From Hell It Came (1957)

Wonderful Movie

Absolutely Brilliant!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Doctors have landed on "the south sea island", to help the natives with illness, but the local witch doctor doesn't appreciate the interference. and of course, there is the witch doctor's love triangle issue. one of the native villagers DOES co-operate with the medical doctors, and it doesn't go well for him. Now there is a walking tree stump (!) walking the island, knocking people off one by one. it's quite amusing... it walks so slowly, a child could easily outrun (out-walk) it, and yet it's still killing people. Stars Tod Andrews, Tina Carver, and Linda Watkins. It's all pretty silly, but plays well enough. It's rated 3.5, after only 900 votes on imdb, but it's really not so bad. There are so many worse horror films rated higher than this! it's all played a little tongue in cheek. Not so bad. Shows on Turner Classics now and then. This appears to be one of only THREE films that Dan Milner directed... looks like he spent most of his career editing films. The script is a bit silly, and some of the acting is cheesy, but its all in good fun.

A Pacific island prince Kimo is put to death by his people even though he is innocent. After he is buried he comes back as a walking tree and wreaks his revenge on those who betrayed him. Great premise, poor film. It is quite slow, the acting is bland to say the least and the music score amusingly over the top. There are no notable actors. Linda Watkins as Mrs. Mae Kilgore for some reason has a hilarious Cockney accent easily on par with the legendary Dick Van Dyke accent in 'Mary Poppins'. As for the monster itself, Tabanga, I thought it was quite cute. One wonders why Tabanga dolls or models were never sold (with dagger in chest of course) at the time.

I remember this inane movie from the "Creature Features" that used to air from 8:30 to 10:00, Saturday night, in NYC in the 1970s (whether on channel 9 or channel 11 I can't recall, though "Chiller" had better movies than "Creature Features").Even though my bedtime was nine--I was about eight--my folks would let me stay up till ten on Saturday to watch this foolishness.The creature, who looked like a walking tree with a wizened, exaggerated face, was called a TOBBONGA or a TOBOGGAN or something. There was a knife sticking out of its heart. He had been sacrificed--or executed--for some reason (I think he was framed by "the bad guy") and was then buried standing upright in a hollow tree trunk. The witch doctor is the bad guy's descendant. He wears a crown made of, like, long, sharp bones--maybe the tusks of warthogs (which, as I recall, do NOT live on South Pacific islands, but, rather, on the southern African veldt). The toboggan throws him down the mountainside after knocking off his hat, and he gets impaled on the spiky bones.At the end, our heroes kill the rampaging toboggan by shooting at the protruding knife and driving it further into the creature's "heart." And they didn't even get to ride the toboggan . . .

Todd Andrews the nominal star of this film had a film and TV career that ran the gamete from bad to good and even great. Early in his career he went by the name of Michael Ames and stared in such films as 1944's "Voodoo Man" opposite Lugosi,Zucco,and Carradine "and Return of the Ape Man" with the same baddies.Later he had his own TV series "The Gray Ghost" 1957-58. He was also in the last broadcast episode of Twilight Zone " The Bewitchin' Pool" 1964. He also appeared in "In Harm's Way" 1965 with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.Gregg Palmer who plays Kimo, made his mark playing tough guys, both good and bad.He was in a lot of movie and TV westerns and detective shows. His other foray in 1950s black and white horror films was in " Zombies of Mora Tau" made the same year as "From Hell It Came'. He was also in "The Creature Walks Among Us" in 1956.Actually, this is the best black and white movie made in 1957 about a walking tree.