Senteur
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Neive Bellamy
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
mark.waltz
In "Bride of the Monster", Bela Lugosi described Tor Johnson's Lobo as being as "gentle as a kitten", and here, with John Carradine as his "master", he's "Lobo II", and indeed, he does seem "as gentle as a kitten", but "with the brain of a chicken". The child-like Lobo II takes care of seemingly comatose patients, giving them sweet little sponge baths, but obviously underneath is a monster awaiting to explode, and for experimental psychiatrist Carradine, that's a dangerous fact which he has chosen to overlook. "I am a scientist! Thinking is my business!", Carradine bellows, telling convicted murderer Myron Healey on the run, "The 17th gland is the secret of youth and eternal life. With it the aging process can be arrested!" Now, Healey is one of his patients, hiding out from the law, but refuses to go as far as to be one of his guinea pigs. Fellow patient Allison Hayes (whose "50 Foot Woman" was a mental institution inmate as well) becomes Healey's confidante, certain that there's more going on than meets the brain.Carradine spends his free time (when he's not inserting the 17th gland in patients) playing "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" by Bach on the organ, unaware that Johnson is mumbling "Pretty goil" as he strokes a female patient's blond hair. All sorts of other weird goings on and nefarious operations turn this into yet another bad mad scientist film where the ending is so predictable and the dialog so idiotic that it comes down to a bad acting contest between Carradine and fellow mad doctor Marilyn Buferd during a botched operation where Carradine all of a sudden starts counting down from ten like he works at NASA. Their overacting makes Johnson's light babbling seem all the more realistic. The only good thing about discovering these movies out there for free is it saves me the mistake of buying them.
Zapi Sisma
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is so irritating. First they make fun of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians which is a cute children's movie, now they make fun of this decent mad scientist flick. And the mad scientist is John Carradine weighting 30 kilos i being absolutely brilliant. What a charisma, seems to run in the family. He steals the screen, conquers it. His mad goal is eternal life, and he tests stuff on the inhabitants of his psychiatric clinic, putting the 17th gland in them which moves and is all sinister. Being evil but sophisticated, he plays Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor during a peaceful dinner. Besides that, if there was a operation race, he'd won it. He's the fastest. His derp operating is even funnier if you know that his father was a surgeon. Son, I am disappoint. Out halfhero is a guy with the most western face ever, Myron Healey. later I found out that he mostly did play westerns, and it's no wonder. Broads are hot, one is a famous B movie actress Allison Hayes, the other two were Miss America and Playboy's Playmate of the Month. Also in it is Tor Johnson, wearing sandals, the huge guy from Plan 9 from Outer Space. He was a dwarf before Carradine pimped his pituitary, and now he's the biggest. Great film, extra fun, I sincerely laughed out loud couple of times.
J
When compared to films such as Cave Dwellers and Manos the Hands of Fate, the Unearthly was not really too bad, but it still had problems. Mainly it seemed like the film was dragging along most of the time, and the plot seemed convoluted. If it hadn't been for Joel and the 'bots, I would've probably fallen asleep about halfway through the film.
jim riecken (youroldpaljim)
Although made in 1957, THE UNEARTHLY is one of those throwbacks to the kinds of cheap horror pictures cranked out by minor studios in the 1940's that often starred Bela Lugosi, or George Zucco, or as in this film, John Carradine as a mad scientist. This film, with John Carradine as a mad scientist trying to create immortal beings must of seemed old and shopworn to 1957 audiences. The film is talky and plodding. Scenes are dull. The last ten minutes the film picks up speed and we get a chance to see the botched results of Carradines experiments and some fine make up work by Harry Thomas. Its the only thing from preventing me from calling this a total disaster. Oh! I almost forgot, Allison Hayes is sexy.
