The Cape Canaveral Monsters (1960 TV Movie) User Reviews

Unfortunately, it's not among Phil Tucker's worst!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 27 June 2012]

The man who made this film, Phil Tucker, was one of the worst film directors in history. He was responsible for such travesties as "Dance Hall Racket" and "Robot Monster"--the latter of which was among the films in Harry Medved's book "The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time". Incompetence, bad acting and crappy budgets--all hallmarks of this film legend. So, when I saw that "The Cape Canaveral Monsters" was also made by Tucker, I had to watch it, as I occasionally like a terrible movie. After all, with over 12000 reviews to my credit, I need a few truly horrible films now and again after watching artsy, foreign or silent films. Unfortunately, while "The Cape Canaveral Monsters" is very bad, it never comes close to being as bad as "Robot Monster".

The film is supposedly set around Cape Canaveral, Florida. But, being a Floridian, I was amazed to see LOTS of very, very high hills with caves and not a trace of a palm tree or alligator. Frankly, if there WERE caves around Canaveral, they'd be filled up with water, as the land is swampy and very wet. The location was about as un-Canaveral like as you can get--short of filming it in Alaska!

The plot involves two bad actors who have stolen human bodies killed in a car accident. Following their assumption of the bodies as their own, the pair destroy rocket test after rocket test, as their planet does not want the humans venturing into space. They also want to collect a few human specimens to take back to their home planet. Two young folks who work for a professor in charge of the rocket program stumble upon these two undead aliens. Can they stop them or is the Earth royally screwed? The story idea is pretty typical of the genre--and isn't that different from Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space". And, like "Plan 9", the film has a lot of bad acting, crappy props and the like. Bad movie buffs will love watching the Professor deliver his lines as if he's suffering from a traumatic brain injury. They will also love the one-armed guy who clearly has his arm tucked inside his jumpsuit! But the overall level of badness isn't uniform. The male lead isn't a terrible actor and the editing and direction occasionally don't look horrible. Not exactly glowing endorsements, I know, but things that make the film less attractive to those who seek out the very worst! Bad but not quite bad enough is how I see this one.

Manna From Heaven For Fans of this type of Drive-In Movie stinker

[Scott_Mercer · 4/10 · 1 May 2011]

As a certified Ed Wood fan, I had been meaning for some time to track down the works of Mr. Phil Tucker.

But, they had eluded me, except for his disasterpiece, his masturwork, his Citizen Kane, his Plan Nine From Outer Space.

That would be the immor(t)al Robot Monster, which I have seen on DVD, and even had the good fortune to see on the big screen, in its super rare 3-D version no less! Jeekers!

So, finally, Netflix allowed me to stream one of his other epics, THE CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS. I have to say, it was almost worth the wait. Fans of the celluloid leavings of Ed Wood, Jerry Warren and Richard Cunha will be right at home here.

This is a pure gold-plated turd, full of the hi-jinx beloved by aficionados of low-budget 50's sci-fi swill. Aliens, mad scientist, stupid gadgets, cheap-arse monsters, yes, fans, they are all here, and they are all awesome. Perfect mindless viewing for a boring Saturday afternoon.

Not sure if this presentation is available on DVD, but if it is not, then it really should be. Somebody get right on that, will ya?

Better than one would expect from director Phil Tucker

[kevinolzak · 4/10 · 23 July 2019]

Director Phil Tucker will always be associated with his 1953 3-D epic "Robot Monster," but after a number of lesser features he made one return to the science fiction genre with 1960's "The Cape Canaveral Monsters," a title that curiously remains in obscurity despite several weird touches provided by Tucker's screenwriting, bypassing theatrical distribution for television screenings in a sci/fi quartet with "The Monster of Piedras Blancas," "The Hideous Sun Demon" and "Flight of the Lost Balloon," all independent productions. Invaders from another world in our solar system are eager to prevent Earth from launching any rockets that might reveal the truth about them, so two alien scientists are dispatched to carve out a cave in the hillside near Florida's Cape Canaveral to set in motion long term sabotage. Originally represented by two dots of light, the creatures engineer the demise of a husband and wife, the man's arm torn off by the force of the car crash, the woman Nadja (Katherine Victor) left with facial scars from a collision with the bloody windshield. Her companion Hauron (Jason Johnson) is naturally eager to find a suitable replacement for his tattered arm, particularly after guard dogs at Cape Canaveral finally rip it off for examination. Another curious notion finds the decomposing invaders retiring for a little off screen canoodling, so it's no wonder that they scour Lover's Lane for mostly female subjects to transmit back to their home planet. One such couple is Tom Wright (Scott Peters) and Sally Markham (Linda Connell), noting strange interference on an illegal radio frequency, enough to lead them to the Bronson Cavern hideaway and the discovery of the space saboteurs. For all its endless talk it remains curiously watchable, not as jaw droppingly bad as the $16,000 "Robot Monster," rather a marked improvement in its uncommon gruesomeness on what may have been a smaller budget, its possession of the deceased prefiguring "Night of the Living Dead," like "Plan 9 from Outer Space" or "Invisible Invaders." The cast is mostly comprised of amateurs, although Jason Johnson played bits in "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (another Lover's Lane highlight) and "The Lost Missile," top billed Scott Peters hardly carving out a name for himself in AIP efforts such as "Invasion of the Saucer Men," "The Amazing Colossal Man," "Attack of the Puppet People" and "Panic in Year Zero!" plus "They Saved Hitler's Brain." Cinematographer W. Merle Connell had previously directed 1952's rarely screened "Untamed Women," but his finest contribution to this minor film was the starring role portrayed by his pretty daughter Linda, whose fresh faced presence makes up for many dull stretches opposite her colorless leading man (Lover's Lane was never more dangerous!). The most familiar face belongs to Katherine Victor, whose long association with huckster filmmaker Jerry Warren extended from 1957's "Teenage Zombies" all the way to 1981's "Frankenstein Island," sinking her teeth into this role for all its worth, a memorable performance under the circumstances.

