User reviews

The Mole People is one of those science fiction cheapies that you wish had a bigger budget. I found it to be one of the most imaginative of science fiction films of the fifties. It would get a far better rating from me if a few more dollars had been put in.

A team of scientists on top a mountain in what would be ancient Mesopotamia, today Iraq find on top the mountain a cave leading to an ancient Sumerian civilization which has survived their almost for 5000 years. Probably the greatest archaeological find ever, imagine finding some ancient Egyptians hidden away, clinging to their cultural traditions. The greatest opportunity ever to research a culture.

Of course some of these are not quite human, they've returned to being mole like humans and they're the slaves. It's a slow punishment for the bad, a quick punishment is the hated fires of Ishtar. You're sent into what looks like an oven and you're burnt away to ashes.

The film does a marvelous job in building up the viewers fears of the fires of Ishtar so in the end when the scientists are flung into it, we're scared witless.

John Agar, Hugh Beaumont, and Nestor Paiva are some of the scientists and the high priest of Ishtar is Alan Napier. What is the fire of Ishtar? That's not a question to be answered here. See the film and find out.

"The Mole People" is another underrated black-and-white B-movie from the 50´s. The story of archaeologists that discover an ancient underground society in Asia is entertaining but unfortunately the rushed conclusion is lame and gives the sensation that the budget ended and the film had to be interrupted. The beauty of Cynthia Patrick is still impressive in the present days. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Templo do Pavor" ("The Temple of the Dread")

Now this movie gave me nightmares when I was about eight years old. But when I saw it again in my thirties, it still kinda creep-ed me out, but it also gave me a laugh attack. Though no doubt innovative for it's time, it has lost some...OK a lot...of that now. Still, I recommend this movie because it does evoke an atmosphere of delicious creepiness, laced with just the right amount of claustrophobia (it takes place down under...everything), and afraid-of-the-dark-jitters. Strictly low budget fare, but interesting ideas, cool camera work, along with effective lighting make it work. I don't remember the music, but I am sure it is pretty standard for such a flick of the mid 50's. When the Mole Men come up out of the...well I don't want to spoil it for you, but it really scared me as a child for weeks on end. Nearly drove my parents crazy with that one. It has a pretty decent ending unlike most B-flicks of that era. Check it out if you can find it, and have plenty of snacks on hand. You may want to throw some popcorn at the screen to try and distract Wally and The Beav's dad, Hugh Beaumont, so the Mole Men will thankfully get him, and relieve you from his, now this is where I clear my throat, acting.

James Van Pelt from Tulsa, Oklahoma

I remember seeing 'The Mole People' when it first came out and I haven't seen it since - it's never been shown on TV and has never had a video release over here in England. So my memories of it are those of an 8 year old. It's the only film I've ever seen that gave me nightmares - real, waking up screaming that the molemen are going to get me, nightmares. 'The Exorcist', 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and all the rest had no effect on me whatsoever, but 'The Mole People' remains for me the scariest film ever made.

Charmingly silly and inconsequential monster movie has archaeologists in Asia discovering secluded mountain city run by snarling, villainous humans who have mole people as slaves. Fair B-movie production with good cinematography by Ellis Carter, but a sluggish direction from barely-imaginative Virgil Vogel. Screenplay by Laszlo Gorog may have been intended as an antidote for non-fans of "Lost Horizon": this city looks like the flip-side to Shangri-La! Not a classic by any means, with predictably wooden performances by John Agar and Hugh Beaumont, though not terrible.

** from ****

A very poor man's 'Lost Horizon' with sets like an episode of 'Star Trek', inhabited by a race of albinos enslaving creatures like the Morlocks with great big eyes and enormous claws and making human sacrifices to the sun; their sensitivity to light enabling hero and villain alike to exert control by wielding a torch as though it's a light sabre.

