The Monolith Monsters

Universal-International

78 minutes

1957

Cast:

Dave Miller Grant Williams

Cathy Barrett Lola Albright

Martin Cochrane Les Tremayne

Prof. Arthur Flanders Trevor Bardette

Ben Gilbert Phil Harvey

Chief Dan Corey William Flaherty

Dr. Steve Hendricks Harry Jackson

Dr. Reynolds Richard Cutting

Ginny Simpson Linda Scheley

Highway Patrolman Dean Cromer

Joe Higgins Steve Darrell

Screenplay by Norman Jolley and Robert M. Fresco

Story by Jack Arnold and Robert M. Fresco

Director of Photography Ellis W. Carter, ASC

Art Direction Alexander Golitzen, Robert E. Smith

Set Decorations Russell A. Gausman, William Tapp

Sound Leslie I. Carey, Frank Wilkinson

Film Editor Patrick McCormack

Gowns Marilyn Sotto

Make-Up Bud Westmore

Assistant Director Joseph E. Kenny

Special Photography Clifford Stine ASC

Music Supervision Joseph Gershenson

Produced by Howard Christie

Directed by John Sherwood

*

The picture begins with narration over stock footage:

From time immemorial, the earth has been bombarded by objects from outer space; bits and pieces of the universe piercing our atmosphere in an invasion that never ends.

Meteors, the shooting stars on which so many earthly wishes have been born.

Of the thousands that plummet toward us, the greater part are destroyed in a fiery flash as the strike the layers of air that encircle us; only a small percentage survive. Most of these fall into the water, which covers 2/3 of our world.

But from time to time, from the beginning of time, a very few meteors have struck the crust of the earth and formed craters

Craters of all sizes, sought after and pored over by scientists of all nations, for the priceless knowledge buried in them

In every moment of every day they come

From planets belonging to stars whose dying light is too far away to be seen—from infinity they come—meteors.

Another strange calling card from the limitless reaches of space, its substance unknown, its secrets unexplored—the meteor lies dormant in the night, waiting.

The fiery crash of the meteor from It Came from Outer Space is featured at the end of the narration.

*

Dave Miller (Grant Williams) is chief geologist in San Angelo, California. His assistant, Ben (Phil Harvey), finds a field of strange black stones on Old San Angelo Road; he takes one back to the office to study. Martin Cochrane (Les Tremayne), the editor of the town newspaper, visits Ben while the assistant geologist is studying the rock. Martin says there are some things out of place in the desert; “For example, out at the salt flats there used to be an ocean. That ocean knew that the middle of a desert was a silly place to be so it dried up and went away.” He then notes that he’s the same—San Angelo doesn’t need a newspaper when there’s never any news. Ben tells him that he may be about to make some world shattering discovery—Martin can write award winning articles about it.

*

This is one of my favorites from the fifties.

Grant Williams is good as usual, earnest and intense; Lola Albright is fine as Cathy Barrett. Les Tremayne delivers his usual quality performance and Trevor Bardette is wonderful as Professor Flanders.

William Shallert as the weatherman provides the only comedy relief—the picture is otherwise unrelenting.

The movie is nicely designed; unusually for a picture of this era, night scenes are actually shot at night. The scene at the wrecked Simpson house, when Ginny slowly appears from the shadows, is properly eerie.

*

I don’t understand why this movie isn’t more popular; it’s one of my all-time favorites. It’s well written and nicely paced—once it gets going, it never lets up. The acting is good—there’s not a lot of subtlety in the performances but there isn’t time for it. The music is strident and energetic—perfect for the picture. And the special effects are surprisingly good for a movie from the fifties—of course the choice of monster (rocks) makes it easier to do the effects convincingly than if they’d chosen bugs or lizards.

A great director like Hitchcock understood the vital importance of pacing—once you start, every frame of film must be necessary. In North by Northwest, Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is kidnapped less than five minutes into the movie—and the movie rushes on from that point. While a movie like The Monolith Monsters certainly isn’t the equal of a Hitchcock picture, it does show a respect for the urgent pacing—like I said, it never lets up.

*

Spoilerville, California

Wind gusts during the night, knocking over a flask of distilled water—it spills on the rock. Ben gets out of bed to check on the noise; he sees the rock—smoking and growing.

Dave gets back the next morning; he finds the lab behind the office trashed—dozens of the black rocks litter the floor. He finds Ben—cold and hard as a rock—dead.

Dave’s girlfriend, Cathy Barrett (Albright), is a teacher; she takes her class on a field trip to the nearby desert. One of her students, Ginny Simpson (Linda Scheley), picks up one of the mysterious rocks and takes it home. Her mother insists that she leave the dirty old rock outside so Ginny decides to wash it in the tub outside.

That evening, the town doctor E.J. Reynolds (Richard Cutting) has finished his autopsy of Ben but he doesn’t have an answer—it’s as if Ben turned to stone. Dave pulls out a fragment of the rock from his office; Martin Cochran recognizes it but says that there was only one piece yesterday—now there must be hundreds of pounds scattered across the lab. And Cathy says that Ginny took a piece home from the field trip.

Dave, Cathy and Corey drive out to the Simpson home and find it in shambles, surrounded by thousands of black fragments. They find Ginny alive, in shock—and Ginny’s parents, dead. Dave and Cathy rush Ginny to town.

