The Unknown Terror is a 1957 widescreen American horrorscience fiction film directed by Charles Marquis Warren and starring John Howard, Mala Powers, Paul Richards and May Wynn. It was produced by Robert Stabler. The narrative follows a group of explorers who, while searching for a missing man, come across the "Cave of the Dead", filled with parasitic fungi and inhabited by foamy, fungus-covered monster men. The film was released theatrically in the US in August 1957 on a double bill with Back from the Dead.
The mysterious disappearance of Jim Wheatley (Charles Gray) while exploring the legendary "Cave of the Dead" brings his sister Gina Matthews (Mala Powers) and her husband Dan (John Howard) to what Dan calls the "shores of the Caribbean." But at a pre-expedition party, Gina is taken aback when Pete Morgan (Paul Richards) arrives uninvited. Pete, Gina and Dan had been a romantic triangle. Pete saved Dan's life on an earlier expedition, but was injured and now limps on his permanently damaged right leg; after the injury, Gina and Dan married. He convinces Dan to take him on the new expedition.
Sir Lancelot, the King of the Calypso, performs a song with cryptic lyrics that Dan believes refer to the Cave of the Dead: Down, down, down in the bottomless cave/Down, down, down beyond the last grave/If he's got the stuff of fame/If he's worthy of his name/He may get another chance but he's never more the same/He's got to suffer to be born again. But when Dan asks Raoul Koom (Richard Gilden), whose village is near the cave, to interpret the song, Raoul refuses, saying that it is better for both him and them if he keeps his mouth shut. Nevertheless, Dan, Gina, Pete and Raoul set off in search of the cave.
Upon their arrival in Raoul's village, where the residents deny that the cave exists, Raoul runs away. Dan, Gina and Pete go to the home of "Americano doctor" Ramsey (Gerald Milton). They find him boiling fruit in a large pot and putting it up in mason jars. Ramsey is married to a villager, Concha (May Wynn), whom he treats like a servant. When she drops a jar of fruit, he beats her. Pete stops him, but Gina notices that the fruit has fungus growing on it. Ramsey tells them that he uses the fruit on his research on fungi, bacteria and slime molds. Ramsey also says there is no Cave of the Dead. Dan, Pete and Gina, however, are determined to find it, and Dan offers to pay $200 to anyone in the village who will lead them to the cave.
The situation becomes tense when Concha takes Pete and Dan to a place where they can hear the voices of the dead crying from beneath the earth. While they are gone, a foamy fungus-covered man-monster chases Gina, who has stayed behind, into the jungle. She is saved when two passing men kill the creature.
Lino (Duane Gray), who works for Ramsey, agrees to guide Dan and Pete to the cave entrance for the $200. While exploring the cave, Dan and Pete find several skeletons and Raoul's body. A storm floods the cave, trapping Dan. Pete escapes. After the storm abates, he and Gina return to the cave, again led by Lino. After they enter, Lino sets off a dynamite charge to trap them inside, but it also causes a rockslide which kills him.
Pete and Gina discover that the cave walls are thick with a fast-growing parasitic fungus, the same stuff that grows on Ramsey's canned fruit. They find Dan, his back broken. He warns them of the fungus-covered monster-men in the cave. The man-monsters attack, but Pete fights them off with his flaming torch. The fungus begins sliding in large blobs down the sides of the cave.
Pete finds a shaft that runs to Ramsey's house. Leaving Gina with Dan, he climbs up for help and learns that Ramsey himself has created the monster-making fungus. Ramsey refuses to help until Pete tells him that the fungus, which had so far been unable to live in fresh air, is now growing out of control. "We can't let it out!" exclaims Ramsey. "We can seal it in the cave! Otherwise it'll destroy the world!" Pete yanks Ramsey into the cave with him as Concha sets off explosives to collapse the shaft. The blast kills Ramsey, whose body is then consumed by his fungus.
Dan dies from his injuries. Pete and Gina don the diving gear they've brought along and swim from the cave to the safety of a beautiful tropical beach.