A Must See For Bad Movie Lovers

[Michael_Elliott · 21 November 2010]

Cape Canaveral Monsters, The (1960)

* (out of 4)

A couple aliens from an unknown planet come to Earth where they cause a young couple to crash their car. The aliens then take over their bodies with plans to destroy a place where they are setting off missiles. The aliens are against the missiles so they begin to shoot them out of the sky so it's up to a couple other teens to try and save the day. Rumor, myth or truth, it's said that director Phil Tucker attempted suicide after the horrible reviews of his film ROBOT MONSTER. Who knows how much of that is actually true but this thing here is just about as bad. Those art house crowds would be best to stay away from this thing but if you enjoy bad movies then this one here is about as bad and as stupid as you can get. For starters, the plot makes very little to no sense because the screenplay, also by Tucker, never takes any time to explain what the missiles are being used for and we never really get to know why the aliens want to destroy them. The movie runs 68-minutes and the entire story just jumps around without too much logic. One minute a couple teens will get kidnapped and then the very next scene we have their friends, somehow, knowing the aliens took them so they go to find them. There's never any reasoning as to what's going on and this includes some rather silly devices used by the aliens to control the teens. One of the dumbest things is a running joke about the male alien constantly having his arm ripped off. I'm not sure if this was meant as comedy but it does separate this film from countless other sci-fi flicks from this era because the sight of a severed arm wasn't too common in 1960. The car crash at the start of the film was actually filmed fairly well as the camera was placed in the back seat as the "wreck" happened. That's about the best thing that can be said about this film. I wouldn't say this movie is as enjoyable as ROBOT MONSTER but it would certainly make a decent double-feature with that film.

The CAPE CANAVERAL Monsters (Phil Tucker, 1960) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 6 June 2011]

This is a lesser-known effort than the same director's notoriously awful ROBOT MONSTER (1953) but it actually proves somewhat better, if still in no way a good film. It may well be the first zombie picture to receive a sci-fi slant (thus predating George A. Romero's regrettably landmark NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD by 8 years!}), but the monsters' use here is really no different than the various 'alien takeover' ploys we had seen and would continue to see until that particular fad burnt itself out! What is different is that the zombies were rendered so in a car crash, so that the victims are all scarred, bloody and literally torn to pieces (one of them keeps losing an arm throughout)!; their real form, then, is nothing more than a glowing speck which enters the human body through the brain.

The titular site, of course, is the U.S. rocket-launching base and the aliens are here to sabotage their every effort to breach outer space...which they do by shooting an unwieldy bazooka straight at the shuttle (at one point, the man does it while one-armed and hits the bull's-eye regardless – so much for his partner's whining that he should restore his other limb, of course by finding another human donor)! By the way, one of the film's main founts of amusement is the aliens' evident contempt for one another! – incidentally, they occasionally report to their intergalactic superior, who appears on their monitor in the form of a floating pancake!!

At the base, we have the usual motley crew of military brass, rookie scientists and the obligatory German expert, who comes with a geeky-but-cute niece who throws the Doc into a fit by flirting with the young man on his time! The two lovers have to cut loose in order to enjoy some quality time together, meeting with another couple to have themselves a picnic-by-moonlight; however, the hero is too immersed in his work not to notice the static on his pal's radio, which means that a transmitter is being illegally operated in the vicinity (and which, he reasons, may have something to do with the rockets going haywire)! While he and his girl go snooping around, the other two are abducted by the aliens to their cave hide-out and placed half-dangling into what appears to be a sink while the girl is undressed to then be wrapped in a plastic sheet (in preparation for her being transmitted into space), while the boy's body makes for a plastic surgeon's dream as the bruised-up alien pilfers whatever takes his fancy from him – assuming that, if he looks good, he should be less conspicuous when roaming outside!

