Terror in the Midnight Sun

"Invasion of the Animal People," though carrying a 1961 copyright, is actually a 1958 production originally titled "Rymdinvasion i Lappland" (Space Invasion of Lappland), made in Sweden by Hollywood director Virgil Vogel, coming off a pair of marginal Universal entries, "The Mole People" and "The Land Unknown." The arctic setting certainly provides a more interesting backdrop than anything that happens on film, as a trio of aliens burrow into the snow and ice, allowing a solitary creature to escape, approximately 20 feet tall and covered in fur. We only get to see the 'animal person' during the final two reels of an 80 minute feature, actually 9 minutes longer than the original, despite several scenes of exposition shortened and streamlined (Warren's theatrical edit lasted under an hour at a mere 55 minutes). The perpetrator of this 'new' movie was our old friend Jerry Warren, a hustler adept at taking other people's films and making a fast buck out of them, adding newly shot footage of his own that adds nothing but running time. Such was the case here, as John Carradine supplies three minutes of on screen narration to open the film, after which we only occasionally hear his sterling voice propping up the deadly dull proceedings. Warren needlessly begins his version with an abominable 17 straight minutes of new dialogue heavy scenes, utilizing actress Barbara Wilson for proper continuity, so by the time we reach the original footage it's a painless rendition of the unreleased "Terror in the Midnight Sun" (interrupted by only two additional Warren-shot scenes). Gorgeous brunette Barbara Wilson did a fairly daring nude scene in the Swedish version, also a veteran of pulsating pulchritude in "Teenage Doll," "Blood of Dracula," and "The Flesh Eaters." Screenwriter Arthur C. Pierce continued in the genre vein with "The Cosmic Man," "Beyond the Time Barrier," "The Human Duplicators," "Mutiny in Outer Space," "Women of the Prehistoric Planet," "Dimension 5," "Cyborg 2087," "The Destructors," and "The Astral Factor." Jerry Warren deserves some small credit for hardly tampering with what he had, but not for the two additional reels of nonsensical claptrap. Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater aired this Carradine title on four occasions between 1968 and 1971.

Unlike most of the people who have reviewed INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE here, I actually own the film. Which is not to say that I recommend it wholly, but the film does have its quirky charms.

If you are unfamiliar with Jerry Warren films, then I'll tell you a few things about him. His films are paste-together jobs, usually bought from other countries(this one is Swiss),and reedited with unrelated footage of Americans, sitting around talking. This film has plenty of all those elements, and it looks like the original film was far better than the American version.

First of all, although the Animal Person is cheap-looking, it is a welcome change of pace. There was definitely some care put into the costume, and the way the costume was photographed. All the Animal footage was done before Warren got his hands on it.He included scenes of John Carradine and Robert Burton talking. And talking. And it never has much to do with the other film, the one directed by Virgil Vogel. But, this strange brew of film cuts and loose ends has a certain sedative quality to it. When viewing the location footage, it is fairly serene and technically sound. The climax is shoddy, but this is a minor complaint in view of the footage Warren shot.

I feel for you Vogel. INVASION...has some moments that will have you rolling in your seat, all unintentional. But, it is hard to recommend this to serious film fans because it is hardly a film, just a pistache of two separate directors' works. I would love to see the original foreign version of this film, but I will probably have to settle for the Warren-ized version. By default, this is Warren's best film, although he tried hard to undo that as well.

Skip FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND or I WAS A HIPPY VAMPIRE, and skip this one too, unless you're in the mood for a REAL BAD movie.

If you like watching a bunch of people skiing around, you'll love this. An alien saucer lands in the opening round of the movie, and just sits there for about an hour of film running time before anything else involving it happens.

I saw this on one of those late night live-monster host shows, and the riffs the guy did kept the movie from being pretty boring. There's some scientists that want to see the "meteor" that came down, a romance between a couple who flirt on the ski runs, and some other folks that do a reenactment of the mob scene from Frankenstein. You have to wait a long time to see the creature, a really really big hairy guy with ugly teeth, and his brief scene is pretty campy. Still, I liked the Jolly Neanderthal Giant. As for aliens, they show up only once too, just staring at somebody. (One is seen a couple of times from the back, always watching TV).

Innocently silly and mildly amusing. There's loose ends at the end deliberately left for you to ponder. Or laugh at.

Invasion of the Animal People (1962)

* (out of 4)

A brief introduction to director Jerry Warren who is the worst in my opinion. Warren would buy foreign movies, cut out the dialogue scenes and then add newly directed scenes so that he could then sell the movie off as his own. These added scenes usually have nothing to do with the "original" movie scenes surrounding them but that can sometimes add to the charm. This film was originally a Swedish production called Terror in the Midnight Sun but Warren chopped it up, added a few scenes with John Carradine and had him serve as the narrator. A spaceship crashes in the mountains and out gets a huge, hairy creature who stalks some scientists. The look of the creature is certainly dumb enough to get a few laughs but this doesn't happen until the final ten minutes and what follows that is pretty hard to get though. Slow, boring, stupid and simply badly made. The added scenes are equally poor. However, it must be said that this is still a lot better than Warren's Attack of the Mayan Mummy and Frankenstein Island.

The other reviewers have pretty much summed up this sci-fi snow fest but I just have to mention a couple things - the overall cinematography isn't all that bad and I have to say some of the special effects took some effort. I especially am intrigued by the landing of the meteor/space ship at the beginning - the part where it skids in through the snow and buries itself in the mountain side. It is a pretty well done 5-10 seconds of the film, obviously a miniature of some kind and surprisingly well done compared to the rest of the film's mostly mediocre FX.