Tubi Thursday: Day the World Ended (1955)

 As a reminder, last week's Film was a confusingly titled Remake of this Film.

I thought 'You either watch this now or never,' so it's a case of Deja Vu here with...

This original film gives us a few glimpses of the other survivors as they seek shelter and THEN the House with the Father and Daughter.

Richard Denning- aka the blond jerk from Creature from the Black Lagoon- is our Lead here as the good Brother.

Like last time, the duo are mourning the apparent loss of her offscreen and only in a picture fiancee with the residency goes from 2 people to 7!

At least this Dad doesn't look like her Grandpa instead.

The group gathers and the Dad explains that they must ration food to survive until the radiation goes away.

So... several years then?

In this one, he explains via a map why the area is safe, but in the Remake he brought out a diorama (that I guess he made in his spare time).

Both also likely inspired by the Plot of '70s YA Novel Z for Zachariah (and its odd Film adaptation)

Weeks pass by means of the dialog simply telling us that they did.  I guess nothing of note happened, eh?

The Brother- who should have died from the rads- is mutating and this reminds the Dad of Animals he saw mutated via the H-Bomb.

Both versions feature a description of a monkey's skin turning into metal and never showing it.  Boo!

The Brother keeps wandering off (Scenes mostly omitted) and killing game in the area...but so does a barely seen creature!

The Cast dwindles as personal conflicts and tragedy (like the death of a Donkey named Diablo) lead to their deaths.

The Jerk Guy is just as bad here AND he looks like he was auditioning to be Sean Connery's Stunt Double (several years too early).

Eventually, the main creature- they only state that there is one here and not many- kills another mutated guy and then the Brother.

He was at Stage 1 of the change and this fella was at Stage 3 (of 3?)

It finally all comes to a head as the Creature fulfills the quote by carrying the unconscious lady (as regular Suit Designer/Performer Paul Blaisdell did a few times).

Our Hero saves her and hides in the Lake at her suggestion.
The pure water is poison to the creature and the rain kills him.

Dad kills the Jerk Guy and then dies from radiation poisoning (he seemed fine a minute earlier) and the duo walk out into the new world.

The Beginning.

It's like buying one of those dollar store burgers you heat up vs. going to a good (but not great) restaurant for a real burger.

The basics are all the same.

The Plot- even in that Remake- had potential.  

This one does slightly more with it, at least.  It made you feel for the Leads and even the less than pristine Ruby.
The Jerk Guy is still a jerk and our Hero is still pretty milquetoast though.

The Film was not a huge budget affair (about $96,000) and shot quickly (10 days), but looks and feels more expensive than the Remake.

The Creature is a fun oddity too.  Blaisdell didn't realize that the suit was porous btw, so he nearly drowned in his own creation!

Day the World Ended doesn't break the mold or define the Genre, but it is good for fans of the pulp stuff and is notable for being Corman's first Sci-Fi Film.

The original is far better than the Remake.  Thankfully for my sanity, it was a generally decent to good Film all around for its time.

Shudder Day: The White Reindeer (1952)

 While Shudder has some Holiday Horror to check out, it is a bit early.

Instead, let me check out a Film that is still set in Winter and might be a hidden gem.

This is...

In the Intro, a Choir (a la The Greek Chorus) tell us of a woman who was a Witch and died, but only after giving birth to a daughter.

She would share her curse.

That girl is now Pirita.

She finds love in Lapland amongst her people (the Sami) and marries a fellow Reindeer Hunter.

See- this is festive as hell, right?

While they are married, he must leave for a long season to follow the group of Reindeer across the vast, snowy countryside.

She gets lonely and desperate, going to a Shaman.

If she sacrifices something (a young reindeer) to the Stone God, she will get her wish.

Unfortunately, like most wishes, there is a big downside.

She is made irresistible to all of the Reindeer Hunters...because she is unwillingly transformed into the titular White Reindeer.

One of them hunts her, but she turns human again and kills him (off-camera).

Later, another tries to shoot her, but his gun blows up in his face.

At first, she doesn't seem to be aware of these transformations.

When she does realize it, she tries to stop them before her Husband goes to hunt her down, lest he die too.

Will she succeed?
To find out, stream it now.

A fun, if dense, tale of Folk Horror.