I've seen this movie several times over the years. It's a real semi classic, great example of 50s sci-fi monster movies. You do get a good look at the actual mole monsters and see quite a bit of them. As good as the mole monsters are, they are only a small part of this film. It's also an adventure movie about exploring for a lost civilization. Most of the plot involves this civilization which also happens to include the Mole People. This is good stuff. The stuff that used to scare and entertain in the 50s. The thing is, if you've seen a decent amount of horror/sci-fi films from the 50s and early 60s and haven't found much that you liked, "The Mole People" is not for you. If you're a fan of 50s B movies, you'll love this one. It's a real must see.

1956's "The Mole People" ranks as one of Universal's least appreciated genre films of the 1950s, which befalls anything not directed by Jack Arnold. Virgil Vogel wouldn't be anyone's ideal choice for director, and screenwriter Laszlo Gorog's only other works were "The Land Unknown" and "Earth vs the Spider." Still, this studio produced better looking movies than AIP, Astor, or Allied Artists, and created the most famous monsters of the era, with the Mole People featured here, or the Metaluna Mutant from "This Island Earth." They definitely skimped by reusing the same Hyde design from "Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" for both "Tarantula" and "Monster on the Campus," and apparently wrote this script around available stock footage, seemingly identical to the conception of "The Deadly Mantis." Dr. Frank Baxter spends nearly five minutes attempting to bring gravitas to the film, and it takes another half hour to arrive at the lost underground world of albino Sumerians, ruled by Sharu (Arthur D. Gilmour) and high priest Elinu (the marvelous Alan Napier). With producer William Alland still aboard, it's brimming with ideas and excellent set designs, particularly the Mole People themselves, used as slave labor by the Sumerians but able to predictably revolt at the proper time. John Agar is his usual stolid self, in his last science fiction adventure for Universal; after this his films became noticeably shoddier working near the bottom rung of the Hollywood ladder. As the First Officer, whose job is to keep the slaves hungry, we have Robin Hughes, soon to be immortalized as the head in search of its body in Universal's 1958 "The Thing That Couldn't Die," and on television, playing the title role in THE TWILIGHT ZONE's "The Howling Man." The studio's 'B' unit finally petered out with "The Leech Woman," but over a span of 28 years were known to be horror's most dependable factory for classic monsters, introduced to TV viewers by such popular hosts as Bill 'Chilly Billy' Cardille, whose Chiller Theater in Pittsburgh aired "The Mole People" a total of 5 times.

I can't help feeling that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon saying this is the worst film ever made etc.

I viewed this film for the first time on laserdisc on a video projector in a darkened room with some mates and we found it to be entertaining different atmospheric in parts. John Agar for once has some good lines and does well. The script is a fairly complex one far more than other film of its vintage and budget. We thought the writers should be commended for using such plot devices as intolerance to light and the sub-culture within a sub-culture. Even the ending is unexpected and different. It even has an opening prologue which is a lot of fun. While this film does not hit its target on everything it tries to do, we thought the creators had a pretty good go at it.

I do not honestly understand why so many people think this film is so bad. Maybe seeing it projected on a big screen in a darkened room made a difference, I don't know, but if you have never seen the film before try it with an open mind you may well enjoy it as much as we did.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's cheesy bw 50's sci fi. But it's GREAT cheesy bw 50's sci fi! The Mole People would be campy if it weren't so earnest. It takes itself so seriously it even begins with a pseudodocumentary prelude explaining the hollow Earth theory.

Part of the fun is seeing future TV faves Hugh Beaumont (Beaver's dad), and Alan Napier (Alfred the butler) teamed with legendary 50's hack actors John Agar and Nestor Paiva.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 gave Mole People the full treatment and it was one of the funniest MST3K episodes ever. For the full effect I'd suggest you view the straight version first and then try to find the MST3K episode.

After opening with what, in spite of its nutty theories, could easily be confused with one of those educational films so many of us slept through in school, THE MOLE PEOPLE begins.

