A fungus brought from space threatens to grow and spread, devouring everyone in its path.A fungus brought from space threatens to grow and spread, devouring everyone in its path.A fungus brought from space threatens to grow and spread, devouring everyone in its path.
Edward Bernds
- Television News Announcer
- (uncredited)
Robert Bice
- Officer
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMoe Howard: , of The Three Stooges fame, as a cab driver. Production assistant Norman Maurer was Moe's son-in-law, and director Edward Bernds was a longtime friend and had directed many Three Stooges shorts and several of their features. Moe found himself out of work after more than 25 years when Columbia Pictures closed its Shorts department with no notice early in 1958. Bernds offered Moe the cab driver part, and Moe in turn asked him to take on hire Maurer, who was trying to get a foothold in the film business. Bernds knew Maurer and considered him to be a talented artist, so he hired him as a sketch artists to help the special-effects department.
- GoofsLaura moves the TV unit in the hotel room a bit when she turns it off, but the picture on the TV doesn't move at all, as it was inserted afterward.
- Quotes
Pvt. Joe Rattigan: [to the stewardess] Are there any other brunettes on this flight wearing tweed coarts?
- ConnectionsFeatured in Aweful Movies with Deadly Earnest: Space Master X-7 (1966)
Featured review
I Guess We Won't Marinate this Mushroom
Space fungus menaces planet earth. Okay, everything else was menacing the besieged 1950's planet, so why not a creepy fungus. Well, it's actually a bloody slime from outer space that spreads like a dirty carpet, and unless trackers can catch up with the shapely blonde Typhoid Mary (Thomas) carrying it, we're all one big toadstool. I'm trying hard, but I just don't recall this epic from 1958, and I rarely missed one of these drive-in specials. According to IMDb, TCF didn't syndicate the film, which is why, I guess, it's gone unseen for 50 years.
Actually, the movie's pretty well produced for its kind. The location shots lend at least some credibility to the wacky plot. And catch those early versions of protective Hazmat suits in the train yard scene. Williams and Ellis do well as the bloodhounds, but why Ellis remains a lowly Pfc with his officer-level credentials seems odd. Also, I really like the unheralded Lyn Thomas as the nervous blonde.
Note that brilliant screenwriter Dan Mainwaring, e.g. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Out of the Past (1947), collaborated on the screenplay. I'm guessing that promising trapped-in-the-airliner concept came from him. Too bad the full potential of those scenes is not realized by director Bernds. At the same time, the movie ends all-too-abruptly, as though the production suddenly ran out of money. I get the feeling that with better backing and a more perceptive director, this drive-in programmer could have turned into an uptown smash on the order of Alien (1980).
Actually, the movie's pretty well produced for its kind. The location shots lend at least some credibility to the wacky plot. And catch those early versions of protective Hazmat suits in the train yard scene. Williams and Ellis do well as the bloodhounds, but why Ellis remains a lowly Pfc with his officer-level credentials seems odd. Also, I really like the unheralded Lyn Thomas as the nervous blonde.
Note that brilliant screenwriter Dan Mainwaring, e.g. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Out of the Past (1947), collaborated on the screenplay. I'm guessing that promising trapped-in-the-airliner concept came from him. Too bad the full potential of those scenes is not realized by director Bernds. At the same time, the movie ends all-too-abruptly, as though the production suddenly ran out of money. I get the feeling that with better backing and a more perceptive director, this drive-in programmer could have turned into an uptown smash on the order of Alien (1980).
helpful•60
- dougdoepke
- Mar 20, 2010
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Doomsday
- Filming locations
- Union Station - 800 N. Alameda Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA(interiors and exteriors of station)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $125,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 11 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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