I'm born and raised in a State that hasn't seen snow in my lifetime.  As such, it is a bit fun to see Movies that are full of nothing but snow.

This one appears to be rooted deeply in local folklore and it gives it a nice charm.

In many ways, this one is ahead of American Films of this era.  A female Horror Character was rarely allowed to kill anyone, let alone men (see Dracula's Daughter).

This one also feels quite similar in its tone to The Wolf Man, a Film so good it is still acting as my mouse pad.

No, it is not like She-Wolf of London- that one didn't actually have a transforming lady.

If you're in the mood for something different and want to see legit Folk Horror, give this one time to simmer and it might just sell you on its beauty.

An engaging and legit Folk Horror Film from the past.  While it is creaky at times and bloodless, it is still quite good.

'50s Class: The War of the Worlds (1953)

 Amazon may have paid for a new one, but can we replace the Original Film?

This is The War of the Worlds, the 1953 Classic from Producer George Pal.  Full disclosure- I'm a big fan of these '50s Sci-Fi Films.

That said, is it truly a great Film?
It tells the Tale of a small Town that becomes the epicenter of a Martian Invasion.  Why didn't Orson Welles warn us?!?

Can mankind figure out how to save our World?  Did this somehow get a TV Show in the '80s?

To find out, read on...

A piece of debris from space- they aren't sure if it is a comet or a meteor, since '50s- crashes in the Woods outside of a major City.

As luck would have it, a bunch of Scientists are nearby to help.!

The main guy is Dr. Clayton Forrester, who is just your everyday, relatable Scientist with multiple Masters Degrees and flies in on his private plane.

His name is also the inspiration for Dr. Forrester on Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Hi, Trace.

La la la.

They observe the rock-looking object for a while and discuss how to study it.

While the Town celebrates the impending tourism rush, three guys are left to watch it.

The top cracks open and a metallic object comes out.  Is it a probe?

Nope- it is a ship.

It begins to attack and we learn- but aren't shown- that others are appearing all over the World!

Our weapons have no effect on them, as they can form a sort of magnetic energy shield.

In a weird bit (especially given the Ending), this Priest tries to talk to the Martians and get vaporized!

Attacks only get worse and our Hero- alongside Sylvia- flees the Scene.

His plane crashes- they're fine- and they hide out in a House.

A lurking ship tries to find them. 

Wow, that's freaky!

The probe then shows up and...I'm less scared.

I mean, I was never good at Simon, so that is a bit scary.

They try more weapons- like an A-Bomb- but nothing works!

Humanity seems doomed until the ships suddenly start to fall.

We see an alien (limb) appear and we learn that germs in our atmosphere killed them.
It sounds better when Morgan Freeman says it though.

The oddly religious End.

A Classic Film with only one real issue for modern audiences.

While the Film is well-written, produced and directed, it lacks a real emotional core.  Dr. Forrester, simply put, doesn't make me feel a deep connection to the events of the Film.

Clearly Steven Spielberg agreed, making his Remake (which I saw as a Theater Employee) about Tom Cruise and his family.

With that out of the way, the Film works on so many other levels.

It looks great (and I'm only watching it on DVD, not 4K).  It sounds great.  It feels big.

The Ships look great, even if the wires are more visible in recent prints (save for the new 4K version, which digitally removed them) like mine at certain points.
The effect of the ray guns/blasts aren't even remotely consistent, but always look great.

If you can accept that this version is a bit emotionally lacking, give this one a look.  It doesn't feature Ice Cube behind a monitor, so it is absolutely recommended.

It was actually the giant men that killed the Martians!

Next up, let's flip things and cover the Remake of a classic 1950s Film.  This one is big and loud, but is it good?  Stay tuned...

'50s Class: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

 After way too long, I finally cover the Original.  I'm almost afraid to look back to see when I last covered the 1978 Remake and the 1993 Remake, not to mention The Asylum knock-off of the 2006 Remake (which I haven't covered).  It's probably been so long that I feel old, so let's just skip that part.  Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 Film that, as I'm sure you know, talks about alien invaders as a metaphor for Communists.  One day, you would know your Neighbor as being 'good' and 'loyal' & then the next day you find out that he was a Commie Pinko Liberal the whole time!  It was a genuine fear, even if it might seem silly to us today.  I guess you could say that it still goes on, just with *insert group name you hate* instead now.  The Film is no doubt a Classic- after all, it usually runs on Turner Classic Movies.  Does it hold up over 50 years later?  To find out, read on...

