The Giant Gila Monster (1959)

The Giant Gila Monster is a film that tries to rise above the typical B science fiction film of the 50's. It contains relatable characters who have interesting relationships rather than just pure stereotypes. The settings have an air of authenticity and the eerie background music adds to the atmosphere of the film. Despite the dismal special effects and a largely unconvincing and almost irrelevant monster, it is pretty darn hard to hate the film. 

Directed by Ray Kellogg
Produced by Ken Curtis, B.R. McLendon, Gordon McLendon
Written by Ray Kellogg (story), Jay Simms (screenplay)
Music by Jack Marshall
Cinematography: Wilfred M. Cline
Edited by Aaron Stell
Distributed by McLendon-Radio Pictures Distributing Company
Running time: 74 minutes
Budget: $138,000 (estimated)

Cast

Don Sullivan: Chase Winstead
Fred Graham: Sheriff Jeff
Lisa Simone : Lisa
Shug Fisher: Old Man Harris
Bob Thompson: Mr. Wheeler
Janice Stone: Missy Winstead
Ken Knox: Horatio Alger 'Steamroller' Smith
Gay McLendon: Mom Winstead
Don Flournoy: Gordy
Cecil Hunt: Mr. Compton
Stormy Meadows: Agatha Humphries
Howard Ware: Ed Humphries
Pat Reeves: Rick
Jan McLendon: Jennie
Jerry Cortwright: Bob

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Thank goodness for the grand disembodied voice of the narrator! If only life in today’s bewildering and over-complicated world had the comforting baritone voice of an all-seeing narrator to waft over us as it explains to us what the hell is going on……And what do we have instead? Bloody Alexa and Google Assist! God help us! 

The story starts off with a teenage couple’s romantic shenanigans about to be rudely interrupted when their car is pushed over and down into a ravine. Their existence is about to be obliterated by a giant claw-like object that descends upon them.

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Invisible Invaders (1959)

Before The Last Man on Earth (1964); A bit after Creature with the Atom Brain (1955); Way before Night of the Living Dead (1968) there was – Invisible Invaders! A cheaply made but somewhat entertaining sci-fi film

Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Produced by Robert E. Kent
Written by Samuel Newman
Music by Paul Dunlap
Cinematography: Maury Gertsman
Edited by Grant Whytock
Production company: Premium Pictures
Distributed by United Artists
Running time: 67 min.

Cast

John Agar: Maj. Bruce Jay
Jean Byron: Phyllis Penner
Philip Tonge: Dr. Adam Penner
Robert Hutton: Dr. John Lamont
John Carradine: Dr. Karol Noymann
Hal Torey: The Farmer
Paul Langton: Lt. Gen. Stone
Eden Hartford: WAAF Secretary

What’s this? 

Aliens….. 

On the moon for twenty thousand years! 

Undetectable due to their invisibility! 

Determined to annihilate humanity unless all the nations of earth surrender immediately! 

Taking over and occupying the bodies of the recently deceased!

BUT….. 

Who can stop them? 

Can they be stopped?

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A Tribute to Marshall Thompson

(November 27, 1925 – May 18, 1992) 

Avid photographer, horseman, guitarist and film and television actor: a true multi-talented individual 

American film and television actor, Marshall Thompson was born James Marshall Thompson in Peoria, Illinois. He was an only child and was named James Marshall Thompson after an ancestor, a famed Supreme Court justice. At the age of five, he and his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Laurence B. Thompson, moved to California.

His father set up a successful Westwood dentistry practice. His mother even once took to the stage as a concert singer and musician. Marshall was their only child.

Thompson enrolled at Occidental College intending to become a dentist.

While in high school, Thompson appeared in a number of school productions and was spotted by a local talent agent, but this didn’t lead anywhere. At University High School he was a classmate of Norma Jean Baker, who we know by the name of Marilyn Monroe.

As far as acting went, Marshall Thompson was “re-discovered” while performing as one of the Occidental Players. 

In 1943, Thompson was signed up by Universal Pictures where he went on to play quiet, thoughtful teen roles in feature films. He even scored a lead role playing opposite singing star Gloria Jean in Reckless Age for which he earned $350 per week.

In 1946 after being discharged from Universal, Thompson moved to MGM and had more frequent and superior roles in films such as The Clock and the lead in Gallant Bess, MGM's first Cinecolor film.

While with MGM, Marshall Thompson also appeared films such as Blonde Fever (1944), They Were Expendable (1945) and Bad Bascomb (1946). In addition, there were the war dramas, Homecoming (1948), Command Decision (1948) and Battleground (1949). In Dial 1119 (1950) he appeared as a cold-hearted, baby-faced killer, and wound up his MGM contract with The Tall Target (1951) in which he played a potential assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

In the 1950s, Marshall Thompson became a freelance actor working for various studios. It was during this period that he appeared in science fiction films and TV series. 

