The Mole People * (1956, John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, Hugh Beaumont, Alan Napier, Nestor Paiva) – Classic Movie Review 3,497

The creaky old black and white 1956 chiller film The Mole People stars John Agar as a scientist who starts an expedition to a lost underground city of albino inhabitants who have made slaves of the half-man/ half-creature Mole People. 

‘HORROR LIKE NOTHING YOUR EYES HAVE SEEN BEFORE.’ Director Virgil W Vogel’s creaky old black and white 1956 chiller film The Mole People stars John Agar as Dr Roger Bentley, a scientist who starts one of those expeditions to a lost underground city that you just know is going to turn out to be full of albino inhabitants who have made slaves of the half-man/half-creature Mole People.

Agar’s party of archaeologists – Hugh Beaumont as Dr Jud Bellamin, Phil Chambers as Dr Paul Stuart and Nestor Paiva as Professor Etienne Lafarge – discover the remains of a mutant five-millennium-old Sumerian civilisation living beneath a glacier on top of a mountain in Mesopotamia. Alan Napier plays the High Priest Elinu, who doesn’t welcome the presence of the new arrivals and wants them eliminated.

Universal International Pictures made some rotten sci-fi flicks in the Fifties, but this is one of the worst. Their low budget and Lazlo Gorog’s feeble screenplay are mostly to blame, though, to be fair, some of the ideas and dialogue are fine. It was shot quickly in 17 days for $200,000. Alas, the Mole People themselves look like giant rubber gloves worn out by too much washing up. Their humps were created by stuffing the backs of the actors who play them with newspapers.

Also in the cast are Cynthia Patrick as Adad, Robin Hughes, Rodd Redwing and Arthur D Gilmour.

Dr Bentley and Adad originally were filmed living happily ever after. But Universal didn’t like the idea of an interracial relationship and forced the filming of a new ending two weeks after the shoot.

This 1956 American science fiction adventure horror film features an underground civilization created by Sumerian descendants, who worship Ishtar. It is written by László Görög, based on theories about the hollow earth, and is produced by William Alland. It was released on 1 December 1956 in a double bill with the jungle adventure Curucu, Beast of the Amazon.

Dr Frank Baxter, an English professor at the University of Southern California, narrates the film’s the premise and basis in reality, as a fictionalised version of the hollow earth theories of John Symmes and Cyrus Teed.

Universal announced a revamp of the film on 28 March 2023, to be written by Chris Winterbauer.

The cast are John Agar as Dr Roger Bentley, Cynthia Patrick as Adad, Hugh Beaumont as Dr Jud Bellamin, Alan Napier as the High Priest Elinu, Nestor Paiva as Professor Etienne Lafarge, Phil Chambers as Dr Paul Stuart, Rodd Redwing as Nazar, Robin Hughes as First Officer, Frank Baxter as himself and Arthur D Gilmour.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,497

Link to home page for more reviews derekwinnert.com