From Hell it Came (1957) — Triskaidekafiles

FROM HELL IT CAME

WRITERS: Screenplay by Richard Bernstein

From a story by Richard Bernstein and Jack Milner

DIRECTOR: Dan Milner

STARRING: Tod Andrews as Dr. William Arnold

Tina Carver as Dr. Terry Mason

Linda Watkins as Mrs. Mae Kilgore

John McNamara as Prof. Clark

Gregg Palmer as Kimo

Robert Swan as Tano

Baynes Barron as Chief Maranka

Suzanne Ridgway as Korey

QUICK CUT: An island vacation goes horribly wrong when the natives get restless.

THE MORGUE

Dr. Arnold - A devoted scientist interested in radiation, and doing his best to help native cultures move beyond their superstitions.

Terry Mason - Dr. Arnold’s girlfriend, but she is more devoted to her science than matters of the heart. She finds love to be a distraction, and doesn’t want to be your average girl.

Mrs. Kilgore - An Australian woman on the island who runs the local trading post. A bit of a go between with the scientists and the natives, and looking for her third husband.

Tano - The local tribe’s witch doctor/medicine man. He’s ruthless and will do anything to get ahead, and does not trust the white man.

Chief Maranka - Same as Tano, really. Sacrificed one of his closest friends to take over his job and become chief.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! This week, I had a movie catch my eye, it seemed like something light and fun to drop in the middle of the rest of this weirdness I had planned, and that's how we came to be sitting here to talk about From Hell it Came; an atomic age scare piece about natives and their terrifying monster. So let's get into it.

The movie opens up on those natives putting one of their own, Kimo, on trial. The witch doctor, Tano, accuses Kimo of killing his father by having the local white interlopers try and help him, and not their own native medicine.

Kimo accuses Tano and the new chief of poisoning his father, and yeah, that's not gonna end well for Kimo. And his wife Korey isn't helping matters by standing with the chief.

As they drive a stake into Kimo's heart, he vows vengeance from beyond the grave, and the parallels to witch trials here are not lost on me.

Oh my god, Kimo was a vampire this whole time!

One of the local Americans, Ms. Kilgore who runs the local trout shop...er, trading post, witnesses the trial, and Kimo being boxed into a standing coffin. She gets spotted by the natives, who like to keep their ways to themselves, and chase her off.

Meanwhile, at a nearby research station, the American scientists are being reductive dicks. While the locals are clearly portrayed as natives, the movie actually doesn't make them seem dumb, or ignorant, just different from our ways. They're intelligent, articulate even, and just have their own way of doing things, and their own rituals. But these two scientists are all "Oooh, these backwards people and their ways, so annoying and backwards! We are so much better than them!"

I wouldn't quite call this culturally insensitive in how the natives are shown, but it's not...NOT culturally insensitive. For 1950s, this could be SO MUCH WORSE. It borders on progressive for the time.

We learn about nearby nuclear bomb experiments that haven't really effected the island much, and meet a few characters, and it's 15 minutes with very little coming from Hell just yet.

Cleaning out the toilet is such a chore when all you’ve got is an outhouse.

As we wait for things to happen, Dr. Arnold's beloved, but yet to be betrothed, shows up, Dr. Terry Mason. We then spend a lot of time meeting characters and killing time while nothing happens. I know it was a different time, but man is this slow.

Back with the natives, we get confirmation that Korey lied to get Kimo out of the way, and be the chosen woman of the new chief, but...he wants nothing to do with her lying liar who lies, that he can’t trust, and Maranka tosses her aside now that he has what he wants.

While Terry and William are wandering the island, she wants to go check out the forbidden cemetery, and they notice a strange stump growth on Kimo's grave and...seriously, we're 30 minutes in, and the plot is moving as fast as a plant grows.

As the scientists try and make sense of this, some natives show up to offer their perspective. See, it's Kimo's curse coming to pass. The natives have some local folklore of a previous instance like this, where someone was wrongly murdered, and his vengeance grew out of the ground, just like Kimo. They called the monster "Tabonga" which means "creature of revenge", and it is taking it's sweet ass time showing up this time.

We debate for a bit over what to do, if anything, about the monster that still isn't in this movie yet, properly. Some want to leave it, some want to science it, some want to rip it up by the roots and huff it into the nearby quicksand.

They decide to dig it up and poke at it, to see what happens, and that's about when Korey shows up, now that the chief has turned his back on her, to seek protection. Sure sure, climb as much as possible, until your backstabbing gets you in trouble.

So we finally, technically, have Tabonga Leela show up, although he lays down on a table for the next little while, as the American scientists examine him.

Terry determines the creature is dying, and are you shitting me? We finally get the creature, kinda, with less than thirty minutes left to this movie, and he's already dying?? I want my money back.

The prognosis isn’t good…it’s Dutch Elm disease.

Fortunately, Terry just so happens to have a formula she's been working on, that is "amazing at creating heart action" and they decide to give it to the creature. Unfortunately, it works very slowly, and takes several hours to show any effect. So...VERY MUCH LIKE THIS MOVIE THEN??