From 1955-6, Thompson appeared in seven episodes of “Science Fiction Theatre” on TV. The episodes include;

The Human Circuit: A nightclub dancer claims that she saw a nuclear blast during a seizure she suffered. It seems she had witnessed a top-secret bomb explosion in the Pacific. How to explain her clairvoyant talent scientifically?

Three Minute Mile: Dr. Kendall’s assistant, college student Britt has somehow acquired incredible strength and speed. Is this the result of experiments the doctor is conducting?

The Human Experiment: An enzyme from bees intended to help the mentally ill function in society has had some strange effects on a house full of patients.

Bullet Proof: A bank robber uses a piece of metal salvaged from an alien spacecraft to aid his thefts.

Target: Hurricane: A killer storm mysteriously appears offshore.

The Frozen Sound: Government agents attempt to rescue a kidnapped research scientist.

Stranger In The Desert: Two uranium prospectors locate a rich deposit along with a botanist who seems to have a strange motive. 

In 1955 Marshall Thompson starred with Faith Domergue, in Universal's Cult of the Cobra in which American G.I.s trespass on a Hindu ceremony and are hunted down by a beautiful woman who has the power to transform herself into a cobra! Thompson also appeared in this film with his brother-in-law, Richard Long. 

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In 1958 Thompson starred in the sci-fi thriller, Fiend Without a Face in which a scientist experiments with telekinetic powers that are enhanced by a nearby nuclear power plant and succeeds in creating a new form of life. This new creature manages to escape his laboratory and multiplies the closer it gets to its nuclear power source. 

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In It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), Thompson plays Colonel Carruthers, the sole survivor of the first mission to Mars who is falsely accused of killing his fellow crew members on Mars. Carruthers claims that his crew were killed by a hostile Martian life form. While returning to Earth, the real monster behind the murders has stowed away aboard the rescue ship and begins hunting the crew as they return to Earth! The film's premise would inspire the plot for director Ridley Scott's sci-fi film, Alien (1979).

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Then in 1959, Thompson starred as Commander Prescott in the sci-fi / horror film, First Man into Space in which his character’s brother, hotshot Navy test pilot, Dan Prescott takes the new rocket powered Y-13 plane up on its maiden test flight. Once he reaches the upper atmosphere, Dan disobeys orders and takes the plane further up into space where he encounters a strange cloud of meteor dust with terrible consequences for himself and many others.

Thompson also starred in the 1959 13-episodes syndicated science fiction TV series World of Giants in which the character Mel Hunter, a U. S. counter-espionage agent, is accidentally miniaturized to just six inches in height.

Apart from his appearances at that time in sci-fi and horror B-movies, Marshall Thompson had a couple of notable roles in To Hell and Back (1955) and East of Kilimanjaro (1957), in which he performed his own dangerous stunts and developed a lifelong passion for Africa and wildlife.

In 1960, Thompson guest starred as Arthur Poe in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Wayward Wife.". He also co-starred with the Belgian-born Annie Fargé in the 33-episode CBS sitcom Angel and later went on to star in two Vietnam War films: A Yank in Viet-Nam (1964) (directed by Thompson) and To the Shores of Hell (1965). 

In 1965 he returned to MGM to play the lead for which he is probably best remembered in the film Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965). Thomson played the character, Dr. Marsh Tracy, a veterinarian and single father, raising his daughter by himself in Kenya. The film led to a TV series spin-off called Daktari (1966–1969), in which Thompson played the same role opposite a lion and chimpanzee which served to make him a genuine household name. 

Marshall Thompson died in 1992 from congestive heart failure at age 66 in Royal Oak, Michigan and was survived by his wife Barbara Long whom he married in 1949, his daughter Janet, and grandson Jackson.

©Chris Christopoulos 2018

First Man into Space (1959)

A sci-fi story containing both charm and corny dialogue, told on a modest budget. 

Directed by Robert Day
Produced by John Croydon, Charles F. Vetter, Richard Gordon
Written by Wyott Ordung, John Croydon, Charles F. Vetter
Music by Buxton Orr
Cinematography: Geoffrey Faithfull
Edited by Peter Mayhew
Production company: Amalgamated Productions
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Running time: 78 min.
Budget: $131,000
Box office: $635,000

Cast

Marshall Thompson: Cmdr. Charles Ernest Prescott
Marla Landi: Tia Francesca
Bill Edwards: Lt. Dan Milton Prescott
Robert Ayres: Capt. Ben Richards
Bill Nagy: Police Chief Wilson
Carl Jaffe: Dr. Paul von Essen
Roger Delgado: Mexican Consul
John McLaren: State Dept. Official, Harold Atkins
Spencer Teakle: Ratings Control Room
Chuck Keyser: Ratings Control Room
John Fabian : Ratings Control Room
Richard Shaw: Witney
Bill Nick: Clancy
Helen Forrest: Secretary
Roland Brand: Truck Driver

Trailer

What if?..........