The project was originally known as Beyond Terror. Sir Lancelot signed to appear in the film to take advantage of the calypso craze.[1]
It was the first of an eight-picture deal between Charles Marquiss Warren's Emirau Productions and 20th Century Fox.[2]
The Unknown Terror was filmed during late March and early April 1957 at what Powers called "the old Producers Studio" in Hollywood. The film's working title was Beyond Terror, of which Powers said, "I think that might have been a better title."[3] According to the American Film Institute (AFI), the name and composer of the song performed by Sir Lancelot during the movie is unknown.[4] Music for the film is listed in the credits as being by Raoul Kraushaar, but without mention of individual pieces of music.
The Unknown Terror was the first film on a double-bill with Back from the Dead, both of which were made by Regal Films and were released in the US on August 12, 1957.[5] The pressbook for the films refers to them as "2 Supermonstrous Superhuman Supershockers!"[6]
When the film was released in the UK in October 1957, it was granted an A-certificate by the British Board of Film Censors. An "A-Cert" meant that the film was considered to be "more suitable for adults."[7][8]The Unknown Terror opened in Sweden on December 1, 1957, and in Mexico and Greece at unspecified dates.[9]Twentieth Century Fox distributed the film to theaters in the UK and the US.[10]
The film went into television syndication through National Telefilm Associates in 1960.[10] In Chicago, for example, it was shown repeatedly after 1964, when WBBM-TV instituted "Science Fiction Wednesdays" as part of the station's Early Show daily movie series, shown at 4:00 pm Central Time, which had been on the air since the 1950s. It was also shown regularly on Chicago's WGN-TV film series Creature Features in various time slots and on various days, usually starting between 10:30 pm and 1:25 am Central Time.[11][12] The movie was not available for individual home viewing until 2004, when Teakwood Studios put on sale an "unauthorized" release in VHS and DVD formats.[10]
Critical reception
The Unknown Terror does not appear to have gotten particularly favorable reviews at the time of its release. BoxOffice in its regular feature "Review Digest" summarized the overall ratings given the film by six publications: The Hollywood Reporter and The Film Daily wrote that it was "good"; Parent's and Harrison's Reports called it "fair"; and Variety and BoxOffice both rated it as "poor."[13] For the magazines that placed the film in the "poor" category, "Kove", writing in Variety after having previewed the film at the studio on July 30, 1957, said it was for "uncritical clientele" and that the direction is "at the elementary level. The Kenneth Higgins script is distinguished only by its moldy quality."[14]BoxOffice offered readers only a brief synopsis of the plot, which noted that Gina and Pete "escape to bring to fruition the love they had always had for each other." The magazine suggested in its "Exploitips" that exhibitors create public interest by having "an aid" from a newspaper, TV or radio station watch the film with an audience and arranging "with a local doctor or psychology teacher to test the person afterward for pulse rate, effects, etc." BoxOffice also recommended decorating the theater lobby with "weird masks and Indian lore, with simulated fungus growing about."[15]
The film's financial success varied by location. BoxOffice's "Boxoffice Barometer" measured gross receipts from exhibitors in 1957 in "20 key cities" using a scale on which 100 percent represented normal gross receipts. The magazine reported scores from seven of the 20 cities: Chicago, 200 percent of normal; Denver and New Haven, Connecticut, 100 percent; Detroit, 75 percent; Los Angeles, 55 percent; Pittsburgh, 45 percent; and San Francisco, 40 percent. The average score was calculated at 88 percent.[16]
Film critics have disagreed about the film's precise setting, calling it variously Mexico,[15] Central America,[14] South America[17] and the Caribbean.[18] Dialogue within the film refers to the location only as the "shores of the Caribbean."
