Monster of the Day #20

That monster gets a lot of laughs and it undermines the built up tension of the movie. But I’d like to see a single scifi movie any more with half as competent a script. Maybe George Lucas should have hired Coleman to do the prequel screenplays. Couldn’t have hurt.

Sorry, I just gotta add the whole speech:
““Man is a feeling creature, and because of it the greatest in the universe. He learned too late for himself that men have to find their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can’t be any gift of perfection from outside ourselves. When men seek such perfection they find only death, fire, loss, disillusionment and the end of everything that’s gone forward. Men have always sought an end to our misery but it can’t be given, it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside, from Man himself.”

…drilled into my head by Joel and the ‘bots.
I’ve only seen this one MiSTed (same for a lot of movies, actually), but that’s OK. I think they got a lot of milage out of this one. Love the reveal!

This movie was surprisingly good up till the final act. There was good build-up, some interesting twists, and a few surprises. I’m still shocked he killed her: both as it was unnecessary and a serious thing even today.

Then we see the turnip monster and that freaking soliloquy and it all goes downhill.

Movies like this, it’s like they ran out of story and just sprinted for the finish.

I always loved this movie! Might’ve been my first AIP and/or Corman picture. Still get a lot out of it today. Great script, and I think I read that it was written over a single weekend! Now, a lot of folk like to pick on poor Beulah, but I have to say I always liked this monster. I made a Beulah out of modeling clay when I was a kid, it had to be about the fourth grade when I did it. (and except for his face being too low on the body it was actually a pretty good copy, I put a lot of work into that sucker and wanted to make a rubber copy but couldn’t get the plaster. Seems like I played with it for about a month!) You have to admit, he’s a lot meaner looking than Zontar! Looking at the film as an adult, I think the scariest thing here is Sally Fraser’s ‘release’ and the following battle with the control device. But this picture has lots of good moments, Beverly’s confrontaions with Van Cleef and her showdown with Beulah, the “Now its reached you” line after her screams die out on the radio, Peter and Lee debating how advances come about, I even like the ending speech and that final rise of music. It has some rough edges, but the picture is really slcik and well-mounted considering the money and conditions Corman was working under (this flick is a good example of just how good a director he could be, even while keeping an eye on the bottom line). One of my all-time favorites.

Few things made me as happy as giving a copy of It Conquered The World to some kids I know who beat the odds and really like old monster movies. Running a 16mm print of Curse of the Werewolf for them was a high point too.

It may be hard to find really good prints of some movies. The only print I’ve seen of Not Of This Earth was a TV print stretched to fill the needed time slot. I fear a lot of movies are only availible in that condition.

Attack of the Crab Monsters is availible on a DVD-R format at the AC Comics webstore, it comes on a set called ‘M is for Monster’ on a double bill with Pharoh’s Curse. They also have lots of old serials and compilations of old TV detective shows and the like. -And No, I don’t get any kind of a bonus if you check them out. In Fact, Ken, if you’re listening, if you ever do another superhero movie roundtable I nominate AC’s own Nightveil: Witch war!

As a kid I saw that publicity shot in a book, and I found it so exciting. Due to the title, I thought the monster must be powerful. I assumed the window was high up, so there was more to the monster than the shot showed. The actual movie, when I saw it years later, didn’t live up to my idea of it.

Oh, and the monster’s pretty nifty too. Goofy, sure, but damn sure memorable!