Hero and heroine are soon in the aliens' clutches themselves, but he manages to escape simply by passing his watch in front of the controls: I have to wonder, at this stage, what would have happened had the leading man not been Physics-savvy! He lands in the home of a hillbilly (who appears before long toting a gun in his pyjamas) and calls the authorities – again, since he is who he is, we do not get the usual wasting-of-time with the hero attempting to make the cops believe his story! Even so, the pace of the 68-minute film is rather slow, being even stopped dead in its tracks at the climax so as to allow most of the cast (including the eminent scientist, who is actually present in some group-shots but not others!) – captured by the aliens by means of a paralyzing gun! – to methodically work out, via mathematical equations, what would cause an explosion from the materials at their disposal inside the cave!

Again, the film is nothing to write home about and yet it does contrive a circular twist ending which was totally unexpected and downright cynical for such a low-brow offering! For the record, this viewing came by way of an old and quite hazy TV transmission that is continually interrupted for ad-breaks (though these were somewhat haphazardly eliminated afterwards).

A Paint-by-Numbers, Made-for-Television Monster Movie

[Uriah43 · 3/10 · 12 August 2016]

In preparation of an invasion from outer space two aliens named "Hauron" (Jason Johnson) and "Nadja" (Katherine Victor) inhabit the bodies of a young couple and proceed to carry out their orders to sabotage rocket research at Cape Canaveral. However, after a series of inexplicable rocket failures a young scientist named "Tom Wright" (Scott Peters) begins to have suspicions about possible interference from sinister forces and proceeds to check it out. With him in his inspection of the local area is his girlfriend "Sally Markham" (Linda Connell) who also happens to be the daughter of the lead scientist in charge. But what neither Tom nor Sally fully comprehend is just how sophisticated these aliens are and how inhuman they can be. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was definitely a grade-B, sci-fi film from start to finish which pretty much had nothing novel or original to show for its efforts. Talk about a paint-by-numbers picture. Likewise, the fact that this was a made-for-television movie didn't help much in that regard either. It was all pretty boring. That said I have rated this film accordingly. Below average.

Bring it, Phil Tucker!

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 30 January 2013]

When a couple are killed in an auto accident their bodies are immediately inhabited by extraterrestrial beings. Taking refuge in an underground cave, the aliens attempt to sabotage the United States space program.

Probably the most interesting thing about this film is the story of the director, Phil Tucker. Tucker pumped out six films in two years, including "Robot Monster" and a Lenny Bruce film. Then, after a failed suicide attempt, he made this little-known film. From there he went on to become an editor and worked on such films as "King Kong". So, the story here is more about Tucker than the movie itself.

That being said, the story here is not bad... ignoring the sabotage aspect, we have here a story that may have more to do with vampires than zombies -- the need to use human "life forces" to stay alive. Others have drawn parallels with Romero's "Night of the Living Dead", but I think that is uncalled for.

Interesting premise but a bad film.

[DrPhibes1964 · 5/10 · 10 January 2021]

The idea of a couple aliens arriving on Earth to sabotage the American space programme is actually not bad, but lack of budget and imagination doomed it a schlock ghetto, destined to be remembered by only those who grew up on these types of films during the 60's and 70's. Limitations aside it has a couple effective moments. The one image that stuck in my mind some forty years later followed the alien glowing orbs have possessed the bodies of a couple on the beach and get into a car crash. The male gets one of his arms torn off and the severed limb hangs out of the back window. If you attempt to apply physics and logic to the scene it makes absolutely no sense but it is a very gruesome image. I imagine a crew member crouched in the back seat of the car with his arm dangling there. Luckily these aliens have the technology to restore the limb to its rightful place, but is later torn off again by a guard dog. You may rightly ask why if these aliens can possess a human body why he just doesn't discard this damaged body for a new one, but this would mean not seeing him walk around with one functioning arm. The less you think about these types of films the better. They require the audience to deactivate all higher brain function in order to watch ad enjoy it. This is a hard film to recommend. I had a fondness for it because it was something I watched in the 70's and loved. But a modern audience is not going to be so kind to it and apply the "worst film ever made" stamp on it. My definition of a bad film is one that is absolutely unwatchable and almost painful to sit through. The Cape Canaveral Monsters is too much campy fun to be chucked out with indifference. If you can find it I would give it a marginal recommendation.

