Movie Review: Monster from Green Hell (1957)
Synopsis: An experiment testing the survival rate of various species in space goes wrong, causing one of the rockets, contaminated with cosmic radiation, to crash off the coast of Africa. Months later, reports of natives being attacked by a large and deadly monster, prompting scientists Quent Brady and Dan Morgan to travel to investigate. In addition to various other dangers in the region, known to natives as Green Hell, they discover they are facing giant wasps and need to kill them before they multiply.
Who's in it? The movie stars Jim Davis, Robert Griffin, Joe Fluellen, Barbara Turner and Vladimir Sokoloff.
Review: I didn't know Monster from Green Hell existed until I came across the movie this morning. It sounded interesting so I gave it a try. Overall, I'd say it isn't a bad movie but also not one that really distinguishes itself either.
I'll start out with the things I liked about the movie. The first was, in addition to the killer wasps, the heroes faced plenty of other dangers both related to the African Congo and the lingering impact from their failed experiment. This included everything from poisoned waterholes to disease.
Also, even though she was clearly just thrown in to keep the movie from having an all-male cast, I did find I liked Turner's character, Lorna. She was a surprisingly strong character who managed to help in unexpected ways, including manipulating natives into helping because they didn't want to be shown up by a woman.
The special effects from the movie are what they are. It was the 1950s, so there are going to be limitations. That said, I did think the giant wasp was passable and the movie managed to slip in some camera angles and sound effects that did make it feel as though the heroes were in danger.
My biggest problem with this movie is there wasn't enough wasp. There are multiple wasp attacks but there is also a lot of time in between them, especially for a film that is only about an hour long and had time to show some of the natives fighting each other.
Also, while (as I said) the giant wasp's portrayal was OK, it also looked an awful lot like some other movie monsters from this era. In other words, it wasn't anything I'd describe as particularly memorable which is too bad considering the giant wasp was the whole point of the movie.
Final Opinion: It's an enjoyable movie to watch if you like 1950s science fiction/monster films but also not one I'd describe as a film you absolutely need to see. It's just average.
My Grade: C
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Here are some reviews of other 1950s monster movies:
Movie Review: The Thing From Another World (1951)
Movie Review: Monster on the Campus (1958)
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