Customer Reviews

Mole People [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Mole People is an interesting movie. John Agar is the leader of an anthropological expedition looking for another lost tribe somewhere in the mountains of the Middle East. The expedition (includes Beaver's dad Hugh Beaumont) accidentally find the lost Sumerians (Batman's Alfred, Alan Napier is the high priest). The Mole People can't stand the sunlight, offer sacrifices, have a terrible dance scene, and end the end appear to be destroyed. It's not a bad movie and the Mystery Science 3000 version is even better.

If you're in the mood for a lost civilization romance, and are willing to accept the story's premises, this movie is excellent escapist fare. The actual story doesn't begin until after a ten minute unnecessary introduction, and is only about 70 minutes long. I'm always amazed by how much happens in that short time (though the dance sequence does go on too long). As a child, the ending was a complete surprise to me; as an adult, I still find a sense of wonder in it, and in the movie as a whole.

In the beginning, there was Frank Baxter, a professor of English, explaining to us various theories through the centuries of how man views his planet in relation to the solar system. Some have seen us looking inward at the stars, others see the earth as a big onion with layers and each layer has inhabitants but there is always, in all the theories a way to reach the center. This is what Mole People is about, three geologist/anthropoligists who accidently stumble onto an ancient Sumerian-like civilization hundreds of feet down. John Agar, Hugh Beaumont and Nestor Paiva are our heroes. They are regarded as gods by the subterranean natives because they possess the fire of Ishtar (a flashlight). The Mole People are slaves to these none too benign pale omnipotents. Gradually, the quasi-Sumerians figure out that our heroes are not gods and try to kill them by placing them in a white hot, brillantly bright hole. Meanwhile, the Mole People attack, killing off the pale bunch, but the good girl escapes with the help of the MP into the bright hole. Strangely enough, the ending has a surprise for us. Goody! There have been better 50's flicks, but there have been a whole lot worse. The atmosphere was dank and creepy in the caves and you never knew when the Mole People would drag you under. Four stars.

One of the advantages of being an old fart is that you can look at old movies with an unjaudiced eye. You can appreciate them for what they were/are instead of getting overly concerned about whether or not the special effects are "believable" or whether you can see the zippers in the monster's costume or whether the acting is Oscar worthy or not. In short, you can just watch the movie and have a good time. I've always had a good time with the old movies from the 1950's, and one of the flicks I've enjoyed consistently is THE MOLE PEOPLE.

Now possibly one of the reasons I got an extra kick out of the movie was that it was the first horror film I saw after learning about the Catholic Church's list of condemned films. MOLE PEOPLE was on that list, and even though our family wasn't comprised of very many practicing Catholics, it did give the film a certain special appeal. You know what I mean? I just had to see whatever it was they didn't want me to see!

Of course since I was only about 9 at the time I wasn't expecting anything in particular so I wasn't disappointed. A little mystified maybe, but not disappointed. It had everything I could ask for: archaeologists hunting for lost peoples, weird looking monsters who knew the value of friendship, a lost civilzation that worshipped a strange God (which might have been what had the Church freaked out in retrospect), and the inevitable earthquake that screws everything up.

Frank Baxter, who hosted a well-known educational tv series, does the film's intro to give the story some added creedence. Hugh Beaumont (from LEAVE IT TO BEAVER) stars as an archaeologist, John Agar is our square jawed leading man, Alan Napier is the High Priest of the lost civilzation the explorers discover, and Cynthia Nixon is the cursed girl with whom Agar falls in love.

Yes sir, a perfect movie going experience then and now. What a shame the MST3K people will never be able to appreciate it.

I'll never forget seeing this movie as a ten-year-old at a Saturday matinee in Bethesda, MD, in about 1957. The thing that's stuck with me all these years: the fact that you could see zippers running up the backs of the monsters they called the Mole People. Don't miss this one!

I love it when I hear the "culture set" say they saw films like this on MSTK3000, because that means they never really watched it for the entertainment value it originally had. When I was a kid I caught this on the Saturday Afternoon Movie, and I was enraptured. An ancient civilization of albino fanatics worshipping Ishtar, and it was frankly frightening to a nine year old boy - Mole People that dragged the heros into the ground and killed with long sharp clawed hands, human sacrifices, dark frightening caverns under the earth, and giant dead cities. Yes, the science is hokey - and at times the production crew got the historical facts dead wrong - but John Agar is a solid sci-fi hero and it was nice to see Hugh Beumont in a role other than Leave It To Beaver, and the rest of the cast does a very good job of keeping the story moving (Alan Napier is great as the evil head of the religious sect). For a B picture, the special effects were well done. There is a constant feeling of gloom and impending doom - or at least as much as Holliwood allowed in their 50's sci-fi movies. And it's interesting to note that the rumor is the original ending was supposed to be a happy ending, until the studio apparently was afraid that Adal and Roger living happily ever after would be considered inter-racial marriage. Too bad. I wish they'd release it with the happy ending, because every time I watch this movie I want a happy ending. I've introduced this film to my ten year old daughter, and like myself all that time ago, she was facinated by the adventure story.

