The Monster That Challenged the World (1957) Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: The Monster that Challenged the World
Year: 1957
Director: Arnold Laven
Country: US
Language: English

Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K) has taken on several of these 1950's science fiction classics throughout their history (1988-???) Essentially The Monster That Challenged the World is a glorious B-picture that is still entertaining to this day. It's story is zany enough that you could get quite a laugh from it, but also smart enough that you could take it seriously. The name alone is enough to put some butts in the seats.

The plot revolves around an underwater earthquake in the Salton Sea which unearths monstrous giant mollusks. A Naval base and its crew will have to stop them before they overtake the world.

Director Arnold Lavan was better known as a prolific director of television, he emphasized character above all else because, according to him, how else can you identity with the protagonist if you don't know them? Western star Tim Holt plays our hero, Lt. Comdr. John Twillinger, while Audrey Dalton plays love interest Gail MacKenzie. All our actors play their part straight, and aside from some brief moments of cheesy dialogue "No! No! No!" We are meant to take this flick very seriously. 

Unlike most cold-war sci-fi pictures, this film's themes aren't exactly apparent. It isn't about communism, capitalism, war or conformity. I suppose it is critical of bureaucracy, but that is a very minor plot point of the picture. Similar to B-movies of that era, The Monster that Challenged the World is full of archetypes. We've seen the bold hero, the damsel in distress and the kooky scientist many times before. Small plot deviations keep this from completely formulaic.

The practical effects throughout the picture does give Monster an air of tangibility. These characters are interacting with something, even if it's got the realism of Barney the dinosaur.  The actual creature doesn't look as menacing as many Japanese kaiju of the time, but it does work to a great extent. Keeping a good pace, I never felt a second of boredom throughout the run-time. The Monster that Challenged the World is a remarkable gem that fans of monster movies must see.