Nitpick- Queen Of Outer Space was in color. The OP asked for black and white films.
The Thing.
It, Terror from Beyond Space.
Tarantula.
and
The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
More cheesy flicks:
1.) Killers from Space – another Chiller Theater perennial. Peter Graves stars as a test pilot who blanks out after flying over an atomic test site, only to wake up in a hospital bed. The first hour of the film is padding and filler, but it develops that he crashed and was brought back to life by aliens who dress in Zombies of the Stratosphere-style spandex jumpsuits with head coverings and have pop eyes. The pop-eyes are so obviously ping pong balls with magic-markered pupils that it’s painful. The Spandex suits are cruel to the heavier aliens. Their leadeer looks as if he was paid in beer.
There’s some passable 1940’s science fiction drawing and animation of the alioens’ homeworld and their invasion plan that they show Graves (whose character is “Doug Martin”), although they take “Space Platforms” literally, showing ships on a flat platform floating in space. Graves escapes, but finds a “zoo” of enlarged lizards and insects that kills some more time. Eventually, Graves figures out that if he cuts off the power ast the local power plant, it will shut down the containment field on the aliens’ Warp Core (or whatever they were calling it back then. Evidently the aliens were stealing power from the local land lines. Always have a backup generator!) This results in a nuclear explosion, destroying the alien base. The explosion, seen through a window, rattles the blinds.
2.) Invassion of the Saucermen – this was actually based on a pretty clever science fiction short story, “The Space Frame”, much of which got into the film. But it was buried under the dumb stuff everyone remembers – big-headed aliens enciounter teenages outside town. They have alcohol for blood and detachable hands with eyes on them that can move by themselves, and the aliens explode when you shine lights on them! The alien costumes, by the never fully appreciated Paul Blaisdell, are great! The film was remade incredibly badly as Invasion of tthe Eye Creatures (Or Invasion of The The Eye Creatures, if you believe the closing credits).
3.) Target Earth – Interesting little paranoid movie about a handful of people remaining in a city after alien robots with killer death beams in their heads invade. Based on a story by (I think) Manly Wade Wellman. It’s an intriguing setup, and worth watrching if you haven’t heard about it before. But they don’t really do anything with it. Eventually the Army figures out that if you beam ultrasound at the robots you fracture the tubes in their death rays. Next invasion, the aliens are going solid-state.
4.) Invisible Invaders – John Carradine shows up in a film that looks like dress rehearsal for Night of the Living dead – incorporeal aliens invade by inhabiting the bodies of the dead and advancing stiff-armed and stiff-legged on the cities of the world. I like that all the zombified bodies wear suits. This is a formal invasion. Eventually, the Army discovers that if you beam ultrasound at them, the aliens are forced to leave the bodies and condense as a little blob of marshmallow fluff. Boy, this movie and the last one and Beginning of the End – the Army can get rid of anything by driving around jeeps with loudspeakers on them. Next invasion, the bad guys’ll bring ear plugs.
Given your screen name, I knew you would post big time. Glad you did!Comments on some of the films on your list: The Crawling Eye–Another fave of mine. I used to love Forrest Tucker bark, “DO AS YOU’RE TOLD!”. This was also the first MST3K to air on cable-and the only one I’ve never seen! The Manster–taped this one off TNT Monstervision a few years back–still love to watch it. Invisible Invaders–This one scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. Much as I enjoy the Romero-esque flesh eating zombies, I sorta missed the days when zombies just walked aroung “stiff-legged”. Just the idea of the dead coming back to life was a scary enough premise in my childhood (I’m 48, BTW). A few more that haven’t been mentioned yet: The Giant Claw–“I’ll never call my mother-in-law an old crow again!” The Day the World Ended–“Rick’ll teach him a lesson” Giant From the Unknown–with Bob Steele, another F-Troop alumnus.
Futurama’s newsmonster Morbo was a very obvious tribute to the aliens of this film.
Thanks, want2know. And I’ll second The Giant Claw – how could I have missed mentioning that? Easily the dumbest-looking monster from the 1950s. The story goes that they ran out of money after all the primary shooting and had almost nothing left at the end to spare for the monster (they tell essentially the same story about Prophecy – the one with the stupid-looking monster bear). The stars were probably mortified when they saw this one.
About Killers from Space – I’m sorry that MST3K never did this one. They would’ve had a field day. If you make it through this one, dig up a copy of Zackerly’s Horrible Norror it has outtakes from Killers from Space!!!
