From Hell It Came

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From Hell It Came
From-hell-it-came-movie-poster-md.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDan Milner
Screenplay byRichard Bernstein
Story byRichard Bernstein
Jack Milner
Produced byJack Milner
Starring Tod Andrews
Tina Carver
Linda Watkins
John McNamara
Gregg Palmer
Robert Swan
Baynes Barron
Suzanne Ridgeway
Chester Hayes
Cinematography Brydon Baker
Edited byJack Milner
Music byDarrell Calker
Production
company
Milner Brothers Productions
Distributed by Allied Artists Pictures
Release date
  • August 25, 1957 (1957-08-25)(United States)
Running time
71 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

From Hell It Came is a 1957 American science-fiction horror film directed by Dan Milner and written by Richard Bernstein, from a story by Bernstein and Jack Milner. [1] It was released by Allied Artists on a double bill with The Disembodied .

Contents

Plot

Kimo, prince of a South Seas island whose residents are suffering a plague epidemic, is accused of murdering his father, the chief of the island natives. Kimo is alleged to have administered to his father poisonous medicine provided by a group of American scientists stationed on a field laboratory on the island. The true murderers of Kimo's father—Tano, a witch doctor, and Maranka, the new chief—sentence Kimo to be executed by having a knife driven into his heart. Kimo begs his wife Korey to exonerate him, but she denies his innocence. He swears revenge on Tano, Korey, and the new chief, Maranka. After his execution, Kimo is buried in a hollow tree trunk.

American doctor Terry Mason arrives to the island on assignment to help conduct research and treat natives affected with the plague. She is greeted by Dr. William Arnold, one of the scientists already stationed on the island. They meet up with fellow scientist Professor Clark, and Terry is introduced to Mrs. Kilgore, who runs a trading post on the island. Norgu, an island native, visits the laboratory with his wife Dori. Dori is recovering from the plague, and is also suffering from slight radiation burns, the result of nuclear fallout caused by the dropping of an atomic bomb on a nearby atoll.

Later, Terry and William come across Kimo's grave, and find a tree stump growing out of it. After they inquire to Clark about how a stump could be growing out of the ground, Norgu recounts a legend of an island chief who returned from the dead in the form of a vengeful tree monster called a "Tabanga". [a] The scientists determine that the tree stump is radioactive and has a pulse. They remove it from the ground and bring it to their laboratory. When its pulse begins to weaken, Terry injects it with a formula to keep it alive. By the next day, the tree stump, a Tabanga, escapes from the laboratory.

Korey laments that Maranka, for whom she betrayed Kimo, acts coldly towards her in favor of another woman, Naomi. Jealous, Korey tries to attack Naomi with a knife, but the pair encounter the Tabanga. Naomi flees, and the Tabanga kills Korey by throwing her into a pit of quicksand. It then finds Chief Maranka and fatally throttles him. Tano and the other natives, after learning that Kimo has been resurrected as a Tabanga, lure the monster into a pit, which they set aflame. However, the Tabanga emerges from the fiery pit and finds Tano again. It throws Tano down a hill, causing him to be impaled on a woody plant below.

At the insistence of some natives, the scientists go out searching for the Tabanga. The Tabanga abducts Terry and attempts to throw her into the quicksand. Eddie, an American who was previously stationed in the same location as one of Terry's prior assignments, fires shots at the Tabanga. One of the bullets hits the knife which still protrudes from the monster's chest, causing it to be driven fully into its heart. The Tabanga sinks into the quicksand, dead. William and Terry embrace, and a native asks Professor Clark if he is willing to replace Tano as the island's new "witch doctor."

Cast

Production

The Tabanga monster was designed initially by Paul Blaisdell [2] (also known for his work on The She-Creature , Invasion of the Saucer Men , Not of This Earth and It! The Terror from Beyond Space ) and was manufactured by Don Post Studios. Blaisdell was only paid to sketch the monster, not to actually build it or operate it. Blaisdell's design was of a thin, spindly tree-monster with long spidery branches, which proved too narrow to fit a man inside of the costume. The producers reworked Blaisdell's design and filled the creature out more, making him much shorter and squatter, and shortening his arms. Actor Chester Hayes wound up playing the monster in the film, and Blaisdell marveled at how the man was able to operate and maneuver the heavy rubber suit. This was the second and last feature film to be produced by the Milner brothers. [5]

Release

From Hell It Came was released by Allied Artists in 1957 on a double bill with The Disembodied. [6]

Critical reception

According to film historian Tim Healey, From Hell It Came deserves an honored place in the canon of the world's worst movies. [7] Author and movie critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film one-and-a-half out of four stars, writing that, "As walking-tree movies go, this is at the top of the list." [8] In his review for AllMovie, originally written in 2013, Bruce Eder panned the film:

The sheer badness of Dan Milner's From Hell It Came is mitigated ever so slightly by the efforts of Paul Blaisdell, who created the vengeful tree-creature called the Tabonga. Now, the creature itself it pretty ludicrous in its actual on-screen appearances, but given the fact that we're talking about a killer tree-stump...and a low-budget, the fact that Blaisdell was able to devise anything at all that, even for a fraction of a second, might be scary, is the one part of the movie that does work. Nothing else does...All of which leaves ridiculously campy fun as the sole reason to watch this very mildly entertaining misfire, which is funnier in the telling than the watching. [4]

A reviewer for TV Guide awarded the film two out of five stars, calling it "silly" and "really goofy". [9]

John Landis described the monster (which he called the "Tobonga") as "one of the dumbest-looking monsters in film." [10]

Home media

Through its Warner Archive Collection, Warner Home Video released the film on DVD on November 11, 2009, [11] and on Blu-ray on April 25, 2017.

Notes

  1. ↑ Some literary sources spell the monster's name as "Tabanga", [2] [3] while others spell it as "Tabonga". [1] [4] An official pressbook for the film refers to the monster as "Taranga". [3]

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References

  1. 1 2 Eggertsen, Chris (March 4, 2010). "Not So Scary... Top Ten Worst Movie Monsters!". Bloody Disgusting . Archived from the original on July 20, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2010.
  2. 1 2 Palmer, Randy (2009). Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker: A Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist. McFarland & Company. p. 137. ISBN   978-0786440993.
  3. 1 2 Craig, Rob (2013). It Came from 1957: A Critical Guide to the Year's Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. McFarland & Company. p. 159. ISBN   978-0786477777.
  4. 1 2 Eder, Bruce. "From Hell It Came (1957) - Dan Milner". AllMovie . Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  5. ↑ The Strange Creature of Topanga Canyon: Paul Blaisdell, His Life and Times
  6. ↑ It Came from 1957: A Critical Guide to the Year's Science Fiction, Fantasy By Rob Craig
  7. ↑ Tim Healey (1986) The World's Worst Movies. London, Octopus Books: 8-9
  8. ↑ Leonard Maltin (ed.), Leonard Maltin's 2001 Movie & Video Guide, Plume, ISBN   0-452-28187-3. The review was later moved from Maltin's annual guidebook that included recent movies into Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide: From the Silent Era through 1965, 2nd edition (2010), Plume, ISBN   978-0-452-29577-3.
  9. ↑ "From Hell It Came - Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings". TV Guide.com. TV Guide. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  10. ↑ Monsters in the Movies, by John Landis; p. 209; published 2011 by Dorling-Kindersley; ISBN 978-0-7566-8370-2
  11. ↑ Stomp Tokyo review of film
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