The Monster That Challenged the World (1957)

**NO SPOILERS**I'm a fan of the 50's creature feature genre, so this movie fits the category nicely. Unlike a lot of these low budget offerings with bad scripts, I happen to find this one has an entirely believable plot and some tension filled moments with decent acting to pull it off. Man screwing with the environment producing horrible results which is, in fact, what has happened to the real Salton Sea in SoCal. Finding out the details of the real story of the ongoing saga of that area makes the movie background and choice of location even more appealing. In reality, man's actions and inaction have created a beast of sorts affecting the whole region environmentally, and financially. If you enjoy a little irony I suggest watching this movie then look into the history behind the Salton Sea- which is really a shallow, saline, endorheic rift lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault. Check out the History Channel's 2006 episode "Engineering Disasters 18" (#13-04), from the television documentary series Modern Marvels, which describes the combined manmade and natural events leading to the creation of the Salton Sea in the early 20th century, its brief popularity as a resort destination midcentury, and its subsequent decline due to high salinity and farm runoff. Impacts to Salton Sea fish and bird populations are addressed and future plans to rescue the sea are described. I'm actually giving this a 6.5, but because IMDb won't add the half points to the voting it appears as a 6.

Middling, talk-filled giant monster movie in which US Naval officers are attacked and eaten by giant sea slugs that have evolved as a result of atomic testing (what else?). I'm sure even the most patient of movie-viewers will have a tough time sitting through this endless movie, in which the eighty minutes feel like double that. The main problem is that, while the monsters themselves are pretty darned cool, there's just so damned little of them in the movie that it makes you wonder why they bothered! I would estimate that the monsters appear for approximately 10% of the movie with the rest being packed with dialogue and slow investigation.Another of the problems is that the characters are so unlikeable, the typical stuffy military types who tend to display no personality at all in their actions. Tim Holt is the most characterised of the lot but even he comes across as a grumpy, occasionally stupid hero, definitely not someone to root for. The female characters are dated and subservient, either acting as love interests or victims in the movie. There's also an annoying little brat who deserves to get eaten but inevitably doesn't. The film does have some things to recommend it. These include the corpses which have hilarious rubber faces with ping pong eyes and a couple of quickly minor characters who are more interesting than the leads. One is a mortician who keeps his sandwiches in a morgue freezer, the other a local librarian who talks like Boris Karloff. Also keep an eye out for the first victim of the monster (which we see in shadow), and his incredible unbelievable wooden acting (he says - not screams - "ahh, ahh!" as the monster gets him!).The scenes with the giant sea slugs are generally a lot of fun, in that tacky '50s way. Although they can't move they are pretty well animated and look hilarious (and kind of cute - it's gruesome when one of them gets its eyeball popped out!). Some of the underwater scenes do develop a sense of tension with the hidden monsters but most are too murky to enjoy. The ending, with a giant slug loose in the laboratory, is however classic stuff and a riot (the hero uses a fire extinguisher to subdue it before the firing squad arrive!). There's also a presentation on snails which will tell you some interesting facts about our mollusc friends. Unfortunately, the major part of this film is all about wining and dining, official procedure, and boring people with their boring lives - definitely not a movie in which pacing is a strong point. Watchable but only as a last resort (i.e. there's nothing else on).

This story takes place in California - on, under, and near the Salton Sea. One day an earthquake unleashes a particularly hideous brand of giant monster on the locals - massive mollusks. Our heroes include such people as Lieutenant Commander Twillinger (Tim Holt) and the scientist Dr. Jess Rogers (Hans Conreid).All in all, "The Monster That Challenged the World" is an intelligently done, sometimes suspenseful example of this particular genre that blossomed in the 1950s. The thing is, it might not appeal that strongly to all members of the modern audience because there's just not a lot of good monster mollusk action. The runtime is mostly devoted to the efforts of our determined human cast to solve the problem. There's a fair bit of exposition to digest, and there's also a romance that begins to develop between Twillinger and a receptionist named Gail (the very pretty Audrey Dalton).This is still worthy of a viewing from fans of these films. The special effects are pretty good for the era; the creatures are formidable when engaged in battle. People who've seen this are likely to remember that fun grossout moment when one of the mollusks loses its left eye while fighting with some people. This also benefits strongly from some crisp black & white photography by Lester White and a decent music score composed by Heinz Roemheld. The cast is effective all the way down the line. Holt is a likable hero, and Conreid has a valuable presence because he makes the exposition worth a listen. Max Showalter, Harlan Warde, Gordon Jones, and Jody McCrea co-star. That's director Arnold Lavens' wife playing Sally. One cast member in particular is worth mentioning: Milton Parsons as the rather eccentric, helpful Lewis Clark Dodds. He makes the most out of a small role.The finale is reasonably exciting, and Laven and company wrap things up quickly once it's over.Seven out of 10.

By the time 1957 rolled around, Hollywood was just plain running out of things that looked scary under a microscope that could be made into a monster if irradiated by Plot-onium. (you see what I did there?) Other people having used Ants, Spiders, Praying Mantises the only thing they really had left to go with were snails. Yup. Snails. But they avoid using the term snails because frankly, who can be afraid of something served at French Restaurants? SO they called them Mollusks instead.So the plot is that radiation has gotten into the Salton Sea, and made these snails into people eating giants. There is one particular scene where a snail kills a diver I remember from creature features back in the 1970's...But mostly, this follows the 1950's formula. Something is mysteriously killing people and the Military and Science have to team up to stop it, because this was back in the day when we still trusted the Military and Science implicitly.The problem is that this movie moves so slowly with the typical stock characters we've seen in other movies who have all the dimension of cardboard.