The Naked Monster!

The Naked Monster (once called Attack of the B-Movie Monster) is one of those works prompted by fan adoration and nostalgia and consequently must be seen and judged on those terms...somewhat. I say that to say this, this is not a very good movie in most of the traditional ways that one might mean that statement. But it is a cavalcade of monster fan wonderment, filled to nigh overflowing with images from past movies and the actors who made them. The movie operates in an oddball fictional universe where most if not all of the monster and alien invasion movies you've ever seen are real and that the heroic folks who helped save the planet from these threats are all up and around in locations like Santa Mira and Winnerden Flats.

The movie's lead is the great Kenneth Tobey who was important in several movies such as It Came From Beneath the Sea, Strange Invaders, and The Thing from Another World. It is as "Colonel Patrick Hendry" from the latter movie he portrays in this movie. Alongside him from the same flick are Robert Cornthwaite and George Feeneman. The former in his role as Dr. Carrington and the latter as the narrator of the movie.

From The War of the Worlds we get Les Tremayne as "General Mann" and Ann Robinson as "Dr. Sylvia Van Buren".

From The Return of the Creature both John Agar as "Clete Ferguson" and Lori Nelson as "Helen Dobson" make a showing.

The Monster from Piedras Blancas is represented by two folks playing similar roles. The keeper of the lighthouse and his wife are played by John Harmon and Jean Carmen, though in this brief appearance they are husband and wife and not father and daughter. Harmon was the god-father of Wayne Berwick who was the son of Irvin Berwick who wrote and directed The Monster from Piedras Blancas.

From Beyond the Time Barrier appears as "Major Allison" portrayed by Robert Clarke.

From The Indestructible Man we get Robert Shayne (left above) as "Professor Bradshaw".

Paul Marco who famously played "Kelton the Cop" in several of Ed Wood's epics, most famously Plan 9 from Outer Space comes to a grisly end in this movie.

"Scream Queen" Brinke Stevens is the true star of the show along with Tobey and has probably the most screen time. A bunch of that time is making really bad puns (which I enjoyed mightily) and a teensy bit of it was presenting some totally gratuitous nudity. One scene simply says that her character takes a shower, a pointless (as far as the plot anyway) diversion, though I for one found it very entertaining. The Weird Tales above feature Stevens on the cover and has a story by her inside. This issue appears in the movie at one point.

Lots of other cameos are spread throughout by the likes of Forry Ackerman, Bob (The Gorilla Tracey) Burns, Gloria Talbot, and Lennea Quigley (who engages in some delightful gratuitous nudity of her own). This is a riot of images and characters in a movie made over a twenty year period on the ultra cheap.

The eponymous monster was at one time early in the production a stop-motion creation, but that was deemed unworkable when the project expanded to feature length and a stunningly miserable costume is substituted. It makes one pine for the subtle creations of Paul Blaisdell. Sadly many of the veteran cast members who donated their time to the projected died before it was completed. The producer and director Ted Newsome (who appears in the movie much as William Castle did many years ago) put the film together bit by bit over too many years. 

The movie is almost like a moving collage of monster-movie images lifted from too many different films to count, and blended with new footage with little success. This is a wannabe bad movie made badly at times, but it has a fondness for the genre at its heart which keeps it pumping along. I cannot in any way recommend this movie save to those steeped in the love of 50's monsters like me, because only someone with that affliction can truly appreciate this ramshackle bit of cinema.

This is a Dojo classic re-post.  

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The Thing From Another World!

In my opinion movies don't get better than The Thing from Another World! Based on John C. Campbell's novella "Who Goes There?"" (also released recently under the title The Frozen Hell) this epic 1951 B-movie tells of a group of stalwart soldiers and scientists at the top of the world in the frozen Arctic who repel a deadly invader from the depths of space. 

James Arness, who would go on to portray Marshall Matt Dillon for decades in the television show Gunsmoke plays the titular "Thing". Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, and Margaret Sheridan headline one of the strongest casts I've ever seen in a movie of this kind. Dewey Martin is ideal as an airman who despite not being an officer proves to be of great value to the defense effort. Douglas Spencer as an eager reporter adds just the right small smidge of light-heartedness to this spare story of death in the cold. So many good parts and great actors just slinking in the background of every scene. 

Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks create a spare movie without a single wasted frame. Every line communicates something necessary for the audience, speaking to story or character or both. The pace and momentum of the story is just right, no sense of panic or rushing, but good speed all along. The story never drags, even in the quietest moments. Dimitri Tiomkin's score is punchy and dark in all the right places, adding drama to an already drama-laden yarn. 