The Film begins In Media Res with our Lead- Kevin McCarthy- telling Police about how strange things happened in Santa Mira...

He comes back to Town after 2 Weeks away.

He notices some small, little things like the fact that nearly all of his Patients had appointments with him for his return, but then all but cancelled them.

Oh and his Love Interest is back in Town, so he'll try to make that work.

The tension is a slow burn aa a kid says that his Mom isn't his Mom and other people say similar things.

It reaches a tipping point when they find a body in the Attic.  Over night, it transforms into that of one of the men...and awakens!

They eventually discover some Pods (which look like they would give you giant peas!) and make the connection, as crazy as it sounds.

They can actually see the bodies form, covered in soapy-looking foam to cover up the nudity (as nudity would also present problems in the 1978 Version).

If you want to nitpick, it's a shame that we don't see the original person and the soon-to-be Pod Person in the same shot.

I'm sure that the effect would have looked dodgy by today's standards, but it would have been a neat shot, no?

What is a neat shot is McCarthy left behind to keep an eye on the developing Pods.

He sees the one for his lady and can barely bring himself to destroy it, for obvious reasons.
Good work!

The duo stay behind while the other two go for help.  

McCarthy discovers more about the Pods and keeps barely-escaping.

I should also mention a small role of a Pod Person is played by future Director Sam Peckinpah.  Neat.

The finale is quite famous as they run from the Town.  They are the only ones left!

A tragic bit sees McCarthy think he found some help...but it was just a radio.  When he returns, the Lady had fallen asleep and got turned.  I have many questions...but it is still sad.

He makes it onto the Freeway and they let him go, saying that nobody will believe him.

Back in the Present, nobody does...until a Pod Person's partially-transformed body shows up and someone mentions a Pod.

Time to call in the FBI to...I guess fix everything.  The End.

A Film that has aged like fine wine.  There are many ways that a Film like this can age poorly.  One ways is to be too topical.  In this case, they walk a fine line to avoid this.  As noted in the Intro, the obvious Subtext here is that this is like people's fear of Communists coming out of hiding, revealing themselves to not be 'their real friends.'  The Film doesn't hammer that in, however, so you can get it and not feel like the Film is dated.  Unlike the Remake of Ganja & Hess, they keep the Subtext the way it should be.  There are some obviously-dated bits here, sure.  The Climax hinges upon the Phone Operator being replaced by a Pod Person and not allowing outgoing calls.  Yes, Phone Operators don't exist anymore- at least not like this.  The Story wouldn't work if everyone had Cell Phones, but that is true of most Films made before the 1990s as a whole.  The Special Effects are mostly subtle here and they don't show you any truly-freaky Pod effects.  The Pods themselves look fine in B&W too.  You never quite get a precursor to the 'Scream and Point' Shot that we have in the 1978 one- oh well.  The Original holds up well, I'm happy to say.  I'm not sure which Version is my favorite, but time will tell.  In the meantime, enjoy an oddly-upbeat Behind the Scenes Photo from the Film...

Next time, I go from a Classic to a forgotten beginning.  After a long time, I will finally be done talking about Andy Sidaris Films- for real this time!  Stay tuned...

Retro Trash: X The Unknown (1956)

Guess who randomly stumbled across a little piece of film history?  

Me- that's who.  

The 1958 film The Blob is a classic film that has been imitated and remade a couple of times.  It also made a star out of some guy named Steve McQueen.  

However, did you know that someone created a very similar idea two years earlier?  That's today's film: 1956's X: The Unknown.  

This fifty-plus year-old film was made by Hammer Studios, a group more famous for their horror films than their science-fiction work.  

The film's premise is both simple, yet complicated.  An 'unknown' creature escapes from the ground in Scotland and starts killing people, as well as sucking radiation out of the areas it goes to.  

What is it?  

You'll have to wait for the ridiculous explanation to come later.  Get out your vague treasure map as we seek out...

The film begins in Scotland and, boy, are those accents accurate.  

I watch enough BBC America to get the voices, but I'm just warning you now that your experience may differ.  

The Army is doing tests where they train soldiers to use Geiger counters by way of burying small objects in the ground with a little radiation.  Gee, why are all of our boys getting tumors in their feet twenty years later?  

