Main Cast: Grant Williams, Lola Albright, Les Tremayne, Phil Harvey, William Flaherty
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 76 minutes
Plot
In some ways, the coming-attractions trailer for The Monolith Monsters is more exciting than the picture itself. The plot gets under way when a meteor crashes in the desert, leaving behind huge black chunks. While being analyzed in a science lab, the crystaline stones are accidentally drenched with water, whereupon they begin to grow to gargantuan dimensions. In a twinkling, these monster monoliths are running amok, "petrifying" whomever and whatever gets in their way. A sudden rainstorm further exacerbates the situation, causing the monoliths to grow to hitherto unimagined heights. Can the world be saved by the saline solution which the scientists are hurriedly developed in the lab? The notion of killer rocks was certainly a novelty: it would have been nice if Monolith Monsters had consistently lived up to the promise of its premise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
While it doesn't belong in the ranks of classic 1950s sci-fi flicks, The Monolith Monsters is actually a very respectable and quite enjoyable "B" picture. True, it starts off with the kind of cheesily pompous narration that makes modern viewers roll their eyes, but after that the "cheesy" quotient is pretty much kept in check. And while it's true that the story follows a very predictable sci-fi structure, it uses that structure as a framework rather than as a crutch. Monolith also has much more solid "science" than most films of the genre, especially those from this period; it's not 100% successful in that area (e.g., the petrification effect should not continue once a person is removed from the monsters' silicon-sucking range), but it's for the most part on the plausible side. Monolith also deserves points for the monsters themselves. There's no malice in their actions; they're not even alive. They are simply rocks reacting to their new environment in the manner which is expected of them. Clifford Stine does quite well with the special effects (although CGI-addicted viewers will of course find them a bit too fake), and John Sherwood's direction is modest but fine. And Monolith has some of the better "B" actors on hand. All this adds up to a very enjoyable film; never a classic, but a lot of fun. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Richard H. Cutting - Dr. Reynolds; Dean Cromer - Highway Patrolman; Steven Darrell - Joe Higgins; William Schallert - Weatherman; Trevor Bardette - Prof. Arthur Flanders; Paul H. Frees - Narrator; Harry Jackson - Dr. Steve Hendricks; Paul Peterson - Boy
Credit
Alexander Golitzen - Art Director, Robert Emmet Smith - Art Director, Marilyn Sotto - Costume Designer, John Sherwood - Director, Patrick McCormack - Editor, Joseph E. Gershenson - Composer (Music Score), Henry Mancini - Composer (Music Score), Bud Westmore - Makeup, Ellis W. Carter - Cinematographer, Howard Christie - Producer, Clifford Stine - Special Effects, Jack Arnold - Screen Story, Robert M. Fresco - Screenwriter, Norman Jolley - Screenwriter
A meteor crashes near a small town in the American desert southwest. A geologist finds a fragment of it in a roadway, and not recognizing the mineral takes it back to the laboratory to study. In the morning his partner finds the lab wrecked and the geologist himself petrified. It is determined that the substance the meteor is composed of uses water as a catalyst. When damp, it grows into black, crystal-like shafts which absorb all silica nearby, including that of animals or humans who come in contact with it. Once all silica is absorbed and the monolith grows to its fullest possible height, it becomes dormant. However, it may easily topple, shattering into many fragments which waiting to grow into new shafts if they contact water. The original meteor broke into fragments scattered across the area where it crashed.
A schoolgirl on a field trip takes a fragment home and puts it in water. Her farmhouse is found destroyed and the girl is near death. She is rushed to a hospital and kept barely alive in an iron lung. Unfortunately, a rain storm is on the way. The surviving geologist races to find a treatment for the girl and to protect the town from the towering, destructive Monolith Monsters.
