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| The Colossus of New York / The Space Children; June 1958 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 14 2017, 05:46 PM (279 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | May 14 2017, 05:46 PM Post #1 |
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![]() The Colossus of New York (1958) Dir. Eugene Lourie A Paramount Picture produced by William Alland 70 min. / B&W / 1:85:1 The Space Children (1958) Dir. Jack Arnold A Paramount Picture produced by William Alland 79 min. / B&W / 1:85:1 ITB Strange Science Cinema #123-124 Both films available on DVD and BD from Olive Films Time yet again for another excursion back to the fab '50s for yet another double-feature, this one from Paramount, which makes it special (of course, all 1950s double-feature monster movies are special in their own way, aren't they?). Producer William Alland was lured away from his long-time home at Universal-International to make a duo of sci-fi pictures for the Mountain Peak Studio, reportedly at a hefty raise, but they sliced so much from the budget of his pictures that the results - which seemed to be aimed squarely at kiddie matinees - are stunningly disappointing, although they have lofty ideas and a really cool monster between them. First up is The Space Children, from Alland's best regarded director, Jack "Creature movies" Arnold. Rocket scientists are launching a terrible weapon into space aboard a satellite, and the men, their wives, and children are housed in a group of trailers on a desolate stretch of beach. Well, wouldn't you just know it, a pulsating brain from outer space has situated itself in a hidden cave near the ocean and is compelling the children to sabotage the test launch - and severely harming those humans who get in their way. A half-assed pacifist message is buried under more than an hour of waiting for SOMETHING to actually happen; watching guys stare at the throbbing brain and turn into glass-eyed dummies really isn't as exciting as it must've sounded in the script. The great fun comes from watching Jackie Coogan as a rocket scientist who hopes once the satellite is up there we blow all the Pinkos and Liberals into atoms, while rocket scientist Russell Johnson (oh, so THAT'S what kind of professor he was!) chain-smokes, gets drunk, and abuses his wife and kids. Now THAT'S interesting. No idea how Adam Williams (whom you'll recognize as the thug in North by Northwest who isn't Martin Landau) rated the lead here, other than the words "worked cheap" coming to mind. Peggy Webber is his quite fetching wife, and all the kid actors stink; the only one I recognized was Johnny Crawford. The guy who played Mr. Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies is a rocket scientist, too. Million-dollar Dialog: Dr. Mr. Banker Drysdale: "You see, a man of science is like a deep sea diver. He mustn't be afraid to walk down where it's dark and frightening in the hopes of scooping up a handful of truth." If you like rather dull science-fiction with a pacifist message and no action besides the professor from Gilligan's Island falling down in the sand and endless Cold War dialog between characters (Reporter to Colonel: "Every hour is a ZERO hour!") this is the movie for you. During the break, we saw a Paramount cartoon called Kozmo Goes to School, where a truant officer corrals a li'l space alien and drops him off at the elementary school, not even noticing the little freak is carrying a ray gun. Say, do they even HAVE truant officers anymore? Must've been fascinating, having guys whose job it was just wandering around, looking for kids who weren't in school. A lost art. After the coming attraction for next week's million-dollar movie, Cosmic Monsters (WOW-WOW-WOW!) it was on to The Colossus of New York! Ross Martin is a brilliant scientist about to figure out a way to grow plants in Antarctica (uhhh… in a green house?), which will end world hunger, or so everyone says. His father and brother and best friends are all famous scientists too, but they all suck compared to him, or so it seems. On his way back from Sweden, where he’s picked up the Nobel Prize for Science, he’s run over by a truck and... killed! Wow. I didn’t see THAT coming. His father and brother get into a long, boring argument over whether the human brain can be saved when the body dies; the brother says no, because the soul is gone, but the father is so sure the brain is where the real person can be found that he carves out Ross’ grey matter and keeps it alive. He talks the brother – an electronics expert – into helping out, and before you know it, Ross’ brain is inside a very impressive looking robot with flashy eyes and big strong muscles and a cloak and big stompy boots. Very frightening, actually, and it speaks in a voice like an AM radio station that’s not quite in tune, a nice effect. The robot (we’ll call him Stompy) soon gets antsy, though, and short-tempered, particularly with his brother (“Don’t GOAD me!” he cackles with his AM voice). He uses his flashy eye lights to hypnotize his dad into letting him carouse around outside, and soon he’s made friends with his son Billy (“Are you a GOOD giant or a BAD giant?”) and observes his brother trying to make time with his widow. He sneaks up behind the brother (despite all the stomping he does) and ZAP! with the eye-beams! Zowie! Pretty soon, though, devoid of a soul, he’s killing EVERYBODY, including a trip to (get this) the United Nations, where he starts zapping everyone regardless of race, creed, or acting ability. In the end, only his love for his son can restore his soul. Or can it? Very somber picture with a downbeat piano score (I always thought that was an artistic choice, but I just found out there was a musicians' strike on) but hey, one can't go to far wrong with a monster robot with flashing deathray eyeballs. Million-dollar Dialog: Mom, calmly: "What was that monstrous thing?" Sonny boy: "It wasn't a monster, ma. It was a giant." Frankly, the small fries at Allied Artists and AIP knew much more about making a quality sci-fi low-budget double feature than anybody at Paramount seems to have grasped, and the added polish of these pictures don't really make up for the lack of thrills or action. That said, gorgeous Blu-rays from Olive and a pair of films worth seeing at least once. Edited by Laughing Gravy, May 15 2017, 05:14 AM.
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| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| Sgt King | May 14 2017, 11:29 PM Post #2 |
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Charter Member
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Your "on-the-mark" reviews are both interesting and funny . . . . Stompy??? |
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