John Carradine was known for making schlock movies in the 1970s and 1980s, but this movie proves that he was acting in pretty bad films all the way back in 1957.
The film opens with a shot of an old, dark house, with ominous music and very stormy weather. Dr. Charles Conway (Carradine), his assistants Lobo (the incomparable Tor Johnson) and Sharon (beauty queen Marilyn Buferd), and his co-conspirator Dr. Loren Wright (a dignified Roy Gordon) are running a very shady business that experiments on unsuspecting medical patients. The experiments don't work very well, and Carradine has wound up with a group of deformed monsters in a cell in his basement. Another innocent victim, Grace Thomas (the lovely Allison Hayes) and escaped convict Frank Scott (Myron Healy) join the group. Scott is of course an undercover police officer who saves Thomas, calls the cops, and saves the day. Naturally Scott and Thomas fall in love, since you can't have a 1950s film without a romantic subplot.
Some of these little 1950s horror/sci-fi epics (such as "I Bury the Living" and "The Man Who Turned to Stone") were actually not too bad. However, "The Unearthly" is just horrible. The movie is very slow-moving , dark, and is too boring to be very funny. The script, direction, cinematography, and lighting are very poor. Healy makes a substandard hero (since he was almost always a villain) but Carradine, Gordon, and Hayes are pretty good under the circumstances. Tor Johnson demonstrates once again that he's probably the most unforgettable dumb and mute assistant in any movie. Unless you're really desperate for an old horror film, you should skip this one. It's just awful.
The film opens with a shot of an old, dark house, with ominous music and very stormy weather. Dr. Charles Conway (Carradine), his assistants Lobo (the incomparable Tor Johnson) and Sharon (beauty queen Marilyn Buferd), and his co-conspirator Dr. Loren Wright (a dignified Roy Gordon) are running a very shady business that experiments on unsuspecting medical patients. The experiments don't work very well, and Carradine has wound up with a group of deformed monsters in a cell in his basement. Another innocent victim, Grace Thomas (the lovely Allison Hayes) and escaped convict Frank Scott (Myron Healy) join the group. Scott is of course an undercover police officer who saves Thomas, calls the cops, and saves the day. Naturally Scott and Thomas fall in love, since you can't have a 1950s film without a romantic subplot.
Some of these little 1950s horror/sci-fi epics (such as "I Bury the Living" and "The Man Who Turned to Stone") were actually not too bad. However, "The Unearthly" is just horrible. The movie is very slow-moving , dark, and is too boring to be very funny. The script, direction, cinematography, and lighting are very poor. Healy makes a substandard hero (since he was almost always a villain) but Carradine, Gordon, and Hayes are pretty good under the circumstances. Tor Johnson demonstrates once again that he's probably the most unforgettable dumb and mute assistant in any movie. Unless you're really desperate for an old horror film, you should skip this one. It's just awful.