31 Days of Cheese - Day 7: From Hell it Came

“And back it can go” goes the, alas, apocryphal, New York Times Review. Per the IMDB – the review was “Send it back” anyway you can catch the general sentiment here. It’s a terrible film and hurts to watch.

This 1957 film is set on some unnamed south Sea Island somewhere downwind from the atomic tests (it’s some kind of plot point but they kind of ignore it after a while and so will we). The old chief’s son has been set up to take the rap for the death of the chief by the head Witch Doctor (do they have more than one? It’s a small tribe apparently you never see more than say 15-20 people about) and the new Chief and the Chief’s son’s wife. And as chickens look on – trust me they are there – he is executed by a knife to the heart all the while vowing vengeance.

Meantime we learn that there are two American scientists on the island and there is some kind of plague and the natives are dying but they blame the Americans or something and one scientist is drinking heavily and the other is all mopey about his girlfriend wants to be a doctor and not be busy a making his babies or some such. There is a widow woman with either a bad cockney or Australian accent who has the hots for the drunk scientist. Meantime it turns out girlfriend scientist has the specialized knowledge that is needed to fight the plague so she is flown in and the Male lead and her bicker. A native is treated but mostly the drunk scientist drinks and the couple bicker.

Meantime at the grave of the chief’s recently killed son something is growing. Will it turn out to be The Tabanga? The island’s sprit of vengeance? Will it have the dagger that killed the chief’s son sticking in its chest? Will the scientists dig it up and actually manage to bring it to full life so it can go on its killing spree?

Of course – it’s a monster film.

So off the Tabanga goes on its rampage – well more like shuffles along. The monster is an absurd looking walking tree with a big frown and who moves so slow that you don’t have to run to escape it, a brisk walk will do the trick. But it being a monster film – the victims don’t.

After the Tabanga kills the folks responsible for his death (in one case dropping one of them in a pool of quicksand that looks about the size of a child’s wading pool) he goes after the girlfriend scientist who has the world’s worst women in peril scream in film history – a negative Faye Wray. The boy friend scientist and the drunk scientist manage to rescue the girlfriend and kill the Tabanga who then drops into the quicksand pool. The couple are re-united and it looks like it’s baby making time for her and the Drunk scientist is looking for a way to escape the attentions of the widow woman.

This is a very low budget film. One of the guilty pleasures of these films is looking at attractive women in Hollywood style native costumes. However for that to work, you need to hire attractive women to wear said costumes. That is not the case here. Trust me.

Worth looking at to hoot at the walking tree monster – something else I want on my desk. But it’s a bad bad film.

Enjoy with coconuts.