There’s a quote from star Jeff Morrow about half-way down this review. For an amusing contrast, compare the poster art at the top of the review with the photos of the monster as he actually appears at the very bottom.
Thanks for the link Miss Mapp. Indeed that was the silliest looking movie monster ever!
Oh, he’s definitely up there. But, according to another one of my favorite B-movie review sites, there is one even goofier: The 20 Goofiest Movie Monsters
It’s a matter of opinion, of course, but Guilala, the Japanese plucked-chicken monster, has to be seen. And there are some photos of other famous '50’s sci-fi monsters on that page.
1.) Great Link, Miss Mapp I’d wanted to mention Attack of the Crab Monsters, but I keep forgetting. Among other things, tyhis film is one of a number that feature Russel Johnson as a scientist, proving that he was born to play The Professor on Gilligan’s Island.
2.)Another one, with a really dumb-looking monster – From Hell it Came – bad guy gets reincarnated as a walking Tree Stump. It even has a face! It looks like the apple-throwing Trees from The Wizard of Oz gone bad! One reviewer reportedly said “And to Hell it can Go!”, but I suspect that’s apocryphal. It’s too good a line.
3.)Unknown Island is really from 1948, so it just misses the cutoff date, but I have to include it. It not only features the Worst T. Rex Costumes Ever, but the chief monster is this big hairy whatsit that looks like some kind of King Kong-style ape, but turns out to be a Giant Sloth(!!!)
(To requote from The Monster that Challenged the World – "It’s a Giant Sloth! Walk for your Lives!)
4.) And then there’s the Evil TV set from The Twonky.
The OP asked for “cheapie,” not “cheesy” movies. On that basis, I nominate a truly excellent film with an apparently low budget (few special FX): The original Village of the Damned. (Released in 1960, hope that doesn’t exclude it.) I saw on TV in the '70s. Rented it a couple of years ago and what struck me most was what cold, emotionless automatons these Brits (not the alien-children, the adult humans) seemed to be. Absolutely nothing like the impression I get from, say, Monty Python or Benny Hill. Has British culture really changed that much since 1960?
Pushing the envelope a little further (1961) brings up The Day the Earth Caught Fire.
Wow, I’d almost forgotten that one. Edward Judd and Leo McKern, right?In my original post, I encouraged people to “push the envelope”. It’s great to see how many people remember these films. Not all 50’s (or early 60’s) SF films were Plan 9 or The Creeping Terror. Some of them were actually quite enjoyable given the budgets alloted to SF films at the time. One more: anyone remember “The Lost Missile”? I vaguely remember this film, concerning a missile flying around the world, wreaking havoc in its wake–without ever landing! I’m sure of the title–anybody else remember it?
Shot in the fleet street offices of the Daily Express, with its editor, Arthur Christiansen, playing the editor in the film.
See my first post – It was a Jerome Bixby film, one of three that he wrote in the 1950s. They’re all offbeat, annd worth watching.
You mavens of old Sci Fi have got to know this one! there was a real “el cheapo” monster flick form the 50’s , MADE IN DENMARK! It had a crappy monster that pulled down church steeples-and the danish army attacked the monster 9unsuccessfully0 with WWII bazookas.
incredibly cheap, incredibly tacky…what was this flick called?
It sounds as if you’re remembering Reptilicus, an oldie but goodie. It was actually in color, and the aforementioned beast was an obvious puppet. It shot badly-animated “acid sline” from its mouth, and its scaly skin was impervious to bulletsd, so they killed it by shooting a shell filled with poison into the soft lining of its mouth.
I like the fact that the monster Grew itself from the tail that a drilling crew found in the ground (and at the end, you’re left withy the impression that it will regrow itself from a foot that got severed. Although there never was a sequel.)
In the wake of this movie Charlton Comics started a “Reptilicus” series, although after the first couple of issues it became “Reptisaurus”
I’ve heard that some of the worse-looking scenes of the film were excised before it hit the U.S. Based on what stayed in the film, these scenes must have been really bad.
Retisaurus comics:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=list&title=68411392280&snumber=1
Continuing my new job in this thread of linking to B-movie reviews, I give you the famous and hilarious Jabootu review of Reptilicus.
Once again, by the difference between the poster art and the monster as it appears onscreen is interesting and extremely amusing.
Thanx, Cal . You referred to it as “The Atomic Missile”–I was wondering if we were talking about the same film. BTW, I met Rex Reason (your namesake) and Russell Johnson at the MST convention several years ago. They were both very nice people. The thing was, you had to keep repeating yourself to Rex as he has become extremely hard of hearing.