The Mole People (1956)

hyped garbage

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Given our rapid technological/ scientific advancement in understanding what is the makeup of our planet's core. It's hard to believe, that, there is still, present day pseudoscientific and conspiracy theories about hollow Earth. Most scientific community has dismissed the notion, since the late 18th century. So, anybody believing, this movie concept could be real, need to read a science book. Regardless of that harsh truth, I love the fantasy of discovering an ancient civilization beneath our feet like this movie, does. After all, I did like author Jules Verne's classic, 'A Journey to the Center of the Earth'. However, I have yet to see, any good subterranean sci-fi genre films. All of them, including this B-list movie directed by Virgil W. Vogel seem beneath me. Without spoiling the movie, too much, I have to say, 'Mole People' kinda suck. Released as a double feature with 1956's jungle adventure film, 'Curucu, Beast of the Amazon' by Universal & later spotlight by the ninth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode 3 (1993), this film for the most part, has a lot of the same thing we've seems before. In many cases, it's the exact as the movie has a lot of props, sets, and stock footage recycled from other films. Despite that, the film style did influence other films like 1960's 'The Time Machine' & 1966's 'The Wild World of Batwoman'. Yet, the acting was not as memorable with everybody sounding like they were reading off, the same cue cards, multiple times. Very few emotional delivery. It doesn't help, the film, one bit, that nearly every dialogue in this film is boring exposition, with most of it, being wrong, with the highly fictionalized version of panbabylonism history. I get that, the writers weren't historians, but couldn't they get a little of the history, right. It really felt odd that none of the archaeologists point out, how strange, it was, to see Egyptian painting, on a Sumerian settlement or why there wasn't no language barrier. Instead, the main characters, just over explain, the flaws of the creatures. We get it, the first time! They hate light! We don't really need further laymen terms for that. Also, I didn't like, how preachy, the scientists were. Yes, we get it, slavery is wrong. You don't need to keep on, reminding us. Can we move on, already!? For archaeologists, they really do suck, at their jobs; they pretty much destroy the civilization due to their indoctrination. Despite that, main actor, John Agar is likable, but somewhat annoying as Dr. Bentley, with his cheap John Wayne's accent. Still, he lightyears ahead, of the most of the rest of the cast, whom seems to phone it in, like Hugh Beaumont, Phil Chambers, and Nestor Paiva. The only other character that stood out for me, was Elinu, the High Priest, played by Alan Napier, even if his subplot to overthrown the king was soon abandoned. Regardless of the acting, most of the actor's characters seem to be needed for the story. I can't say, the same with Adad (Cynthia Patrick). She doesn't seem to fit in the world that the movie is, giving us, seeing how the albinos killed, most of the people with some shade. She just doesn't seem real. It felt like, a 1950s man's wet dream of a perfect woman. In other words, she does nothing, but serve as an out of place love-interest for Dr. Bentley. Because of that, she is quite boring. Another thing, boring about this movie was the film pacing. Lot of pacing issues like long climbing scenes and awful dance numbers. The ending was also abrupt and unsatisfying, with producers changed from a typical happily-ever-after scenario because members of the studio felt that the film would promote interracial relationships. So wrong. Even the opening of the film with the real-life lecture from Dr. Frank C. Baxter, an English professor was boring and drawn out. Anyways, how does this scene, help the movie!? Doesn't it, hurt the film, by exposing the movie magic, by stating out, how fictionalized, the film is!? It doesn't help the film, one bit that the visual effects were a bit adequate, too. The mole people's rubber costumes were really cheap looking with the humps being stuff with newspapers and their clothes looking like burlap bags. Fake looking. Still, in the end, the Mole People do not look anywhere near as bad as other 1950's creature flicks. The other visual FX are rather good at times, with the sets, small miniatures & matte painting, however, the movie rarely uses it, besides a few key scenes. Most of the time, we forced to look into low light area with no backgrounds. Lighting, use of shadows and even sounds are not fully taken advantage of in order to help create a specific claustrophobic atmosphere. Instead, the film feels confusing, as the extreme light sensitivity albinos, somehow function, both in low light area, and place where normal light is visual. It begs the question, how much, light do they need to be exposure to, to get burned!? For that matter, how does extreme darkness "forced degeneracy" to turn some people into humanoid mole monsters, yet goats stay the same!? We are told that the mole people are cruel and dangerous, but they seem more like a nuisance than anything else. Don't get me wrong, there is a fair amount of action here, but when your villains get defeat by a flashlight. Then, you know that you have problems. For a civilization that survive thousands of years, underground, they have really quickly forgotten how to effectively wield their weapons in combat. Even other entertaining values felt a bit off. This makes the movie really lacking in excitement and chills. Overall: I think it's safe to say that the idea of descending into the depths of hell would be better than watching 'Mole People', again. I really can't recommended watching this movie.

