Monday, December 26, 2011

THE 27th DAY / Romson Productions - 1957

Welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's feature reuses the saucers from EARTH vs THE FLYING SAUCERS to their benefit! And, there are no real monsters.

It's a fairly complicated story... Five Earthlings are abducted by aliens and are each given a capsule which can release a weapon so deadly that all of mankind will be destroyed! It's actually a test, if the five can resist using the weapon for 27 days, man will continue to live on Earth. Should any one of them release the weapon, all human life will be destroyed and the aliens will take over the Earth as their new home. When their alien abductor makes the identities of the five known in a world-wide broadcast, government leaders and criminals try and get their hands on the devices for their own use.

The music is by one of our favorite composers, Mischa Bakaleinikoff. His awesome career consisted of 68 composing credits and an unbelievable 459 music department credits!! All hail Mischa!

Letz bring in our fuzzy little fiend and button pusher, Ralphie The Tarantula! Howdy, Ralphie! He's here to start our show, so, push the big red 'GO' button located there by the little green 'STOP' button, now, Ralphie! Here's... THE 27th DAY!

It all starts when mysterious strangers kidnap five poeple from around the world, mainly from super-power nations.

They find themselves out in space in a cool Harryhausen flying saucer!

The Alien informs them of their unearthly situation. The Alien is played by the aristocratic sounding Arnold Moss, who I just confused with James (THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN) Griffith.

It's time for breakfast, so, the Alien fixed his guests ostrich eggs with English muffins.

Not really, those are the the total destruction capsules. Get this, during the height of the cold war with the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev had plans created for his doomsday machine, an atomic bomb built into and the size of a giant ship. The plan was to set it off if they lost the war with the US, that way, no one wins!!!

The Alien spills the beans on the capsule holders by taking over the TV broadcast and telling the whole world who the five people are!

Of course, this is how it goes down in the USSR... Stefan Schnabel plays the Soviet General, Stefan was also in TOWN WITHOUT PITY, NO SURVIVORS, PLEASE, BLOOD BATH and DRACULA'S WIDOW.

Gene Barry plays reporter, Jonathan Clark. We remember Gene from ATOMIC CITY, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS and WAR OF THE WORLDS, and, he was TV's Bat Masterson from 1958-61! Gene died at age 90 in 2009 in Woodland Hills.

He befriends Eve Wingate, who also has a capsule. Eve's played by Valerie French, she did a lot of TV and was in THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE.

American scientists recover one of the capsules and try to figure out how it works. That's Friedrich von Ledebur as Dr. Neuhaus, Friedrich was in VOODOO ISLAND and THE MAN WHO TURNED TO STONE.

Back in the USSR, things get done the hard way.

American hoodlums try to find out where Professor Bechner's capsule is.

The US government has to get involved in this end-of-the-world drama.

Paul Birch plays the Admiral. We love Paul for all his roles, like in BONZO GOES TO COLLEGE, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES, DAY THE WORLD ENDED, NOT OF THIS EARTH, QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE and IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD!

Dr. Neuhaus gives his life to make sure the capsule he has cannot be recovered!

The General drops the capsule out a window before he can implement the Houston, Texas coordinates for detonation, and, it will not work now.

It's time to go in front of The United Nations and inform the world that the ultimate danger has been averted!

6 comments:

  1. WOW!
    Another great one!
    Have you done "The Monitors" yet?
    Thanks a lot!

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  2. Hi Ex, yes we have, use our blog search at the top, but remember, we remove our soundclips within few months after being posted.

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  3. According to wikipedia, Bakaleinikoff left
    the USSR shortly after Stalin came to power.

    A very wise move, which
    probably saved Bakaleinikoff's life.

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  4. I read the novel of this film when I was about 12. I remember it being really good. It had a fantastic cover too. Wish I still had it.

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  5. I'm coming to this thread very late, but like Exeter, I definitely would like to see THE MONITORS here.

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  6. Hey Grant,
    Better late than never, welcome aboard!! We posted "The Monitors" a couple of years ago, and you will find it right here!

    http://monstermoviemusic.blogspot.com/2011/02/monitors-fred-kaz-peace-brings.html

    ReplyDelete