Black Scorpion, The
d. Edward Ludwig 1957 85 min Color
Warner Home Video DVD w/Stop Motion Masters, The Animal World, Las Vegas Monster & Beetleman Test Footage, Coming Attractions Fullframe

Tagline: “Every Horror You’ve Seen on the Screen Grows Pale Beside the Horror of The Black Scorpion!”. 50’s, sci-fi, b/w, giant insects, just what “Cathedral of Demoni” main man David thoroughly enjoys. Terror strikes a Mexican village when stock footage of an erupting volcano unleashes a nest of giant scorpions. Conventional weapons are seemingly useless, so in true 50’s tradition it’s up to a couple of scientist [Richard Denning & Carlos Rivas] to save us all from the impending doom of the howling drooling scorpions. Expect an upheaval of scorpion action with f/x created by stop motion pioneer Willis O'Brien [at age 71] of ”The Lost World”, “King Kong” fame. As far as giant insect films of the 50’s goes this one [clearly influenced by “Them!”] stacks up with the best of them. Truly a classic of sci-fi horror in glorious black and white…now has its respected place on digital format. Sweet.

Deadly Mantis, The
d. Nathan Juran 1957 79 min B&W
Universal Ultimate Sci-fi Collection Fullframe

Right up there with “Them!” ‘54 and “Tarantula” ‘55 this you better believe it’s a classic outing, is another one of the crowned jewels of giant insects gone awry films the 50’s has to offer. Complete with stock footage and a short lived narrator we start with a run down of the Distant Early Warning Radar fences that leads to a wrecked station in the North Pole region. Next there’s a crashed plane. With only one clue, a piece of claw, the Army is perplexed as to what could be responsible. We on the other hand known that it is the work of a giant roaring prehistoric praying Mantis that was unearthed thanks to a volcanic eruption at the opposite pole. Freed from its icy tomb the Mantis takes to the skies terrorizing all as it heads south to briefly perched on the Washington Monument and finally hit New York City. William Hooper, who most thought was Paul Drake on Perry Mason, really turns out to be the scientist called in to cracked the case and help the Army kill the mammoth Mantis---so my love of giant insects is ruined yet again. The mantis gets a fair amount of screen time and the f/x are par for the course. a. k. a. The Giant Mantis, The Incredible Praying Mantis

Incredible Shrinking Man, The
d. Jack Arnold 1957 81min B&W
Universal Ultimate Sci-fi Collection Fullframe

Tagline: “Moment by moment the terror mounts!” Does the mention of the word ‘classic’ apply here? Well your darn tootin’ it does. 50’s sci-fi saw many things growing due to mostly radiation and radiation accessories so the opposite was a nice change of pace. Directed by none other than Jack Arnold and scripted by Richard Matheson from his own novel. Hell that pretty much says it all right there. Robert Carey who after cruising though a mysterious radioactive mist/cloud while boating with his girl who happened to be below deck, begins to shrink. Down he goes to minute size where the normal every day life becomes real life horror. Like that cat, god damn-it he’s a lot bigger and meaner now. See our increasingly small hero fight for life and find bigger and better uses for the small things.

Monster that Challenged the World
d. Arnold Laven 1957 83 min B&W
MGM Home Video DVD Fullframe

The grandiose title, the 1957 date, black & white, sci-fi, the quality Tagline: Crawling up from the depths... to terrify and torture!, this puppy is right up my alley. I don’t think I’ll rest properly till I own every sci-fi outing the 50’s has to offer. Every? Yes every, the good, the bad and even the ugly. Let it be known that this is one of the best the era has to offer. May 17th unknown to the world a underwater earthquake frees terrifying monsters. We start with two bodies that are fished out of the sea drained and depleted of all their precious fluids. What ever could have done such a thing? Some of our finest Naval officers, the deputy sheriff and of course a scientist are on the case. Investigation turns up huge mollusks, killer crustaceans, or gargantuan slugs. Call them what you will, big ass vampire snails are on the offensive. Hungry for blood they dine on the human flesh of the locals. Will the world be forever left in the snail’s slimy wake? The caterpillar monster f/x are surprisingly good for a film of this era. Most of the under water scenes were shot off the coast of Los Angeles with the close ups filmed later in a tank with plastic seaweed. Imagine that, plastic seaweed, who would have known. The original and far less superior title was “The Jagged Edge”.

