Teenage Monster

20 years before "Track of the Moon Beast", another classic, we got this wonderfully idiotic piece of junk about a characters' exposure to a falling meteor. That person is a child named Charles Cannon, who seven years later has become a hilarious anthropological throwback (complete with makeup by Jack Pierce). His mom Ruth (Anne Gwynne) never tries very hard to keep him hidden from the world, as he's always out and about maiming and killing people. Their fortunes would be seem to be improving when they finally strike it rich in the old family gold mine, but of course just keep getting worse and worse.

You can't feel too sorry for Ruth; she leaves the poor creature (played as a teenager by 50 year old Australian Gil Perkins) to his own devices far too often.

The actors, also including studly Stuart Wade as the local sheriff, Norman Leavitt as his brave deputy, and stuntman / actor Chuck Courtney as the slimy Marv, give admirably straight faced performances, but the movie belongs to Gloria Castillo as Kathy, an abduction victim turned conniving charmer. She's a pleasure to watch. And God bless her, Ms. Gwynne emotes for everything that she's worth.

Charles' appearance is amusing, if not Pierces' best work, and his vocalizations (which occasionally become coherent) are damn funny for a while.

This is another "good" one for watching with beers and buddies.

Five out of 10.

Teenage Monster (1958)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Weird and sometimes funny sci-fi has a young boy struck by a UFO crash, which turns him into the title character several years later. This film has the reputation as being one of the worst movies ever made and I can agree with that to a point but the film does offer quite a few laughs for those who enjoy bad "B" movies. The look of the monster is actually pretty good, although he comes off looking more like the wolf man than anything else. The love that the protective mother (Anne Gwynne) shows her monster son gets a few laughs, which are always needed. The film is also interesting because it takes place during the 1880s so you've got the old west feel added to the horror and sci-fi elements. Gloria Castillo plays a woman hired by the mother to talk with the monster.

Hey - it's a 50's horror movie, what can we expect, kids?

This one is truly original in that it actually combines werewolves, meteors, and the Old West. However, the sci-fi aspect (meteors) is particularly tenuous - the 'meteor' appears to be a lit sparkler held close to the camera in soft focus. And the 'grown-up' Charles is just unbelievable, even if he is a werewolf - it's seven years later, but he looks at least 40. But if you can deal with 50'd Sci-Fi - you'll find this fun. Nice comment on manipulative women as well -actually a fairly coherent, if more than a bit far out - plot.

TEENAGE MONSTER was originally produced under the title MONSTER ON THE HILL, and was also known as METEOR MONSTER. Heading the cast is the former 1940s Universal star Anne Gwynne, trapped into a role she probably needed to meet some bills. The pretty Gwynne was known for such Karloff, Lugosi, and Chaney Jr. oldies like BLACK Friday, WEIRD WOMAN, and HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Here she starts out as a typical mother and housewife in the Old West whose life is thrown into turmoil when a cheap Fourth Of July sparkler in the sky (it's supposed to be a deadly meteor!) crashes down and kills her husband. Worse still is the handicap it leaves upon her little boy Charles: he's now a scarred and brain damaged brute.

Zooming ahead several years later, we see the "teenaged" boy as he now exists since the tragedy: a six-foot-something hairy dimwit with bad teeth and shaggy hair. The boy was portrayed by stuntman Gil Perkins, well over age fifty and who himself was a former Wolf Man and Frankenstein monster double from the Universal classics of the 40s! For TEENAGE MONSTER he was made up by the once great Jack Pierce, whose new '50s get-ups were starting to look kind of crappy and rushed, leaving him looking like a cross between Glenn Strange in THE MAD MONSTER and John Bloom in THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT.

Gwynne tries to keep her mutant son hidden from the townsfolk, but junior tends to get into mischief by killing someone or something every so often anyway. Mom has also become wealthy in the aftermath of her husband's demise, and once a young waitress gets wind of the shady goings-on, she blackmails Gwynne by threatening to expose Charles unless she receives a steady chunk of change on a regular basis. She gradually gains control over the mangy halfwit too, sending her pawn out to dispatch people she doesn't much care for in the bargain.

AIP actress Gloria Castillo (REFORM SCHOOL GIRL, INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN) gives the best performance of the show as the greedy waitress. But Anne Gwynne also seems to rise above the material herself, given that she thought the film was the worst thing she ever did and even caused her to stop making movies (this was her final film). Indeed, there are some unintentional laughs here, the best example being the dubbed voice of the teenage monster. It was initially felt that Charles sounded way too articulate for a mentally challenged moron, so the decision was made to have Gil Perkins loop in some hysterically stupid whimpers and whines that never match the filmed lip movements. Even funnier is the fact that Anne Gwynne and Gloria Castillo still appear to be able to make sense of every grunt he mumbles! ** out of ****

In TEENAGE MONSTER, an old legend comes true when a meteor (aka: someone waving a sparkler around) sails to Earth, killing a man. Said man's son is burned by the space rock, eventually transforming into a babbling mutant!

Death and destruction ensue, while mom (Anne Gwynne) tries to keep her mutated son hidden.

Set in the 1890's, the story is the same as many such movies from the 1950's. Trade in the horses and western wear, for boat-sized sedans and blue jeans, and this could be one of any number of drive-in spectaculars from the period.

The monster resembles a half-turned werewolf / Barry Gibb hybrid. Hearing him moan, blubber, and whine is as hilarious as it is irritating!

This movie does get high marks for at least trying to be different...