"I told you she looked cute without her glasses"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 4/10 · 28 November 2022]

One thing 'The Cape Canaveral Monsters' doesn't have is monsters. It does have a couple of aliens but apart from briefly appearing as two small balls of luminescence they look human as they have taken over the bodies of a man and a woman killed in a car crash after a day at the beach. The two aliens, Hauron and Nadja, as played by Jason Johnson and Katherine Victor are the best thing in this unexciting film. They bicker all the time like an unhappily married couple which at least provides some entertainment. The rest of the cast are pale in comparison. It is low budget which means stock footage (I wonder how many times shots of the V2 rocket have been used in films since 1945?) and limited locations including the ubiquitous Bronson Caves. Is it worse than director Phil Tucker's infamous 'Robot Monster' of 1953? No, but it's not better either.

The ending is a bit puzzling. Did the aliens not die? Had the invasion fleet from outer space arrived? And who screamed? Who knows?

Aliens are up to reanimating the dead again

[dbborroughs · 2/10 · 8 May 2011]

The alien invaders using the recent dead is a whole sub-genre of films from Plan Nine From Outer Space to Invisible Invaders and this film filmmakers looking to save a buck by not having to come up with a monster suit. Sadly almost every film from genre are really bad. Sure some of them are fun bad, but they are still bad.

Such is the case with Cape Canaveral Monsters. This little mistake has floating balls of light taking over the bodies of a recently deceased couple in order to sabotage the US space program.(and we thought the commies were bad)

Dumb it is, fun its not.

This is one to avoid-a warning I send out even to bad film lovers-this is just the wrong sort of bad.

All of the bad, none of the charm of 'Robot Monster'

[jamesrupert2014 · 2/10 · 14 February 2021]

A couple of aliens (who in their native state appear to be small balls of light) have reanimated the damaged bodies of a couple killed in a car-crash and are kidnapping people (preferably female) and sabotaging Earth's rocket program as a prelude to invasion. Helmed by Phil Tucker, the man who brought 'Robot Monster' to the screen in 1953, this film is as cheap looking but much less entertaining than the legendry tale of the 'Ro-men' from the Moon and their nefarious plans to destroy Earth with their Calcinator Death-ray. Although 'Cape Canaveral Monsters' takes place in Florida (hence the title), it was filmed on the opposite coast and the characters spend a lot of time running around Griffith Park and the Bronson Caves while looking for, or escaping from, the extraterrestrial zombies. Alien infiltrators impeding our space program and kidnapping our women is nothing new and the only novelty in this film is the beat-up look of the alien's resurrected bodies (one of whom has twice lost an arm and is the recipient of a 'chin transplant'). The script is terrible, especially the nonsensical pseudoscience Tucker sprinkles into the conversions between hero Tom (Scott Peters) and occasionally one-armed 'monster' Hauron (Jason Johnson). The special effect are limited to two glowing circles and some cheap-looking 'science-y' props (once again Tucker's vision of alien technology involves bubbles). As the aliens, Johnson and Katherine Victor (as Nadja) are moderately entertaining but the rest of the cast ranges from non-descript to awful (especially Brian Wood as cranky cracker Elmer). Not a lot happens and even less makes sense so, unless you are a highly tolerant fan of 'bad' movies (or a Phil Tucker groupie), give 'Cape Canaveral Monsters' a miss.

Making out on the beach can be dangerous

[Bernie4444 · 7/10 · 25 January 2012]

Aliens plan to invade.

But Cap Canaveral may detect the invasion before the aliens are ready. So it is time for a preemptive strike.

The aliens spot a couple of likely bodies on the beach. Creating an auto accident so they can pilfer the left over bodies the aliens are now in position to foil our Cape Canaveral space project.

Will the aliens be detected and harassed by snotty students armed with a transistor radio?

Or will they frees dry a couple of human specimens.

Let this story be a warning to all who past their curfew plan to make out in a convertible on the beach.

The aliens look really hokey. With fake scars and missing limbs.

One fun thing is to look at all the old technology and cars.

"We need more Earthlings for Our Experiments. Especially Females".

[richardchatten · 2/10 · 23 December 2020]

The final film directed by the creator of 'Robot Monster'; whose title alien had at least worn a helmet to indicate that he was from outer space. This pair reconnoitring the Hollywood Hills for a planned invasion of the Earth look more like a vacationing couple. Which is what they probably were before they swapped bodies before the credits the way The Mysterons used to in 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'; to which Tucker's malevolent little green circles from space bear a passing resemblance.

As played by the sneering, scar-faced Katherine Victor, with the suspiciously Russian-sounding name 'Nadja', the female half of the pair seems to be the one wearing the trousers (literally as well as metaphorically); and like the Robot Monster they keep in touch with their controller via a radio (here topped by what resembles an enormous rotating Pringles Dip) concealed in the Hollywood Hills while the rest of the cast wander about the vicinity and talk. And Talk.

The film's distinct seedy exploitation elements.

