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| Monster from Green Hell (1957) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 20 2016, 10:00 AM (324 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Aug 20 2016, 10:00 AM Post #1 |
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![]() Monster from Green Hell (1957) Dir. Kenneth Crane Strange Science Cinema #083 The American Rocketry program goes awry (no wonder, with only two guys running the entire thing) and one of our rockets crashes in Africa, where its radiation creates a flock (herd?) of giant killer wasps (who look less like wasps than YOU do). Our two rocket scientists head off into the jungle to investigate. Despite several things going for it (including good special effects) this thing's almost a complete misfire and shockingly dull, but I think I know why; director Kenneth Crane was a TV editor with no directorial experience, and this film is all editing and no directing. There are actually two stories going on, with Dr. Vladimir Sokoloff and his superstitious natives in Africa and Professor Jim Davis and his partner in America, and the two sides don't meet until midway through the film and by then Sokoloff is gone from the movie, replaced by a daughter who looks and sounds nothing like him, and who hadn't appeared in the film before. Tons of stock footage (from Stanley and Livingston) flesh out the film, necessary because after early appearances the wasps vanish for several reels. Not sure how this was filmed, but it was a big, big mess (hey, it's from the producer of Robot Monster) and I'm sure Crane was brought in to try and salvage SOMETHING. Million-dollar Dialog: Native: "Doctor, maybe we are superstitious, but is a monkey frightened by superstition? Does an elephant run from superstition? Does a bird not alight in a tree because of superstition?" Eduardo Ciannelli turns up midway into the film, too, for no reason I could figure out. He wears a billy-goat beard and a turban, though. The wasps are a combination of giant mechanical things, assorted claws and stingers, and best of all, some stop-motion animation that's really superb. No doubt it blew the budget, though. The film is nearly worth watching just for an animated sequence with a wasp fighting a snake, and at least they didn't go the Bert I. Gordon route with a real wasp you could see through when they blew it up optically. All told, though, a dull film except for the wasps. Also on the Program For the kids, a parade of Paramount cartoons, including Pedro and Lorenzo (1956), a not-too-good cartoon about a little boy and his pet bull; Little Audrey Riding Hood (1955), which seemed like a classic after the bull short; and Casper helping an allergy-prone elephant named Wheezy in Spooking about Africa (1956). It was a joy to not have to suffer through another 1950s Popeye cartoon this week, folks. We also saw a death ray threaten to cut most of our cast in half in "The Devil in White," episode nine of The Shadow, and the trailer for next week's million-dollar movie: The Deadly Mantis! Wow! |
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| The Batman | Aug 23 2016, 05:07 PM Post #2 |
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Due to the kindness of a fellow Balconeer, I viewed this film last night. I enjoyed it, for a low budget film, they did a decent job. The wasps were actually pretty cool (in their un-wasp-like way) and the stop-motion reminded me of Harryhausen. I agree there was a lot of walking, but I thought they had some decent scenes of action and danger. For the budget. All in all, a not disagreeable 70 minutes. |
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