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12 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Sadly unrecognized, 2 May 1999 Author: Howard Sauertieg from Harrisburg, PA
More fun than a cellarful of monkeys. Carradine goes over the top as the haughty, flawed (mad) scientist. Tor Johnson is Lobo is Tor... proving his bad acting in "Plan 9" and "Bride of the Monster" was his own idea, not Ed Wood's. The three female leads are all famous beauties - Dr. Gilchrist was Miss America in 1946, Natalie was Playboy's Playmate of the Month in 1957 (the year this film was released), and B-movie giant Allison Hayes adds a sultry touch. Unfortunately, almost everyone in this film is INSANE.
9 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Watchable 'mad scientist' flick., 24 October 1998 Author: bux from Tecumseh ok
Acceptable scare-fare here, with two of the B movie greats, Carridine and Healy, and the prince of the C,D,E,and F movies, Tor Johnson. Not as campy as an Arch Hall Jr. or Dennis Ray Steckler effort-the production values are too good-but still some good giggles at trite dialogue and silly plot.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: IN DEFENSE OF THE UNEARTHLY, 15 March 2000 Author: zippyjimbo from WHEATON. ILLINOIS
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
As a new user to this site, I couldn't believe that this movie was listed as one of the worst 100 of all time. How can that be? Without wanting to be a "spoiler" this movie has one of the greatest last lines of all time (right up there with Some Like It Hot), one that has stayed with me forty years later. Besides, how can a site devoted to the true movie lover rate a movie so low when Myron Healy receives second billing?? Mr. Healy is one of the screens all time leading villains (he's the one who has to fish his silver dollar out of the spittoon in El Dorado), and here he gets to play the hero!!! I was also very fortunate to meet John Carradine in 1968 when he appeared at one of my college's Artist Series. I told him how much I enjoyed this movie. His reply was, "Well, we all have bills to pay." So come on people, lighten up, and enjoy this movie for what it is - the dedicated scientist who tries to find eternal life for himself and his bride. And if a few of his experiments go wrong, so be it.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Los Lobos, 17 December 2007 Author: ferbs54 from United States
John Carradine's character, Dr. Conway, has a big problem in "The Unearthly." His experiments on a newly discovered synthetic gland keep going wrong, and as a result, all his human guinea pigs have been transformed into mutant critters that are now overcrowding his basement. We get to see this mutant collection at the end of the film, and it is both the funniest and most horrifying section of this surprisingly well-done little B picture. I say "surprising" only because most film books downplay this movie as hopeless shlock, but I found it to be fairly entertaining. Not too many unintentional laffs, and with fairly good acting, too, especially from Carradine and cult fave Allison "The 50 Foot Woman" Hayes. Tor Johnson, everyone's favorite lumbering mound of monstrous blubber, is also on hand, as Carradine's imbecilic helper, and his is always a welcome presence. Surprisingly, his character's name is Lobo...the same name he sported in Ed Wood's "Bride of the Monster"!!! This may very well be Tor's finest film...but when your other credits include "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "The Beast of Yucca Flats," two of the worst ever, I suppose that's not saying too much. Compared to the other John Carradine "mad scientist" film that I saw recently, "The Astro-Zombies," "The Unearthly" is a little gem of script, acting and direction. Again, I suppose that's not saying too much. But the bottom line is, I really did have fun with this one. Give it a try!
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Plodding horror film with effective ending., 28 April 2001 Author: jim riecken (youroldpaljim)
Although made in 1957, THE UNEARTHLY is one of those throwbacks to the kinds of cheap horror pictures cranked out by minor studios in the 1940's that often starred Bela Lugosi, or George Zucco, or as in this film, John Carradine as a mad scientist. This film, with John Carradine as a mad scientist trying to create immortal beings must of seemed old and shopworn to 1957 audiences. The film is talky and plodding. Scenes are dull. The last ten minutes the film picks up speed and we get a chance to see the botched results of Carradines experiments and some fine make up work by Harry Thomas. Its the only thing from preventing me from calling this a total disaster. Oh! I almost forgot, Allison Hayes is sexy.
