'The Monster That Challenged The World'

Most people think the greatest result of the atom bomb was to end World War II. It wasn't.
There was, in the 1950's, an entire industry spawned because of the work of Enrico Fermi and Robert Oppenheimer.

This massive weapon created Hollywood movies we will never see again. They offered employment to actors and actresses who were ten steps in talent below Bogart and Gable, Elizabeth Taylor and Donna Reed.

Have you heard the names of Tim Holt and Audrey Dalton? Of course not. That's because they went on to become anonymous in Hollywood.

The 1950's were a magical time for a young kid like me. Every Saturday I could count on the Rialto or Princess theaters in downtown Boone, Iowa running a movie with a title like, 'The Monster That Challenged The World'.

They all had the same premise. A test bomb would be detonated in the ocean. Radioactive material would engulf a sea creature, any would do, but in the case of this movie it was a humongous caterpillar which grew to gigantic proportions. The mega-caterpillar with foot long fangs would wreak havoc on the populace. You eventually know he's going to seek out the girlfriend, somehow, and scare the peewadun out of her.

Of course, there is the love interest. It's always our hero who falls in love with the daughter of a scientist. This poor guy, the scientist, is killed so the couple automatically has a love bond.

 Our hero then invents a method to take out the caterpillar. Oh yeah, when the big confrontation usually take place in these films massive numbers of our armed forces are eaten by the monster before they, themselves, are eradicated. In my movie the hero saves his GFF by grabbing a fire extinguisher and covering it with foam. The army guys then arrive on the scene and blast it with ten thousand bullets. As they would say in German: "Es is Tot". (It is dead)

In B movies with aliens the army guys are vaporized with a bolt from a ray gun. It's comical, really, and always expected. The neat thing was you knew the guys were going to get zapped before it happened.

Do you remember the original 'War of the Worlds'? The dad in this case was a minister. When the bloody aliens show themselves he slowly walks toward them holding a bible. ZAP! His daughter screams in horror. Then, in the next scene, she's holding her boyfriend giving him a loving passionate kisses. So much for minister dads. Here today-zapped tomorrow

I've witnessed thousands of these miracle methods of destroying monsters. The most popular seems to be a machine that sends killer secret sonic waves through the air to take out the creature causing it to blow up. Wasn't that the way it was in the film, Independence Day? You'd think after all these years Hollywood would come up with something more original.

End of story? Not quite. As the lovers are on the beach, hugging and smooching, the girl will say, "Thank God, we're saved" Then, the camera shoots under the sea and we see thousands of pods of snails ready to strike again. In today's vernacular it sounds like the film makers were looking for a sequel.

I think the moral of the story in these films is we never should have bombed the Japs in the first place. I guess Hollywood is telling us we're receiving our just desserts.

The best aspect of those movies was they were mindless. I missed them for many years. Not any more, though. There's a television channel on Time-Warner showing them non-stop. It's called Comet TV. Give it a look if you want to recall the good old days.

Popcorn and a 1950's sci-fi movie. It's the way God meant it to be.