(Spoilers Follow Below……)

Good evening. I’m your host, Bill Bannerman and welcome to tonight’s program, Probing the Past where we will be revealing to you exclusively shocking revelations that cast doubt on the widely held assumption that the Russians were the first to launch a human being into space and return him safely to earth.

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Battle in Outer Space (宇宙大戦争 Uchū Daisensō) (1959)

We shall fight them in space! We shall fight them on the moon! We shall fight them on the earth! We shall never surrender!

Directed by Ishirō Honda
Produced by omoyuki Tanaka
Screenplay by Shinichi Sekizawa
Story by Jotaro Okami
Music by Akira Ifukube
Cinematography Hajime Koizumi
Edited by Ichiji Taira
Production company: Toho
Running time: 93 minutes

Cast

Ryô Ikebe: Maj. Ichiro Katsumiya
Kyôko Anzai: Etsuko Shiraishi
Minoru Takada: The Commander
Koreya Senda: Professor Adachi
Len Stanford: Dr. Roger Richardson
Harold Conway: Dr. Immerman
Elise Richter: Sylvia
Hisaya Itô: Kogure
Yoshio Tsuchiya: Iwomura
Nadao Kirino: Gravity Man
Kôzô Nomura: Rocket Commander
Fuyuki Murakami: Inspector Iriake
Ikio Sawamura: Lantern Man
Takuzô Kumagai: Alien
Katsumi Tezuka: Alien

HERE COME THE PLANET SMASHERS!

The Moon is Captured! The Earth is Next!

SPACE DECLARES WAR ON EARTH - OUTLAW PLANET CAPTURES THE MOON!

Space Wages War on Earth!

SEE! Space-shaking last battle of earth rockets vs. flying war saucers!

SEE! Space saboteurs juggle earth's bridges...ships...trains...like toys!

SEE! Earth's minds controlled by rays from outer space!

SEE…

The Biggest Battle Ever Put On Film!

Trailer

Read on for more......

The Atomic Submarine (1959)

A low-budget sci-fi thriller with overbearing narration, grainy stock footage, ordinary effects and cheap sets, but also containing some quite interesting concepts and plenty of action.

Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
Produced by Alex Gordon
Screenplay by Orville H. Hampton
Story by Irving Block; Jack Rabin
Music by Alexander Laszlo
Cinematography: Gilbert Warrenton
Edited by William Austin
Production company: Gorham Productions, Inc.
Distributed by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation (US); Warner-Pathé (original, UK)
Running time: 72 minutes
Budget: $135,000 (approx.)

Cast

Arthur Franz: Lt. Cmdr. Richard 'Reef' Holloway
Dick Foran: Cmdr. Dan Wendover
Brett Halsey: Dr. Carl Neilson Jr.
Tom Conway: Sir Ian Hunt
Paul Dubov: Lt. David Milburn
Bob Steele: CPO 'Grif' Griffin
Victor Varconi: Dr. Clifford Kent
Joi Lansing: Julie
Selmer Jackson: Adm. Terhune
Jack Mulhall : Justin Murdock
Jean Moorhead: Helen Milburn
Richard Tyler: Carney
Kenneth Becker: Frogman Powell
Sid Melton: Yeoman Chester Tuttle
Frank Watkins: Watkins

Trailer

 

It's 1968 – 10 years into the future!

Ships and submarines crossing the North Pole have mysteriously vanished!

The nuclear sub, Tiger Shark is sent out to investigate.

What they discover is not so much out of this world as…….

Deep within its waters!

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4D MAN (1959) (THE FOURTH DIMENSIONAL MAN)

An imaginative low budget sci-fi film that strives to break the mould

Directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.
Produced by Jack H. Harris and Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.
Written by Theodore Simonson and Cy Chermak
Cinematographer: Theodore J. Pahle
Art Direction: William Jersey
Makeup Dean Newman
Special Effects: Bart Sloane
Music: Ralph Carmichael

Cast

Robert Lansing as Dr. Scott Nelson
Lee Meriwether as Linda Davis
James Congdon as Dr. Tony Nelson
Robert Strauss as Roy Parker
Edgar Stehli as Dr. Theodore W. Carson
Patty Duke as Marjorie Sutherland
Guy Raymond as Fred
Chic James as B-girl
Elbert Smith as Capt. Rogers
George Karas as Sgt. Todaman
Jasper Deeter as Dr. Welles
Dean Newman as Dr. Brian Schwartz
John Benson as reporter

"A man, an idea, the equipment and a place to work in secret!"

A man possessed with the ability to walk through solid matter!

A man motivated by greed and jealousy!

A man using his powers for his own personal gain!

Ah, but at what cost to himself and to others?

Sneak peak

Read on for more……