(1951)
Dir - Christian Nyby
Overall: GREAT
The 1950's where a decade ripe with "alien lifeforms threaten the earth" sci-fi movies and the first but not last of them that was wholly excellent on its own merits while garnishing an even more superior remake, (see the first two Invasion of the Body Snatchers), The Thing from Another World has remained one of the most respected films of its kind. On the one hand, it is the best movie Howard Hawks never "officially" made. He was the producer and uncredited co-screenwriter, plus the style is so similar that Hollywood lore for decades has revolved around how much if any of the film he directed himself over his protege Christian Nyby. Though this has all the surface level components of any other rubber suite, men from Mars b-movie of its day, it is all in the execution. Nyby, Hawks, or whoever you prefer to credit keep the proceedings cruising at a breakneck pace, balancing a hefty cast regularly talking over and interrupting each other in a far more naturalistic manner than was usual at the time, (a Hawks staple), and they wisely limit their title creatures' screen appearances to a scant few. Even more effective, when the thing from another world does in fact show up, it is abrupt, deliberately under-lit, and in effect, all genuinely startling. Cold War paranoia allegories are of course logical to make considering the era, yet the film succeeds above and beyond that as a unique, benchmark work for its chosen genre.
(1953)
Dir - William Cameron Menzies
Overall: MEH
The last movie by production designer, art director, and filmmaker William Cameron Menzies, (who re-shot Salvador Dali's dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound and filmed the burning of Atlanta segment in Gone with the Wind), was the problematic The Maze. While the initial mystery revolving around a Scottish castle and a once cheerful playboy's dour and aged transformation upon inheriting it is properly intriguing, the pacing is extremely sluggish and the enigma at the heart of the story overstays its welcome. To add insult to injury, once it is revealed what deep, dark shenanigans are at play, (the movie has about ten minutes left in it till we finally enter "the maze"), good luck not laughing out loud at both how ridiculous it looks and is. Shot in 3-D, perhaps it was more visually engaging in its initial, theatrical setting, but while the cinematography and set design are both certainly competent, it once again comes down to the droll trot of it all serving as the film's undoing.
(1955)
Dir - Francis D. Lyon
Overall: MEH
Thirteen years after the fact, Universal took a stab at their own kind of version of RKO's Cat People with Cult of the Cobra. Similarly, an exotic and beautiful foreign woman arrives in the big city, a dude falls in love with her immediately, and people start dying while all the signs continue to point to her being some kind of shape-shifting monster. Which of course is 100% accurate. There is absolutely no mystery at hand as the first act sets everything in crystal clear motion by introducing us to our reptilian seductress. There is also very little tension throughout the rest of the movie since it is logical to assume that all of the minor characters are not going to make it while the main ones will survive. These are not necessarily detrimental components exclusive to this movie, but still, the story just kind of goes through the motions because of them. It also does not help that both the deadly cobra of the title and any kind of transformation scenes remain completely off camera until the very last moments. The take away is that there is not enough meat on the script to make Cult of the Cobra anything more than a modestly acceptable though still second rate monster flick.
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