Less of a science fiction tale and more like a serial type adventure, this slow moving but frequently campy adventure is a throwback to the types of films Universal made in the 1949's. A group of scientific explorers find an ancient artifact that fell off a mountain after an earthquake and set out to explore the uncharted region where no man has seemingly gone for centuries. They end up finding an ancient city which brings them close in contact with some strange dwellers of the underground. Lead by John Agar and Hugh Beaumont, this group undergoes many strange adventures which of course brings them into hidden dangers. There are many unintentionally funny moments, with constant references to Ishtar and comparisons of their scientific research to the biblical story of Noah's ark. I had to laugh at Agar's comment about crossing an avalanche prone mountain plateau as being safer than crossing Times Square. It gets to the point that you wonder if a reference to the cobra jewel will turn up. Finding the main city underground after visiting "the suburbs", Agar, Beaumont and Nestor Paiva have their work cut out for them with the dirt dwellers and British accented leaders who don't like the intrusion of the weird looking humans. If you can get past the dreadful opening with commentary by Professor Frank Baxter, you might enjoy the actual story. But he is a reminder why some science professors are among the most boring people ever born. I'll give them credit for getting a genuine chrome dome to prove that theory, because he certainly didn't prove his. This is sometimes campy, often ridiculous yet strangely enjoyable. It gets sillier with each scene change. I'd say that considering the era it came out in, it may have been considered a bit old fashioned, certainly a riot for the kiddie audience and mindless time passer for adults. One of the underground "humans" sounds oddly like Boris Karloff.

While digging somewhere in Asia a team of archaeologists uncover an ancient Sumerian tablet which warns of tragic consequences for those who take possession of it. Not long afterward they are presented with an ancient oil lamp recovered on top of a large mountain nearby with Sumerian engravings which tells the story of the "Great Flood" from the Sumerian point of view. Climbing up the mountain they discover an ancient Sumerian temple but it's at this time that the ground under one of the archaeologists named "Dr. Paul Stuart" (Phil Chambers) gives away which causes him to fall a great distance to his death. The archaeologists then use their mountain climbing gear to descend into the earth to find their fallen comrade. Unfortunately, a rock slide causes the death of another member of their team and subsequently traps them inside what appears to be a large cavern. After further investigation they are taken captive by some strange mole-like creatures and upon awakening meet an ancient Sumerian civilization whose king immediately sentences them to death. But they soon escape only to come face-to-face with some mole people who have been enslaved by these underground Sumerian people. Now, rather than reveal any more I will just say this movie had all the ingredients necessary for a Grade-B movie of this particular time. Although the acting was fairly adequate, the costumes were bad and the plot was just plain ridiculous. In short, unless a person really enjoys movies of this type or from this particular era I would avoid it all together. Below average.

This isn't exactly a horror movie, more like an adventure movie actually, but nevertheless, it's a lot of fun! Sure, the prologue is pretty dumb and the first twenty minutes or so are typical of a 50- 60's-B-movie, but after that, it sure gets good! The king of the people living under the ground is amusingly played by Alan Napier and slightly outshines all the other not-so-good actors! The mole people look cool and it's nice to see a monster movie where you can feel sympathy for the monsters instead of being scared by them, as that was pretty unusual for old monster movies. The dialog is cheesy but kinda funny. The ending brings mixed feelings to me though and the majority of the acting is crummy, but when it's good, it's really good! Thumbs up for the mole people!