THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD (1957)

THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD (1957)

Tagline: Crawling up from the depths... to terrify and torture!

(Sci-fi, Horror, Radioactive Mollusks) [PG]

Note: This movie wasn’t given an MPAA rating, but I would say it falls into the category of PG. There are a couple shots of gnarly-looking dead bodies. 

I find that people are always jumping to conclusions about nuclear reaction. Science fact and science fiction are not the same thing, not the same thing at all.

In this one, an earthquake opens a cavern under the Salton Sea in California that releases radioactive prehistoric mollusks that are terrorizing not only the Salton Sea but anyone even near it. It is feared that if the beasts are killed quickly the threat will spread through the canal system and threaten the entire world. 

First off, this movie was put out by the same studio that did the sci-fi film, THE FLAME BARRIER, and a few horror flicks of the 1950s, THE RETURN OF DRACULA and THE VAMPIRE. I kind of wish they had done some more sci-fi flicks because this one involved a full rig for the giant mollusk monsters and they look freakin incredible. A bit goofy, but incredible. 

I ended up having to stream this through a website because all the steaming services that have it want you to rent it. The website had free streaming, but a bunch of commercials. Having said that this is a movie I actually want to buy. One reason is that it’s another movie like TEENAGE ZOMBIES, that was filmed at the Salton Sea back in its hay day. If you read my reviews a lot, you know I love it when I can say that I have actually been to a place where a movie was filmed. Of course, just filming location doesn’t make a movie good, but this thing really stands out as pretty amazing. 

Acting-wise Audrey Dalton is the leading female actress and plays Gail MacKenzie. I think she did a pretty great job playing a woman whose husband had died and is reluctant to start a romance. I would not leave my kid with Gail if you paid me money though. She is just as stupid as the pair of scientists at the beginning of NIGHT OF THE LEPUS. In fact, in this film, we have another situation where an unsupervised little girl either gets people killed or almost gets people killed. Audrey ended up in 59 different productions but this is the only sci-fi movie from the 50s. Tim Holt plays Lt. Cmdr. John ‘Twill’ Twillinger is pretty good, but I think a few of the other actors even on this set might have been better in the role (like Max Showalter who plays Dr. Tad Johns in this). Mimi Gibson who plays Sandy MacKenzie is good in this for a child actress. She also made a brief appearance in WORLD WITHOUT END. The movie also features Barbara Darrow for a few brief scenes. She was best known for the sci-fi movie QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE. We also get a Marjorie Stapp appearance which is brief. She plays Connie Blake and is famous for KRONOS and INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN.  

I think another thing I really liked about this movie was that it didn’t take long to get going. We see the creature pretty early and often. I think the producers were pretty proud of the creature rig they built and should have been. That thing or things look(s) like a giant Absolem roasted on an open fire. Everything from the sets to the score was pretty rad. 

I give THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD a 7 out of 7. It basically had everything I would want in a 1950’s sci-fi movie. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF GRAMERCY PICTURES (II) AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.