The Magnetic Monster

source: The Magnetic Monster

Jeff Stewart (Richard Carlson, also in Creature from the Black Lagoon & It Came from Outer Space) is an A-man working out of the Office of Scientific Investigation (OSI). He narrates this story regarding the discovery/creation of a new unstable radioactive isotope. The movie is part MacGuyver, part Mr. Wizard and part Golden Age Radio program. This movie entertains while it educates. I haven't learned as much from a movie since the Miracle of Life in high school health class. Dr. Stewart explains theories and principles of chemistry, physics and even earth science through the use of simple everyday items (God bless you Mr. Wizard). He also manages to make these "models" by combining everyday items (God bless you MacGuyver). The special effects are simple and hardly believable, yet still effective in conveying the science of the story. This movie reminds me of a golden age radio program when a chicken heart grows so large as to destroy the earth. This movie follows in the footsteps of that program. The same can be said of the Outer Limits. It was a show that was severely limited in budget, yet still managed to convey some poignant stories about science and humanity. The thing that all these things have in common is the realization that there are unknowns out there that can kills us. Science will either saves us from the unknowns, or be the Pandora's box to our destruction. There is a pretty good selection of stars in this movie : Kathleen Freeman (best remembered by me as the woman at the supermarket with the silver revolver from Innerspace), Michael Fox (whom I remember as the announcer from the Longest Yard - 1974) and Leonard Mudie (whom one will remember as one of the survivors from the Star Trek episode The Cage). The science seems a little hokey, but one has to remember the movies of the time. I mean having a terminal computer called the Brain and a data mainframe called MANIAC is quite silly. Yet it is still believable. This is a very good science fiction movie (especially when one takes in account when it was made and the obviously limited budget). I recommend this movie for anyone who is a fan of classic science fiction.

I too am a "babyboomer" and I very much love the "Sci-Fi" movies of the 1950's!! What I don't do is compare the movies "back then" to the movies of today!! If you are of the mindset that the movies "back then" should compete with the movies of today (although some of those movies "back then" will give the movies of today a run for their money), you are in the wrong theater!! i discovered this movie when I was labeling some unnamed dvd videos!! If I could collect every movie back then, I would do it in a heartbeat!! Don't be a dead beat!! Enjoy the movies with the mindset you had back then or don't watch them!!!! Please correct me if I am wrong!!

"The Magnetic Monster" was a superior sci-fi B movie of the 1950's. Rarely seen these days, it hasn't gotten the appreciation it deserves as an unusual sci-fi classic. Two scientist-detectives from the Government "Office of Scientific Investigation (O.S.I.)" are sent to investigate some bizarre events, like some guy found dead of radiation poisoning in an apartment building where metal objects have become magnetized. They eventually discover the cause: somewhere there's a new, accidentally created radioactive isotope with the unique property to "grow" by assimilating surrounding energy into itself. As it grows geometrically, its magnetic field and radioactivity increase too, potentially threatening the very existence of Earth itself. Our heroes race to find and destroy the thing somehow. For its time, the plot tried hard to be realistic, with realistic-sounding science and a semi-documentary style reminiscent of detective movies. Even a deliberate bit of comic relief as the detectives are initially stymied by false leads. ("Some guy phoned to complain that the battery in his hearing aid burned out and he wants us to look into the matter." "Oh, fine!") With the new crimes of computer hacker attacks and bioterrorist attacks, the notion of detectives with scientific training is no longer science fiction. When the Government started investigating the deaths of people from anthrax in October 2001, I thought O.S.I. had finally come to pass.

What a good surprise! I expected nothing of this film; I had just decided to watch it because I like those low-budget science fiction films from the 1950s, without imagining it would be this good. Of course, there are many silly digressions, a rather trite family subplot and lack of information about radiation or, for that matter, energy. But everything is handled with disarming sincerity... I am always moved by the naiveté of mankind, even when doing the most hideous things (Hiroshima, Nagasaki) and justify them with the "peasant philosophy", as I call the simple reasoning of the day-night, good-evil and man-woman kind... All this said the central idea is quite attractive, the cast is functional, the sets of the Canadian mine are impressive and the special effects are able to create a dark atmosphere of doom and build much tension. Besides it is a wonderful time capsule showing the common man's appreciation of science then and thankfully it avoids any tiresome reference to the "red menace". I give "The Magnetic Monster" 8 stars, as if I were writing a review about it for a newspaper in 1953. Go and see it.

MM suffers from the same problems as a good many scifi films from its era. It is filmed in a documentary style, which also characterized some of the lesser film noir of the same time period. Exposition is handled mainly through very boring voice-over narration. In this way, instead of conveying information through interesting character interactions or suspenseful plot reveals (The Thing from Another World provides perfect examples e of how it should be done), we have to listen to the protagonist drone on and on in sci-babble through his voice-overs. In addition, the movie makes liberal use of Air Force stock footage leading up to the climax. The climax itself consists largely of re-used footage from what I believe is the 1935 scifi movie, Trans-Atlantic Tunnel (worth a look, BTW). All of the above alludes to the main problem with MM: a bland, uninteresting script which never draws the viewer in after the fashion of better scifi movies from that decade. It's just not on par with the best the 50s had to offer by way of American scifi flicks, like Them, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing, The Monolith Monsters, Forbidden Planet, It Came from Outer Space, and others. Most of these movies make a sincere attempt to present entertaining dialogue, and those with less complex scripts still create suspense through competent pacing and editing. Some of them, such as Them and The Thing, inject some humor into the script, thus investing the movie with another level of entertainment, while also fleshing out the characters a bit more. MM possesses none of these attributes, which is somewhat surprising, given Curt Siodmak's involvement with the film. He was both a competent writer and a reasonably talented director (perhaps not coincidentally, he conceived the story for Trans-Atlantic Tunnel). Magnetic Monster is worth a look if you are a connoisseur of 50s American scifi; but I suggest you go in with low expectations.

