The Navy vs. the Night Monsters
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''The Navy vs. the Night Monsters'' (a.k.a. ''Monsters of the Night'' and ''The Night Crawlers'') is a 1966 independently made American
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
-
monster film A monster movie, monster film, creature feature or giant monster film is a film that focuses on one or more characters struggling to survive attacks by one or more antagonistic monsters, often abnormally large ones. The film may also fall und ...
drama produced by
Jack Broder Realart Pictures was a motion picture distribution company founded in 1948 by Jack Broder and Joseph Harris. The company specialized in reissues of older pictures, particularly from the library of Universal Pictures, but also handled an occasion ...
(and
Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
, uncredited), written and directed by
Michael A. Hoey Michael A. Hoey (1934 – 17 August 2014) was a British people, British author and film and television writer, director, and producer. He was the son of Dennis Hoey, who played Inspector Lestrade in Universal Studios, Universal's Sherlock Holmes ...
, that stars
Mamie Van Doren Mamie Van Doren (born Joan Lucille Olander; February 6, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and sex symbol. She is perhaps best known for the rock 'n' roll, juvenile delinquency exploitation film ''Untamed Youth'' (1957). Early life Van Do ...
, Anthony Eisley, Billy Gray, Bobby Van and
Pamela Mason Pamela Mason (10 March 1916 – 29 June 1996), also known as Pamela Kellino, was an English actress, author, and screenwriter, known for being the creative partner and first wife of English actor James Mason. Early life and personal life Born ...
. The film was distributed by Realart Pictures Inc.


Plot

The dull, workaday life at the small American Navy weather station based on Gow Island in the South Pacific is interrupted by the pending arrival of a
C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...
transport for refueling. Aboard the aircraft are a team of scientists, an Air Force flight crew, and a cargo of specimens from their completed expedition to the
Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
. On final approach, something moving in the cargo area unbalances the aircraft. The crewman sent to investigate returns, screaming, and he jumps to his death. At the naval base, the transport's radio transmits sounds of screaming and shots fired, and the descending plane suddenly weaves, veers, and crash lands on the island's single airstrip, destroying the control tower and the island's only
two-way radio A two-way radio is a radio that can both transmit and receive radio waves (a transceiver), unlike a broadcast receiver which only receives content. It is an audio (sound) transceiver, a transmitter and receiver in one unit, used for bidirecti ...
. The damaged aircraft also blocks the runway, preventing its further use. Lieutenant Charles Brown (Eisley) is in command of Gow's weather station. He, Navy nurse Nora Hall (Van Doren), and biologist Arthur Beecham (
Walter Sande Walter Sande (July 9, 1906 – November 22, 1971) was an American character actor, known for numerous supporting film and television roles. Films Born in Denver, Colorado, he was one of those stern, heavyset character actors in Hollywood no p ...
) reach the wreck only to find that the scientists and most of the crew are now mysteriously missing. The only one aboard is the C-47's pilot, who is traumatized and in a state of shock, unable to speak. The cargo consists primarily of a few penguins, plus several prehistoric trees taken from the frozen tundra. Unloading the cargo, Dr. Beecham recommends planting the trees to ensure their survival in the island's tropical conditions. That night, a tropical storm ravages the island. Somewhat later, Gow Island's bird population becomes disturbed by something unknown. The weather station's scientists try to figure out a connection between this event and a corrosive residue that begins turning up at various island locations. It slowly becomes clear that the planted prehistoric trees have grown into acid-secreting, carnivorous monsters that move about Gow Island at night, at will. They reproduce fast and eventually cut off the island with their growing numbers and nocturnal assaults for food. Brown has to hold together his dwindling Navy personnel and the coterie of scientists and civilians while figuring out a way to stop this prehistoric menace. The Navy personnel's only available weapons prove largely ineffective against the tree monsters. When civilian meteorologist, Spaulding (Edward Faulkner) uses Molotov cocktails, fire proves to be the one thing that will destroy them. The weather station is able to eventually restore radio contact with the mainland to ask for help. In response, the military command sends in multiple aircraft strikes from their nearest base. Fighter jets drop both
napalm Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated al ...
and fire
air-to-ground missiles An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common prop ...
at the slow-moving night monsters, setting them ablaze. As a result, the threat to Gow Island's surviving personnel is quickly eliminated, and Brown and Nora are free to pursue a romance which developed in the course of fighting the menace.


