Moviecut—Cosmic Monsters

source: Cosmic Monsters

The Strange World of Planet X

I saw this under the title "The Cosmic Monsters". Silly movie about a scientist named Dr. Laird (Alec Mango), his assistant Gil Graham (Forrest Tucker) and obligatory love interest Michele Dupont (Gaby Andre) developing a machine that makes metal bend...or something like that (I was too bored to pay attention). Because of this machine they unwittingly open a hole in the ionosphere covering the Earth that lets in rays that turn humans into maniacs and makes small animals larger. Very dull with virtually nothing happening until the final 20 minutes when the animals attack. All talk, talk, talk full of boring science dialogue and pretty bad acting too. The special effects are terrible too--the scenes with the large insects are laughably fake. One purportedly gruesome scene--an insect biting off some of the face of a dead soldier--doesn't work at all because the soldier is so obviously a dummy! Boring, by the numbers, low budget sci-fi movie. You can safely skip this one.

It's just endless babble about nothing. When there is a little action it's too dark to see anything. Why is Forrest Tucker always in European movies? Watch this if you have problems falling asleep.

I saw this movie recently on VHS. I was surprised at how compelling this film was. It took a while for the monsters to show but that's because great character development and a good plot outline was being established first. But when the monsters to show, there are some shocking scenes for even today. The effects were very good as well as the acting, especially Forrest Tucker. They even managed to fit in a believable love triangle between the main characters. The logic of the plot pans out very well and was impressive. The movie flowed smoothly and the script well written. Overall it was a great 50s SF film.

I once read an interesting theory from a famous British actor as to why so many American movies were so much successful with audiences than British movies. He claimed that many British movies were scripted as "illustrated radio" - with scripts that might play on radio, but wouldn't be appealing if filmed. This movie is strong evidence to that theory. The first two-thirds of the movie are extremely dull, with characters talking endlessly and there being virtually no action. The last third of the movie is slightly better than what happened beforehand, with some action and some special effects. But the fact that the giant bug effects are so obvious and so cheap (you almost never see a human in the same shot as one of the giant insects), it's not even good for some unintended laughs. You feel embarrassed for the filmmakers instead. If you want to see a giant bug movie, watch an American effort instead.

I enjoyed Cosmic Monsters on DVD recently, and Forrest Tucker has never disappointed in such films (The Crawling Eye; Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas). It has those British science aspects that I really, really like in black & white films from the 1950's (Professor Quatermass comes to mind). The science of the plot is believable to a point, and the UFO Planet X elements work for me. Special effects are limited, and I did not care for the insects near the end, nor was I impressed with the numerous scenes of soldiers shooting bugs. However, the titular "spider in the web" scene is quite effective. Simplistic, well-paced, and enjoyable. Two points off for special effects & ending.

In England, they produced many a B-Picture which if deemed suitable was shipped to America to entertain American Audiences. Among the more interesting is this entertaining Science Fiction movie entitled " The Strange World of Planet X, " in America it was renamed " Cosmic Monsters. " Whatever it was remembered as, it became a notable movie and a B-Picture Classic, primarily because of American Actor Forest Tucker. He plays Gil Graham a Electronic physicist working with a deranged Scientist who creates a powerful electromagnetic machine capable of upsetting not only the Earth's delicate magnetic field, it's insect population, but also the inter-galactic space-ships from Planet X. One notable star is Martin Benson who plays 'Smith' better remembered as the nervous gangster 'Mr.Solo' from the famous 'Goldfinger' movie. Despite it's modest budget and low-tech special effects, the story remains interesting and Tucker carries it through to a satisfying conclusion. A fun film for all. ***

Of all the giant insects flicks of the 1950s, this is probably the worst. But as a low-budget sci-fi flick with a modest mystery, it's not so bad. First, the good news: Forrest Tucker and others are conducting magnetic experiments, which leads to a problem: the experiments allow cosmic rays to bombard the land, resulting in giant insects, reptiles and spiders. And they're all very hungry. A strange individual (Michael Benson) shows up to help. He's from another planet, naturally. Now for the bad news: the giant insects and reptiles and whatnot are simply regular creepy crawlies poorly enlarged through the camera lens. The one exception is a spider that tries to eat the obligatory helpless heroine (Gaby Andre). There's a bit of gore, but not enough to keep the kiddies away. Tucker is solid, as always, and Benson is oddly believable as the friendly alien. It has been suggested his performance was based on Michael Rennie's alien visitor in "The Day The Earth Stood Still."