6 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Live MST3K Moment, 28 June 2006 Author: keifer-1 from United States
This movie created a live MST3K moment during it's World Premiere run.The World Priemere was at the Roosevelt theater in Chicago. The top billed film was "Beginning of the End" (Yes, the one about the giant grasshoppers invading Chicago.) That this film got second billing should tell you something about this flick.If you've not read other reviews, John Carradine has created a synthetic gland that he thinks will give eternal youth. About halfway through the picture, he implants his eternal youth gland (Which looks suspiciously like a pulsating jalapeño pepper.) into Sally Todd and moves her to his moldy basement to recover.When they check on her later, instead of remaining eternally young, she's all wrinkled and shriveled up and looks about a hundred years old.At this point, someone waaaaay at the back of the balcony yelled out, "YA GOT IT IN UPSIDE DOWN!!!" It must have been at least five minutes before the laughter subsided and you could hear the movie again.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: For Granted! For Granted! In Science nothing is taken For Granted!, 11 April 2006 Author: sol1218 from brooklyn NY
(There are Spoilers) John Carradine in one of his many mad scientist roles as the crazed Dr. Charles Conway who's obsessed with finding the elusive secret of the legendary Fountain of Youth. Getting people to be patients at his secret medical clinic deep in the woods and miles from civilization Dr. Conway plans to experiment with them to make his subjects perpetually young like the portrait of Doren Gray. In the end he turns them into horrible and deformed mutants cursed to live forever in a cloistered sanitarium, like leapers. Never to see the light of day because of their shocking deformities that he inflicted on them .One evening an escaped convict Mark Huston, Myron Healey, is caught snooping around Dr. Conway's residence by his hulking and trusted servant Lobo, Tor Johnson. Dr. Conway sees the perfect specimen for his youth experiments with Huston in no position to run and go to the police for help since he himself is wanted for murder.Dr. Conway also has a number of other people at his place one of them Harry Jedrow, Harry Fleer, who's suffering from what the good doctor did to him by being in a totally comatose state. It's Jedrow who in the end spells the doom of Dr. Conway and his insane experiments by having his sister, whom he wasn't supposed to have, insist on having him released. This lead Dr. Conway to get Lobo to bury the poor man alive who was later rescued by Huston when Lobo took a lunch break, the big guy gotta eat, from shoveling dirt over Jedrow's coffin.Making a play for one of his patient's the beautiful Grace Thomas, Allison Hayes, has Dr. Conway's assistant the former 1946 Miss America Marilyn Buferd playing Dr. Sharon Gilchrist mad as hell and not about to take Dr. Conway's two-timing her anymore insisting that he use Miss. Thomas in his next experiment. Hoping that it will be as unsuccessful as the one he just had with Natalie Anders, Sally Todd a former Playboy Centerfold, who's face ended up looking like an over-baked pizza with extra cheese.As usual Dr. Conway's plan to bring eternal youth into the world is doomed to failure since the magical 17th gland, that looks like a pickled jalapeño pepper, that's supposed to bring on the miracle of eternal youth only makes his subjects freeze in time looking like a cross between the Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz and Lon Cheney Jr in his role as the hairy Wolf Man.With Huston now throwing off his cover and revealing himself to be police Let., not wanted escaped murderer, Mark Huston everything starts to unravel for Dr. Conway. Huston and fellow patient Danny Green, Authur Batanides, overpower the brutish Lobo with Danny losing his life in the process and the zombie-like Jedrow coming back from the grave to pay Dr. Conway back, in spades, for everything he did to him over the years.Average 1950's horror movie with the so-called brilliant Dr. Conway flopping in every one of his experiments that had you, and the movie audience, wonder what was so brilliant about the crazy and arrogant kook in the first place. Tor Johnson's Lobo for once does have a few lines of dialog, which is very rare for him, notably the movies most quoted and remembered saying "Time Fahh Go Ta Bed".
