THE MAGNETIC MONSTER (1953)
Tagline: Terror swoops through the heart of a city in the dead of night!
(Drama, Sci-Fi, A Magnet Doing Magnetic Stuff) [G]
Note – this movie was just “approved”. It doesn’t have an MPAA rating, so I am going to say it’s a G.
It's hungry! It has to be fed constantly - or it will reach out its magnetic arm and grab at anything within its reach and kill it. It's monstrous, Stewart, monstrous. It grows bigger and bigger!
In this one, a government agency known as The Office Of Scientific Investigation is called in to investigate a mysterious stoppage of watches and other bizarre magnetic events at a store. They come upon a deceased man that appears to have been killed by an implosion. After confiscating a metal object studies reveal that it is not your average magnet.
First off, sci-fi monster movie fans I am guessing were deeply disturbed by the highly misleading taglines and posters associated with this movie. We don’t actually ever get a “monster”. The word “monster” in the title isn’t exactly misleading, but it seems it could easily be misinterpreted. We do get a monster if you would call something like your water heater exploding a “monster”. Because of this in spite of some good reviews out there, I wasn’t only deeply disappointed, I was pretty damn bored.
This movie isn’t like watching science fiction, it’s like watching a group of drunk science teachers mess around for an hour, then following one of them home to watch him boss his wife around. This is not to say that the acting was bad. We actually get some pretty good performances. Richard Carlson (best known for THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) is solid in this. What little we get of Jean Byron is good (as Connie Stewart), but I do wish the character had stood up for herself more. King Donovan (best known for INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) is also pretty decent.
None of this fixes the boredom issue though and to be honest this 76 minute run time couldn’t go by fast enough. I do have to hand it to the effects department, they at least tried to make this interesting. It just wasn’t enough to keep my interest going especially when you finally see how big this magnet is by the end.
If you are really into anti-nuclear “there must be a lesson here” flicks this is for you. I personally expected more. For me, it’s a 2 out of 7 that I won’t be revisiting. My graphic on this review is more interesting than the film.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF UNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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