Review of The Monster That Challenged the World (1957) by Paul P — 07 Jun 2007

The MooCow That Challenged The World!! :=8D.

Ahhh, an-udder classic monster flick that played every Saturday on Dr. Shock, Creature Feature, and every udder monster moovie shows in the 70's and 80's(where have they all gone to??), only to be replaced by re-runs of Xena:Warrior Princess. Moore's the pity, because this is just the sort of little film that gets forgotten. Oh, you might get lucky and find it late at night on AMC, or perhaps one of Ted Turner's stations, but the fact is that "The Monster That Challenged the World" is not good enough to be a real classic, in the vein, say, of "It Came from Beneath the Sea", but nor is it schlocky enough to acquire fans of the stinky moovie genre. Actually, "TMTCTW" is a pretty good little moovie, for its day, with some solid performances, pretty good production values, and some nifty monster FX. A tad slow at times, especially when the film is padded out with endless dining scenes, nonetheless this is good monster flick to get re-acquainted with.

In which an earthquake releases a bunch of radioactive eggs, cowtaining huge, slimy bugs. The bugs start munching on the locals, including a few sailors, sending anal-retentive, workaholic Naval Intelligence Commander Twilinger into a tizzy. Will he solve the bug mystery before they snack on some moore sailor heads?? Will Cowifornia be over-run with huge, nasty bug monsters?? Will ramrod-straight Twilinger make it with snuggly widow Gail? The cast is cowposed of many B-moovie vets, including Tim Holt("My Darling Clementine") as Twilinger, Audrey Daulton("Kitten With a Whip") as Gail, Hans Conreid(many, many voice-overs, including the "Rocky & Bullwinkle Show")as Dr. Rogers, and Max Showalter("The Naked and The Dead")as Dr. Tad. Director Arnold Laven is better known for directing tons of tv shows over 4 decades, including "The Rifleman", "Mannix", "The Six Million Dollar Man", and "Hill Street Blues". "TMTCTW" was a rare feature film for Laven, and he does a capable job, although pacing is problematic throughout. The MooCow was pretty scared of those giant bug/slugs when he first saw this film as a calf, especially the grotesque and disgusting stock footage showing slugs and snails devouring everything they get their slimy pseudopods on. :=8P.

The MooCow says this is a good film to check out, just to relive those glory days of monster cinema on tv - just watch out for that escargot!!

;=8).