Collector's Corner: Star Wars

I picked up the two volumes of the Universal Studios Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection and anticipated revisiting some and seeing others for the first time. I started with Tarantula (1955) just a few days ago and, no surprise, it was as fun as the last time (it came on Chiller channel several years ago when they were exploiting the Universal vault). The Mole People (1956) is a film I was unfamiliar with. It was a campy hoot with a kitchen sink plot involving archeologists discovering an underground civilization of Sumerian descent who worship Ishtar, enslave molemen who wear suits (!) and have humpbacks (!) to do their labor, and force their women to be subservient and sacrifice themselves for their god (and to keep the population down!). Alan Napier (yep, Alfred in the Adam West Batman (1966)), who I just watched last night in The Uninvited (1944), is a high priest of the people, always scheming and planning an overthrow of the current king.

Reliable B-movie star, Agar, is lead archeologist with Leave it to

Beaver's Hugh Beaumont as his sidekick. Nestor Paiva is a third member of the archeological team who receives a nasty slash down his chest. Paiva was the delightful boat captain in Creature from the Black Lagoon. He doesn't fare so well in this film, running into a rather unfriendly and hostile moleman. I enjoyed the design of the mask and claws. The decision to turn them into heroes actually pleased me...their treatment by the whip from the albino soldiers is cruel and inhumane. The women don't fare any better, as the lovely Cynthia Patrick as blonde female slave gets whipped because she dropped mushrooms on the floor! On-screen no less. Agar and Beaumont spare themselves from being destroyed (due to be "intruders") by scaring the people with a flashlight because they are photophobic. The light of Ishtar holds off these bozos for a while but Napier connivingly plots to take it. Agar and Beaumont align themselves with the mole people when they rescue them from persecution and there is a great revolt where the enslaved combat their torturers.