[oscar-35 · 1 April 2013]

*Spoiler/plot- Cape Canaveral Monsters, 1960. Two alien balls of energy take over the bodies of a car accident victims to wage a war of sabotage against the Air Force new rockets. The aliens kidnap and transmit young humans to their planet to study them. The local Air Force program's Young scientists become the next victims of the alien plot. The police and Air Force take charge.

*Special Stars- Jason Johnson, Katherine Victor.

*Theme- Space aliens seem to want what they can't have on their own planet.

*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. shot at Bronson Caves and Leo Carillo Beach, Mike boom seen in police car glass in a reflection. It has a weird cliffhanger ending.

*Emotion- This film crosses over into film 'exploitation' due its scenes featuring torture, decapitation, and suggested nudity. The female alien seems to have a sexual attraction for the film's distinct seedy exploitation elements. The odd ending is a cliffhanger of sorts with a car crash and female scream. As such, this film is unique and more than just a B-Movie science fiction film.

Cape Canaveral Klutzes

[bkoganbing · 1/10 · 14 July 2014]

After the launch of Sputnik by the Russians in 1957 there were many attempts to launch American satellites that for a while were all ending in failure. I remember as a kid seeing the launches and seeing them fail every couple of months or so. By 1960 however we seemed to be getting it right and the following year we were sending men in space for the Mercury project.

So in 1960 The Cape Canaveral Monsters was already a dated film on release. This dud of a science fiction film is as big a dud as some of those early launches from Cape Canaveral. This would have you believe that aliens who when not taking over dead human bodies are just dots of light are worried about our progress in space flight and are sabotaging our space program. Has to figure, if not aliens then its those Communists on orders from Moscow.

A cast where you never heard of anybody performs their parts on the level of grade school drama. Some newsreel footage of our failure satellite launches integrated into some bad special effects and worse acting characterizes this film made by klutzes.

I've heard about the state of confusion, but the cave of confusion takes the prize.

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 15 October 2023]

There's deliciously bad and just bad, and the later describes this, a wretched sci-fi with the dumbest of plots, and so bad and pointless that it apparently never had a legitimate theatrical showing. Nosy college kids accidentally spying on alien scientists in human form in the caves near Cape Canaveral end up finding out too much, are frozen by icy Katherine Victor's ice ray gun, but manage to escape, ending up lost and frightened. Of course nobody believes them until it's nearly too late, and why would they?

There's not really a monster here, just a dead man being used for experiments to cure the scars on one of the scientist's face. The aliens taking over dead bodies was already done as the cult classic all time worst "Plan 9 From Outer Space", and at least that had a few unintentional giggles while this has none. The plot is messy, convoluted and not even suspenseful, and the title deceiving, unless the monsters of the title are the two aliens. Or perhaps the humans who wrote this dreck.

Critics agree, A great title for a movie.

[thejcowboy22 · 3/10 · 31 January 2022]

During the cold weather months, I would come home from school and hit the books for hours of intense homework. NOT!! Instead, I would watch channel 11 WPIX in the New York market. Day after day I would waste valuable time watching their afternoon lineup of mindless shows starting with Popeye and ending with F-Troop. During the commercials, the booth announcer for WPIX would read a promotional trailer showing two disheveled grownups in jumpsuits, a woman with a grimy smudged face and an older man with his arm missing. The booth announcer's voice underneath tells the audience as follows," THE CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS will be on Chiller this Saturday night at 8:30." The title alone captured my attention. I was always fascinated with space exploration and anticipated with excitement those rocket launches from Cape Canaveral. Chiller is going to present monsters and space travel I can hardly wait. Our movie begins with a middle-aged couple relaxing on a beach. A gaunt 50-year-old male puffing on a pipe as his female counterpart comes towards him after a swim. They pack up and drive away as two bright orbs float into the car causing the vehicle to crash. Two stark figures are dead and bloodied. I noticed, even as a 7-year-old what appears to be a mannequin arm hanging over the car door. The orbs meld with the dead humans but the male, Hauron (Jason Johnson) forgot to take his severed arm as the dominating female Nadya (Katherine Victor) tells him to take it back to the cave and she will sew it on. Amputation alone is tough to witness at that tender age, but I must keep watching for more gore if any. Meanwhile, back at Cape Canaveral central headquarters. The scientists are baffled. After each unmanned launch, the rocket ship would explode. Our resident scientists Tom Wright (Scott Peters) and Sally Markham (Linda Connell) with the oversized spectacles to make her look more ridiculous have an attraction towards each other, much to the objection by the head scientist Dr. Von Hoften (Billy Greene). Despite obvious flaws in the set and continuity issues, for example, mountains and rough terrain which does not exist in the State of Florida. The issue of Hauron's arm, which you could use as a drinking game when it appears on and when it's torn off. Sally's oversized glasses with no lenses are obvious to the naked eye. Oh, by the way, get that woman, Nadya. A washcloth. As for the acting, Billy Greene's overexaggerated accent was annoying as the discerning head Scientist. Deaths do occur during the movie but are not actually shown, i.e. Amputation of body parts. As for the players in this film, Old man Wesson played by Brian Wood tries to steal scenes but comes across as farcical. The sheriff (Lyle Felisse) looks more like a big city crook than a small-town chief deputy. Billy Greene (Dr. Von Hoften), as the head of the space launches, has a European accent as good as mine. The only decent performances goes to our two diabolical aliens. Katherine Victor plays a strong woman. Very formidable and demanding. As I viewed this movie recently, over a span of 50 plus years, I noticed that this story was plagiarized in a Star Trek episode entitled RETURN TO TOMORROW where alien forms take over the human body in the same manner. It's a bad movie with all of the elements. Poor lighting, sketchy editing, stock footage, and poor music selection. But it has a good flow as the scenes and dialogue didn't drag along. It's probably writer-director Phil Tucker's best work which doesn't say much. Makes you wonder if Ed Wood and Phil were classmates in Film school and both finished at the bottom of their class.

