MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL (1957) (The Film Detective Blu-ray Review)

MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL (1957)

Label: The Film Detective

Region Code: Region Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 71 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HA MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1:85:1), Fullscreen (1.33:1) 

Director: Kenneth G. Crane

Cast: Jim Davis, Vladimir Sokoloff, Joel Fluellen, Dan Morgan, Barbara Turner 

B-movie creature feature fans should appreciate this bug-centric clunker from the late-50s, coming right the end of the era of giant bugs movies we have Monster From Green Hell (1957) wherein a pair of well-meaning scientists in the U.S. desert attempt to understand the effects of radiation on earthly creatures by launching bugs into space. One of the rocket ships carrying wasps goes a bit haywire, exposing the bugs to 40+ hours of cosmic gamma radiation, much longer than planned, before eventually crash landing in a volcanic area of Africa known as the “Green Hell" to the ingenious people. The combination of cosmic radiation, African volcanoes and American wasps can mean only one thing -  giant mutated wasp monsters, oh yeah!

Dr. Quent Brady (Jim Davis, The Day Time Ended) and Dan Morgan (Robert Griffin, I Was A Teenage Werewolf), the American scientist who launched the errant wasp-loaded rocket begin to hear rumors of giant creatures marauding a certain area of Africa; and out of a sense of American-duty, we always clean-up our messes abroad (ahem),  they travel to Africa there to meet their colleague Dr. Lorentz (Vladimir Sokoloff, Mr. Sardonicus) and his lovely daughter Lorna (Barbara Turner, the screenwriter of Cujo if you believe IMDB), but Lorentz has already embarked into the wilds of Green Hell in search of answers for himself, along with his indigenous guide/assistant Arobi (Joel Fluellen, Raisin in the Sun) Arobi. Lorentz encounters a giant wasp on his journey and dies, but Arobi returns and warns the American scientists to stay away from the area, its not called “Green Hell” for nothing! Of course they disregard hi and mount another safari to track down the big-bugs, to the detriment of the indigenous people, who are always the first to die. .  

Objective viewing demands this quickie be admonished for being painfully slow and sub-par even for a late-50's creature-feature made on the cheap, with far too infrequent stop-motion and fiberglass constructed giant-sized murder-wasps showing up now and again. Obviously this was a cash strapped production the wasps are heard a lot more than actually seen, but when they do show up its good hokey monster kid fun, though their wings are comically undersized, but they still look cool, if not much like any wasp I've ever glimpsed. The best scene for my tastes would have to be the stop-motion battle between the wasp and an anaconda - it's far too brief, but when you're begging for scraps you can't be too choosy! The story, dull as it is, is not helped by being padded with safari scenes lifted from Stanley and Livingstone (1939), its a poor film match but they bought the footage and then dressed the stars accordingly to match the stock footage wardrobe - a standard trick for low-budget cheapies. 

Audio/Video: Monster From Green Hell (1957) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from The Film Detective in 1080p HD 1.85:1 widescreen and 1.33:1 full screen, both looking to be sourced from the same scan. This is advertised as a being "restored in a new 4K transfer!" from unspecified elements, this being the latest in a series of collaborations between TFD and The Wade Williams Collection. I preferred the cropped 1.85:1 which didn't feel to tight or cramped, but both show identical age-related wear and tear by way of vertical lines, blemished and speckling, but for a late-50's z-grade monster movie it didn't look bad to these nostalgic eyes. Grain levels fluctuate a bit, with the African safari footage borrowed from Stanley and Livingstone (1939) looking considerably granier, but if you've seen enough of these 50's atomic-age creature-features your eyes are accustomed to plenty of mismatched stock footage! Overall though the film displays some pleasing fine detail and nuance in the close-ups of faces and the far-too-brief stop-motion animation footage looks terrific. Shot mostly in black and white there is some colorized footage that comes into play at the end of the film, the colors looks a bit wonky but it's serviceable. 

Audio comes by way of English DTS-HA MA 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles. The track has some age-related hiss and static underneath but does the job, highlighting the eerie buzzing of the giant-wasps (an audio stand-in for the creatures which are largely unseen) and the score from Albert Glasser (Attack of the Puppet People) sounds terrific. 

Extras kick-off with Audio Commentary with artist/author Stephen R. Bissette that gives a candid appraisal of the film, plus we have the 14-min Missouri Born: The Films of Jim Davis, an all-new career retrospective with author/film historian C. Courtney Joyner produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures, who always do good work on these The Film Detective special edition Blu-ray. Joyner talks about the ups and downs of the actors career with brief early flirtations as a leading man before becoming quite a storied character actor in many westerns, his incredible work ethic, resurgence during the Spaghetti Western era and his later career on TV's Dallas. 

The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original illustrated movie poster. Inside there a 10-page illustrated booklet with The Men Behind the Monsters, an essay by author Don Stradley  that gets into the talent behind the making of the film, notably production company Gross-Krasne Inc., low-budget producer Al Zimbalist (Robot Monster), screenwriter Louis Vitties (I Married A Monster From Outer Space), director Kenneth G. Crane (Manster), composer Albert Glasser (Giant From The Unknown), and uncredited special FX man Paul Blaisdell (It! The Terror from Beyond Space). Stradley gets into the corner-cutting ways of the novice director and the composer naming-names during the McCarthy era to save his own skin, professionally speaking.  

Special Features:
- Missouri Born: The Films of Jim Davis, an all-new career retrospective with author/film historian C. Courtney Joyner (15 min) 
-  10-Page Illustrated Booklet featuring The Men Behind the Monsters, an essay by author Don Stradley 
- Audio Commentary with artist/author Stephen R. Bissette

Monster from Green Hell is a cut-rate 50's creature-feature but I love these shabby flicks and the Blu-ray from The Film Detective looks rather nice and has some great extras that dig into it's schlocky production. Highly recommended for lovers of 50's atomic-age giant-bugs and lower-tier b-movie fare, especially those who dig junky clunker gems like The Black Scorpion (1957),  Giant from the Unknown (1958) and From Hell It Came (1957)!