The Beast with a Million Eyes

source: The Beast with a Million Eyes

The Kelley Family find themselves in considerable jeopardy when an evil alien force with the power to control minds lands nearby their ranch and causes all the animals to go into a lethal rage. Director David Kramarsky relates the absorbing story at a steady pace and does a sound job of creating an eerie atmosphere. The solid acting from a sturdy cast rates as another definite plus: Paul Birch as rugged rancher Allan Kelley, Lorna Thayer as his snippy wife Carol, Dona Cole as their cute, spunky daughter Sandra, Dick Sargent as amiable Deputy Larry Brewster, Leonard Tarver as hulking, pathetic mute handyman Carl, and Chester Conklin as cranky old-timer Ben Webber. The shivery orchestral score and the stark black and white cinematography by Everett Baker and Floyd Crosby further enhance the creepy tone. Moreover, the desolate desert location projects an unnervingly palpable sense of isolation and vulnerability. Granted, the hilariously horrendous (much less than) special effects leave a lot to be desired, but overall this film sizes up as a pretty nifty and enjoyable low-budget shocker.

As Bill Warren has remarked elsewhere, the thing that distinguishes Corman's products (I have a hard time calling them "movies") is a spark of intelligence and inventiveness in the initial conception of whatever the movie is supposed to be about. You can almost always tell a Corman flick from other cheaply made exploitation flicks because there is just enough strength and imagination somewhere in the screenplay, and one or two of the actors are just barely good enough, to keep you from burning the print and assaulting the person who showed it to you. That's certainly the case here. The basic plot, about a disembodied alien life force beginning its takeover of Earth in an isolated, lonely desert community and taking over the minds of the lower beasts and birds to serve as the vessel of its wishes...well, it's an intriguing idea. However, the execution this time around is bad enough to make Larry Buchanan and Herschel Gordon feel good. The hero is a good looking (if somewhat stout) fellow with a heavy, halting, lugubrious delivery of every...damn...line...of...dialog that wears out its welcome in the first 10 minutes. The wife and the daughter are even worse - neither of them can maintain a consistent screen persona for more than 30 seconds at a time. These short-comings could have been corrected by a competent director, or maybe one with a budget that allowed for a couple of retakes, but that didn't happen here, so it's like watching community theater actors in a town of 600 struggling with a script written by a 14 year old who saw an Pinter play once. My fried Dave Sindelar, of sci-film.org fame, put it very well - it's as if they brought 70 minutes of film to the editors and asked them to create a 75 minute film. The animal attacks that might have made this interesting are unconvincing cuts between shots of animals posing and actors reacting in fright...it's painfully obvious that no one involved with this thing knew how to wrangle animals or stage a fight scene (the one between a young, unfortunate Dick Sergant and the mute farm hand wouldn't pass muster in a high school play). There are endless shots of actors running off into the distance. There are a couple of disconcerting sequences where the background music takes over in scenes where there should have been some dialog, and it's heavy symphonic stuff that doesn't really match the on screen action. Mostly, it's just a bust. Having seen it once, I can see where "American Releasing Corporation" (soon to become AIP) developed its house style, so there might be a little historical value to it...but otherwise, don't expect much from "Beast".

Poor lighting has already been mentioned as one of this film's shortcomings. The continuity is poor as well. Near the end when the father arms himself, you will notice that he is likely to have a different weapon seconds later. Also notice when Richard (Dick) Sargent and the father recover his daughter that they had two rifles but arrive at the ranch with just one. Oh yeah, when the two left to go find her, the father left the house with a lever action but when they found the girl the father had a bolt action rifle. It was difficult to tell for certain, but it looked like Sargent had a shotgun, not a lever action. It was bad. Maybe I'll try to find Plan 9 to see if it is worse than "The Beast with a Million Eyes." At least I saw it on TCM and didn't have to suffer commercials as a previous reviewer was forced to do.

A mysterious device arrives from the sky and begins adversely affecting all around it..first it turns ordinary farm animals, pets and birds into deadly and fierce predators and then it begins to affect the humans nearby. I find it interesting that this is one of the first films to depict birds attacking humans and does it surprisingly well despite a meager budget, much better than a certain sequel which will remain nameless. Also this has an interesting plot device which was afterwards borrowed by many films and TV series (evil alien brains) which makes for a very entertaining climax even if its embracing of the nuclear family ideal, popular in the time, is a little dated for today's audience which will be shouting "cheese".

THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES is a small brilliant no budget film. It's probably the first existential science fiction film ever made. That's all I need to say about it to explain why I like it. This film was made before the now familiar plot-line of animals attacking humans, like THE BIRDS. In fact, this film reminds me a lot of THE BIRDS, which I think is brilliant but kudos to whoever wrote this evocative no budget wonder. The similarities between the two is really striking. Hitchcock most likely saw this film and was "inspired" by it. Even the low key near minimalistic tone is identical. The existential tone is also unique for that time and was made before TV shows like TWILIGHT ZONE or sci-fi flicks in the late 1960s or 1970s (like Russian sci-fi flicks) made these bleak sci-fi/horror/fantasy themes popular with the general public. Today, these kind of stories are common in movies or TV programs. The B&W cinematography is at times stunning, more than this type of film usually has. Moody and very atmospheric. The sensational title makes sense because the alien uses all the animals to see and control the environment around humans, hence the million eyes. The original title was supposed to be The Unseen and it didn't have the alien part of the end and one can see what they tried to do. But the current ending doesn't destroy the film. Just because the film has no budget, no stars, that it's basically bare-bones, doesn't mean it should be dismissed for the things it tried to do. Yes, the film is far from perfect but I admire it for what it tried to do, certainly in an era that relied too easily on cheesy stuff. It's (intentional or unintentional) low key brilliance.

THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES Roger Corman produced this small but decent enough piece of '50s silliness about an alien ship and a little puppet inside which is able to control minds - first animals, and then progressing to humans. This seems like a precursor to films like THE BIRDS and DAY OF THE ANIMALS, as a modest rancher and his family living in the desert wilderness are attacked by birds, chickens, cows, and even their own dog. These attacks are not well staged and this is ultra-cheap, but it was still interesting enough. ** out of ****

American releasing(American international pictures)early science fiction movie about an invader from another planet that inhabits the minds of animals and a brain damaged man on a very lonely date farm run by farmer (paul birch)with his wife and teenage daughter.its birds,chickens,a dog,and a bull attacking everyone.there's a lot of suspense that makes up for the very low budget.good music on the soundtrack.even though the final payoff of the alien may be a little disappointing.it may not be one of the greatest sci fi movies but its enjoyable,look for pre bewitched star dick Sergeant as the sheriff.its one of the first American international pictures monster films,after this there was the day the world ended and the she creature.low budget but memorable movies 7 out of 10.

A strange UFO crashes in a remote desert and starts controlling the minds of small animals which start wreaking havoc on the remote townspeople (who are really in the middle of nowhere), including the Kelley family, who are going through a family crisis especially mother and daughter. After taking control of the animals, the spacecraft controls the mind of simpleton Carl, who terrorizes young Sandra Kelley. Can dad, mom, and police deputy Larry Brewster stop the alien menace before its too late. The film's title sounds like it would be corny 50's sci-fi monster fun, but this film really disappoints. A really, really minuscule budget, weak acting, plot, and worst of all directing make this 75 minutes seem like an eternity at times. At points of the film, it joins other 50's monster and sci-fi by becoming philosophical, but the incompetence of the cast and crew leave the meaning flat. I love it when the UFO controls the family dog's mind to become mad, and he walks around looking as normal as he did before, but they play the sinister music. Ooooooooooooooooh! Rating, 1.

Now it is very easy to lambaste this film for so many things. The cheesy special effects(where reviewers have compared the alien spacecraft to a percolator or tea kettle)or how about the cloth birds thrown at Paul Birch's car. That is the extent of the special effect except of course for the "horrifying" finale where the mastermind is revealed. Somebody pinch me so I do not relive that horror another moment. Okay, let's get real. What about the animals - real, live animals - which are supposedly mad and dangerous. A dog wagging it tail in attack mode? The dog looked liked it was being trained in real time and was about as dangerous as the chances of any actors in this film winning an Oscar. A mad bull suppose to be a milking cow moving on in an attack like molasses. Paper and cloth birds and an innocuous crow sitting in a date palm. Scary stuff. The story basically has some alien mastermind introduced at the film's beginning saying he will take over earth for his dying alien race by first mastering the simple minds of the animals and plants and then moving on to the human beings. Whilst its execution is anything but pretty, The Beast with a Million Eyes is really one of the first nature goes awry films - films like The Day of the Animals, Prophecy, Grizzly, and so on owe the film a little bit - okay, a micro-little bit, but it is one of the first of its kind. What does it have going for it? Honestly not much. Paul Birch is mediocre but at least can act. I wish I could say that about the other thespians but would choke if I tried. Lorna Thayer plays his wife with reckless over-acting. She was an actress of some note and today is best known as the waitress from Five Easy Pieces with the notorious chicken salad sandwich scene. Dona Cole plays the daughter Sandy and she is just awful - no wonder her film career was quite limited. Dick Sargent(the second Darren from Bewitched) and Leonard Traver as the hulking, mute, ax-wielding "Him" are barely serviceable. One minor surprise was seeing great silent film comedian Chester Conklin in a brief but satisfying role. He even gets to do a little shtick for us before his udderly ridiculous departure. I have one big question. Why would an alien mastermind trying to take over the world start on a barely populated date farm in the middle of nowhere. Nothing much here in terms of animal/plant/or human life? You can tell the movie was made on a shoe-string budget and has obvious, for many, irrevocable flaws. But despite all of these imperfections, I found the movie to have some heart and think we should all get together and give it some love. Paul Birch's character would be so happy with that.