Much of the critical commentary about The Unknown Terror has focused on the special effects; i.e., the fungus and the fungus-covered man-monsters. Most critics, both at the time of the film's release and later, agree that the fungus looks much like soap suds. Per American film critic Bill Warren, The Monthly Film Bulletin said in its 1957 review that "the fungus looks like gargantuan quantities of good-quality detergent." Warren went on to write himself that "some fungi do resemble soap suds, but the reverse isn't true: soap suds do not convince as a fungal menace" and, as such, "credibility washes away in the foam."[19] Bryan Senn, the American film critic, says in a similar vein that "it's difficult to make a bunch of advancing soapsuds look menacing" and that "the creatures themselves are never shown too clearly, which is just as well since they inspire more menace in spongy silhouette than in full bubbly view (upon which they look just like what they are – actors with bits of dirty cotton stuck to their faces)."[18] British film critic Phil Hardy writes that "the monsters are unintentionally hilarious – they are simply actors entirely covered in soap suds."[17] And Warren says he "wonders hopelessly why the filmmakers didn't consider how audiences might react when they saw huge quantities of suds pouring down cave walls. It's not likely they didn't care ... it's more likely they sadly misjudged the look of their menace, and the intelligence of most horror and science fiction audiences."[19]
Two of the actors in The Unknown Terror have also commented on the special effects. Powers said in an interview that the fungus-covered monster-men's makeup "was just cotton, put on with a liquid adhesive or spirit gum."[3] And while Howard called the monsters "just nonsense" in an interview, he also said that "in viewing the movie, I thought that it looked like soap bubbles coming down the cave walls. I didn't see how this would frighten anybody, but it sure frightened the hell out of my kids – they were scared to death!"[20]
Other critics have dug more deeply into the film, peering through the suds to find more complex meanings. American academic film historian Rob Craig notes a religious theme within The Unknown Terror. He writes that the songs performed by Sir Lancelot "are well used as purveyors of taboo folk wisdom, with one line, 'He's got to suffer to be born again,' vividly foreshadowing the ensuing religious emphasis on the film." As an example, Craig writes that when he's asked about the Cave of the Dead's precise location, "Ramsey chuckles, 'I can show you how to find that – it's their purgatory ...' as he points his spoon towards the flames under his boiling pot. A more literal reference to the fiery flames of the Christian Hell cannot be imagined and the audience now knows that what the natives fear, and the white men seek, is access to death."[21]
Laurence Raw, a British film scholar, makes special note of the role of Sir Lancelot in The Unknown Terror. To Raw, Sir Lancelot's importance is that he embodies "mainstream Euro representations of the African American experience – on the one hand he portrays the Caribbean as a holiday-maker's paradise, full of sunshine, sea and limitless pleasures; on the other hand it is also a place of great danger, wherein westerners are perpetually vulnerable to attack by unknown forces."[22]
Aspects of Sir Lancelot's career in music and film were included in a Campbell Gallery exhibit at the University of Illinois, titled "Calypso Music in Postwar America: Photographs and Illustrations, 1945–1990." The exhibit featured "rare photographs and promotional graphics [which] are used to trace calypso in phonograph recordings, song publishing, nightclub acts, concerts, Broadway shows and Hollywood movies." The exhibit ran from March 25 to August 10, 2008.[23]
Frankenstein's Daughter is an independently made 1958 American black-and-white science fiction/horror film drama, produced by Marc Frederic and George Fowley, directed by Richard E. Cunha, that stars John Ashley, Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, and Sally Todd. The film was distributed by Astor Pictures and was released theatrically as a double feature with Missile to the Moon.
It! The Terror from Beyond Space is an independently made 1958 American science fiction horror film, produced by Robert Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn, that stars Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith, and Kim Spalding. The film was distributed by United Artists as a double feature with Curse of the Faceless Man.
Beginning of the End is a 1957 American science fiction film produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon. It stars Peter Graves, Peggie Castle, and Morris Ankrum. An agricultural scientist, played by Graves, successfully grows gigantic vegetables using radiation. Unfortunately, the vegetables are eaten by locusts, which quickly grow to a gigantic size and attack the nearby city of Chicago. Beginning of the End is generally known for its "atrocious" special effects, "and yet," writes reviewer Bill Warren, "there is something almost compellingly watchable about this goofy little movie".