Cast

* Anthony Eisley as Navy Lt. Charles "Charlie" Brown *
Mamie Van Doren Mamie Van Doren (born Joan Lucille Olander; February 6, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and sex symbol. She is perhaps best known for the rock 'n' roll, juvenile delinquency exploitation film ''Untamed Youth'' (1957). Early life Van Do ...
as Nurse Nora Hall *
Edward Faulkner Fielden Edward Faulkner II (born February 29, 1932 in Lexington, Kentucky) is an American film and television character actor. He is most known for his roles in John Wayne films, including ''Hellfighters'', ''The Green Berets'', ''Rio Lobo'', ...
as Robert Spaulding *
Walter Sande Walter Sande (July 9, 1906 – November 22, 1971) was an American character actor, known for numerous supporting film and television roles. Films Born in Denver, Colorado, he was one of those stern, heavyset character actors in Hollywood no p ...
as Dr. Arthur Beecham * Bobby Van as Ensign Rutherford Chandler * Billy Gray as CPO Fred Twining *
Kaye Elhardt Kaye Elhardt (August 28, 1935 – September 1, 2004) was an American actress with dozens of television appearances in a career spanning from 1956 to 1977. She was perhaps best known for her comedic role as Josephine St. Cloud opposite James Garn ...
as Diane *
Pamela Mason Pamela Mason (10 March 1916 – 29 June 1996), also known as Pamela Kellino, was an English actress, author, and screenwriter, known for being the creative partner and first wife of English actor James Mason. Early life and personal life Born ...
as Marie *
Russ Bender Russ Bender (January 1, 1910 – August 16, 1969) was an American actor. Career Before becoming an actor, Bender wrote detective stories for magazines. That part of his life was interrupted when he joined the Army. By the time he returned to c ...
as C.W.O. McBride * Taggart Casey as W.O. Hollister * Biff Elliott as Cdr. Arthur Simpson *
Phillip Terry Phillip Terry (born Frederick Henry Kormann, March 7, 1909 – February 23, 1993) was an American actor. Early years Terry was born in San Francisco, California, the only child of German Americans, Frederick Andrew Kormann and Ida Ruth Voll. Hi ...
as Base Doctor * David Brandon * Mike Sargent * William Meigs * Del West as Airplane Guard / Fireman * Garrett Myles * Paul Rhone * Charles Kramer as Corpse * Red West as Navy Fireman


Production

''The Navy vs. the Night Monsters'' was based on the 1959 science fiction novel ''The Monster from Earth's End'' by Murray Leinster. Hoey read Leinster's novel and thought it could make a good science fiction film along the lines of ''
The Thing From Another World ''The Thing from Another World'', sometimes referred to as just ''The Thing'', is a 1951 American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, directed by Christian Nyby, produced by Edward Lasker for Howard Hawks' Winchester Pictures Corporati ...
'' (1951). He optioned it and wrote a screenplay, originally titled ''The Nightcrawlers''. Producer George Edwards read it and agreed to finance the film; because of the limited amount of money available, Hoey was hired to direct. He later stated that he was paid $10,000 for the script and his services, $4,000 of which went to Leinster for the film rights, $2,000 to
the Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...
and another $1,000 to his agent, netting him only $3,000 for his efforts. The total budget for the
B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
was $178,000."The Flora, The Flora."
''bmonster.com''. Retrieved: January 12, 2015.
Corman provided some uncredited assistance to executive producer Broder. Hoey said that during rehearsal, Broder announced the film's new title would be ''The Navy vs. The Night Monsters''. "The entire cast was ready to walk out", claimed Hoey. "They were furious that he would give it that title". Broder wanted to make the film back-to-back with another film, ''
Women of the Prehistoric Planet ''Women of the Prehistoric Planet'' is a 1966 independently made American science fiction/action film directed by Arthur C. Pierce, with Wendell Corey receiving the top billing among the cast. Plot A spacefaring crew from an advanced civiliz ...
'', using the same crew and Edwards as line producer on both. Hoey thought highly of Edwards, claiming "he was really a creative producer ... a good producer who tried to keep things away from you while you were on the set; keep the picture moving forward smoothly; keep oil on the waters. And at the same time make creative decisions that made sense, which was the antithesis of what Jack Broder did. Shooting took ten days".


