The Mole People (1956)

Here we go with yet another 75 minute movie that has 30 minutes of people walking in silence.When they do talk, it just non-sense. It's a bad story that is quite boring.

"The Mole People is another of the budget conscious sci-fi/horror films turned out by Universal in the 1950s. It's the story of an archaeological expedition somewhere in Asia who discovers a lost civilization beneath the earth. Sounds promising but......The expedition headed by Dr. Roger Bentley (John Agar) discover a 5,000 year old tablet that suggests that a civilization may have existed in the mountain above. Together with Dr. Jud Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont), Professor Lafarge (Nestor Paiva who seemed to be in all of these pictures), Dr. Paul Stewart (Phil Chambers) and guide Nazar (Rodd Redwing), they climb the mountain to a plateau that has the ruins of a temple which suggests to them that there may be a lost city below.Dr. Stewart accidentally falls through a hole to his death below. The others try to find him by descending into the depths. Nazar is crushed by a landslide but the others continue on. They find the lost city they sought but are suddenly confronted by a pair of albino like soldiers. They bring them to a another city with an active population. This is where the ludicrousness of the story begins. The tiny city is basically run by High Priest Elinu (Alan Napier). They keep as slaves mole like people whom they are constantly whipping for some unknown reason.When Elinu orders the trio's execution, Dr. Bentley whips out his flashlight and scares them off. It seems these people have an adversity to light. Bentley, Bellamin and Lafarge are then considered as gods by the King. Then out of the blue comes a normal but gorgeous blond Adad (Cynthia Patrick) with whom Bentley becomes infatuated.Bentley and Bellamin gain the support of the mole people when they save three of them from death. So when Elinu does convince the king that the strangers be executed, the mole people intervene and.........................The best part of the movie is when the underground mole people reach from beneath the earth and pull their enemies down into the ground. This only adds to the mystery of why the slaves remain above ground only to be constantly under torture. From the advertising, one would expect the mole people to be the main villains in the story, instead they are portrayed as sympathetic creatures.John Agar to me, was always better in supporting roles. He wasn't a good enough actor to carry a picture on his own. Of course, appearing in films such as this didn't help either. Hugh Beaumont was about to embark on a five year run as Ward Cleaver in TVs "Leave it to Beaver".

Virgil Vogel directs this Sci-Fi classic concerning two archeologists, Roger Bentley (John Agar) and Jud Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont), who discover an underground civilization of albinos deprived and fearful of sunlight making slaves of a populace of half-human, half-mole creatures. The only weapon the two explorers have is a...flashlight. Bentley and Bellamin befriend the slaves from their torturing and earn their trust in showing a way back to the earth's surface. Very low budget and the mole people are not very scary after a decent introduction.Cynthia Patrick plays Adad, a pretty outcast of the albinos, who is given away to Dr. Bentley, compliments of the High Priest (Alan Napier). Other players include: Rodd Redwing, Nestor Palva, Phil Chambers and Joe Abdullah.

THE MOLE PEOPLE breaks no new ground (...), but it's not a bad way to spend some Time. The filmmakers make extensive use of some stock mountain-climbing footage and so the story progresses, accordingly, one step at a time; this makes for some slow going, to be sure, but the Mole People of the title more than make up ("makeup," giddit?) for it once they're introduced. The articulation in what's normally referred to as "the hero mask" is excellent: he chomps his lips hungrily as he lurches after his victim(s) and the fact that his mouth appears to open and close VERTICALLY only adds to the Horror... John Agar once again comes through with flying colors, as does Hugh Beaumont as his sidekick, but the abrupt death of a third character may catch viewers by surprise.