Monster of the Day #35

An interesting ‘compare and contrast’ to yesterday’s MotD.  One is a man’s id that is running amok without his conscious knowledge or awareness.  Gor, meanwhile, is a space brain that takes over a human male and, in contrast to the normal run of things (wherein the brain would impose an ‘inhuman,’ coldly intellectual persona on his victim), instead gets into the whole ‘sins of the flesh’ and uses his host’s body to really tear it up.  Or at least as much as you could in the ’50s, anyway.

This latter idea has been explored in subsequent stories and films, but this is one of the first cinematic  manifestations of it.  And, of course, the movie inspired the very first gathering of the B-Masters Cabal, way back in the day.

  • Ericb

    I wonder if this is what happened between Al GORe and Bill Clinton.

  • brandywine

    Pathetic human race. Arranging their knowledge by category just made it easier to absorb. Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands! Ha ha ha ha!

  • Brandy — June 24th! June 24th!

  • P Stroud

    Michael Bay could improve his movies a lot if he watched all these old John Agar cheapies. I picked up the Arous DVD a few months back and was struck by how much more intelligent it is than most SciFi movies of the last few years. Except for District 9. Love District 9.

  • brandywine

    Ken: I’m not as excited as I could be. I didn’t really like the movies.

  • Gamera

    Maybe Gor the hedonistic space brain should have invaded the planet Gor?

  • Tork_110

    Tom Sawyer, you tricked me. This is less fun than previously indicated.

  • Brandy — Yes, but that’s because the movies forced an unnatural format onto the show; not just feature length, but a feature length that could then also be broken up into four pieces so as to be shown on TV in a regular timeslot. Whereas the new shows return to the original format. Could it still disappoint? Sure. But it has a fighting chance.

  • Gamera — Now, there‘s a movie!

  • If by ‘Tom Sawyer,’ you mean ‘publicist for 99% of motion pictures made today,’ then yes.

  • BeckoningChasm

    I have no idea what most of the comments are on about.

    That said, I’d like to see a Ebert/Roeper type of show starring Gor and Robot Monster.

  • Rock Baker

    Really got a kick out of this movie! And I mean that in a pure, unironic way, I just thought it was a really neat little picture! Even before I saw it, I thought Gor looked really cool. A simple creation, but somehow a perfect science fiction monster. For years before this finally turned up on TV where I could see it, I was being teased with film clips of it in Ernest Scared Stupid and It Came From Hollywood (and/or Invasion Earth! The Aliens are Here!, I’m not sure which. I know Invasion Earth gave me my first glimpse of Invasion of the Saucer Men). One thing I saw was a commercial for some new show, something aimed at kids I think (with Mickey Mouse or Ronald McDonald or some such)and they started it off by playing footage from Brain From Planet Arous. John Agar was swinging away at Gor with an axe, Joyce Meadows was screaming, it was great! It was an exciting moment for a Monster Kid who wasn’t sure he’d ever get to see the whole film. Anyway, an announcer kicked in and asked “Is this what your child will be watching when (name of show or character) (premiers or does something)” Pop was watching with me, and excitedly noted “I hope so!” Pop grew up a Monster Kid too, you know.

  • The Rev. D.D.

    BC–most of them are in regards to Futurama, and an episode featuring giant space brains that invade Earth in particular. One of my favorite episodes of that show.

    “THE BIG BRAIN AM WINNING AGAIN!! I AM THE GREETEST!! NOW I MUST LEAVE EARTH FOR NO RAISIN!!”

  • TongoRad

    Somehow deep in the recesses of my memory I can recall bits of Brain From Planet Arous- naturally I assumed that I saw it on MST3K way back when. Imagine my surprise when I just dug around my episodes looking for it, and it’s not there. No mention of it on the internet, either- one’s own brain can play amazing tricks on you as well as the ones from space. It must’ve been some late night movie on TV or something like that…

    Anyway, I’m doing the next best thing tonight, and watching The Mole People featuring John Agar (I’ve also got some other ‘brain’ related episodes, but that’s the one I’m going with.)

  • BobTanaka

    The thing that strikes me the most, looking back on the film, is that Gor (and to a lesser extent Vol) are actually very memorable characters. They stick with you and you can picture them existing outside the confines of the film. It’s a rare and difficult quality but they have it more than many characters from ‘better’ films.

  • John Nowak