Author: Janne Wass
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The Monster of Piedras Blancas
Bodies start piling up at the small town of Piedras Blancas when the lighthouse keeper neglects to feed the local gill-man hiding in the caves. This silly but charming 1959 independent production is a love letter to the monster movies of old. 4/10
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Monsters and Moon Landings: the Lost Filipino Sci-Fi Films
The Philippines was a major producer of sci-fi movies in the 50s, but few of the films have ever been seen by modern film scholars and fans, since most of them have been lost, and few have aired on TV. Here we take a look at the six first, lost,…
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Moonwolf
A German-Finnish collaboration of the Sputnik era, this 1959 effort is light on science fiction and heavy on romance and wildlife as it unfolds the story of a scientist and his pet wolf – the latter destined to be shot into space. Beautiful Arctic footage isn’t enough to counterbalance the…
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Behemoth the Sea Monster
A radioactive dinosaur stomps London in this British-American 1959 co-production. Writer/director Eugène Lourié all but presents a carbon copy of his previous hit The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Willis O’Brien’s stop-motion work is rushed and sloppy. It’s not terrible, but by the numbers. 4/10
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Rihlah ela el-Qamar
Ismail Yassin sits on the controls of a rocket and lands on the moon where he is met by a robot, a scientist and scantily clad dancing women. If not for Yassin’s incessant shouting and mugging, Egypt’s first space film from 1959 might have been a decent SF spoof. 3/10
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I Was a Sputnik of the Sun
In a near future, Soviet scientists are trying to figure out how to send a manned mission around the sun, but are thwarted by deadly “dead zones” in space. Made by documentarians, this minor 1959 effort uneasily straddles the gap between edutainment and SF drama. Visually neat, but lifeless. 3/10
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First Man Into Space
A maverick pilots his rocket plane into space and comes back as a vampiric monster. This 1959 low-budget US/UK cooperation takes its inspiration from The Quatermass Xperiment, but lacks its predecessors quality, atmosphere and intelligence. Still, it’s a competent and fairly entertaining programmer. 4/10
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El superflaco
A love-lorn weakling acquires superpowers from “ant milk” and becomes a lucha libre sensation in order to impress the woman of his dreams. An uncredited re-imagining of the Hollywood comedy “The Gladiator”, this Mexican 1959 film is derivative and marred by a low budget, but well acted and enjoyable. 5/10
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The Cosmic Man
Alien John Carradine lands his space ship in Bronson Canyon and causes a war of words between a military man and a scientist about what to do with the visitor. A cheaply produced 1959 programmer, this talky cold war parable has a baffling script, but is mostly harmless. 4/10
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Monster on the Campus
The juices from a prehistoric fish turns a mild-mannered professor into a raging Neanderthal in Jack Arnold’s 1958 monster programmer. While a fairly entertaining low-budget romp, the film’s weak, contrived and repetitive script and sub-par special effects make it a low-point in Arnold’s career. 4/10
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Toto in the Moon
Achille just wants to write science fiction stories, but American scientists want to send him into space and are thwarted by communists and alien clones. Italian comedy legend Totò heads this sloppily written 1958 sci-fi spoof, more interesting for its call sheet than its plot. 4/10
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The New Invisible Man
Framed for murder, Carlos uses an invisibility potion in order to escape from prison and prove his innocense – before he goes insane. Competently made in the Mexi-Noir mold, this 1958 effort by Alfredo B. Crevenna is hampered by the fact that it is nearly a carbon copy of “The…
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The Lost Missile
As an extraterrestrial missile threatens to destroy New York, scientists and the military scramble to stop it, while civil society prepares for a disaster. This 1958 sci-fi thriller’s potential to rise above the cut is undermined by its profuse use of stock footage. 4/10
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The Colossus of New York
What happens when an altruistic scientist’s brain is placed in a monstrous metal body without a heart? The not too surprising answer is to be found in Paramount’s curious but overrated 1958 B-movie. 4/10
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Frankenstein’s Daughter
Dr. Frankenstein Jr continues his grandfather’s experiments in American suburbia – but this time it’s going to be a female monster. Richard Cunha’s 1958 “shocker” is low-budget schlock for the drive-in market, but it avoids scraping the bottom of the barrel. 3/10
Scifist. 