So they give it the serum, and it will take another eight hours before anything maybe happens and gods just do something already.

However, they show up the next morning, and do not find an awakening Toboggan, instead they find a trashed lab, and believe the natives reclaimed their stolen monster.

WE HAVE TABONGA. I repeat, we have Tabonga

Instead, the creature has awoken, and shambles around seeking Kimo's vengeance, like he's a science crazed fiend in need of a hallway

The political and romantic machinations continue as Korey finds the woman the chief has taken an interest in, and tries to kill her, which leads to native women rolling in the dirt for our entertainment.

Naomi actually gets the upper hand, but runs off when Chimichanga arrives to grab Korey and toss her into the quicksand, and be done with her.

Naomi scurries back to the village and tells everyone that Tacogrande is on the loose, and it is declared that he has come to kill us all! And since there's only like...three people in this movie, it's not a hard job.

Elsewhere, the Topanga continues it's light sprinkle of terror, as it finds the chief, and kills him off as well.

One of the native girls tells the scientists what's going on, and for a moment, Terry is all excited that ha HA! Her formula DID work!

Makin' my way downtown, walkin' fast, and I'm home grown...

But once she hears the creature is killing people, she says, "I just wanted him to live...not to destroy!" I mean, it's no "I am become death" but not bad.

Tano has the natives dig a pit to set a trap for the Tapioca, and he uses himself as bait to lure the monster over the pit.

Once the Ticonderoga falls in, the natives do their best to kill it with fire, but not even that is stopping this creature

On the one hand, "kill the tree creature with fire" makes sense. On the other hand, if that WAS the end of it, and all we got was ten minutes of monster, I would've been piiiissed. It's barely 25 minutes as it is.

Instead, all you've got now is a crispy Taquito, and it's probably very annoyed to boot. Anyways, it continues it's pursuit of Tano, to finish off its revenge.

Some other natives tell the American scientists they tried their best and failed miserably, and beg them for help.

Meanwhile, the monster finds Tano, stabs him in the back, and this should be when Crowbonga crawls back into it's grave, now that it's revenge is sated. Which would doubly make sense with only five minutes left, but I guess we gotta drag this out just the tiniest bit longer.

For some reason, Tabonga grabs Terry, and her screams signal the rest. Not a single person recognises her screaming, asking what's that, and I agree. Was that a wounded duck?? Is someone being mean to a cat?!

They follow the sounds of angry waterfowl until they find Tabonga carrying Terry off, and they try shooting it. Which does precisely nothing.

Wow, I thought Winterbeast was Groot's earliest work, but nice to see him here, too!

With bullets having little effect, they decide they must...uh... Checking my notes here...They decide to try and shoot the knife hoping to drive it further, to pierce Kimo's heart, and killing the monster. WHAT.

Also, lotsa "shoot the monster's heart to end the threat" these days, huh?

But despite being an absolute batshit plan, it works, and the Tabonga falls dead. And in their gratitude, the natives declare the white man much superior in his magic and medicine, and they will follow him now! WOW I take back what I said earlier.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: This looks really good for a 50s black and white flick. Even from big studios, for obscure features like that, I don’t expect much. But this came through.

Audio: Nothing to particularly say, it’s fine.

Sound Bite: “A human sacrifice is no worse than your average traffic accident." ...Excuse me, what?

Body Count: I dunno, kinda disappointing. The monster shows up too late, and only has three bodies on his to do list.

1 - Four and a half minutes in, and Kimo gets executed for his 'crimes

2 - Tabonga tosses Korey into quicksand

3 - Chief Maranka is killed by the Tabonga

4 - Tabonga stabs the witch doctor in the back

5 - And Tabonga is killed in the most absurd way I've seen in a serious movie

Best Corpse: Korey sinking to her death in quicksand is something we stick with for awhile, and is pretty horrifying for a 1950s flick.

Blood Type - F+: No real blood to speak of, and whatever points this gets are for the creature design. Which is striking, but as uh, flaws.

Drink Up! Every time someone says Tabonga.

Movie Review: I mean, it’s like, a million percent more coherent than Barn, so that’s a plus. The acting is decent, everyone’s at least pleasant enough to spend time with. But the biggest flaw is the 1950s pacing, which I only forgive so much. Still, it’s your basic revenge story via reanimated monster, and there’s a bunch better examples of this. I do maintain this is fairly progressive in its portrayal of natives, and women, although it has its stumbles on those counts too. If not for being well acted, that first half would be almost unbearable, but at least there is stuff going on, and it’s not entirely feeling like padding. I liked it well enough, but it’s something I feel I shoulda loved. Three out of five knives to the heart.

Entertainment Value: Almost entirely watching some guy in a solid brick of a costume waddle down the forest paths. Unfortunately it takes 40 minutes to get there. Still, the Tabonga is a neat visual, and fun to watch. The rest of the movie is on the dull side, but not BAD, which is still a positive around here. Cheap, simple, and short, so I take the good where I can. Two out of five standing coffins.