Strange black rocks are mysteriously multiplying—and killing people.

Dr. Reynolds calls Dave a few hours later—Ginny’s hand has turned to stone. Reynolds wants Ginny rushed to the California Medical Research Institute in Los Angeles; he’s contacted a young specialist, Dr. Steve Hendricks (Harry Jackson). Reynolds says it’s her one chance to survive.

Dave and Cathy drive to LA. Hendricks shows them an x-ray that shows her pectoral muscles are paralyzed. He says he doesn’t know what to do yet; Cathy demands that he do something. Dave calms her and pulls the rock out of his pocket. He says he’s going to take it to his old professor in the morning. Hendricks says to get him out of bed—right now.

Dave and Professor Arthur Flanders (Trevor Bardette) examine the rock and determine that it is all silicates—Dave complains that it’s completely unknown. Flanders suggests the reason may be because it has been unknown—maybe it’s a meteor. Cathy comes in—she says that Hendricks has said that Ginny has eight hours.

Flanders and Dave drive back to San Angelo. At the Simpson house, Flanders notes the radical difference in soil near the wreckage and farther away.

Back at Dave’s lab, he, Flanders, Dr. Reynolds and Chief Corey discuss their meager findings, the main thing being the lack of silicates in the soil from near wreckage. It appears that, somehow, the meteor fragments drain all of the silicates from whatever they touch—from soil or from—people? Dr. Reynolds explains that silicon is present in the human body; science isn’t certain what it does. There is a theory that it is involved in the flexibility of the skin. Dave suggests that the absence of silicon in the body might lead to—the body turning to stone.

Dave and Flanders are running tests, trying to determine what catalyst is involved in making the meteor grow. They’ve been at it for hours; Flanders hits a piece and a chip falls into the sink. We hear thunder outside. Flanders apologizes, saying that he must be getting tired; Dave says that it’s just his strong coffee and prepares a fresh pot. After he dumps the old coffee in the sink, he returns to the sink—the chip has grown to a crystal taller than the depth of the sink. They realize it’s just water—as long as there is water, they grow; when there is no more water, they stop growing. Dave then hears the rain. They drive back out the Old San Angelo Road to the location of the meteorite fragments—Flanders tells Dave to stop, to turn off the engine. They hear a rumble—they get out and see giant crystals towering perhaps 100 feet. When the crystals reach a certain height, they fall over and shatter, scattering chunks for hundreds of feet.

Back in town, Dave calls the weather service; William Shallert tells them that it will stop raining soon and there is no additional rain forecast for 48 hours.

Dr. Hendricks has found a cure for Ginny; she’s out of danger. Cathy tries to call Dave and is told that the lines are down. She’s nearly hysterical; Hendricks says he has another way. He calls the Highway Patrol; they send a car to San Angelo and set up communicate by radio. Hendricks tells Dave his formula; Dave hopes that if the formula saved Ginny, it might also stop the rocks.

Everyone thinks they have breathing room now that the rain has stopped until a rancher drives in; he says that the rocks destroyed his house and barn more than a half-hour after the rain stopped. Corey wants to call for an evacuation but the phones are dead and power lines are down—how can he tell 1500 people that it’s time to move? Cochrane says that he can take care of it; he calls a boy, one of his delivery boys, and tells him to get every kid in town with a bike. He then has his workers print up an official evacuation order and has the kids distribute it.

An ambulance arrives from LA with Dr. Hendricks, Cathy and Ginny; it carries a portable iron lung to help other citizens that have touched the Monoliths.

Flanders and Dave are working to find out what ingredient or combination of ingredients from Dr. Hendricks formula can stop the Monoliths—with no luck. Cathy arrives and offers her help. Dave finally realizes that they have tried all the ingredients in Hendricks formula except the saline solution he used to suspend the other ingredients. They try plain salt water—the rock stops growing. They try again—it really works.

Now the problem is figuring out how to spread enough salt to stop the Monoliths; the giant rocks are following an old stream bed down toward the town. Dave says they need to dynamite the dam at the nearby reservior—part of a $6 million irrigation project paid for by farmers to the north. If they blow the dam, the water will rush across the salt flats and then into the path of the advancing Monoliths; the newly created river will be wide enough to stop the Monoliths in their tracks.

The only remaining problem is getting permission for this rather extreme solution. The governor is supposed to be flying to San Angelo to examine the situation but no one can get in touch with him. Dave takes the responsibility and orders the dam blown—and it works.

Chief Corey says that he’s finally heard from the governor’s office; the governor had an unscheduled meeting with the state geologist—that’s why no one could find him. But what did he say? He said, “Don’t blow up the dam—unless you’re absolutely certain it’ll work”. Corey drags out the pause painfully, and Cochrane acts like he’s going to slug the Chief.

The picture occasionally does a good job of showing the scientific method—Dave and Professor Flanders experiment long hours, trying to find a method of controlling the multiplication of the rocks before they overrun the town.

Of course, it isn’t all good science—at one point Flanders suggests that the stones may be meteorites—pure silicates like a stony iron meteorite—oops. At another point, Dr. Hendricks suggests that Ginny must be in an iron lung because the pectoral muscles are paralyzed—a little problem of physiology there.

*

A blooper—when Flanders scoops up two handfuls of dirt, he has the pale, lifeless soil in his left hand, but when we see a closeup of his hands, the pale dirt is in his right palm.