This film has one redeeming factor: It is only 66 minutes long. I bought this for two reasons, first because I am a fan of Jerry Warren as a Director (after all he made both "Frankenstein Island" and "The Wild, Wild World of Batwoman", two of the most entertainingly awful movies ever), and second, because I am a John Carradine completist. I have seen many, many Carradine films, and am wondering if any of them are actually not made of cheese.
This is a black and white effort and Carradine looks relatively young here. The movie starts with a lot of stock footage shot in an aquarium. First we see a shark fighting an octopus, which I thought was a very promising opening. The fight went on and on in an orgy of teeth and ink, all the while a very boring narrator tells us about the conquest of the ocean. The plot revolves around sending a diving bell (that is normal size on the outside, but as big as my living room on the inside) to break a depth record. Carradine invents this diving bell that promptly sinks into a pocket of luminous underwater caves with two men and two women on board. The survivors then wander around these well lit, comfortable caves for a while, and a few subplots make themselves known. First there is the tension between the women (it nearly devolves to a catfight.) There is also a caveman who makes their acquaintance, although he has other things on his mind, as it turns out. Then there is the volcano, which, though scientifically extremely implausible, provides them with their breathing oxygen, and just happens to erupt as the rescue diving bell is coming to mercifully conclude the film.
I have seen numerous films by Jerry Warren, and I really think that this may be his worst, although "Frankenstein Island" (with cameo by John Carradine's disembodied head) is also in the running. This one is not as egregiously stupid as "Frankenstein Island", but what it lacks in stupidity it makes up for in boringness. We get to see huge tracts of stock footage of every kind of fish imaginable, scuba divers swimming, and machine tools being used. The script is dreadful, the acting awful (Carradine is easily the best actor here), and the editing and narration are appalling. In other words, it's just another workday for Jerry Warren.
I give this film three stars out of charity. It deserves them largely because any Warren/Carradine effort is Z-Grade cinema in its finest form. If you do not appreciate low budget schlock, this is a movie you should run away from as fast as you can.
The Incredible Petrified World
I was excited about this movie because it centered around a Diving Bell. The Diving Bell in question is an OK design, but curiously is larger on the inside than on the outside! The plot of a lost diving bell and its survivors wandering around in a submarine series of air-pocketed caves could have been a true adventure. Unfortunately, the budget did not allow for any quality special effects or action. The divers exit and enter the bell without an airlock, yet the bell remains water free! Phyliss Coates is the crabbiest female character since Baby Jane Hudson! The male adventurers from the bell have some interesting dialogue, but Carradine has an impotent part and seems to realize it! (He's the designer of the faulty diving bell). There are endless scenes of the lost crew wandering through caverns (filmed in a real cave at least) and the hermit they encounter is one-dimensional. Image quality and sound are poor (the music is out of tune). One surprising aspect of this late 50's film is that the second-in-command male adventurer seems to be a (positive)GAY character! He's philosophical, soft-spoken, slightly effeminent and shows much more commaraderie to his leader (Craig) than toward the two females of the group! Maybe this was unintentional, but it was an interesting feature of an uninteresting film!
Incredible Putrified Cheese!
This movie starts out with a cool battle between a shark and an octopus. It's like watching one of Jaques Cousteau's home movies! This seems to go on forever, until the actual story begins. John Carradine sends a group of four explorers into the depths of the ocean in a goofy looking diving-bell. They somehow end up in an underwater cave system. The biggest hunk of the "film" is taken up by our heroes wandering around through the world's dullest maze. They run into some guy who's been trapped in the caves for fourteen years; and is as crazy as a bedbug! He's also the most interesting thing about the movie! I kept hoping that some rubber spider or giant crab would attack someone, but alas, no such luck! Just lots of walking, talking, and occasional lunacy from the freaky hermit guy. Of course, a way is found to save everyone, but by that time I was numb. I still recommend it though, because I like to torture myself with ultra-schlock...
