Beasts Unleashed — Beasts Unleashed (Blu Ray)

Beasts Unleashed is a Blu-ray set from Eureka bringing together two American sci-fi films from the 50's, which sit in the alien invasion and creature feature sub-genres. There’s The Beast with a Million Eyes-which focuses on an isolated farm where a craft crash-lands and starts altering first the behaviour of the animals, then the humans. The second film is The Beast of Hollow Mountain, which sold itself as a western dino-focused creature feature – but is in reality much more of just a traditional western, with dino action tacked on.

Both the films and extras can be found on just one Blu-ray. First up, we have 1955’s The Beast with a Million Eyes- which regards an isolated desert farm where an alien craft comes down, and it starts altering the behaviour of first the animals & then people. The whole thing has a nice feeling of foreboding unease, and the towering palm-like crop of the farm offers up some eerier moments - though the acting is a little clunky, and the alien monster revealed in the last minutes of the film is very underwhelming.

Going from its IMDb listing, the film has three directors: David Kramarsky ( who also produced it), Roger Corman, and Lou Place. This was Kramarsky's one & only director credit, though producer/ production manager credits. I’m sure I don’t need to really say much about Mr Corman- as he’s one of the most well-known B-movie directors of all time. And Place had two other directors credits- a episode of Doc Corkle, a US TV show from the 50’s & comedy/ thriller/ musical crossbreed Daddy-O (1958)

The around seventy-five-minute film is captured in black and white; it’s filmed largely around the desert-like plains of Indio and Palm Springs, California. The film primarily focuses on the Kelley ranch- a farm family who have be struggling to keep afloat for the last three years. It takes in the slight barrel chested/ swished back haired Allan (Paul Birch), his rather neurotic/ fed up with everything wife Carol (Lorna Thayer), their dark-haired late teenage daughter Sandra (Dona Cole), and loyal/ friendly Aliscia dog Duke.

Also added into the mix we have unable to speak/ large handed/ kind of creepy farm hand, Him (Leonard Tarver), tall ‘n’ thin deputy Larry(Dock Sergeant) who's dating Sandra, and an elderly cow-milking farmer.

After the neat many-eyes-in-tree credits, we get a voice-over from Allan talking about the bad state of his farm, and a feeling there may be something watching them from out in the dunes.

From the off, you can feel the discontentment in the family- Carol is always snapping at both her husband, daughter & their dog. One day, when Allan is out picking something up – the lights dim in the house, an ear-piercing tone occurs, and all the windows/ glassware in the house shatter…from here on things start to go very amiss.

First off, Duke isn’t his normal friendly self ( with the unintentional amusement from some not very realistic dog sounds), birds are flying into things, and other animals are behaviour aggressive….then the humans start being pulled out into the desert.

The film has a good sense of foreboding unease- which reaches from the small confines of the Kelley’s house, out into Him’s bunkroom & it’s ripped out of girl mags covered wall, into the shadowy outbuildings, off into the palm plantation, and out into the baking sand ‘n’ rocks of the desert.

The acting is initially very clipped and melodramatic in its presentation, but as things go on it becomes a little more natural/ human. The score, I’d say, is one of the main issues here- as it’s often very taut and dart-orchestrated; no matter what’s going on screen, there really need to be more eerie to menacing cues in place.

The film very much plays its cards close to its chest re: the alien invader; we get a few shots of the eerier spinning/ reflecting sun light grounded UFO. But we only meet what’s inside briefly in the last few minutes of the film- and to say it’s somewhat crappy/ underwhelming is an understatement, which isn’t really any better with the superimposed secondary elements- which are clearly put on in post-production to help things.

The Beast with a Million Eyes is a passable slice of paranoia-fuelled 50’s sci-fi horror, with a decent location and a growing sense of unease.

The new HD print presented here looks good, with a decent balance between black & white, with good definition of shadow & tone. There are two versions of the film: the theatrical version. And the TV version, which adds on a short prologue.