It! The Terror from Beyond Space
d. Edward L. Cahn 1958 69 min B&W
MGM Midnight Movies DVD w/Theatrical Trailer

Tagline: “It Breathes, It Hunts, It Kills!!” Along with Mario Bava’s “Terrore del Spazio-Planet of the Vampires” ‘65 this helped lay out the inspiration for the Ridley Scott directed instant classic “Alien” ‘79. A traditional low budget 50’s sci-fi shot in the mandatory black and white with cheap sets, model f/x and the man in a suit monster played by stuntman Ray Corrigan. A rescue crew is sent to Mars to collect Col. Edward Carruthers for court martial when it’s believed he killed his crew---even though he insists it was a monster of some kind. God Damn-it why won’t they believe him? It was a monster that was responsible and this crew gets to discover the truth when members start turning up D-E-A-D dead. Now the doomed crew must find a way of stopping the seemingly invincible creature as the ship heads back to Earth. Screenplay by Jerome Bixby who also penned some of the original “Star Trek” episodes. This creepy fun flick is another stick of proof that 50’s sci-fi will endure forever. Last words: “Another name for Mars is Death”. Classic? Indeed! Shot in between two other Edward L. Cahn sci-fi classics the campy “Invasion of the Saucer Men” ‘57 and ultra cool “Invisible Invaders” ‘59. a. k. a. It! The Vampire From Beyond Space, The Terror From Beyond Space

Blob, The
d. Irving S.Yeaworth 1958 81 min Color
Criterion DVD

Tagline: “The indestructible creature! Bloated with the blood of its victims!”. Every red or green bloodied sci-fi/horror fan or freak if the case may be has seen this ultra classic. And rightly so, it just a fun film plane and simple. In his first staring role Steve McQueen and his girlfriend Aneta Corsaut see a shooting star hit the earth. They go to investigate and find an old man with a strange substance on his arm. It consumes the old man and creeps, leaps, slides and glides it’s way though the town and more victims continuing to grow and appearing to be unstoppable. The world’s fate then lies in the hands of Steve and the rest of his teenage pals to alert the town and stop the horrible menace. Followed by a sequel “Son of Blob” ‘72 and a high-tech remake in ’88. Rejected titles: “The Glob”, “The Glob that Girdled the Earth”, “The Meteorite Monster”, “The Molten Meteorite”, and “The Night of the Creeping Dead”.

Fiend without a Face
d. Arthur Crabtree 1958 74 min B&W
Republic Video Fullframe

Now here’s a mighty fine British 50’s sci-fi flick hat makes one glad to be its owner on Criterion DVD. With all the typical renderings of the genre, minus a narrator, unexplained deaths near a Army base where victim’s brain and spinal cord are sucked out keep the top brass on their toes to find what’s responsible and puts some of the town folk in vigilante mode. It takes a little while but radiation from a near plant makes the brain spinal cord sucking aliens visible--- and I for one am not about to deny my self of the stop motion f/x antennae wielding flying brain spinal cord aliens, slurping sound included, that descend on the crew in a house boarded up like it’s the “Night of the Living Dead” ’69. 74 well spent minutes.

I Married a Monster from Outer Space
d. Gene Fowler, Jr. 1958 78 min B&W
Paramount DVD 1.78:1

Your damn right this is another classic sci-fi horror gem from the 50’s marred only by its goofy title. And as an added bonus it’s now on proper digital format w/ nothing, NOTHING!!!!!!!, not even a trailer. WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYY!!!! Any who, cool looking electro-aliens that absorb men with cool black smoke and take over their bodies so they can breed with our Earth women. Are doing so in hopes of saving their dying race. Newly wed Gloria Talbot is the first to take notice that her groom is a very changed man. But nobody believes her tales that aliens are indeed taking over the bodies of the towns’ men folk. Great f/x for the time still hold their own today, in that 50’s kind of way. It’s certainly much better than the TV remake that followed “I Married a Monster” ‘98. Fowler’s only other direction in the genre would be “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” ‘57.

Caltiki: The Immortal Monster
d. Riccardo Freda 1959 76 min B&W
Mars Collective DVD-R w/Italian Version, Trailer, Posters, Lobby Cards Fullframe

Tagline: “Slimy Glob of Doom Engulfs The World”! Looking for a rare late 50’s b&w Italian knock off of “The Blob”? I was to until I got this watchable DVD-R from Mars Collective on Ebay. Here to leave you weak with terror, this gem directed by Ricardo Freda with cinematography by Mario Bava, is classico to the max sci-fi horror for the era I love so much. Deep in the Mayan ruins of Mexico in a subterranean lake, a team of archaeologists finds treasure and the far more important star of the show, Caltiki, a pulsating blob monster more terrifying than “X The Unknown” and more gruesome than “The Blob” that eats people’s vital tissue I’m happy to report. Oh joy! This is a terrific late nighter with spacey tonalities, a little gore as unfortunates are eaten to skeletons and excellent monster f/x as Caltiki grows and grows; leaving me simply giddy with delight. a. k. a. Caltiki: Il Mostro Immortale