The Monster that Challenged the World, one of the more intelligent and well-made giant creature films from the 1950s, has been released by Kino Lorber in a nice Blu-ray edition. The film features a capable cast and benefits greatly from the on-location filming in the vicinity of the Salton Sea in California.
Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Kino Lorber
Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA
Subtitles: None
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 1 Hr. 23 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
Standard Blu-ray Keep CaseDisc Type: BD25 (single layer)
Region: A
Release Date: 08/11/2015
MSRP: $29.95
The Production Rating: 3/5
No, I haven't seen any creature. Just plain foolishness. - A Canal Gatekeeper
The Salton Sea in California was, at one time, the location of a U.S. Navy research station, and that is where the action in The Monster that Challenged the World takes place. An earthquake temporarily disrupts activities on the station, but within hours everything is back to normal. One of the projects which the Navy is working on is testing new parachutes designs, and the test parachutists jump over and into the Salton Sea. The parachutists are less likely to be injured when jumping into water rather than on land.
A Navy plane takes off with one of the parachutists and a Navy boat is dispatched to the jump area to pick him up. The two sailors in the boat see the successful jump and proceed to the area where the parachutist landed. Although they find his parachute, there is no sight of him. One of the sailors dives into the water to look for him, but does not find a trace. The sailor dives again, and that is the last we see of him. The remaining sailor looks over the side, vainly looking for his shipmate. He then is struck with fear when something terrifying rises up out of the sea.
The Navy Station has a new commanding officer, Lt. Commander John 'Twill' Twillinger (Tim Holt). When he gets word that contact with the boat and its two crewmen has been lost, he sets out to learn what happened. He, along with another officer and an enlisted man, rides out to the jump area and they find a severely disfigured corpse, with its blood drained from its body, aboard the otherwise unmanned boat. There is no sign of the other sailor or the missing paratrooper, but there is an unidentified gooey substance on the boat. Then they hear a noise alongside the boat, and the emaciated body of the paratrooper suddenly comes to the surface.
After bringing the bodies back to the pier, Twillinger heads to the research lab and meets with the lab chief, Dr. Jess Rogers (Hans Conried), and his secretary, Gail MacKenzie (Audrey Dalton). Dr. Rogers tells him that the substance is "just a simple marine secretion" but he wants to run more tests the following morning. When two young lovers disappears after going for a moonlight swim, another search at sea in conducted and Twillinger and his crew have a fearsome encounter with a giant and ferocious mollusk. Twillinger manages to kill it, but after a large mollusk egg is found Dr. Rogers fears that there may be more creatures in the sea. He theorizes that mollusk eggs were lying dormant under the Salton Sea and that the earthquake created a fissure which gave them access to water and allowed them to hatch. In the meantime, Twillinger begins to take a personal interest in the lovely Gail MacKenzie, a widow with a young daughter.
Tim Holt, a former B-Western star who also appeared in such serious films as Treasure of the Sierra Madre and My Darling Clementine, had been away from Hollywood for several years before he agreed to star in The Monster that Challenged the World, and he turns in a competent performance. Audrey Dalton is very appealing as Gail MacKenzie, and Hans Conreid is fine in a rare dramatic role. The monster (actually there are several monsters, but we never see more than one at a time) is surprisingly realistic, and the location filming gives the movie production values which belie its modest budget. The director is Arnold Laven, who had a long career as a producer and director of both movies and television shows.
Video Rating: 3.5/5 3D Rating: NA
The 1.85:1 black and white film is shown in 1080p and is encoded with the AVC codec. For the most part the picture quality is quite good, although there are occasional speckles and minor reel damage. There is one sequence beginning at the 37:26 mark where the picture pulsates and flashes, which is distracting, but it only last for about 10 seconds. Film grain looks natural and the overall sharpness is satisfactory. The bottom line is that this is good as The Monster that Challenged the World is ever likely to look, barring a complete restoration.
Audio Rating: 3/5
The DTS HD-MA 2.0 English soundtrack is fine, with every word of dialogue clear and intelligible. There is limited dynamic range, but there is no distortion, hiss, or other age-related anomalies.
There are no subtitles.
Special Features Rating: 2.5/5
The limited extras on this Blu-ray disc include the original theatrical trailer. The trailer includes a couple of shots which did not survive the film's final cut.
The other extra is a worthwhile audio commentary by film historian Tom Weaver. He offers up a lot of information about the cast members and provides some interesting detail about filming locations, etc. He sounds like he is reading from a prepared script, so the commentary is not conversational in tone.
Overall Rating: 3/5
The Monster that Challenged the World is an above-average monster film from the 1950s which avoids some of the usual clichés of that era. For example, although radioactivity plays a minor part in the story, there is no suggestion that atomic testing has anything to do with the existence of the monsters.
This Blu-ray disc from Kino Lorber is not flawless, but it is generally pleasing and certainly will be a welcome addition to the movie libraries of film buffs that are fans of the genre.
Reviewed By: Richard Gallagher
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