This movie is a wonderful depiction of the American ideal, men (and some few women I'll admit) of all stripes working in concert for a noble goal. This is a smart military unit, which values life though ready to take it if necessary. There's very little bitterness in this movie, which is filled with civility. When asked to identify my favorite movie the answer is either The Thing from Another World or The Maltese Falcon, another classic I love for almost all the same reasons. 

The story has been famously adapted to film on two other occasions, the first in 1981 by John Carpenter in which he cleaves a bit closer to John Campbell's original story with a shape-shifting monster from deep space. The other serves as a prequel of sorts to the Carpenter film and was made in 2011. These are wonderful flicks and do their job of scaring the viewer quite well, especially the Carpenter outing. But for me, I'll take the original The Thing from Another World in all its floral glory every time. 

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No Thing To Be Found!

Frankly I've always been a bit surprised that a really good DVD of the the classic Howard Hawks movie The Thing From Another World (officially my favorite sci-fi flick) has not come onto the market. The one that is available has been so for years and is a bare bones offering.


I own the movie a few times on VHS, getting a super cheap one ages ago back in the stone age of video, and then updating with a new black and white copy and the colorized version many years ago now. I've not gotten the DVD because I figured the week after I dropped a dime on it, they'd come out with a really cool version with all the fringe benefits. I'd love to hear a solid commentary on this movie.


Then I heard about the prequel that's due to be released to theaters about any time and I assumed that would be the launch date for a new version of the classic. But I cannot uncover it if it exists. I guess I'll just have to cave in at last and get the one that has been lounging on the racks all these years.

Sheesh!

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Watch The Skies!

When I'm asked to list my favorite movie, The Thing From Another World is usually the one I mention. It's not always my favorite all the time, but it's always on the short list. It's a great movie, exquisitely paced and offering up a superb image of the ideal American, a no-nonsense man of grit, determination, savvy, and a man willing to collaborate and sacrifice for the greater good. The scientists in the story are a mixed lot, some obsessed by their craft and overcome by intellect as opposed to wisdom, and some striking a better balance. But the soldiers are a gang of good men who have worked together in tough times and who trust one another and who respect the chain of command when it works. There's a practical problem-solving quality to this movie as they and The Thing match wits and strategy at the top of the world with only the winner surviving.


The message of Cold War paranoia is leavened in this one by practical men facing up to the tough requirements a proven enemy demands. They must respond with force and more importantly with wits or they will all be lost. What they think is most important as well as what they feel. It's a battle for the heart as well as the head, for a balance between the two. That's why they win, because they make room for both.

As I said, it's a great movie. They don't make them like that anymore.

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Very Strange Invaders!

I remember this one from the theaters. I have a VHS copy of it somewhere but it's been years and years since I watched Strange Invaders. The movie is one I fondly remember, so when I found it in a discount bin on dvd I snapped it up.

But alas my memories are more kind than my review. The movie has a charm to it, but I have to say it's difficult to watch a movie where the dialogue is difficult to pick out because of the sound quality, and that's the original recording as far as I can tell. They must've done quite a bit of the sound on set, and sadly it shows.

The story is a clever one, or at the least the initial notion is. A group of aliens appear in the 1950's above a small Illinois town and take over. We cut forward to the 80's and we find a professor of entymology becomes embroiled in a mystery involving his ex-wife and his daughter. It turns out his ex-wife is one of the aliens sent to learn about human life and now the aliens are leaving and they want everyone to go even the little girl, the progeny of alien and human. There's a lot more in this like the usual government cover-up, blistering blue balls of light, ghost dogs, and whatnot, but all these clever bits don't really blend neatly.

The story just doesn't fall together. There is a curious sidestory about a man who goes on vacation with his family in the blighted town and loses his wife and kids and finds himself labeled years later a madman. It's his struggle that really gives the story some heart but sadly his tale doesn't fit in until the flick is half over.

Maybe it's the acting, which comes off as insincere, but something kept me outside the flow of this movie. As much as I liked see Kenneth Tobey in a smallish role as the top alien the movie is lethargic. It's got some neat scenes like when the professor is in a diner with a bunch of aliens who ignore him or when the aliens come to NYC to get the girl. Their out-of-time goofiness gives a creepiness to it all, but in the final analysis I just didn't care about the characters enough to invest in the overal expeience.

I give this a mild recommendation for the curious.

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