KRONOS / Regal Films -1957

Welcome to another Halloween Countdown Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. I was lucky enough to see this sci-fi gem when it came out, I had just turned nine. I absolutely loved the movie, it had it all!! This is a special Halloween widescreen redo of an earlier post.

In our soundclip, we hear the pickup driver whistling to a tune on the radio, and, that tune happens to be by the legendary Johnny Mercer!

Okay then, lettuce bring in our fuzzy little Dungeon helper and button pusher, of course, it's Ralphie The Tarantula! Ralphie's here to start our show by pushing that big red 'GO' button over there by the nukeular washing machine, so, push the button, now, Ralphie!! Here's the driving scene from... KRONOS!

Kenneth Alton plays the pickup driver in this opening scene, who's attacked/possessed, whatever you want to call it, to perfection. Here's yet another guy who just had that look, so, besides pickup driver, he was the guy you'd choose when you needed an Apache kid, a Hun warrior, Russian sentry, cowboy, policeman or boxer!

The driver pays a visit to the head of the scientific project, Dr. Eliot, and proceeds to transfer the alien force into him. The doctor is played by John Emery, John was in ROCKETSHIP X-M and THE MAD MAGICIAN and did an episode in each of these TV series... LIGHTS OUT, SUSPENSE, CLIMAX!, I LOVE LUCY, HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL, THRILLER, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and WAGON TRAIN.

Dr. Eliot goes to the dark side and starts communicating with the alien craft.

Here's George (BOP GIRL GOES CALYPSO) O'Hanlon as Dr. Culver and Barbara (HERE COMES THE NELSONS/OKLAHOMA!) Lawrence as Vera Hunter. Dr. Culver explains to Vera how the super computer got the name SUSIE.

The military decides to hit the 'asteroid' with a bevy of missiles armed with nuclear war heads.

They hit!!..

The 'asteroid' plunges into the ocean off the coast of Mexico, so, Dr. Culver and Dr. Gaskell rent out a casa nearby. Jeff Morrow plays Dr. Gaskell. We love Jeff here at The Dungeon because of movies like THIS ISLAND EARTH, THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US, THE GIANT CLAW and an upcoming Halloween Countdown Friday Night Drive-In post, OCTAMAN!!

In the meantime, Dr. Eliot has fallen into a coma and his mind is completely melded with the alien force.

The next morning, a weird looking giant robot rises from the ocean and moves itself to the shoreline.

The gang take a helicopter and go exploring on the top of the thing.

Dr. Eliot's out of the hospital now, so, decides to deep six his fellow scientist, Dr. Stern, played by Morris Ankrum. Morris had a monster movie resume second to none!

Dr. Eliot gives the thing the coordinates of an atomic facility, and, well, see for yourself what happened!

KRONOS locks in on the B-47 and pulls it in for an atomic bomb snack!

KRONOS now has everything it needs to depleat the Earth of it's energy resources and has grown to mammoth proportions. The doctor's no longer needed and is drained of his life forces!

Good thing this is a widescreen print!

This F-100 pilot drops a canister of negative... whatever, to see if they can trick KRONOS into swallowing it!

It does, and, Kronos starts to implode from feeding off itself! Great special effects!!

KA-EFFIN-BLEWIE!!

We can all give a big sigh of relief, now... It atchally woiked!! Phew!..

Two very nice posters, also known as... KRONOS, DESTROYER OF THE UNIVERSE!

In fact, I liked KRONOS so much that my 8 page comic story, "The Devil Robots," published in VORTEX Comics #12 in 1986, was modelled after it. My robots were also energy vampires that went from solar system to solar system exploiting any developed civilizations! To top it all off, I think that THE IRON GIANT story may have been inspired by my Devil Robots, there are a few weird coincidences. I also did the cover art shown here.

Happy Halloweenie, Everbloody!!

ALIEN MOVIE SPACECRAFT OF THE FIFTIES

Last Monday I posted the MOVIE SPACESHIPS OF THE FIFTIES, so, today I'm doing the ALIEN MOVIE SPACECRAFT OF THE FIFTIES! I have to admit, the Alien ships don't compare with those of Earth in coolness...

First up is THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL from 1951, another movie they played a lot on TV in the fifties. The Saucer and Gort were great, but, it comes across as a drama, which I hate.

THE MAN FROM PLANET X also came out in 1951, starring Dungeon Hero, Robert Clarke. The spaceship is just plain weird, I mean, how would you even describe the danged thing?

