The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966)

One of my all time favorites.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

*Spoiler/plot- The Navy vs the Night Monsters, 1966. US military starts "Operation Deep Freeze" in the South Pole. It's a scientific expedition to discover unusual tree specimens. (Trees in the South Pole?) When some odd tree specimens are shipped out for further study, the trees are accidentally taken to a tropical South Sea Navy base. These tree specimens soon reveal themselves to be killers with acid-secreting walking monsters that live by night foraging for meat, even humans. *Special Stars- Anthony Eisley, Mamie Van Doren, Billy Gray, Walter Sande, Bobby Van. *Theme- Polar region organisms should not be moved to study them.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. Michael A. Hoey optioned the original novel and wrote the screenplay in 1959, hoping to emulate the success of The Thing from Another World (1951). He was paid $10,000 for the script. Mamie Van Doren was cast because she owed uncredited producer Roger Corman another film on her contract. Van Doren was highly dismissive of her work on the film and indeed the film itself. Shot in ten days; The entire cast and crew were on the point of walking out during production when they learned halfway through filming what the film's plot was to be.*Emotion- Again another unintentional comical romp in a film that was made badly, cheap, fast, and the participants hated spending their time and talents in this project. It shows on film to the viewer. Preposterous situations and badly acted, don't waste your film viewing time. See the 'Day of the Triffids' for same plot and done better.*Based on- Outer space fears, post Atomic Age.

The officers at a south seas Navy base are terrorized by a lethal army of carnivorous prehistoric ambulatory trees with acid blood. Boy, does this entertainingly atrocious honey possess all the right wrong stuff to qualify as a prime piece of hopelessly campy'n'crummy nickel'n'dime dreck: the fumbling (mis)direction by Michael A. Hoey (who also wrote the extremely talky and drawn-out script), unconvincing cardboard stage-bound sets, a plodding pace, an overwrought bellowing full-bore orchestral score by Gordon Zahler, rusty tin-eared dialogue (choice lousy line: "That's the heartbeat of a man in mortal terror"), zero tension or momentum, pathetic (far from) special effects, poorly staged attack scenes, the corny narration, a ham-fisted fiery conclusion, competent, yet static cinematography by Stanley Cortez, several clumsy moments of ill-judged comic relief, and the pitifully unscary and unpersuasive plant monsters (they look like giant shambling rutabagas!) all give this sublimely wretched swill a certain singularly inept and hence utterly irresistible rinky-dink charm. The cast of familiar B-flick faces struggle gamely with the inane material, with admirable contributions from busty blonde bombshell Mamie Van Doren as sexy'n'sassy nurse Noral Hall, Anthony Eisley as the stern Lt. Charles Brown, Bobby Van as amiable goofball Ensign Rutherford Chandler, Bill Gray as stalwart CPO Fred Twining, Edward Faulkner as cranky meteorologist Bob Spaulding, and William Sande as the friendly Dr. Arthur Beecham. A total cruddy hoot.

When I first heard of the title, I thought it was another stupid back yard production by some amateur film maker. But when I saw the show I was pleasantly surprised. Of course this is a low budget thriller and the story is quite interesting. Most of the actors in this movie are professionals who have appeared in other films, the quality of the film print is above average and the scenery is very colorful as compared to to other similar low budget "C" movies. But the title can be very misleading. If you are a nostalgic sci-fi buff, I recommend you buying or renting this movie because you just might get a kick out of it. P.S. look for familiar faces as you watch the show.

So bad it has to struggle even to be funny. All the "cute" character bits, plus Mamie Van Doren in an assortment of form-fitting outfits, can't save this nonsensical stock-footage-fest. And those "night monsters"! The Triffids should sue for plagiarism, if not defamation of character. Gad. How did this one escape the MST3K treatment?