I for one am glad this has been release on DVD finally (in Universal's The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection box set), as it's one of my favorite movies from a time period when you could still believe in a civilization lost beneath the crust of the earth. For the MSTK3000 crowd, if you want a really well-made, frightening sci-fi movie made today about the same subject, go see "Descent". It's the modern, darker version of "The Mole People", and it will satisfy your darker needs. But as a dad, I'm hoping my daughter won't feel the need to see a movie like that for a long time.

If this movie isn't on DVD, what a shame! Freaking Bela Legosi's Devil Bat is on DVD and that's a FAR worse film than this.

Before the actual start of The Mole People, a bald English professor tells us about myths, legends, and theories involving what may lie underneath the surface of the globe. Not one of them is even close to being plausible.

After the opening credits we find out the movie takes place in Asia. That's helpful. We see John Agar, Hugh Beaumont, and an old guy who's always in the way go on an archaeological expedition up a darn high mountain. Of course, a few expendable extras tags along, and one of them falls down a deep hole when the mountain's summit is reached. The whole expedition climbs down the hole in a lengthy rope descending scene, and the extra is found dead of course. Another extra makes the mistake of hammering a peg in the wrong place during the decent, and gets killed in an avalanche, which traps John Agar's and crew hundreds of feet below the surface. Man, two extras killed in 15 minutes. What a downer.

At this point, the movie really gets going. A pale-skinned race of people capture the Agar crew. Why, these must be the mole people!! Actually, they're not. Instead, they're the people who have enslaved the mole people, and they whip the poor ugly mole-folk day and night.

The movie's science gets pretty bad here, and we find out that the pale-skinned albinos have a tan person born among them every now and then. John Agar falls in love with the tan chick, because she's hot of course. Hugh Beaumont and the rest of the clue seem to accept this.

Agar's crew manages to avoid getting killed by the albinos with the clever use of a god-like flashlight, and a few of the mole people are freed in the process.

In the end, the old guy dies, Agar's girlfriend dies, the albinos die, and the mole people die. Man. Makes you think doesn't it?

The MST3K version of this movie is unbeatable. Funniest thing ever. However, the movie on its own is silly enough to provide a few good laughs, so don't feel bad if you can't find a way to see the MST3K version. I highly recommend that everybody see this movie in some form or fashion at least once. It accidentally addresses some interesting cultural issues as it goes through its approximately 90 minute flop around. It also has some human sacrifice scenes and plenty of mole-whipping if you're into that.

I particularly like the mole peoples' costumes. They're not very scary, and almost cute in an ugly sort of way.

Obviously lower-budgett, Possibly by black-listed geniuses?....Great ideas, dialogue, sets, costumes, make-up, music, acting, directing...A "message" flick, in the tradition of "Invasion of the body Snatchers", etc.....when "B" movies and sci-fi were employed to convey more than just the superficial story. I love this flick. I only own a dozen or so, and this is one of them.

The tape was in okay condition, the outside cover a little worn. The tape played well,however, and my husband and I enjoyed the old "sci-fi" movie!

Released in 1956, THE MOLE PEOPLE is essentially a low-rent reworking of the memorable 1935 SHE with a lot of Jules Vern thrown in for good measure. Nutshelled, the plot concerns three archeologists who discover clues that lead them to descend to the interior of a mountain. There they discover the remains of an ancient Summerian civilization that would give any real archeologist significant pause. It is true that the film is fairly accurate in its ziggurat motif, but these Summerians talk a lot about Ishtar, who wasn't a Summarian goddess, and dress and decorate and write (although there is some reference to cuniform) a lot like Egyptians. Well, okay, whatever. In any case, they have all gone albino from living underground for about five thousand years, and they have enslaved the Mole People to work their farms, where they grow mushrooms. What else?

It gradually transpires that the Mole People aren't the bad guys here: it's the Summerians who are the nasties. They are mean to the Mole People, and they perform human sacrifice, and they dance very badly. Needless to say, our heros are soon threatened with several fates worse than death--but fortunately one of the Summerians, who has "normal" skin, has taken a liking to them and leads a Mole People revolt. Soon the Summerians are presumably destroyed, the Mole People are presumably freed, and she and the remaining two archeologists (one gets killed, poor chap) are climbing their way by to the surface of the world--where, sad to say, an earthquake puts an end to her, her dreams of romance, and mercifully the movie itself.

Most 1950s horror movies were little more than drive-in dreck, but in truth THE MOLE PEOPLE people is a step up from such rubbish: it has imagination and good production values. What it doesn't have, unfortunately, is a good script or memorable performers, and heaven knows it didn't have a good choreographer or costume designer. The script does produce a few howlers, with "do you ever hear of anyone smoking dried mushrooms" and "the thing that impresses me most is the complete and utter silence. You can almost hear it" among my favorites. But these, alas, are not enough to hold your attention throughout movie's seventy-seven minute run time, which feels a LOT longer than it actually is.

When all is said and done, THE MOLE PEOPLE isn't good enough to be memorably good or bad enough to be funny in the warped, sick, and twisted way of an Ed Wood movie. It has its moments, but it's really best left to hardcore fans of 1950s "B" horror.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer