yell at the characters for doing stupid things. My intelligence is more seriously insulted by modern horror films and their idiot protagonists than it ever is by The Monster That Challenged the World.

Among low-budget sci-fi flicks of the 1950s, The Monster That Challenged the World ranks near the top!

Jan Strnad (aka J. Knight)

The Monster That Challenged the World is about some prehistoric molluscs who were in some dormant eggs that got themselves hatched. They are spreading death and destruction through their abilities to come out on land and feed, usually on unsuspecting humans.

The special effects are a might better than some of the science fiction cult classics from the Fifties. The story does bog down a bit in the personal part. Tim Holt's character is introduced to us as a by the book navy commander who softens with no real reason why.

When he did this film Tim Holt had been off the screen for five years after the B picture western disappeared from the big screen and on to television. Why Holt didn't go the way of television in his career is a mystery.

Tim Holt had one of the strangest careers in Hollywood history. He was a very good actor, gave good performances in both western and non-western films like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Stella Dallas, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, and The Magnificent Ambersons. Yet he consistently went back to doing B westerns for RKO. His westerns were above average in the B film market, but they did nothing to advance his career. Another guy who replaced Holt in B westerns at RKO went on to a mega career, that being Robert Mitchum.

So in 1957 while Mitchum is doing critically acclaimed stuff like Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, Tim's doing The Monster That Challenged the World. Insisting on being a B picture cowboy finished him for anything else. So sad.

Holt did do two subsequent films that I've not seen, but the description makes them sound worse than this one.

You can watch The Monster That Challenged the World and still enjoy it. But if you liked Tim Holt and his screen performances and persona you will have a twinge of regret.

A small naval base by the Salton Sea is under attack from some ancient mollusks freed by an earthquake through the floor of the sea. The film starts out in typical 50's sci-fi manner, and the first encounter between one of these caterpillar-looking creatures and a couple of sailors is rather good. The creatures leave some gooey stuff, apparently saliva, by each victim. The head of the base, a Twillinger, begins to try and find out what killed his men with the aid of scientist Hans Conried. Tim Holt, the fella that played Curtain in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, plays Twillinger(Twill), a brusque, by the book, no nonsense guy. It wasn't till near the end of the picture I realized it was Holt(having missed opening credits) as he was like a balloon compared to his early western films. Nonetheless Holt effectively takes charge of this "sticky" situation. Hans Conried excels as the scientist. The film is not a great sci-fi film, but it is an exciting one with a good pace, good acting, and decent special effects.

"The Monster That Challenged the World", in spite of its long winded title, is not a bad movie of its kind. The film was one of a series of "giant creature" movies popular in the fifties.

The monster of the title is a giant mollusk/snail type creature (that actually looks more like a caterpillar) that is awakened by an earthquake. It then sets about attacking people and laying eggs. Commander Tim Holt of the U.S. Naval Intelligence Service then sets about to destroy it. Assisting him are scientists Hans Conried (playing it straight for a change) and Casey Adams (aka Max Showalter) and sheriff Gordon Jones. Audrey Dalton is Holt's love interest. Veteran character actor Ralph Moody (a true what's his name?) plays one of the monster's victims.

Director Arthur Laven gives us a believable monster(s) for the 50s and builds the suspense by not showing it until well into the film. Some of the victims look like papier mache but all in all it makes for a pretty good monsters film with high production values on a modest budget.

Holt, who had left films when his excellent "B" western series ended in 1952, came out of retirement for this film, apparently as a favor to director Laven. After this, he made only one more film before forsaking Hollywood for good.