THE MOLE PEOPLE (1956)

THE MOLE PEOPLE (1956)

Tagline: From a Lost Age... HORROR Crawls from the Depths of the Earth!

(Horror, Adventure, A Volcano Of Opening Credits) [PG]

Note – This movie was just given an “approved” by theaters when it came out. I think if it had been given an MPAA rating it would have been a PG. We do see some burnt dead bodies. 

Claw marks! Maybe a hand. There're four cuts.

In this one, we are taken to Asia where there is an archaeological dig going on. They end up finding a cuneiform tablet that they are able to read. It talks about a dynasty from centuries earlier. They end up also finding a temple on the mountainside. After deciding to rest they are immediately taken into a massive underground world by human-sized mole creatures. The underground world has its own rules where the captured strangers must be killed because the High Priest decrees it. 

First off, this movie is nothing like what I was expecting. I mean, we do get some mole people and they get plenty of screen time, but the mole people are only a part of this underground world that this movie has going on. I was thinking this would take place mostly in dark caves, but the sets are very well lit for a movie that takes place almost all underground. 

Acting-wise this movie is pretty solid. I really liked John Agar in this one. He ends up being the main scientist Dr. Roger Bentley. Bentley had over 95 acting credits and was famous for being in quite a few b-movies including things like THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS. Cynthia Patrick doesn’t get a ton of lines in this thing, but she was great for this part. Her acting career was a very short 8 projects. Hugh Beaumont also does a pretty solid job in this movie. His career was quite extensive, but he was most famous for his role as Ward Cleaver in the TV show “Leave It To Beaver”. 

Tidbit - 'The Mole People' was written by Laszlo Gorog who is the Step-Grandfather of Comedian/Podcast record-breaker, Adam Carolla.

THE MOLE MEN is more “sci-fi” and “fantasy” than horror, but these mole people don’t exactly look pretty. I think if there was only 1 “mole man”, it would have been a cool creature to throw in the Universal Classic Monsters group with Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, Frankenstein, The Bride Of Frankenstein, and The Creature From The Black Lagoon. I am also not exactly sure, but there is a symbol in here that looks almost exactly like the STAR TREK “Star Fleet” logo and we also get a bunch of the underground soldiers that look a heck of a lot like “Data” from STAR TREK. The resemblances are uncanny. The movie is also loaded with weirdness that for me reminded me a lot of the PLANET OF THE APES movies. 

Overall, I am just not as big a fan of this thing as I wish I was. I think if we’d gotten a movie that was less “fantasy” and world-building, and focused more on the horror or old fashioned monster movie side of things, we would have gotten a much better film. Instead it just comes across as weird and disjointed until the final 7 minutes or so, and this is coming from a dude that likes those 50’s sci-fi cheese plates filled to the ceiling. 

I have to give this thing a 3 out of 7. There are tons of sci-fi flicks from the 50’s I want to revisit. This one doesn’t really fall in that category. 

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