Space debris from the genius who brought us "Robot Monster."

[scsu1975 · 2/10 · 14 November 2022]

The film opens with Jason Johnson and Katherine Victor at the beach. Then they change into jumpsuits, so we get the sense they are supposed to be scientists - but this is never explained in the film. As they drive off, two glowing orbs wreck their car and take over their bodies. Johnson's arm is severed, and lying in the back seat. The resourceful Victor, who is now "Nadja," takes the arm and tells Johnson, who is now "Hauron," that she will sew it back on at the lab. This dame must be great with needle and thread. A short time later, Johnson-Hauron's arm is torn off again, this time by a dog. At this point, he should have auditioned for "The Fugitive." Victor-Nadja concludes that Hauron must obtain a live arm.

Meanwhile, back at some other lab, a scientist who sounds like Sigmund Freud is wondering why his missiles keep getting shot down. Oh, that was a Freudian slip. His young assistant, played by Scott Peters, thinks people from outer space are involved. This is the crap they teach in graduate school now.

While on a double-date, Peters picks up static on his transistor radio. He immediately concludes that the source must be what is knocking the missiles down. His brilliant idea - walk around the woods to see if the static gets louder, and that will lead him to the source. His girlfriend goes with him, and they make out a few times. The other couple stays in the car. Hauron goes looking for an arm, and kidnaps the couple. He gets his arm, and the donor buys the farm. The chick is given electro-convulsive shock therapy, and then frozen - apparently this is how the aliens ship people back to their home planet when UPS is not available.

Peters and his girlfriend eventually stumble into the cave where the aliens hang out, and they are imprisoned by some kind of ray. While Hauron goes off to "prepare" the girlfriend for transport, Peters manages to break free by using the radium in his watch. He goes to get help, and brings back the cops and incompetent military personnel. Peters manages to get captured again, but bargains with the aliens. He will tell them about the next missile launch if they will set him free. When his girlfriend objects, he says "Ixnay. Onephay opeday." To which Hauron replies, "What is that language you speak?" I think it's called igpay atinlay.

Peters again breaks free, this time with the help of his glow-in-the-dark miniature slide rule. The aliens change over to orbs and submerge themselves in some seltzer water. When help arrives, one of the scientists conveniently has a piece of litmus paper on him, and they test the liquid. It is not hydrogen, but it is definitely stronger - at least to the hundredth power. Hey, that's some great litmus paper.

Peters: "If you add sodium chloride to a hydrogen base ..." Scientist: "You release heat as a side product in the amount of thirteen thousand seven hundred calories per mole." Peters: "Now this stuff should heat to the hundredth power of that." Me: "This is why I never add salt to the pasta."

All they need is polyurethane to make the explosion, so everybody coughs up their wallet inserts and belts. This is like an episode of MacGyver.

This film stinks all around. Outside of the constant bickering between Johnson and Victor, there is nothing to hold our attention. Poor Victor spends most of the film with a distorted face - apparently the aliens don't believe in makeup. Peters is too smart, and everybody around him lets him run the show with their lives on the line. We get lots of stock footage of missiles blowing up. There is some military guy who always has a cigar in his mouth, but never smokes it. And there is an old coot with a rifle, who should have shot the director.

Childhood Chiller!

