Monster from Green Hell * (1957, Jim Davis, Robert Griffin, Joel Fluellen, Eduardo Ciannelli, Vladimir Sokoloff, Barbara Turner) – Classic Movie Review 7725

‘The mammoth monster that terrified the Earth! Too awesome to describe! Too terrifying to escape! Too powerful to stop!’

Jim Davis, a couple of decades before he played Jock Ewing in Dallas (1978-1981), stars in director Kenneth G Crane’s 1957 monster movie Monster from Green Hell, another American grade Z sci-fi ‘chiller’ with cheap and unconvincing special effects.

Davis plays Dr Quent Brady, a rocket scientist who hunts gigantic killer wasps in Africa, where they have crashed down after a space flight in which they mutated into monsters.

Far too little happens to fill even this short running time of 71 minutes, and that is only with the help of rickety stop-motion animated creatures and scenes from other movies. With the screenplay by Louis Vittes and Endre Bohem, alas there is no sting in this tale.

It is shot in black and white but with some colour. The scene showing the volcanic eruption fiery lava in the last five minutes of the movie is in red tint, though even this mostly screens in black and white on TV.

Also in the cast are Eduardo Ciannelli, Vladimir Sokoloff, Barbara Turner, Joel Fluellen, Robert E Griffin, Tim Huntley, LaVerne Jones and Frederic Potler.

Monster from Green Hell is directed by Kenneth G Crane, runs 71 minutes, is made by Gross-Krasne Productions, is released by Distributors Corporation of America, is written by Louis Vittes and Endre Bohem is shot in black and white but with some colour by Ray Flin, is produced by Jack J Gross (executive producer), Philip N Krasne (executive producer) and Al Zimbalist (producer), is scored by Albert Glasser and is designed by Ernst Fegté.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7725

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