The Monster That Challenged the World (1957)

An all star cast of thousands rallying around the biggest star, a caterpillar type monster that lays scary eggs in the sea and chokes its victims with its mandibles, fake looking of course but it actually kind of makes me recoil. This film is a wonderful old horror film with enough scare to keep you going through the quasi romantic story of the sheriff and a lovely assistant. It does suffer from long periods where nothing occurs, but maybe that makes it realistic to our humdrum existence, A horror movie should scare us so we’re thankful to return to it. This is a wonderful way to curl up with a bowl of popcorn but not a buffet for our modern horror fans I am afraid. 9/10

Plot summary:

The Monster That Challenged the World (1957)

An earthquake unleashes a giant mollusk in California’s Salton Sea. The site is near a military base and the first victim is a navy skydiver testing parachutes and the two sailors sent to collect him from the water. Soon Naval Investigator Lt. Commander John “Twill” Twillinger is on the case. They find the sailors’ boat which is covered with a white goo. Soon Navy divers are looking for the missing men and recover a large round sac which they recover and sent the base lab. One of the divers is killed in an encounter with the creature and they think the crisis is over. They don’t realize that the sac they transported to the lab is in fact the creature’s egg and another mollusk hatches, this time on the base.

Beyond an exciting description, this film really makes you feel good in the same way watching old black and white Christmas films made you feel as a kid. The all star cast consists of many GenX kids like me will recognize, The cast is as follows:

• Tim Holt as Lt. Cmdr. John “Twill” Twillinger
• Audrey Dalton as Gail MacKenzie
• Mimi Gibson as Sandy MacKenzie
• Hans Conried as Dr. Jess Rogers
• Harlan Warde as Lt. Robert “Clem” Clemens
• Max Showalter as Dr. Tad Johns
• Gordon Jones as Sheriff Josh Peters
• Marjorie Stapp as Connie Blake
• Dennis McCarthy as George Blake
• Barbara Darrow as Jody Simms
• Robert Beneveds as Seaman Morty Beatty
• Charles Herbert as boy with Morty’s cap
• Jody McCrea as Seaman Fred Johnson
• Wallace Earl as Sally (credited as Eileen Harvey)
• Milton Parsons as Lewis Clark Dobbs, map expert (uncredited)
• Ralph Moody as Murdered Canal Watchman (uncredited)
• Byron Kane as Coroner (uncredited)
• Sara Selby as Mrs. Simms, Jody’s Mother (uncredited)

Here is where I give spoiler warnings! THE PLOT! This is a walkthrough of the film, elaborated on in the podcast episode. I hope you’ll try it out! It is called Riley on Film and its available everywhere you listen to podcasts. Now, back to the walkthrough …

the Salton Sea in California, an underwater earthquake causes a crevice to open, releasing prehistoric giant molluscs. A rescue training parachute jump is conducted, but the patrol boat sent to pick up the jumper finds only a floating parachute. One sailor dives in but also disappears. The other sailor screams in terror as something rises from the water.

When the patrol boat does not answer radio calls, Lt. Cmdr. John “Twill” Twillinger takes a rescue party out on a second patrol boat to investigate. They find the deserted patrol boat covered in a strange slime; the jumper’s body then floats to the surface, now blackened and drained of bodily fluids. Twill takes a sample of the slime to the base lab for analysis, where he teams up with recently widowed Gail MacKenzie and Dr. Jess Rogers.

A young couple disappear after going for a swim. U.S. Navy divers investigate and discover a giant egg and the body of one of the victims on the ocean floor. The divers are attacked by a giant mollusc (which looks like a giant caterpillar), which kills one of the divers. The mollusc attacks the boat, but Twill stabs it in the eye with a grappling hook. The egg is taken to the U.S. Navy lab for study and kept under temperature control to prevent it from hatching.

The molluscs escape into an irrigation canal system, attacking livestock, a lock keeper, a trysting couple, and others. Navy divers locate a group of molluscs in the canal system, and use explosives to destroy them.

In the meantime, Gail is at the lab with her young daughter, Sandy. Worried about the laboratory rabbits being cold in the laboratory’s lowered temperature, Sandy surreptitiously turns up the thermostat. Twill calls the laboratory and gets no answer. He arrives and finds that the hatched mollusc has Gail and Sandy cornered in a closet, where they ran to escape from the monster. He fights it with laboratory chemicals, a CO₂ fire extinguisher and a live steam line until other Navy personnel arrive and shoot the mollusc. (Wikipedia)