The last guy to do the test discovers a serious stockpile and, moments later, an earthquake hits.  The resulting shake creates a fissure in the ground in the shape of an 'X.'  That must be where Captain Cou'ch buried his gold!  

A local scientist (Dean Jagger) is called in to investigate, but only after we get some extemporaneous back-story.  Yes, this is a 1950's science-fiction film, where every character has to have some sort of background to be told.  

His testing takes a while and, during that time, strange stuff starts to happen.  A sample of the mud is stolen from his lab, but the safety glass- where he does radioactive tests behind- was broken from the inside out!  

Could this all have something to do with a kid who gets sick in the woods?

No, not really.  

This little distraction does lead him to a guy who has the radioactive canister in his house- which is no longer emitting radiation.  That's a short half-life!  

In the Hospital, the guy meets up with his Boss and a Reporter from Atomic Energy Commission sent in from London.  Yes, we now have regional accents, normal British accents and regional British accents.  While they get yelled at by the parents of the kid, a doctor goes off into the Radioactive Testing Room- do all Hospitals have those?- to make whoopie.  

Unfortunately, a '50s-style POV monster shows up and attacks him, causing his face to melt.  

Yes, face-melting in 1956- graphic!  

Jagger draws some inferences from the death, including the lack of radiation in the equipment and the burn marks around the grates.  This leads to a scene where he explains his theory about the events.  Are you ready for one of the most seriously-delivered, yet goofiest explanations for a movie monster ever?  

His theory is that life evolved on the surface of the Earth and in its core.  Supposedly, the Earth is hit by a small tremor every fifty years, which he attributes to the life-form coming up.  The last time, however, it died from exposure and returned to the core.  

Now it's back as sentient mud and eats radiation for food.  Shockingly, everyone pretty much just accepts this based on, well, nothing.

Given that he's the main character, Jagger turns out to be right here.  

As a side note, I'd love to see a movie deliver a theory like that and have the person end up being completely and utterly wrong- just once!  

Back at the fissure, two guards are killed by the POV monster.  That's what you get for having regionally inaccurate weaponry (thanks, IMDB nerds)!  The monster comes back up for one final snack: the cobalt in the lab that Jagger and his comrades work in.  

We finally get to see the killer mud in its full form and the Blob comparisons really start to seem to make sense.  The film gives up a couple of fake-out moments, including a kid pulled inside just in time and two soldiers who almost drive into it.  

Thank God- something almost happened!  

The monster takes the cobalt in a pretty-decent effect and heads back to it's lair.  They have to stop it now, since the next trip it will take out of the 'X' will be to a city full of people.  

Thankfully, Jagger has an experimental invention for de-radiating objects that can be turned into a large device within hours.  

On the first use, the canister explodes.  Doubt racks the people as they must decide whether to risk the creature exploding or not.  

In the End, they use it, and the thing goes aflame.  A random explosion goes off, however, making Jagger wonder as the End Credits roll.

X marks the spot!  

The plot of this movie is pretty formulaic, but it does try to make up for it.  The silly explanation for the monster and the lack of actual proof for this theory aside, the movie is pretty basic.  A lot of this just doesn't stand out all that much.  

Mind you, I'm a fan of 1950's Science-Fiction movies, so I'm not really complaining all that much.  I just wished that the movie could have done a little more to stand out. 

 It's interesting to watch the film from an historical standpoint, however, due to the comparisons between it and The Blob.  Did we in America get inspiration?  

Given that The Blob gets it's own celebration every year and this movie remains pretty obscure, I feel the need to ask.  That's not to say that I'm insulting The Blob either- it's a classic.  Even the sequel- Beware!  The Blob- and the remake have their moments.  

One of the most famous horror films from the Silent Era- Nosferatu- is an unlicensed Dracula film, even to the point where the original print was meant to be destroyed thanks to a lawsuit.  

If any of you Blob fans read this, let me know what you think.  

Regardless of that, the movie is pretty stock, but definitely picks up in the End.  

All you fans of 1950's Science-Fiction should check this out if you haven't already.  It's a classic, even as basic as it is.

Up next, I cover a film by a comedian who's totally Serious.  Will this film be relatively-good or an atom bomb?  Stay tuned...