This is one of the more unusual Italian space drama films by director Antonio Magheriti from the early sixties. The plot revolves around a super-annoying reporter, whom the crew calls a "parasite" (Rik Von Nutter), who is along on a mission to report on space activities. He is not a likeable member of the media, which is the only thing realistic about the film. Von Nutter and crew have to dart between Mars and Venus on a top secret mission to save the Earth from a spaceship with a 5,000 mile radius heat shield (that will turn the Earth to boiling mud) which is out of control due to the death of the pilot. Ultimately the only likeable character in the whole film, space pilot Al (who is black with silver hair), gives them the secret for how to destroy the rogue ship, and pays the ultimate... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Antonio Margheriti DVD Release Date: Released the 18 February 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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This movie is boring--so boring that I kept checking the box to see how long it was--too long. The acting is amateurish, the script probably writeen in a few hours, and the special effects (what there is of them) really lame. Why the production company wasted filming this BOMB in Carlsbad Caverns is beyond comprehension. Some movies are so bad that they are camp and fun to watch--not this turkey. NOTHING really happens. The characters talk a lot ("do we go on or go back?")and they shift their position on this topic often--so I wonder if the actor's scripts got mixed up. Fortunately (a matter of opinion), this Alpha DVD is made from a watchable print, so it is not as grainy or as scratchy as others in their catalog. I watched this DVD once and gave it away to my daughter in college. Now I... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Terry O. Morse DVD Release Date: Released the 19 November 2002 Usually ships within 24 hours
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W. Lee Wilder had a penchant for making enjoyably average yet largely forgettable science fiction films. In Phantom From Space (1953), he introduces us to a much more agreeable alien than that found in his more familiar Killers From Space of the following year. Okay, so the phantom does kill a few people and cause some serious oil fires, but it's not all his fault. He's just not a people person, you see, what with being invisible and all. He's also not that bright, choosing to ditch his spacesuit and helmet rather than fall into the clutches of the humans on his tail. He needs something akin to a methane gas atmosphere in order to breathe, and a helmet-less jaunt on earth with its oxygen-based atmosphere threatens to cut short his visit in a most significant way.
The film starts out... More Info about this DVD Director(s): W. Lee Wilder DVD Release Date: Released the 24 September 2002 Usually ships within 24 hours
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This little movie usually gets lost in the vast crowd of 1950s sci-fi pictures, but it arguably is one of the most interesting. (I find it superior to W. L. Wilder's previous film, the still decent 'Phantom From Space' [see my review].) The aliens' physique and their plans for Earth, the minimal special effects and sets, and the use of stock footage showcase the sheer bizarreness of 1950s cult films - the lack of resources actually enhance the film's unique feel. The invasion-laden theme is common enough, but the way it is articulated sets the movie apart from most of its peers. The crucial scene, i.e. when the hero meets the aliens, is used as a lengthy flashback inserted near the middle of the film; it is only when the hero gets out of his trance/amnesia that the scene is shown. This... More Info about this DVD Director(s): W. Lee Wilder DVD Release Date: Released the 22 October 2002 Usually ships within 24 hours
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To call this movie "boring" would be like calling Sadam Hussein "cranky". Words pale in the face of such horror! THE SNOW CREATURE is a sub-zero budget "monster" movie with a tall guy in fuzzy clothes standing in for the monster. He's supposed to be a yeti / bigfoot / abominable snowman, but is more like a wookie / teddy-man in need of a good long bath. Yes, he kills someone (in a boring way), which leads a group into the mountains to track him down. We get to see the creature dance back and forth, in and out of the shadows, over and over, until our heads want to spin off! Wilder used the same shot of the beast coming at us some 13-14 times! Somehow, the creature ends up back in LA (I fell asleep during it's transport), escapes, and roams around aimlessly. My advice? Stay away! For God's... More Info about this DVD Director(s): W. Lee Wilder DVD Release Date: Released the 19 November 2002 Usually ships within 24 hours
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