THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER (1957)
Tagline: A creature from beyond the stars. EVIL... BEAUTIFUL... DEADLY...!
(Sci-fi, Crime, Probably The Inspiration For Dazzler) [G]
Note – This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but it would probably be a G.
What he’s pointing to is a hole in his head…
In this one a female alien lands on earth sent from an alien race that believes earth must be destroyed in order for the universe to survive. Gifted or cursed with radium powers everything the alien touches ends up dead as she approaches a house in the country side owned by a geologist named Dick Cutler. It just so happens on the same day, three criminals kidnapped an heiress to try and get a ransom for her and have taken Dick Cutler hostage as well. Clearly this is the stuff of cinematic legend.
First off I think whoever had the idea to blur the “she-monster” every time she shows up was a mistake and whoever did her make up work made a mistake. I guess the idea was to make her look more “alien-like” but if you are going to just put her in a giant monster suit and she’s basically meant to look humanoid then why not just go fully in that direction? While they do explain the “reason” she is blurry, it’s pretty nonsensical given the ending.
Acting wise just about everything this movie has to offer is bad with the exception of Robert Clarke who actually seems like he knew what he was doing. He plays Dick Cutler in this and is best known for the sci-fi movies THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON and THE MAN FROM PLANET X. Kenne Duncan plays Nat Burdell, but he’s not very good in this. It’s really not his fault though, I mean, this entire cast was just winging it. Duncan wasn’t an unknown though and was probably good in a lot of his films. He was actually in over 270 different projects. You typically don’t get to do that if you suck. Marilyn Harvey plays Margaret Chaffee and Jeanne Tatum plays Esther Malone hadn’t been in many other movies and both look drunk in this movie, or at least like they barely wanted to be there.
Oddities – For the first 7 minutes or so of this movie we get nothing but narration. The script was basically written as the movie was filmed. All they had to start with was the “idea” for the movie. It’s also known as being one of the 100 Amusingly Bad Movies of all time. The actress wearing the “SHE-MONSTER” outfit tore it during filming so she had to do the rest of her scenes walking backwards.
So what does work? Well, I can say that there is a scene where SHE-MONSTER crashes though a window which is cool. She also walks menacingly slow like she pretty much knows you are going to trip or not even bother to hide so she has all the time she needs to get to you. She is also not afraid of bears, so that’s a plus?
Outside of that, this is poorly edited, poorly scored, badly filmed, and the ending makes zero sense given the opening narration. We also don't get any of the flying saucers seen in the promos of the movie. If that floats your boat, then run to this thing.
I think overall for me though, the best I can give it is a 3 out of 7. Even for a fun bad movie, it’s just not that fun. It’s also not amusingly bad, it’s just bad…bad. Props to Robert Clarke for his acting effort though.
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