Not as horrible as you might think!!, 15 March 2009 Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida
While I am sure my summary is not exactly a glowing endorsement, I do think that this bad movie isn't nearly rotten enough to merit its current listing among the "hallowed 100"--the 100 lowest ranked films listed on IMDb. Instead of being a 100% "stinker", it's actually a low-budget but watchable film....really! When the film begins, you are greeted with a house that is obviously a painting--from which the film's odd title emanates. Odd, because there is nothing "unearthly" about the film--no aliens at all.The first scene you are greeted to is a closeup of Tor Johnson killing someone. Seeing Tor, I knew this film would be low-budget crap--heck, he's the unofficial king of these films with his luminous performances in such dreck classics as BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, PLAN 9 and THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS (my vote for the worst of his films). Interestingly, in this film he's named 'Lobo'--the same name he had in NIGHT OF THE GHOULS and BRIDE OF THE MONSTER. He's back again in THE UNEARTHLY as essentially the same guy (though he does talk some in this film, unlike the others). You must assume, then, that he's a freelance henchman--willing to work not for Bela Lugosi, Kenne Duncan and here for John Carradine. I could imagine his classified ad now: "Loyal, brutish henchman looking for a position. Ability to speak limited but hulking appearance more than makes up for shortcomings." It turns out that Tor is working in a weird clinic in the middle of nowhere for the evil doctor (Carradine) and his devoted assistant, Dr. Gilchrist (Marilyn Buferd). Despite Gilchrist being a bit of a 50s horror movie babe, however, Carradine seems rather immune to her advances and focuses his energies on creating and implanting a supposed "new gland" in his patients. Sadly, however, the gland only seems to have the side effect of turning the patients into creepy and disfigured ghouls or werewolf-like creatures. Sadly, the victims have no idea that they'll be subjected to these sick experiments and so they just wait until it's there turn. Of course, considering the clinic is in the middle of no where and the patients are not allowed outside, you'd think they might suspect SOMETHING! Into this lovely menagerie comes a wanted murderer (played by Myron Healey). Healey was a very competent and familiar supporting actor from television and so you wonder why with almost 300 performances to his credit he would have appeared in this film. His character is supposed to be a killer, but it's obvious he's more than meets the eye, as he quickly determines the doctor's true intentions as well as organizes the other patients into an escape team. When this fails, a little surprise takes place and the evil scheme unravels.Okay, so much of the plot sounds a bit familiar. Carradine has played mad scientists in at least 19,390 other cheap movies. Tor has the acting range of a sprig of spinach. Sure, the creatures look amazingly cheesy. Still, despite all this, the film is watchable and campy fun. While far from good, for lovers of bad movies, it's well worth seeing and not nearly as unwatchable as its current rating might imply.
1 out of 2 people found the following review useful: "Time For Go To Bed", 17 March 2009 Author: rainbowsandwar
The title of this review is the one and only highlight of the film, and perhaps a more accurate summary of The Unearthly.The problem with this movie is that the plot wasn't handled very well. Though the concept of a 'mad scientist movie' has been done a thousand times before, the plot of this one still had some potential. For the first half hour, I wouldn't have known this guy was a mad scientist if people hadn't referred to him as such. This is because the majority of the first half of the film consists of John Carradine (the actor who plays the mad scientist) talking at an incredible rate, and with some sort of speech impediment. If that's not enough, his lady counterpart tries to keep up with the warp-speed of Carradine's speech, herself. For me, their dialogue was nearly incomprehensible. The only inkling we initially have of this being a mad scientist film is the weird sub-story of some old guy sitting in a chair in the basement, twitching. Finally, nearly half-way through the movie, we get an experiment scene, which is frankly really boring. Perhaps if there would have been some other experimentation scenes earlier, or at least /interesting/ scenes, it would have been a slightly better movie, and at least not as tiresome.As for the MST3k version, it isn't one of the funniest episodes, though there are some great one-liners like, "The birth of the World Wrestling Federation!" and all of the Lobo mockery (who was the best, and most interesting character/actor in the film, by the way!).So, in the end, if you're going to sit through this, do it only for the great Tor Johnson's minor part, playing Lobo. And ONLY if you watch the MST3k version, which just /may/ save you from falling asleep. Otherwise, not much of anything to see here! 2/10.
1 out of 2 people found the following review useful: "Two of the ripest tomatoes in town...", 23 June 2001 Author: Mike Sh. (michaelshannon123@comcast.net) from Lowell MA
This movie includes a number of distinguished actors playing excellent parts. John Carradine, for instance, plays a gaunt, furrow-faced scientist with a big booming authoritative scientisty voice. Myron Healy plays the mysterious Mark Houston, an average Joe who goes after the ladies with some of the lamest pick-up lines in existence ("Grace? Hmm, pretty name for a pretty girl.") The truly lovely Alison Hayes, she of the sensational chest, plays the aforementioned Grace, a knockout of a girl up to her eyeballs in emotional problems. Sally Todd, a beauty queen in real life, plays Natalie, a relatively well-adjusted knockout blonde who tragically gets turned into a smoked meat sculpture (not on purpose, of course). Marilyn Buferd is the cold, frustrated lady scientist who's carrying a torch for the gaunt furrow-faced scientist guy. Roy Gordon is the scientist-in-cahoots-with-the-other-scientists who looks like the guy on those Monopoly cards. Arthur Batanides is the neurotic palooka who spazzes out at the drop of a hat. Harry Fleer is Jedrow (_not_ Jethro), the hapless victim who looks like Abe Vigoda. And. of course, there's Tor Johnson, who's just his sweet, lovable, playful old self.With a cast like that, how can you go wrong?
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