(1955)
Dir - Dan Milner
Overall: WOOF
An early production from future American International Pictures head James H. Nicholson, The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues is more of an espionage thriller than a science fiction monster movie, though a rubber suite creature does make an appearance for a grand total of a couple of seconds. Producer/director brothers Dan and Jack Milner were former film editors who jumped on the project in order to churn out something quickly so that it could be released on a double bill with Roger Corman's Day the World Ended. It has the usual cheapo hallmarks, (a talky script with little action, location shooting, a terrible monster costume, etc), plus nothing but bland, Caucasian actors who all fail to hide their lack of enthusiasm for the material. Said material is unique amongst drive-in genre films though, boasting a convoluted plot whose underwater creature is barely mentioned and ultimately inconsequential to what is going on. Instead, we have government agents, biologists, spies, and pretty girls in bathing suites trading dialog with each other with no sense of urgency conveyed. It gets the job done of putting images on the screen and technically being a movie, but it is still a waste of celluloid in the process.
(1958)
Dir - Gene Fowler Jr.
Overall: GOOD
One of those pleasantly surprising drive-in sci-fi horror B-movies, I Married a Monster from Outer Space exceeds any expectations made from its schlocky title. With the entire cast playing it straight and director Gene Fowler Jr, (hot off of I Was a Teenage Werewolf), treating the material seriously, the film ends up as a successful metaphor for 1950s suburbia where the male and female stereotypes and expectations of newly weds both get wonderfully distorted. There is really only a couple of minor missteps here or there, namely the common overuse of dramatic music which blares over several intimate scenes that then lose so much of their tension. As typical of the time period, the modest special effects get an easy pass and inadvertently give it a dated yet amusing charm. The manner in which the aliens are shown doppelganging their human counterparts still comes off creepy under such a context, plus said extraterrestrials are rubber-suite-otherworldly enough to suffice. The film also wastes no time in getting to its point as within the first few minutes we are off to the races and the gradual revealing of what is happening and how main heroine Gloria Talbott then deals with her cold, emotionless "husband" becomes the main focus.
(1959)
Dir - Eugène Lourié
Overall: MEH
The low-budget, co British and American production The Giant Behemoth is a noticeable improvement over many giant monster movies while at the same time still adhering to a number of the sub-genre's inescapable flaws. It was originally not going to have a giant dinosaur as its main, gargantuan creature but instead something more blob-like and mysterious. Yet studios instead wanted to cash in on director Eugène Lourié's own The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, (which this film is especially akin to), and the setting was switched to England. The only problem was the modest budget scarcely called for such a more ambitious project and the special effects are less forgiving than usual. The sequences of the monster out in sea as it is poking its toy head out of the water and destroying other toy miniature boats is embarrassing and a scene where the creature turns a couple of soldiers into a still, negative image photograph comes off as equally sub-par. The movie also has a sluggish pace as we wait for the behemoth of the title to get, (of course), blown up in the end. On the plus side though and for once, everybody believes that there is in fact a huge dinosaur on the loose with little convincing and there is no forced love interests for any dashing heroes. In fact the movie is a complete sausage fest save for a few screaming British ladies in the streets, but said detail is nevertheless a nice change of pace.
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