Lancelot Victor Edward Pinard was a calypso singer and actor who used the name Sir Lancelot. Sir Lancelot played a major role in popularizing calypso in North America, and Harry Belafonte has acknowledged him as an inspiration and major influence.
Attack of the Crab Monsters is a 1957 independently made American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, produced and directed by Roger Corman, that stars Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, and Russell Johnson. The film was distributed by Allied Artists as a double feature showing with Corman's Not of This Earth.
William Schoell is an American author, biographer and film historian, born in Manhattan and educated in Vermont, earning a B.A. from Castleton University. A cult horror author known for his visceral, energetic and graphic style, he has written several horror and suspense novels, such as Late at Night (1986) and Saurian (1988), as well as more recent forays into the genre, such as Monster World and Posthumous. He was the author of "Hidden Horrors," a column in the now defunct horror magazine The Scream Factory, now writes for Bare Bones magazine, and was a contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals including Writer, Writer's Digest, Paris Notes, Off Duty, Library Journal, and BBC Music. He was also a talk show radio host and producer. More recently, he has published books that deal with film, and biographies, some of which were written together with Hollywood biographer Lawrence J. Quirk, his domestic partner. His play Joe and Janice premiered at the American Theater of Actors in 2000. He writes a popular blog on movies called Great Old Movies as well as one on B movies, B Movie Nightmare. Prominent in the Gay Rights Movement in the 1970s and later, he formerly had a blog called "Ask Gay "Dr." Bill," which answered questions about gay life and the LGBT community.
Jonathan Haze is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in Roger Corman films, especially the 1960 black comedy cult classic, The Little Shop of Horrors, in which he played florist's assistant Seymour Krelboined.
The Cape Canaveral Monsters is a 1960 independent American black-and-white science-fiction film, produced by Lionel Dichter and Richard Greer, and written and directed by Phil Tucker. It stars Katherine Victor, Jason Johnson, Scott Peters and Linda Connell, Though planned as a theatrical feature, it was ultimately released directly to television. The movies deals with two extraterrestrials who have come to earth to "transmit" healthy, living humans, especially women, back to their home planet and to disrupt rockets launched from Cape Canaveral. It was made shortly before the start of the USA's crewed space program and has been categorized by a reviewer as a later entry in the "reds-under-the-beds," fear-of-communism films that were often part of sci-fi during the 1950s
The Astounding She-Monster is a 1957 science fiction horror film starring Robert Clarke and directed, co-written and produced by Ronnie Ashcroft for Hollywood International Productions. The film focuses on a geologist, a gang which has kidnapped a rich heiress, and their encounter with a beautiful but deadly female alien who has crashed to Earth. In the UK, it was released as The Mysterious Invader. The film was released in American theaters on 1957 by American International Pictures on a double feature with Roger Corman's The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent.
Man-Made Monster is a 1941 American science-fiction horror film directed by George Waggner and produced by Jack Bernhard for Universal Pictures. Filmed in black-and-white, it stars Lon Chaney Jr. and Lionel Atwill. Man-Made Monster was re-released under various titles including Electric Man and The Mysterious Dr. R. Realart Pictures re-released the film in 1953 under the title The Atomic Monster as a double feature with The Flying Saucer (1950). On the film's original main title, there is no hyphen; it's simply Man Made Monster.
I Eat Your Skin is a 1971 American horror film written, produced and directed by Del Tenney. It stars William Joyce, Heather Hewitt and Walter Coy. The film was shot entirely in Florida in 1964 under the title Caribbean Adventure to disguise from potential investors the fact that it was a zombie film.
The Cyclops is a 1957 American science fiction horror film written, produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, starring James Craig, Lon Chaney Jr. and Gloria Talbott.
