Old-School Sci-Fi: Cosmic Monsters (1958)

You have to love when Films like this are so serious about something so silly!  Today's Film is Cosmic Monsters, a 1958 Sci-Fi Film that somehow escaped my attention.  The premise- cosmic rays make insects grow big and attack a Town.  Well, that's *part* of the premise.  In addition, this does come years before the Fantastic Four, not that people didn't attribute cosmic radiation to growth/transformation before that comic (clearly).  The crux of the Film is that a mysterious device made by a Scientist in England manages to rip a hole in the Ozone Layer.  Could you imagine if anything happened to the Ozone Layer in real life?!?  Doing research on this Film is a bit tricky as Wikipedia has some odd information in it.  For instance, a link to a page on the Writer brings you to one for SOMEONE ELSE.  On the flipside, this might be the greatest Film ever due to one of it's Stars' names: Alec Mango.  No, really.  This is a pretty obscure Film, as noted by the fact that Wiki page still uses the VHS Cover for the Film.  It doesn't help that the Film is also known as The Strange World of Planet X, a Title I'll explain later.  So the question is this- why is the Film so obscure?  To find out, read on...

Two men are working on a strange device that involves magnets and...I mean, do you care?

It's just to make the Plot go forward, right?  Right.

Their last Assistant gets (partly) fried in an accident, so they get a new one and it's...a Woman?

We get some casual 1950's Sexism, before she proves herself...and is also good-looking.  Thanks, 2nd Wave Feminism!

One test of the device does more damage to the nearby Town than usual, leading a Newspaper declaring that it was the work of aliens.

To be fair, there was also a UFO, but it apparently-crashed into nothing, so no evidence there.

In the aftermath of the test, the 2nd Scientist has concerns.  Naturally, only the woman will listen to him.  Naturally, this is all part of their Romance Sub-Plot.

Sub-Plots are not in short supply here as we have one with the Town, one with a new Teacher, one involving a random Couple and one with...

This mysterious man who comes to Town with no clear answers.  How can you not trust Mr. Rogers with a goatee?!?

To the Film's credit, he comments that his goatee might make him seem out of place, so the character shaves it before we see him next!

Have I not mentioned the giant bugs yet?  Well, it's because they show up WAY LATE in the Film.

You see, the device ripped a hole in the Ozone Layer over the Town.  It had two effects:
1) It turns a vagrant into a killer

2) It makes the bug grow giant.

Mind you, this is a Publicity Photo.  The actual effect involves awkwardly-mixed footage of bugs that are stretched big and Actors firing fake (I hope!) guns at said footage.

It's really, really dumb.

That's not even the Climax!

The mysterious man reveals himself to be an Alien and one of his people's ships crashed earlier.  The device yadda yadda magnetic lines yadda yadda destroy the Poles (somehow).

The alternate Title comes from him revealing that while WE said the Aliens were from Planet X, we are Planet X to THEM.  So clever?

The main Scientist is now also crazy (or at least more) and he goes to run the machine again.  The only hope- let the Aliens blow up the lab.

They do.  The End.

Oh now I see why I never heard of this until now.  The Film is an interesting study in confusion.  Is it a Film about giant bugs?  Is it a Film about Aliens?  Is it a Film about science run amok?  I guess 'yes' to all three.  The narrative is so all over the place.  Mind you, I didn't even mention the random people killed by the crazy vagrant.  He's such a strange outlier to the Story!  Yes, it proves the 'cosmic rays make people crazy' thing, but that just opens up so many problems.  Why were only him and (maybe) the Scientist affected?  Why were all of the Bugs then?  Why did it make him crazy and jump right to murder?  It just raises too many questions.  The Alien thing is interesting, but also kind of weird.  In this Story, the Aliens fly around overhead on magnetic lines to observe us.  Much like Hard to Be a God, they eventually meddle.  Of course, this is a bit closer to Plan 9 From Outer Space, given the 'you have dangerous technology' approach.  Is that what you want to be compared to?  Thankfully, the giant bug thing is not them trying to stop us- just a silly side effect of the device.  They are also the biggest plus and minus for the Film.  To put it simply, the Film was clearly marketed around them.  They play so little a part in the narrative as to make the Film seem deceptive, which obviously hurts it.  The alternate Title- from the Book- is more accurate, but also still a bit misleading.  Contextually, it is explained, but done so in a silly way.  You are obviously supposed to think that we are going to an Alien Planet with that title, which just isn't true.  It's been 60 years, so I guess the cat is out of the bag.  Mind you, TCM still marketed the Film around the bugs, so...nothing ever changes?  It's a decent, but kind of dull Film throughout.  It definitely picks up at points, but is so aimless at times that it hurts the Film.  It's not quite a lost Classic, but it is fun if you're in the right mindset.  That Book though, that sounds amazing...

Next up, I cover a Film that won an Oscar!  Don't get your hopes up- it has to be silly still.  Stay tuned...