Most science fiction from the 1950s are very artistic, well directed, and entertaining. This one flails a bit more, but it does so in an effort to be low key. They don't look to use a big budget for effects, but still manage to show their story reasonably well. The story is the problem here, however. It never really is clear just what the scientists are talking about. They seem to want to make some very deep philosophical point, but that is where the flailing comes in. Each time they begin to try to explain what the microscopic magnetic atomic monster is doing, they digress into a confusing ideology that no one understands. The idea of the microscopic monster, the unseen force left to the imagination, works well enough. The characters do, too. It just fails on the story level enough to make merely a mediocre film, not nearly as good as most monster films from the fifties.

The exposition and set up for this film apparently try to set up a basis for an OSI/"A Men" movie franchise, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside as so many decent ideas do. Still, even as a "one shot", this is a solid effort. "Magnetic Monster" trots out an unusual plot that acts as a sort of "science fiction/police procedural" story. It was probably very unusual and experimental at the time, but it worked pretty well. In fact the plot still has echoes today in unexpected places (like many of the later "Star Trek: TNG" episodes.) To tell the truth, I was expecting the so-called "Magnetic Monster" to be an actual creature on the lines of "the Flying Claw" or Godzilla, but the screenplay surprised me by making the "science gone wrong" aspect of the plot be a new "atomic element" with magnetic properties that violently turns energy into matter, and doubles in size and violence ever time this happens. In this, the movies predates even classics like "The China Syndrome" by using atomic energy and radiation itself as an agent of global disaster. The best thing about the film is the way the central mystery builds from a seemingly innocuous event (all the clocks in a department store stop and the manager and the clerks are indignant and horrified by the magnetic antics of their metal items) to hints of a more serious problem, and then (through clever detective work) finally uncovering a world threatening danger. Richard Carlson works hard to sell his role, and the movie features a number of familiar character actors who also fill out their parts admirably. The only real glitch in the screenplay involves the final scenes with the "Deltanator" (a technological marvel imported via stock footage from another, older movie); it is clearly established that the "magnetic monster" must be bombarded with "900 millions volts" of power in order to destroy it before it becomes unstoppable, and the "Deltanator" is supposedly the only device in the world powerful enough to generate that much; elaborate,frantic measures involving high speed military jets are employed to get the material to the machine before the deadline passes...but once Carlson and his assistant get to the machine, the head technician informs them that the Deltanator can only generate "600 million volts". Of course, this was thrown in just to generate a little suspense, but it makes it hard to suspend disbelief. "6" sounds nothing like "9"...and with the world at stake, you'd think someone would have double checked the numbers. Also, in an effort to generate more of a final climax, the head technician seems to have a psychotic break, and tries to sabotage Carlson's efforts to drive the machine to its peak...you can't help but think, "Excuse me? End of the world mean anything to you, Mr. Technician guy?". It just makes no sense, and so the film is less than it could have been. Still, glitches aside, this is a fine little movie that tries to treat its subject, and its audience with respect. I liked it a lot.

Richard Carlson in what was hoped to be the first of a series of scifi detective stories. Playing more like a forerunner to an Outer Limits meets say CSI this is the story of the discovery of a new isotope that is quickly found to be deadly, it grows by taking energy around it. A good little thriller that is semi-serious attempt at real science film this is an exciting movie that has aged nicely in a quaint sort of way. I think that the reason the film isn't more well known is that the monster is a giant beastie wandering the landscape. Its the perfect film to watch late at night (This was running at 3am in my DVD player). Definitely worth a look since its one of the better scifi films from the 1950's.

"The Magnetic Monster" is a much better than average sci-fi/horror film from an era known for schlocky films in this genre. It works well because they manage to make the story seem possible...and much of it is because its told in a semi-documentary style. When the story begins, some investigators from the OSI are looking into strange phenomena....and a really weird one comes to them. It seems a business is magnetized and all the clocks are broken. When Dr. Stewart (Richard Carlson) tosses some metal washers into the air, they are sucked onto the ceiling as some magnetic power is THAT strong and appears to be coming from the floor above. There, they find a dead man....killed from radiation. In fact, the whole place is very radioactive. What has happened here? And, where is the source of the magnetism, as it appears as if someone took the source with them...meaning that some object is MUCH more magnetic and dangerous than what the OSI team just found. What ttey don't realize is that the powerful substance is so powerful that it threatens to destroy the planet unless something is done quickly. As I already mentioned, the style of the film makes it work well. Giving the story a seemingly credible scientific explanation also works well. Overall, an entertaining story which is surprisingly literate and enjoyable.