Overview: All Baby Boomer Monster Kids hold the science fiction classics of the 1950s in high regard. Major studios put some top resources behind these movies and they delivered world-class thrills, whether on a Forbidden Planet or on This Island Earth, whether 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or on a Journey to the Center of the Earth.

A step-down were these same company’s second-string sci-fi’s and the still-smaller movies churned out by some of the era’s more enterprising indie producers. At the bottom of the barrel were the flicks resulting from what AIP’s James H. Nicholson called backyard moviemaking: shot on ultra-low-budgets, sometimes partly in the moviemakers’ own homes.

Logic dictates that these shoe-stringers would be the least admired of the bunch. But in many cases, maybe the majority of cases, Monster Kids don’t feel that way at all. Because the bargain basement titles are just so much fun!

One-lung producers (Sam Arkoff’s term for them) threw their thrift-store hats in the monster-movie ring only after dreaming up sci-fi scenarios that could be made for pin money and then finding yet more corners to cut during production. This Film Masters Blu-ray set celebrates four such all-expenses-spared science fiction sagas and the clever shortcuts taken by their cash-strapped creators.

For the first time, all four films in HD are being brought together in one set! Complete with new liner notes, archival special features, and film commentaries, this is your chance to procure out of print releases at a great deal!

Blu-ray Verdict: First up is Monster from Green Hell (1957). Scientists Quent Brady (Jim Davis of later Dallas fame) and Dan Morgan (Robert Griffin, Serpent of the Nile) are testing the effects of space travel on various animals. This turns out to be unwise, since when their last spacecraft crashes back down in Africa, the wasps on board have mutated into enormous predators. Brady and Morgan travel to the west African region of Green Hell both to confirm their worst fears and to hopefully do something about the problem.

Monster from Green Hell is no Them!, not by a long shot, but it’s not the worst movie of this kind that you’ll ever see. For this viewer, it wasn’t so much a bad movie as it was just a fairly good one. For a movie running only an hour and 10 minutes, it’s pretty short on monster action. That said, the filmmakers, led by director / editor Kenneth G. Crane, subvert conventional wisdom by making sure we see their monster within the first 10 minutes. Until then, we wait through a fairly long trek through the jungle complete with such elements as restless natives and an active volcano.

The music by Albert Glasser is good, although you’re never ever convinced that you’re really in Africa. This flick utilizes a bunch of stock footage but was mainly shot in California. The acting is mostly alright, with Davis as an engaging hero who also utters the frequent (and largely unnecessary) narration. Joel Fluellen (A Raisin in the Sun) is allowed to play his character with at least some dignity, while Eduardo Ciannelli (Gunga Din) and Vladimir Sokoloff (I Was a Teenage Werewolf) do well in supporting roles.

However, Barbara Turner (wife of Vic Morrow at the time and mother of Jennifer Jason Leigh) is pretty underwhelming in her feature debut as the female lead; she’s fared better as a screenwriter of things like Cujo, Georgia, and Pollock.

The effects in Monster from Green Hell are definitely not great but they are still highly entertaining, and the final 18 minutes or so are worth the wait. In general, this is a fair giant creepy-crawlie creature feature from the Atomic Age of sci-fi.

Then comes Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958). Trudy Morton (Sandra Knight) dreams of running wild in the streets as a monster. Her boyfriend, Johnny Bruder (John Ashley), thinks this is silly; her uncle, Carter Moron (Felix Locher), with whom she lives, has a lab assistant named Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy). Every night, he spikes her fruit punch with his new drug. Because yes, he’s the grandson of Dr. Frankenstein and the kindly Elsu (Wolfe Barzell) is his lab assistant.

For some reason, Trudy’s friend Suzie Lawler (Sally Todd) gets set up with Oliver. He acts like a jerk, then runs her over, smashing her head. So why a female monster, when the Frankenstein’s have always made - well, mostly - men? Oliver says, Now we’re aware the female mind is conditioned to a man’s world. It therefore takes orders, where the other ones didn’t.

Also known as the She Monster of the Night and maybe even the Wild Witch of Frankenstein, this monster has the head of a woman and the body of a man, made from what’s left of Suzie. The director said that when he saw the makeup for the monster, he was so disappointed that he left the set and broke down in tears. I don’t know if that was in a good way or bad, but I can live with it given its cinematic age.

Then we get Giant from the Unknown (1958). Local geologist Wayne Brooks (Ed Kemmer) teams up with visiting archaeologist Dr. Fredrick Cleveland (Morris Ankrum) to search the local mountains for the remains of a 300+ year old Spanish conquistador and a reputed giant of a man named Vargas. Another draw for Brooks is the opportunity to spend a little time with the Dr’s vacuous but attractive daughter, Janet (Sally Fraser).

The team is about to give up when Janet accidentally discovers a Spanish graveyard. But is there more here than helmets and breastplates? It’s not long before the giant Vargas makes his return and sets his own sights on young Janet and anything else he can maim and destroy.

By all rights, I’ve most likely underrated Giant from the Unknown. It features a multitude of identifiable weaknesses, such as a plot that moves at the break-neck pace of a slug (at times), the dim-witted Janet randomly stumbling on the Spanish artifacts, but, come on now, Sheriff Parker’s beyond ridiculous persecution of Brooks is a questionable point of contention (I mean, why in God’s name would anyone think that Brooks would be running around the country-side slaughtering cows and destroying hen houses?)

There is also Bob Steele’s laughably bad performance as Parker, for the whole notion of Vargas living in a sort of suspended animation for 350 years, and the poorly done special effects in the film’s finale do all point to a lower rating, but heck, I loved it! Giant from the Unknown literally has everything you could hope to find in any regular bad movie which makes it more bad than good.

All I know is that for most of Giant from the Unknown I was entertained. I went for the characters, I got a kick out of legend Jack Pierce’s Vargas make-up, and I enjoyed the acting of Keemer and especially Ankrum. Ankrum is one of those actors who’s good in everything I’ve seen him in. Sure, it takes some patience to get through the slow parts, but it’s worth it.

Lastly comes The Brain from Planet Arous (1957). The Brain From Planet Auros is routine atomic-age sci-fi twaddle made just about bearable thanks to its extremely silly extraterrestrial menace, who is more likely to generate unintentional laughs than screams of terror. Steve and Sally are horrified when confronted by the alien organ, but I imagine most people would burst out laughing if faced with such a ridiculous looking being.

Unremarkable performances abound, the special effects are cheap (the wires suspending Gor are clearly visible), and the story is predictable with much padding. For disembodied brains that are actually effective, watch Fiend Without A Face (1958) or for a more trashy film about a giant killer brain, see The Brain (1988).

Bonus Features:
Frankenstein’s Daughter full-length commentary (Tom Weaver)
The Giant from the Unknown full-length commentary (Tom Weaver)
The Giant from the Unknown archival full-length commentary (Gary Crutcher)
The Brain from Planet Arous full-length commentary (Tom Weaver and Guests)
Monster From Green Hell full-length commentary (Stephen Bissette)
Special Production: Richard E Cunha: Filmmaker
Special Production: Missouri Born: Films of Jim Davis
Special Production: The Man Before the Brain: Director Nathan Juran: an original Ballyhoo Motion Pictures production
Special Production: The Man Behind the Brain: The World of Nathan Juran: an original Ballyhoo Motion Pictures production

Monster From Green Hell (Official Trailer)

Official Purchase Link