Main Cast: Jeff Morrow, Barbara Lawrence, John Emery, George O'Hanlon, Morris Ankrum
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
A alien satellite enters close orbit around the Earth and releases a projectile that takes over the body and mind of Dr. Hubbell Eliot (John Emery), the director of Lab Central, America's top astrophysics research facility. Even as Elliot is falling victim to the invaders, Lab Central scientist Dr. Leslie Gaskell (Jeff Morrow) and his colleagues, Vera Hunter (Barbara Lawrence) and Dr. Arnie Culver (George O'Hanlon), have begun tracking the object -- not certain what it is -- and determine that it is going to hit the Earth in less than 24 hours. An attempt to destroy it with nuclear warheads fails, and the vehicle comes down off the coast of Mexico. While Eliot tries to resist the invaders' control and is hospitalized in a state of collapse, Gaskell, Vera, and Culver fly to the site of the landing, where the submerged craft emits a powerful energy pulse that spreads across the surface of the ocean and toward the beach. When it clears, there stands on the beach a huge metallic object -- a towering robot, inadvertently christened "Kronos" by Gaskell, in a relative moment of whimsy. Hundreds of feet tall and possessing immense power, Kronos proceeds to rampage across the countryside, destroying everything in its path as it seeks out and absorbs all sources of electrical and atomic energy. Back at Lab Central, Eliot temporarily breaks free of the aliens' control, long enough to tell Gaskell of the robot's purpose and mission -- Kronos is a accumulator, sent to Earth by a race whose own planet is depleted of energy, and it will continue to grow stronger unless someone can find a way of reversing the process; worse yet, if Kronos isn't destroyed, other accumulators will be sent to drain the Earth of all its energy. The robot advances relentlessly, growing in destructive power as it moves up the coast, and not even a hydrogen bomb can slow it down. Finally, as it heads toward an H-bomb depository and prepares to destroy the city of Los Angeles in its path, Gaskell devises a possible method of stopping Kronos, based on an untested, untried scientific theory. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
Kurt Neumann's 1957 feature Kronos came near the tail-end of a science fiction cycle that had kicked off the decade with classy independent "B" productions such as Destination Moon and Rocketship X-M (the latter also directed by Neumann), before getting elevated by such "A" features as Howard Hawks' The Thing (1951), Robert Wise's The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), Joseph Newman's This Island Earth (1955), and Fred McLeod Wilcox's Forbidden Planet (1956) -- Neumann's The Fly, shot in color as well as CinemaScope and released the same year as Kronos, would mark the start of the closing phase of the "A" movie end of the science-fiction cycle, capped off with Ranald MacDougall's The World, The Flesh And The Devil (1959) and Wolf Rilla's Village of the Damned (1960), and from here until Hammer's Quatermass And The Pit and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in the second half of the 1960's, most of the sci-fi films produced would be of the "B" movie variety. Kronos was also a B-picture, but it was an unusually handsome one, shot in CinemaScope and released by 20th Century-Fox, with a cast featuring a Broadway veteran with a Shakespearean background (John Emery) in a key role; and displaying special effects that, if not always first-rate, were never less than fascinating in their design, detail, and execution. As with all but the best movies in this genre, the acting -- apart from Emery in the role of the elder scientist taken over by the invading aliens -- is uneven and the script could have used another pass or two by a good editor; but despite these flaws, and action that includes such odd moments as the rather nonchalant removal of a dead body from a crime scene before the police have even been called, Kronos never sinks too far into a juvenile level for it to be appreciated by adults. The unexpectedly compelling giant robot (it impact enhanced by a superb score from Bert Schefter and Paul Sawtell) held the attention of kids and their parents alike, and there was just enough real science mixed in with the pseudo-science gobbledygook that usually afflicts these movies ("omega particles," indeed!) to allow adults to follow along on a different level from the juvenile audience at its core. And just for another ace up the sleeve of the makers, there was legendary cinematographer Karl Struss shooting this mix of strange, moody futuristic scenes at Lab Central, bleak desert and beach scenes, and the animated/life action mix attending when the robot of the title rampages across Mexico and California. Even cast members Rex Reason and George O'Hanlon, and fetching Barbara Lawrence, manage to rise to the occasion, despite the scripts occasional lapses into weak dialogue, unclear motivations, and absurd leaps of logic, though it was clear that Morrow was having more fun in The Giant Claw. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Ken Alton - McCrary; John Parrish - Gen. Perry; Richard Harrison - Pilot; Marjorie Stapp - Nurse; Robert Shayne - General; Don Eitner - Weather Operator; Gordon Mills - Sergeant; John Halloran - Guard; Jose Gonzales-Gonzales - Manuel
Credit
Kurt Neumann - Director, Jodie Copelan - Editor, Paul Sawtell - Composer (Music Score), Bert Shefter - Composer (Music Score), Theobold Holsopple - Production Designer, Karl Struss - Cinematographer, Irving A. Block - Producer, Louis de Witt - Producer, Kurt Neumann - Producer, Jack R. Rabin - Producer, Chester L. Bayhi - Set Designer, Walter Scott - Set Designer, Irving A. Block - Special Effects, Louis de Witt - Special Effects, Jack R. Rabin - Special Effects, Gene Warren - Special Effects, Block de Witt - Special Effects, Menrad von Mulldorfer - Special Effects, William Rheinhold - Special Effects, Irving A. Block - Screen Story, Lawrence Louis Goldman - Screenwriter
Kronos (Ravager of Planets) is a 1957 black and whitescience fiction film directed by Kurt Neumann, starring Jeff Morrow and Barbara Lawrence. The film is also known as Kronos, Destroyer of the Universe. In the years since its release, Kronos has been widely praised both for its above-average storyline and its farsighted portrayal of the consequences of overconsumption of natural and man-made resources, and has achieved minor cult status.
Plot summary
What appears to be a large saucer shaped meteorite crashes into the Pacific Ocean near Mexico, following an unexplained break-in and assault by a deranged man at a secret U.S. research facility. The crashed 'meteorite' soon reveals itself as an even greater menace than first believed, with grave implications for the survival of the human race. Kronos foretells the dangerous implications of mass consumption of energy resources. A gigantic "machine", Kronos attacks power plants in Mexico, draining them of their energy. In doing so, Kronos grows in size, becoming larger as it consumes more and more energy. Kronos is discovered to be the first "accumulator" sent from an alien race that drained their own natural resources. They have Kronos to drain Earth's power and return that power to their own dying planet. A scientist under control of an unseen alien presence, suggests fighting Kronos by dropping the Atomic Bomb onto it. Kronos only absorbs the bomb's power and grows to titanic size. It threatens to drain the world's cities and starve the Earth of power, but scientists devise a plan to turn Kronos' polarity backwards, thereby feeding on itself. Kronos explodes and the Earth is saved.
Film Notes
Kronos was filmed in a little over two weeks in California using special effects created by Jack Rabin, Irving Block and Louis DeWitt. The idea of an alien being absorbing energy sounds a lot like Marvel Comics character Galactus who drains energy from other worlds to survive. and also not unlike Star Trek's The Doomsday Machine which destroys planets and uses it to fuel itself - so it can keep on being a planet killer created by some unknown alien race.
The film set of Lab Central particularly the director's office is a minor testimonial to late 1950s postmodern design, with light fixtures shaped as flying saucers among the Atomic Age decor.