[mikemc1 · 9/10 · 4 May 2007]

How can any horror fan growing up with horror flicks of the late 50's through mid 60's ever deny films like The Cape Canaveral Monsters, Attack of the 50ft Woman, Amazing Colossal Man, etc.? Excellent drive-in horror! We start with a seemingly innocent couple who are driving to a rocket lauch. BUT... A spaceship lands while they're enroute. And this radioactive alien (who's just a hairy white man made to look big) contaminates them and turns them into The Cape Canaveral Monsters. Then, they go on this mission with a laser shooting missiles and satellites when they are launched from Cape Canaveral. It's really quite fun.

UNDERRATED & UNDESERVED MOCKERY...NIFTY LOW-LOW-BUDGET...SCI-FI-HORROR

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 13 August 2021]

This Strange and Somewhat Obscure Little Movie is a Victim of Herd Mentality.

Potential Viewers have Their Minds Poisoned by Ghouls Posing as "Film-Critics".

These Supposed Insightful Investigators of B-Movies who Love to Point-Out the Inadequacies of Shoe-String Budgets and Film-Makers with Questionable Talent.

The Ridicule and Rotten Tomatoes Thrown at this Barely a Budget, Little Seen Sci-Fi Horror Hybrid, is Linked to the Infamous Writer/Director Phil Tucker.

Tucker Became a Whipping-Boy for the "Bandwagon" Bunch of Eye-Pokers because He made what the "Cult of Criticism" Deemed "One of the Worst Films Ever"...

"Robot Monster' (1953)

This Straight-Faced, Scientific Jargon Infused Effort from Tucker, is so Entertaining with its Near-Genius Use of Very Limited Resources,

Once Watched Shames the Aforementioned "Nattering Nabobs of Criticism".

The Claims of Incompetence and Ineptitude are Rendered Moot and Without Merit.

The Movie's Failure to Deliver Prints to Theatres and thus Destine it to the Fringes and Ending in a Television Package with No Previous Release.

That's Why there is No Promotional Art in Existence.

The Film is a Seldom Scene Piece of Primitive Art.

Imaginative, Resourceful, and quite a Hoot.

It Incorporates Sexploitation Ingredients, a Snazzy Score, and Trite but Effective Sound and Visuals.

Over All, this may be a Candidate for the Best Movie to Receive the "So Bad its Good" Slogan.

The Cliche Haters Love to Hang on the Victims of Their Vitriol.

Lurid, Seedy, Sleazy, and Tons of No-Money Enjoyment is there for the Non-Sheep.

Those Seekers of the Unusual.

Sublime Rot-Gut Pulp Thrills from Phil Tucker, Mad Genius!

[Atomic_Brain · 10/10 · 26 September 2020]

Cape Canaveral Monsters is skid-row auteur Phil Tucker's sublime masterpiece, and that's really saying something, coming from the evil brain that gave us Robot Monster, perhaps the seminal 1950s pulp science-fiction nightmare-fable, a prophetic film which cannily foreshadowed all that came to pass in the SF genre of the 1950s, a blueprint of sorts for the entire fantastic decade.

To some, Tucker was a undisputed mad genius of low-rent cinema, and Cape Canaveral Monsters shows his talents in full force. Cape Canaveral Monsters is a totally paranoid, virulently anti-science atom-age fable which contains a devastating attack on the nuclear family, just as Robot Monster enshrined same as the only bulwark against encroaching socialism. There are also some winningly cynical barbs against the nefarious Military/Science cabal. Against these villains, Cape Canaveral Monsters pits two teenage dreamers, whose native intelligence is only matched by their naive optimism.

The opening is nearly Dada in its strange abstractness: two glowing, bouncing balls of light inhabit a very seedy couple lounging on the beach, and crash their car to possess them. Throughout, our heroes have to fight with the main scientist - an ersatz father figure/authority figure - to get their progressive views across. The scientist mocks and maligns them, but the astute screenplay by Tucker takes care to always champion the sanctity of the energetic young couple.

Meanwhile, the "Spaceballs" have become Haaron and Nadia, two creepy souls who watch each other with an intensity which borders on neurotic obsession. This is where Cape Canaveral Monsters really shines, because Katherine Victor brings a stark misanthropic intensity to her role as Nadia, a thoroughly nasty and demeaning harridan who berates her partner mercilessly. (One sincerely wishes that Jerry Warren had given Victor meatier roles like this to play in his shoestring exploitation potboilers, for she obviously could essay them admirably.) In one rather brutal and astounding scene, a dog rips off Haaron's arm, and as Nadia reattaches it, she observes suspiciously, "I'm not a surgeon, but I'd swear that arm was shorn off!"

As evidenced also in Robot Monster, Tucker had a real knack for creating a passable alien ambiance using the barest minimum of available props, including a lot of army surplus gadgetry. Here, we have a telescreen concocted out of ham radio and other assorted electronic equipment, inside of which floats what appears to be a revolving pancake: simple, stark, and very cool. Tucker intuitively knew that audience disbelief will be replaced with recognition and acceptance, as long as the viewer accepts the ongoing scenario, and falls in line with "the joke," as it were.