On the extras side for this film, we have Terror from Beyond the Stars ( 22.02), which is a new interview with science fiction expert Mark Boul. He starts by giving a potted history of invasion-focused sci-fi & touches on key films in the genre. Before touching on the film at hand- touching on its production, themes, and tone. He calls it an accidental arthouse film, giving an outside look at humanity. We also find out the film is said to be an influence on Hitchcock's The Birds. There is an original trailer

The second film here is 1956’s The Beast of Hollow Mountain. It’s a crossbreed between traditional western and dinosaur creature feature, though it very much leans more towards the western side of things- with our stop-motion T-Rex not really fully appearing until the last twenty minutes of the hour-and-twenty-minute film.

It was jointly directed by Edward Nassour and Ismael Rodríguez. Nassour had only one other credit to his name: the fifty-seven-minute-long Emilio and His Magical Bull(1975), though he had six producer credits. Between the early forties and late nineties, Rodríguez had an impressive fifty-three credits to his name. These included the likes of Mexican revolution-set romantic drama Cuando Lloran Los Valientes(1947), lottery winner-based comedy Mátenme Porque Me Muero (1951), western My Son, the Hero (1961), family comedy adventure El Secuestro De Los Cien Millones (1980), and crime thriller anthology Reclusorio (1997).

The Cinemascope colour feature opens decidedly promisingly as a creature feature, as we get a voice-over from our lead character, Jimmy Ryan ( Guy Madison), a Texas ranger farming cattle in Mexico. He talks about how he keeps losing members of the herd- suggesting it may be something to do with either a swamp or the nearby so-called hollow mountain- which many of the natives think is cursed…..but this is just a tease really, and the film continues doing so throughout it’s runtime- as this is just a Mexican set traditional western, with romantic drama elements- with a dino stuck on the end.

The film largely focuses on a grudge between Jimmy & local/ well thought of moustached light blue suit-wearing Enrique Rios ( Eduardo Noriega). One day, the gallant Texas ranger gives Enrique’s raven-haired intended, Sarita (Patricia Medina ), a lift back into town as her horse runs off on his property. So as a result, Enrique does everything he can to get him out of the area- first offering to buy him out, then resorting to more devious methods.

In the meantime, Jimmy has enough of his own issues- farm hands quit, fearful of the legend, more cattle disappear, and the bank won’t loan him any more money. The main western focus of the film is fine- with its blend of herding cattle, horse riding, disagreements resulting in tough-market-fist-fights and gun fights. And a building romance between Sarita & Jimmy.

Madison is fine as our lead/ hero- though he’s maybe a little too polished/ nice. Noriega makes for a good baddie, and Medina

good love interest. Other worthy mentions are likeable town drunk/ turned farm hand Pancho (Pascual García Peña) and his young son Panchito (Mario Navarro).

So, you may ask, what about the creature feature side of things?. Well, as mentioned earlier, we don’t really get any until the last twenty minutes- sure, it’s teased/ suggested- but we don’t get to see our T. rex until near the end of the film. It’s a passable enough stop motion creature- who has a rather bizarrely long tongue that pokes out ever so often. We see him grab cattle from the ground, roaming around and roaring, ripping off the top of a barn/ taunting those inside, being shot at, and a rather neat showdown.

The Beast of Hollow Mountain is fine as an engaging enough western, with romantic touches- but as a creature feature it’s rather disappointing, as all the dino action is stuck at the end. Goodness knows how folks going to see it on its original release felt, expecting a true crossover. Anyway, I’d say if you know what your get yourself into, it’s fine.

The new HD print looks good- with some nice bold colours, though of course the new scan does look a little clunky when our dino appears. Extra wise for this film we have When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (17.02) this is a new interview with critic Kim Newman. He begins by giving a brief early history of dinos in film. Talks about important developments in the genre. Before moving on to discuss the film at hand. We also get an original trailer.

The release is finished off with a booklet featuring new writing by genre film expert Christopher Stewardson on special effects artist Paul Blaisdell and The Beast with a Million Eyes and a new essay by film journalist Sean McGeady on Weird Westerns and The Beast of Hollow Mountain.

If you have a penchant for 1950s cinematic Sci-Fi, then this two-film collection is something you want to check out. With nice HD prints and two interesting new interviews with genre experts.