I absolutely love THE THING from 1951, it pushed all my precious sci-fi horror buttons! This is all you get to see of the saucer, frozen there in Arctic ice...

When I saw INVADERS FROM MARS from 1953 on TV in the fifties, it always freaked me out, a lot! Here's the nice Martian Saucer landing in the sand dunes outside David's house. Check out the British version when you get the chance!

Also from 1953, Universal's IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE kicked royal ass! Here's a classic shot of the alien spacecraft as it lies at the bottom of a ravine, covered in rocks and dirt.

PHANTOM FROM SPACE from 1953 remains one of my favorite fifties flicks, the special effects were above average for the time. The spaceship though, is nothing to write home about.

George Pal's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS in 1953 is a freakin' terrific movie, it delivers all the goods! And, the Martian war machines are probably the finest creations of the fifties, wow!

DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS came to Earth in 1954, love that title! Her saucer totally reminds me of the tops I had when I was a little monster.

KILLERS FROM SPACE from 1954 is another bad movie that I love, it's just fun to watch. Here, the aliens show Peter their space stations on a flat screen televiewer.

Also from 1954 came GOG, at the end of the movie, the mysterious alien spacecraft is revealed and is destroyed by missiles and jets.

In STRANGER FROM VENUS from 1954, he's picked up by these strange saucers. Another movie with too much drama, in other words, BOR-RING!!

Even though BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES from 1955 is a really weak flick, I have a bond with it. There's the Beast's spaceship blasting off into space.

Universal's THIS ISLAND EARTH from 1955 had this stylized saucer. For some reason, the saucer has an older look to it and is not one of my favorite designs. But, it's pretty cool.

Harryhausen's EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS hit the screen in 1956. The saucers were tasty morsels but also mighty war machines from another world!

In 1957, they reuse the saucer from EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS in THE 27th DAY, another movie with too much drama for my taste.

Another movie I love is INVASION OF THE SAUCER-MEN from 1957, Blaidell's BEMs are all time classics. He also made the gleaming saucer that lands in the woods.

Wow, I saw KRONOS at the theater in 1957 and it was a real thrill, it was so unique! It also had this beautiful saucer with Kronos inside that crashes into the ocean off the Mexican shoreline.

Here's the orb spacecraft that brought us THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER in 1957. Robert Clarke watches the craft crash into the forest there.

Toho brought us THE MYSTERIANS in 1957, the saucers have bright colors, unlike the majority of other alien spacecraft.

In THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X aka COSMIC MONSTERS from 1957, the human looking alien leaves Earth in this WTF! saucer! I mean, damn, it looks like a freakin' kid's toy!!

And, let's remember those little ships from QUATERMASS 2 aka ENEMY FROM SPACE from 1957, with those slimy alien life forms in them, dropped onto Earth from a large asteroid always hidden in the shadow of the planet.

The alien invader in ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN from 1958 had this big round ball of a spacecraft, saw this one at the time too, it was wild 'n' weird!

The saucer was well secluded in the woods in I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE from 1958. But at the end, they show a multitude of saucers leaving Earth. The monsters were awesome, loved the smokey mist that took the human bodies away and the monster faces flashing on the human transplants!

My dad took me to see THE LOST MISSILE in 1958, it was a great film for a 10 year old kid to absorb when it came out. The Missile was a menace from Hell.

ATOMIC SUBMARINE from 1959 is one of my very favorite fifties movies! The cyclops monster was great, and, the saucer was pretty damn creepy as it moved through the Arctic ocean!

In BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE from 1959, the alien saucers accompany the mother ship. The battle in space is a ton of fun!

John Carradine was THE COSMIC MAN in 1959, that little floating metal ball there is his means of transportation through the dimensions of space!

INVISIBLE INVADERS from 1959 had invisible spaceships, well, until John used his sonic gun to expose and destroy them!

Even though Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE from 1959 is totally schlock, this mother ship is one of my very favorite saucers from the fifties. What a classic design!

Then, there's this spacecraft in TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN from 1959. Looks like pretty much a rip off of the ship in IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE with snow replacing the dirt!

And, let's not forget TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE from 1959, a wild little flick that has flesh dissolving ray guns and that weird earth boring spaceship!

There we have it, a list of the Alien Spacecraft of the fifties, check in Wednesday with more fun stuff, from... THE DUNGEON!!