The teleportation of the Earthlings to another planet is quite reminiscent of similar scenes in Roger Corman's magnificent Not of This Earth. Back to Nadia, she continually berates Haaron, whom she hates for his supposed superiority of rank, while calling him an incompetent schmuck to his face. Nadia next takes a captured Earth woman, submits her to some cruel electroshock therapy, wraps her in plastic, and dispatches her into the ether, a very grim scene in a very grim movie. Intercut with this awful sequence are scenes wherein our young lovers wander aimlessly through the woods, trying to discover what is causing all the static on their transistor radios. The idyllic naiveté of young love is expressed quite nicely in these seemingly superfluous, but in fact integral scenes, as one of the main themes in Cape Canaveral Monsters is contrasting the warring, goal-oriented and entirely destructive "power couple" (Haaron and Nadia) with their carefree and creative American counterparts.

As the film reaches its climax, Haaron and Nadia deteriorate physically (and one might say mentally; certainly morally), and the viewer is thus reminded that these two beings are merely balls of energy, inhabiting rotting human corpses, a gruesome Grand Guignol touch which makes Cape Canaveral Monsters all the more morbid and charming.

Eventually the cops come to the rescue, and the gang blows the ETs to smithereens, but in true Phil Tucker fashion (recall the fabulous "eternal return" ending of Robot Monster), Cape Canaveral Monsters ends on a wonderfully grim note. The cops, supposedly victorious, drive off-screen: we hear a weird cosmic sound, a car crash, and a blood-curdling human scream. The nightmare is real! The invasion is begun! The lesson is crystal clear: human beings are sad, worthless creatures, easily vanquished by a superior enemy, in fact just waiting to be slaughtered due to our blind hubris and unwarranted sense of self-importance. Phil Tucker, Mad Genius.

Way past its shelf life

[lor_ · 26 February 2024]

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Phil Tucker; Produced by Richard Greer; Executive Producer: Lionel Dichter; American TV syndication release by American-International TV. Screenplay by Phil Tucker; Photography by W. Merle Connell; Edited by Richard Greer; Music by Gene Kauer. Starring Scott Peters, Linda Connell, Jason Johnson, Katherine Victor; Harriet Dichter, Chuck Howard, Bill Vess and Joe Chester.

Incredibly dated science fiction film about alien saboteurs infiltrating the American space project. It has a few unintentional humorous moments to keep it from being discarded out of hand.

Cape Canaveral Monsters Review 1960. Monster Humans. One armed man. Dogs. Aliens. Severed Arm.

[ItsACityOfApes_Movie_Reviews · 8 July 2021]

Cape Canaveral Monsters Review 1960. Humans. One armed man. Dogs. Aliens. Aka The Ape Canaveral Monsters - indeed. See the many monsters at Ape Canaveral before The Revolution!

Monster analysis and count: Humans: A great many; movie is populated with them.

Alien Severed Arm: 1 (Note: arm was also previously severed).

Aliens: 2 Energy masses disguised as humans. (Note: one is one-armed for part of the movie). (they are not LGM) Dogs: 2 Pig Latin: ixnay {pig latin invented by the 3 Stooges is employed}

The humans are the real monsters. You will see spacefaring technology, rockets, computers, transistor radios, lots of found footage of rocket launches. Ape-tastic: 1; Black Monolith with Apes: 1; Conelrad Alert: 4; Human Alert: Monsters; Indian Head Test Pattern: 1; Monkeys at a Typewriter: 2; Poop Show: 0; Propeller Cap: 2. Fun Fact: only movie with "Ape Canaveral" in the title.

History of the Ape Canaveral Breakout: the revolution began at the Ape Canaveral Launch Facility when the space apes began their rampage. The revolution spread. The whole of the Continent of Ape Canaveral was taken over by the magnificence and bravery of these astronaut apes!

ItsACityOfApes is not monetized and follows Ape National Policy of no currency use, nor does it permit embedding.

"For This There Is No Reason! No Reason!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 7 September 2021]

Two glowing, extraterrestrial orbs named Hauron and Nadja inhabit the bodies of a man and woman killed in a car crash. The man lost an arm in the wreck, so Nadja sews it right back on.

Oh no!

Hauron wanders into a secure area and dogs rip the arm off again! What's worse, humans find the severed limb and simply must have it! Luckily, there's a group of young people nearby with plenty of healthy arms.

Hauron and Nadja are on Earth to make sure that we never discover space travel. Many stock footage V2 rockets are destroyed, while Hauron and Nadja bicker like an old married couple. They also require human females.

THE CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS is minimalist, early 1960's sci-fi at its most cheeeze-fabulous. It also manages to somehow warp time by turning its one hour length into an eternity...