THE MONOLITH MONSTERS (1957)
Tagline: Mammoth skyscrapers of stone thundering across the earth!
(Sci-Fi, Thriller, Rock Of Ages) [G]
Note – This movie wasn’t given an MPAA rating, but if it was it would get a G. This movie was released as a double feature with LOVE SLAVES OF THE AMAZONS.
San Angelo needs a newspaper like the desert needs another bucket of sand.
In this one a meteor that looks like a giant black fractured rock lands in San Angelo, CA, and bursts into fragments that litter the desert landscape. After a couple of interactions with water, it is discovered that each piece that gets wet grows exponentially based on the amount of water it encounters. When they get large enough they fall and break again creating even more fragments, that can also in turn grow. If they are big enough they destroy and whatever you do, do not come in contact with them when they are wet. The residue will slowly turn you to stone. Can Dr. Steve Hendricks find a cure for anyone turning to stone and will that cure do anything to help resolve the larger terror of THE MONOLITH MONSTERS?
First off, the narration in the opening is pretty cool in this one. We also get some surprisingly good acting for a movie that is basically about a bunch of giant rocks. The score is pretty outstanding and the movie's pacing works really well for the most part.
I guess for some reason I am still a bit stuck on the poster for some of these movies and I guess I was expecting more giant rocks showing up in an actual city, but don’t expect that here. While the rocks do plenty of destruction, most of this is in the countryside. The intro is interesting and I went into this without really knowing anything about the plot, so for me, it was an edge-of-your-seat “what the heck is really going on” experience. Because of that, I didn’t mind the slow burn that leads to just bonkers spectacle in the final 20 minutes or so. As I stated earlier, I do wish we had gotten skyscrapers getting smacked down, but what they do show in the way of destruction is pretty cool. I mean, for a movie anyway. If this happened in real life it would be absolutely terrifying.
Getting back to the acting, the lead ends up being Grant Williams who plays Dave Miller. Williams is solid in the role, but I am not going to go as far as to say he was great. He was also known for the sci-fi movie THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN which came out the same year as this film. The female lead is Lola Albright who plays Cathy Barrett, Dave's love interest and is a bright spot in the film among several bright spots. This movie was Albright’s only big sci-fi flick and unfortunately, she is in less than half the movie getting relatively few lines. Trevor Bardette is very good in this as Prof. Arthur Flanders. Bardette is probably best known for westerns like “The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp”, but also had an uncredited role in the 1951 sci-fi film FLIGHT TO MARS. We also get a decent helping of Les Tremayne who plays Martin Cochrane and does an awesome job. Tremayne is also known for the sci-fi masterpiece WAR OF THE WORLDS.
Overall this movie's premise is actually pretty rough, but they give us a pretty fun film and the suspense is noteworthy. I didn’t see this in the theaters, but I can imagine if this was in 3D and it felt like some of these giant monoliths were coming off the screen, it would be even more fantastic. As it is, this movie is a solid 5 out of 7.
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