A Journey in Science Fiction Movies
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
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, Pinoy SF movies.
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 trite drama. 3/10
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
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
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
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
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
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
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