From Hell It Came Blu-ray despite great video and audio falls short as a Blu-ray release
On a remote South-Sea island a tribal prince is killed by a witch doctor for making friends with the nearby American expedition providing medical care while they research nuclear fallout. Before his death, the prince swears revenge and returns from the grave as a giant tree-like monster bringing death to the prince's enemies (and anyone else who gets in the monster's way).
For more about From Hell It Came and the From Hell It Came Blu-ray release, see From Hell It Came Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on April 23, 2017 where this Blu-ray release scored 1.5 out of 5.
Anyone who has ever trolled a movie site claiming that some popular hit or certified classic is
"the worst movie ever made" should be required to order this new Blu-ray of the walking tree epic, From Hell
It Came ("FHIC"), which achieved honored status in Tim Healey's compendium of The World's
Worst Movies. The 1957 release from Poverty Row studio Allied Artists spends two thirds of its
running time building up to the onslaught of a lumbering monster that's about as scary as a block
of wood (which is exactly what it is). But every film has its fans, and the Warner Archive
Collection is adding FHIC to the same Blu-ray collection that boasts masterpieces likeBad Day
at Black Rock and The Big Sleep,
because fans demanded it. They won't be disappointed. WAC
has done its usual first-rate work in bringing this prime exemplar of "so bad it's good" cinema
to Blu-ray.
On a remote atoll in the South Seas, an American scientific expedition alternates between
measuring fallout from atomic testing and bringing Western medicine to the indigenous
population. The latter activity is a sore point with the local tribe's medicine man, Tano (Robert
Swan), whose supremacy is challenged by the American team—and Tano is not a man to be
trifled with. In the film's opening sequence, he presides over the execution of Kimo (Gregg
Palmer), the son of the late chief, who has supported the Yankee efforts and whose death clears
the way for his father's best friend, Maranka (Baynes Barron), to succeed the deceased leader.
Ritually stabbed through the heart, Kimo is buried upright in a hollowed block of wood. A
mysterious growth sprouts from his burial site, maturing into a "Tabanga", a hardwood avatar of
Kimo's revenge. Among the Tabanga's targets is Kimo's duplicitous wife, Korey (Suzanne
Ridgway), who gave false testimony against him in the expectation of marrying the new chief.
(He discards her after she's served her purpose.)
While FHIC is waiting for the Tabanga to grow and take its shuffling revenge, it passes the time
in the soap opera stew of the American encampment, where the widowed Mae Kilgore (Linda
Watkins) is still so traumatized from having surreptitiously witnessed Kimo's execution that her
Cockney accent comes and goes (and when it's there, it's even less convincing than Dick Van
Dyke's in Mary Poppins). Mrs. Kilgore's fright doesn't
deter her from her project of landing yet
another husband to succeed the two she's already buried, but the expedition's chief physician,
Dr. William Arnold (Tod Andrews), has his heart set on a fellow doctor, Terry Mason
(Tina Carver). The latest arrival on the island, Dr. Mason seems blithely indifferent to the growing threat from
both native unrest and homicidal vegetation. Indeed, it's she who is directly responsible for
turning the Tabanga loose upon the unsuspecting islanders, when she injects it with an
experimental drug after the team has dug it up for study. The group's research scientist, Dr. Clark
(John McNamara), provides the requisite philosophical commentary on themes of cultural
relativism and man vs. nature.
The Tabanga isn't remotely intimidating, but it's a certainly a sight to behold, and it effectively
dispatches the villains who engineered Kimo's execution. Then it makes the fatal error of
menacing the comely Dr. Mason, apparently unaware that the monster owes its life to the
physician's TLC. With one of their own at risk—and a pretty woman at that—the Americans
quickly rally to destroy a monster that local legend has proclaimed indestructible.
From Hell It Came was shot by Brydon Baker, who enjoyed a long and successful career as
director of photography for the cut-rate Westerns and monster movies produced by the second
string studios collectively known as "Poverty Row". For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from
the Warner Archive Collection, a fine-grain master positive was scanned at 2K by Warner's
Motion Picture Imaging facility, followed by the usual color-correction and cleanup. The result
cannot transcend FHIC's limited budget (or transform it into a good film), but within the limits
of the source, the Blu-ray offers a crisply detailed black-and-white image that allows the viewer
to revel in the often amusing cheapness of the sets and costumes, many of which look like they
were purchased for Halloween. (Even in B&W, it's obvious that every outfit worn by a native
was machine-manufactured rather than handmade.) The standout scenes feature the Tabanga
itself, whose gnarled and knotty bark is a fascinating study in form battling function, since it has
to be both intimidatingly solid, yet flexible enough for an actor to walk while wearing it. Blacks are solid,
shades of gray are finely rendered and contrast is strong. WAC has mastered FHIC with it usual
high average bitrate, here 34.997 Mbps, and even with that generous allotment of space, the 71-minute film fits comfortably on a BD-25.
FHIC's original mono audio has been taken from the magnetic master and encoded on Blu-ray in
lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. The same low-budget origins that are evident in the visuals are
apparent here as well, with underwhelming sound effects and limited dynamic range. Still, the
dialogue is always clear (and, in a few instances, the ADR is obvious), and the score by Darrell
Calker, a ballet composer turned "B" movie staple, provides unintentional comedy, accompanying
the ridiculous proceedings onscreen with deadly serious instrumentals.
FHIC is a terrible movie and has been rated accordingly, but that hardly matters. Its badness is
what distinguishes it and has inspired and sustained its loyal cult following. In Leonard Maltin's memorable
phrase: "As walking-tree movies go, this is at the top of the list." WAC's new Blu-ray is one for
the fans, and in that respect, it is recommended on its technical merits. Blind buyers beware.
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Warner Archive has confirmed that it will bring two more catalog titles to Blu-ray: Arthur Hiller's The Wheeler Dealers (1963) and Dan Milner's From Hell It Came (1957). The two releases will be available for purchase on April 25, 2017.
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