Casting

The cast included Gray (of ''
The Day the Earth Stood Still ''The Day the Earth Stood Still'' (a.k.a. ''Farewell to the Master'' and ''Journey to the World'') is a 1951 American science fiction film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Julian Blaustein and directed by Robert Wise. It stars Michael Renn ...
'' and the TV series '' Father Knows Best''), who Hoey said "had sort of been having a tough time; he straightened his act out but was still having trouble getting back. So they made an offer and he accepted". Hoey was hoping to get a bigger name than Eisley (who was not the first choice) for the lead, but the director was happy with his performance. Van Doren was cast because she had a commitment to make a film with Corman. Her casting resulted in Hoey turning her character into a civilian. He said, "So I put her in a tight sweater and a pair of slacks about 50 percent of the time". The cast also featured two members of
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
's
Memphis Mafia The Memphis Mafia was the nickname given by the media to a group of Elvis Presley's friends, associates, employees and cousins whose main functions were to accompany, protect, and serve Presley from the beginning of his career in 1954 until his de ...
, Sonny West and Red West, as well as Mason. Referring to the latter, Hoey said, "She obviously felt that it was beneath her, but she was a pro and she did what I asked her to".).


Special effects

Hoey enjoyed working with Stanley Cortez but was not happy with the
practical effects A practical effect is a special effect produced physically, without computer-generated imagery or other post-production techniques. In some contexts, "special effect" is used as a synonym of "practical effect", in contrast to "visual effects" ...
used to create the moving tree monsters:
Jack Broder wouldn't hire the guy that we originally had meetings with, a guy who could have done a marvelous job...I wanted the onstertrees to look like the other trees, so that there wouldn't be the feeling that they stood out like sore thumbs, which is what those stupid things did. Broder hired some guy who did them for $1.98. When they showed up on the set the first day, I refused to film them, I was so upset. A lot of what happened at the back end of the movie, like the little stumps walking around in the sand, was stuff that Jon Hall shot. I had nothing to do with it...Yes, the famous Jon Hall from '' The Hurricane''
937 Year 937 ( CMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * A Hungarian army invades Burgundy, and burns the city of Tournus. Then they go southward ...
In later years he had a production company, and apparently he made a deal with Broder and went out and shot more stuff. The only tree that I worked with was the one that had the guy in it manipulating the limbs, which is the one that has the fight with the -47pilot. We shot it in pretty low-key light, to try to hide as much of it as we possibly could.


Post-production reshoots

Broder had requested a 90-minute film so he could sell it to television, and Hoey's original cut came in at 78 minutes. When Hoey left the film, Broder hired Arthur Pierce, director of ''Women of the Prehistoric Planet'', to shoot additional scenes. Jon Hall was involved. Hoey later claimed these scenes would "change the whole premise" of the film, saying, "He added all those scenes of those Navy officers in that base on the mainland. It completely ruined the premise of what I had in mind". Eisley agreed with Hoey:
The producer totally recut the picture after it was made and totally destroyed any validity it might have had. That picture ... would have been a very good little thriller. First of all, you never saw those trees in explicit detail; you had a sense of mystery about what was killing these people on this island. As originally shot, the island radio tower was destroyed by a plane crash and there was no contact between the island and the outside world. I, as executive officer of the military Army base, was not prepared to assume command, and I had nobody I could turn to. So we played it at a level of fear and panic that wouldn't exist if we could contact some base on the outside. Then, months after the picture was shut down, the producer put in this stupid stock footage of bombers blowing up the island at the end and shot these monotonous talking scenes of generals on the telephone that were not at all germane to the original story. As a consequence, in the final cut, we actors are playing at a level that the situation didn't call for at all! That was very, very upsetting.


Reception

Film historian and critic Leonard Maltin noted his opinion on the film with a list: "1) Look at the title. 2) Examine the cast. 3) Be aware that the plot involves omnivorous trees. 4) Don't say you weren't warned".Maltin 2009, p. 969. On his website ''Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings'', Dave Sindelar criticized the film's poor acting, direction and script, and concluded that it "works best as inconsequential timekiller". ''
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' awarded the film 2 out of 4 stars, calling it "one of those films that is so bad you go to see it for the laughs instead of the chills". In film historian Tom Weaver's interview with Hoey, Weaver contended that ''The Navy vs. the Night Monsters'' subsequently became a "cult favorite".


References


Notes


Bibliography

* Maltin, Leonard. ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2009''. New York: New American Library, 2009 (originally published as ''TV Movies'', then ''Leonard Maltin’s Movie & Video Guide''), First edition 1969, published annually since 1988. . * Pym, John, ed. "The Wraith." ''Time Out Film Guide''. London: Time Out Guides Limited, 2004. . * Strick, Philip. ''Science Fiction Movies''. London: Octopus Books Limited, 1976. . * Weaver, Tom. ''Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls and Makeup.'' Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006. .


External links

* *
''The Navy vs the Night Monsters''
at
TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Navy vs. the Night Monsters, The 1966 films 1960s science fiction films 1960s science fiction horror films 1960s monster movies American monster movies Films about the United States Navy 1960s English-language films 1960s American films