Runtime:
71 minutes
Directed
by: Dan Milner
Starring:
Tod Andrews, Tina Carver, Linda Watkins, John McNamara, Gregg Palmer
From:
Allied Artists Pictures
Because the world was waiting for me to talk about a TREE MONSTER movie...
This is one of the seemingly millions of films I've known of for years now but never have seen. It should not be confused with 1966's The Navy vs. the Night Monsters, which has a few different tree creatures and I've seen parts of. Once I give it a viewing from beginning to end, I can compare and contrast. This, it is utterly preposterous and yet isn't always as much fun as you'd expect from a cheap 50's B-movie which has the whitest “Polynesians” you'll ever lay eyes on.
The setting is a random island in the South Pacific, where there are white Americans on the island, doing science and military stuff. Of course the natives on the island don't really want them there; at least the movie shows that the Americans were the ones who were dumb and made things worse, irregardless of that idea being the original intent or not. Anyway, it all starts because a tribal member was unjustly put to death and he wished himself to be this ancient tree creature, which has the catchy name Tabonga.
For a movie only 71 minutes long, the first half has plenty of blathering dialogue which usually wasn't too terribly interesting, and of course a romance is shoehorned in, because it's an old motion picture. In addition, the dialogue is usually overly explanatory and sometimes tells us things that have been made crystal clear already. Things become livelier once Tabonga walks around and starts killing people, sometimes by tossing them into quicksand. The creature actually has a face which makes it look quite daffy, but the suit itself is admittedly good.
There are some laughs to be had here-usually unintentional-although the apotheosis for me was a supporting character's “Australian” accent. I know it's been confused for other things-like Cockney-but as she uses "bloomin'" a lot... master thespians are said to struggle with nailing it just right (at least that's what the Aussies like to say) I won't fault her, although she did slip in and out of it and at times was using an accent I don't think ever naturally was used by anyone in the history of humanity. So yeah... at least they did not go with the obvious way to dispatch Tabonga, as fire doesn't work on it; instead something more creative was done. That doesn't make this worthwhile unless you want camp value.
This is one of the seemingly millions of films I've known of for years now but never have seen. It should not be confused with 1966's The Navy vs. the Night Monsters, which has a few different tree creatures and I've seen parts of. Once I give it a viewing from beginning to end, I can compare and contrast. This, it is utterly preposterous and yet isn't always as much fun as you'd expect from a cheap 50's B-movie which has the whitest “Polynesians” you'll ever lay eyes on.
The setting is a random island in the South Pacific, where there are white Americans on the island, doing science and military stuff. Of course the natives on the island don't really want them there; at least the movie shows that the Americans were the ones who were dumb and made things worse, irregardless of that idea being the original intent or not. Anyway, it all starts because a tribal member was unjustly put to death and he wished himself to be this ancient tree creature, which has the catchy name Tabonga.
For a movie only 71 minutes long, the first half has plenty of blathering dialogue which usually wasn't too terribly interesting, and of course a romance is shoehorned in, because it's an old motion picture. In addition, the dialogue is usually overly explanatory and sometimes tells us things that have been made crystal clear already. Things become livelier once Tabonga walks around and starts killing people, sometimes by tossing them into quicksand. The creature actually has a face which makes it look quite daffy, but the suit itself is admittedly good.
There are some laughs to be had here-usually unintentional-although the apotheosis for me was a supporting character's “Australian” accent. I know it's been confused for other things-like Cockney-but as she uses "bloomin'" a lot... master thespians are said to struggle with nailing it just right (at least that's what the Aussies like to say) I won't fault her, although she did slip in and out of it and at times was using an accent I don't think ever naturally was used by anyone in the history of humanity. So yeah... at least they did not go with the obvious way to dispatch Tabonga, as fire doesn't work on it; instead something more creative was done. That doesn't make this worthwhile unless you want camp value.
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