THE SPACE CHILDREN / Paramount Pictures - 1958

Welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We have a unique little blob flick directed by Jack (THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN) Arnold that I actually saw when it came out. It's all about an alien intelligence that aborts a rocket launching with the help of children. This is a redo of a post we did back in June, 2008.

Although a nice poster for the kids, I consider this kind of sci-fi artwork just plain weak.

The music's by Van Cleave, Van also worked on these projects.. THE LEMON DROP KID, A PLACE IN THE SUN, THE CADDY, SCARED STIFF, THE COURT JESTER, LIL' ABNER and THE BELLBOY. This is one of my very favorite sci-fi themes from the fifties!

Letz bring in our fuzzy little fiend and button pusher, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Ralphie's here to start the show, so, push the big red 'GO' button there by the coin-operated atomic dish washer, now, Ralphie! Here's the theme from... THE SPACE CHILDREN!

It stars Peggy (THE SCREAMING SKULL) Webber, Johnny (VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS) Crawford, Michel (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA) Ray and Adam (FEAR STRIKES OUT) Williams. Get this, Michel Ray quit acting in 1964, was a member of the 1968 UK Olympic Ski Team, then inherited over 50% of the Heineken Beer empire in 2002!

The family's trailer house interior was THE LONG, LONG TRAILER set! Saw that one in '53, we all loved Lucy at our place!

All the dads are working on a secret rocket program, where, the kids can walk right up and take a good look at what's going on!

Here's the lil' brain blob from space coming in for a landing, you can barely make it out there in the beam.

Wow, Russell (IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE) Johnson plays one of the biggest ass holes!! It's kinda hard to watch him at times.

The little bitty brain beckons it's mini minions...

Numbnuts here tries to smash the thing with a rock and gets paralyzed for his effort!

Russell plays Joe Gamble. Anyway, Joe gets what's comin' to him and has to go away for awhile. Check it out, he was going to wallop his stepson with that freakin' branch!!

Dad sneaks into the cave to see what's causing his kids to act against his authority. But, of course!

So, dad spills the beans to the military about the mysterious brain from space.

Jackie (MESA OF LOST WOMEN) Coogan plays Hank Johnson, he catches his daughter, Eadie, having a little telephathic chat with her new friend. Eadie's played by Sandy Descher, the little girl wandering around in the desert in THEM!

Ever since the kids have been bringing the thing McDonalds, it's really been putting on the pounds!

Nice looking composite shot!

The brain causes the rocket to fizzle out before it can cause the forseen damage it predicted.

The kids stand in defiance as the military shows up, ready to take care of the thing in the cave their way, deep six.

Although this scene where the organism takes off is definitely surrealistic, it looks sooo bad when the hard shadows are cast onto the matte painting in the background!

The big brainy blob shoots back into space, from where it came... I'll let you figure out your own analogy.