The 1950s featured lots of movies like this, science fiction stories made on small budgets designed for drive-in theaters and second-run B-movie theaters. TCM is actually devoting Thursdays in June to many movies like this so hopefully there will be many more reviews to come. Because of the decade they were in, you can't help but notice some Cold War scares as the world changed into a very nasty place. Nuclear and atomic tests continued around the world as the power countries armed themselves preparing for a nuclear Armageddon. The movies reflected that, a worry and question of how all this testing and development was affecting the world we live in. And according to the movies, it meant abnormally large, vicious creatures intent on wiping us out. Pleasant enough idea, don't you think?
An earthquake in the Salton Sea opens up a seam in the ground, and a creature escapes after years of being imprisoned...possibly as long ago as thousands and even millions of years ago. Several Navy personnel go missing, and reports start to come in of other missing persons. Navy Intelligence officer John Twillinger (Tim Holt) is called in to investigate with the help of local law enforcement, and a scientist, Dr. Rogers (Hans Conried), to find out exactly what is going on. From a sample found on the water, Rogers deduces that the creature is some sort of immense, voracious mollusk that has an insatiable appetite. Now, it is a race against time to seal off the area, and hopefully keep the quickly reproducing creatures from spreading. Is it too late though? Has one...or even many...escaped already?
It's clear very little money was spent on this movie, but that's part of the charm. The acting is especially stilted and downright wooden at times. The scale is small especially when considering that this local incident threatens to spread all over the world. Why call in help when you've got a Navy officer, a local sheriff (Gordon Jones) and his force, and a scientist and his team? Problem solved. The music score telegraphs everything that is about to happen, and the actual reveal of the creature is hysterical. Basically all the reveals are hilarious. How does this immense snail/mollusk sneak up on anyone? They're huge, they're slow, just run away.
Through all the ridiculousness, there are these moments of bizarre stuff that you just can't make up. Holt's Intelligence officer starts to date Conreid's secretary, Gail (Audrey Dalton), a single mom who is wary of his intentions. In the middle of the investigation as they search for a runaway snail (you read right), they go on a date, driving into Mexico where Holt is approached by a Mexican boy selling pens. It's surreal in its weirdness. You're wondering if this is actually happening. Then there's the oddly eccentric museum curator (Milton Parsons) who is either so blatantly gay that I missed an explanation or I'm just reading far too much into the movie. Gail's daughter almost ends up killing them all because she's worried a rabbit in a lab is cold. No explanation, you've got to see it. All the little things that make you laugh -- intentional or not -- and make a bad movie enjoyable through its badness.
Casting in movies like this ranges from interesting to bad to amateur. Tim Holt was a star of countless B-westerns (and some A-listers like My Darling Clementine and Treasure of the Sierra Madre) and stars here as the wooden but still smooth Navy Intelligence officer. I don't know what's going on with him because he had some talent as an actor, but he looks like he's reading his lines on cue cards off-screen. Conried's Rogers is the doctor who is always one step ahead of everyone, and Dalton is the hot single mom inexplicably drawn to Holt's officer. Max Showalter and Dennis McCarthy are Rogers' lab assistants with Harlan Warde playing Holt's subordinate officer. The performances are by no means award-winning -- far from it -- and are meant more just to advance the story, get things rolling until the next creature attack. And on we go to the monster.
Of the already not so impressive budget, much of it was spent on creating this monster. Mankiewicz joked in his pre-movie intro that it wasn't spent well, barely holding back his laughter. Watch a clip HERE, and you will see why. There was no CGI in 1957, just people building the creatures. To be fair, it is a creepy monster, but how this creature (and all its offspring) are supposed to "challenge the world" is beyond me. Just outrun the damn thing. How does it sneak up on anyone at all? It's gigantic. That's the fun though, watching the badness develop as the snails some how escape the Salton Sea and move abroad (sort of, I guess). Created by the radioactive testing done, it's another example of the Cold War scares on people's minds, one more condemnation of what all the world powers were up to.
On to the ending as Holt tries to save his love from certain death. A creature's egg was captured and basically incubated so it won't hatch. Long story short? It hatches, cornering Gail and her daughter in a closet. Holt saves the day throwing beakers and water at the pissed off creature, eventually holding him off with a loaded fire extinguisher. Cue the army, soldiers shoot him, movie over. It is another in a long line of unintentionally funny scenes, especially when they show Holt walk by an ax on the wall. All I was thinking was 'Use the DAMN AX! Use it!' Eh, a fire extinguisher made for some good comic relief. Bad movie that is really good because it is SO bad.
The Monster That Challenged the World <---trailer (1957): ***/****
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