Rent The Monolith Monsters (1957)
3.4 of 5 from 59 ratings
1h 14min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- In a desperate race against time and nature, a geologist and scientist must join forces to in order to discover a way to stop killer rocks from outer space that are causing people to turn to stone with fright!
- Actors:
- Grant Williams, Lola Albright, Les Tremayne, Trevor Bardette, Phil Harvey, William Flaherty, Harry Jackson, Richard H. Cutting, Linda Scheley, Dean Cromer, Steve Darrell, William Schallert, Troy Donahue, Carol Morris, Paul Petersen, Ezelle Poule
- Directors:
- John Sherwood
- Producers:
- Howard Christie
- Narrated By:
- Paul Frees
- Writers:
- Norman Jolley, Robert M. Fresco, Jack Arnold
- Studio:
- Screenbound Pictures
- Genres:
- Classics, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
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Reviews (2) of The Monolith Monsters
Between a rock and a dull place - The Monolith Monsters review by Count Otto Black
This is a workmanlike but very minor sci-fi B-movie about a meteorite which, like the Blob in the movie of that name, has the ability to constantly grow, and thus threatens mankind, suffers from one insurmountable problem. Its "monsters" are lumps of rock. Not living rock that can run after you or anything like that. Just odd-looking geology which kills people who get too near it because it's highly toxic (by the way, despite what it says on the previous page, nobody turns to stone from fear - why would that happen?), and threatens a whole town because as it grows, it topples onto anything downhill from it.
So what we have is a very slow-moving "monster" which, once everybody catches on that it might give them a fatal space disease, poses no threat to anyone who isn't directly in front of it and unable to move out of the way within an hour or two. And since it completely lacks both the desire and the ability to do anything on purpose, it's not really all that menacing. With a monster this underwhelming, the film desperately needs some interesting characters, and it doesn't have those either. There's a handsome guy and his pretty gal, another handsome guy, an older man, a little girl in peril - the usual crowd.
Worst of all, these fearsome rampaging space crystals never actually trap or surround anybody. The nearest they come to directly posing a threat to anyone apart from the tiny handful of people who perish almost instantly is to infect a couple of characters with a "petrifying" illness that seems to lowly turn them into leather, and they'll die unless they get an injection in time. Other than the vague and much too abstract threat of these naughty boulders multiplying infinitely and covering the whole world if the hero's plan fails, the nail-biting danger he faces at the film's thrilling climax is that what he's about to do might be illegal unless he can get the governor's permission, and the governor's gone to lunch or something. Can you stand the suspense?
Altogether a rather dull thriller which fails to thrill, in which there's far more talk about geology and footage of men looking tense while dripping various substances on small rocks than anything resembling action. Much less fun than similar movies in which the monster has legs with which to run after the hero, and fangs with which to eat him when it catches up.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Fifties Sci-fi. - The Monolith Monsters review by Steve
The concept for this 1950s alien invasion picture is so gimmicky, it might indicate this is the moment the postwar sci-fi boom ran out of inspiration. But that isn't so. This is actually an unexpected treat. The camera effects and models are decent for the time. It is competently shot in CinemaScope with sincere dialogue and performances.
Most genre archetypes are intact. A small desert town with orthodox values has to survive contact with a meteor which expands into giant monoliths when it gets wet. And turns the locals into stone. Sort of. And there is a big storm on the way. The neighbourhood geologists must find a way of stopping the insentient threat from space before it goes nationwide.
No '50s small state conservative could take offence. There is absolutely no infrastructure to deal with emergencies. There's no army, public health or government boffins. The rocky invasion is confronted by the desert ranger (Grant Williams). His girlfriend (Lola Albright) looks after the kids. He pulls in a few favours from various academic pals.
No doubt those local geologists have been laid off by now.... Still, the unconventional premise really works. This is an exciting- if quirky- genre picture which squeezes decent production values out of its minimal budget. It's hokum, but not shoddy poverty row trash. There is plenty of fun to be had by anyone who loves studio era sci-fi.
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