I saw this piece of mindless junk when it came out and enjoyed it immensely. It borrows heavily from "War of the Worlds," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," and maybe "The Little Shop of Horrors." And it follows a pattern familiar to any fan of inexpensive science fiction stories.
First, there must be a scientist around to help discover the best way to destroy the illegal aliens. In this case, that would be Kieron Moore. The scientist usually has a pretty assistant. Right. Janette Scott, who really IS attractive.
There has to be a jack of all trades, too; somebody to keep the generators running, who knows how to fix a flat tire and run a boat, who is handy with radios and carpentry. Howard Keel knows all that stuff. He gets most of the screen time because the scientist, due to clumsy plotting, is stuck away on an isolated lighthouse off the Cornish coast. A GOOD lousy cheap science fiction movie would have put the scientist and the hero together in the same frame, with the scientist providing the advice and the hero providing the action.
The hero should pick up a girl friend along the way. Early on, Howard Keel picks up Janina Faye as a companion but since she's only twelve years old, that won't do. This is "The Day of the Triffids," not "Lolita." So Keel and Janina travel to France, where Keel is able to consort with Nicole Maurey, although little develops between them, and frankly I'd prefer Joan Weldon as an affiliate because she was a singer with the San Francisco Opera and because she looked just swell in an Army helmet as the scientist's niece in "Them!" Believe me, there is no turn on like a woman in battle dress.
Another part of any good rotten cheap story of alien invasions or monsters from the bowels of the earth, if they're British, as this one is, is that they feature some familiar American face, usually an over-the-hill star. In this instance, it's the baritone profundo Howard Keel but elsewhere it's Brian Donlevy, Gene Evans, Richard Carlson, Forrest Tucker, or even, improbably, Sonny Tufts who, by the 1950s, must have had only the hint of a liver left.
The story? These man-eating plants are somehow activated by a meteor shower that turns everyone blind except those who, like Keel, were unable or unwilling to watch it. The shabby looking things are crawling all over the planet eating people. They're attracted to noise, perhaps because they themselves can only produce a staccato clucking sound like that of a pair of dice being shaken in a cardboard container. How does the scientist figure out a way of destroying them? No power on earth could drag the answer out of me but if you've read H. G. Well's "War of the Worlds" you know it's not going to turn out to be a ray gun. Final scene: Crowds climbing the steps to a church while chimes of triumph ring on the sound track. The originality is stunning.
First, there must be a scientist around to help discover the best way to destroy the illegal aliens. In this case, that would be Kieron Moore. The scientist usually has a pretty assistant. Right. Janette Scott, who really IS attractive.
There has to be a jack of all trades, too; somebody to keep the generators running, who knows how to fix a flat tire and run a boat, who is handy with radios and carpentry. Howard Keel knows all that stuff. He gets most of the screen time because the scientist, due to clumsy plotting, is stuck away on an isolated lighthouse off the Cornish coast. A GOOD lousy cheap science fiction movie would have put the scientist and the hero together in the same frame, with the scientist providing the advice and the hero providing the action.
The hero should pick up a girl friend along the way. Early on, Howard Keel picks up Janina Faye as a companion but since she's only twelve years old, that won't do. This is "The Day of the Triffids," not "Lolita." So Keel and Janina travel to France, where Keel is able to consort with Nicole Maurey, although little develops between them, and frankly I'd prefer Joan Weldon as an affiliate because she was a singer with the San Francisco Opera and because she looked just swell in an Army helmet as the scientist's niece in "Them!" Believe me, there is no turn on like a woman in battle dress.
Another part of any good rotten cheap story of alien invasions or monsters from the bowels of the earth, if they're British, as this one is, is that they feature some familiar American face, usually an over-the-hill star. In this instance, it's the baritone profundo Howard Keel but elsewhere it's Brian Donlevy, Gene Evans, Richard Carlson, Forrest Tucker, or even, improbably, Sonny Tufts who, by the 1950s, must have had only the hint of a liver left.
The story? These man-eating plants are somehow activated by a meteor shower that turns everyone blind except those who, like Keel, were unable or unwilling to watch it. The shabby looking things are crawling all over the planet eating people. They're attracted to noise, perhaps because they themselves can only produce a staccato clucking sound like that of a pair of dice being shaken in a cardboard container. How does the scientist figure out a way of destroying them? No power on earth could drag the answer out of me but if you've read H. G. Well's "War of the Worlds" you know it's not going to turn out to be a ray gun. Final scene: Crowds climbing the steps to a church while chimes of triumph ring on the sound track. The originality is stunning.