Curse of the Faceless Man is a 1958 independently made American low-budget black-and-white horror film, produced by Robert E. Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn, that stars Richard Anderson, Elaine Edwards, Adele Mara, and Luis van Rooten. Science fiction writer Jerome Bixby wrote the screenplay. The film was theatrically released in the U.S. by United Artists as a double feature with It! The Terror from Beyond Space.
Daughter of Dr. Jekyll is a low-budget black-and-white 1957 American horror film produced by Jack Pollexfen, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and released by Allied Artists. The film is a variation on the 1886 gothic novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. It stars Gloria Talbott, John Agar and Arthur Shields. In the film, Janet Smith learns that she is not only the daughter of the infamous Dr. Henry Jekyll, but is convinced by her guardian, Dr. Lomas, that she has inherited her father's transformative condition. Janet begins to believe that she turns into a monster after two local women are found horribly killed and nearly takes her own life because of it. However, all is not what it seems.
Invisible Invaders is a 1959 American science fiction film starring John Agar, Jean Byron, John Carradine and Philip Tonge. It was produced by Robert E. Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Samuel Newman.
The Flame Barrier is a 1958 American jungle adventure/science fiction film produced by Arthur Gardner and Jules V. Levy, directed by Paul Landres, and written by Pat Fielder and George Worthing Yates. The film stars Arthur Franz, Kathleen Crowley and Robert Brown. It was released in the U.S. on April 2, 1958 by United Artists as the bottom half of a double feature with The Return of Dracula (1958).
Mutiny in Outer Space is a 1965 black-and-white independent American science fiction film, written, produced, and directed by Hugo Grimaldi and Arthur C. Pierce, although Pierce was not credited as directing. It stars William Leslie, Dolores Faith, Pamela Curran, and Richard Garland.
Back from the Dead is a black and white 1957 American horror film produced by Robert Stabler and directed by Charles Marquis Warren for Regal Films. The film stars Peggie Castle, Arthur Franz, Marsha Hunt and Don Haggerty. The narrative concerns a young woman who, under the influence of a devil cult, is possessed by the spirit of her husband's first wife, who had died six years earlier. The screenplay was written by Catherine Turney from her novel The Other One. The film was released theatrically on August 12, 1957, by 20th Century Fox on a double bill with The Unknown Terror.
Hand of Death is a low-budget 1962 American horror film directed by Gene Nelson, and written and produced by Eugene Ling. The film stars John Agar, Paula Raymond, Stephen Dunne and Roy Gordon. The narrative follows a scientist who develops a military nerve gas. After accidentally exposing himself to it, he not only turns into a grotesque monster, but anyone who touches him dies. The scientist goes on the run but is killed by police before a curative serum can be tried on him.
↑ Schallert, E. (Mar 20, 1957). "Betty hutton likely kirk douglas costar; edens forms company". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest167062383.
1 2 Weaver, Tom (2010). Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes: The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. Inc. pp.340–341. ISBN9780786446582.
↑ Okuda, Ted; Yurkiw, Mark (2016). Chicago TV Horror Movie Shows from Shock Theatre to Svengoolie. Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press. pp.50–51. ISBN9780809335381.
1 2 Hardy, Phil (1995). The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction. Woodstock NY: The Overlook Press. p.175. ISBN0879516267.
1 2 Senn, Bryan (2007). A Year of Fear: a Day-to-Day Guide to 366 Horror Films. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. Inc. pp.132–133. ISBN9780786431960.
1 2 Warren, Bill (2010). Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, the 21st Century Edition. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. Inc. pp.831–833. ISBN9781476666181.
↑ Weaver, Tom (2010). Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes: The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. Inc. pp.199–201. ISBN9780786446582.
↑ Craig, Rob (2013). It Came from 1957: A Critical Guide to the Year's Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. Inc. pp.165–168. ISBN9780786477777.
↑ Raw, Laurence (2012). Character Actors in Horror and Science Fiction Films 1930–1960. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. Inc. pp.123–124. ISBN9780786444748.
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