While attempting to discover the origin of an ancient artifact, archaeologists John Agar, Hugh Beaumont, and their team of extras (including that crusty boat captain from CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON!), venture forth into the subterranean unknown, in search of a comrade lost in a deep crevasse. This, after enduring multiple natural disasters- all in the first fifteen minutes! Our intrepid explorers soon encounter the goggle-eyed creatures of the title, and we're off to their underground la-la land.

Alas, fooled by the title and promotional movie posters, viewers may expect tons of actual monster action, getting mostly dull humans and their endless palaver instead. More a study of class warfare than a creature feature, this film seems like an episode of some lost, 1950's sci-fi TV drama. An enjoyable enough slab of fantastical cheeeze.

P.S.- You'll never look at high-powered flashlights or hats made from tea cozies in quite the same way again! Ever!...

A group of scientists find passage into the core of the earth where they discover a society of people who have monstrous mole creatures for servants.

Probably the lesser of the 50's monster movies from Universal, but it's enjoyable for those who enjoy these kind of campy era films. Others will likely find it to be a dull monster flick. Over all, The Mole People is a fairly well-made venture and has some memorable monsters. B movie hero John Agar heads up a decent cast. It's not the best monster movie of the day, but it's not the worst either.

** out of ****

The King of Smug John Agar is his usual unbearable self in another horrible serving from the folks at universal international pictures, makers of some of the worst films of all time. Agar's archaeologist is so pompous and all knowing that you long to slap him in the chops over and over again. He leads a team of talented men(o.k., talented compared to him, anyway) on an archaeological dig 'somewhere in Asia'. They find an old stone tablet that tells of a lost Sumerian dynasty, then it gets destroyed when they leave the five thousand year old artifact on a cheap folding table during an earthquake. A competent bunch, to say the least. Then a shepherd boy brings them an oil lamp he found on a mountainside, telling another version of Noah's Ark featuring the same King and dynasty the tablet talked of(convenient, no?)

Thus begins our hero's long toil up the mountainside. Make that a long series of stock footage shots of men climbing a mountainside somewhere, interspersed with lame shots of Agar and company crawling across a floor dusted with fake snow. They find the hand of a mannequin half buried in the snow(or maybe its Bon Ami?) on the mountain, apparently belonging to an ancient Sumerian clothes boutique. They hurry on to find some extraordinary matte paintings of Sumerian ruins on a plateau(although the ziggurat was out of perspective). One of their members falls through some cardboard flooring into a 'deep hole'. He never even made it to the first plot point.

There follows long shots of our fellows climbing endlessly down a rope. (1. Why is this interesting? and 2. why do they care about finding the guy's mangled body down a dangerous, unstable hole? I mean,he's dead. That was pretty obvious considering how long their downward journey is. Are they going to scrape his remains into an envelope and go on?) At the bottom, they're buried alive in a series of caves by an earthquake. But they press on, inspired by the quiet leadership of Agar.

Thus enter the mole people, deformed creatures who look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame with a bad skin problem and beaks. For some reason, these primitive things are dressed in pants and little jackets. Who gave them these clothes, since the Sumerian folk who live underground are wearing skirted tunics and gowns? Kinda puzzling, really. Maybe the mole people had a sweatshop somewhere where they make garments for the Sumerian equivalent of Kathy Lee Gifford?

Agar and friends eventually meet the Sumerian folks, who look like Keebler elves and are whiter than Micheal Jackson. For some reason, these Sumerian people have Egyptian paintings on their walls, and their King wears a Crown Roast hat. They have the spines of tube worms, as they're sent running by the low level light coming from Agar's flashlight. Or maybe they'd just heard about Agar and were running from him personally, you never know.

Alfred the Butler from the old Batman is the head priest of these folks, and he wears a glittering robe, pointed hat with fringe, and a Fu Manchu mustache. So this is how the ancient Sumerian priests dressed,huh? Interesting. He schemes to get the flashlight away from Agar, because he believes it will make him all powerful. Of course, with this lot, it might actually work. They believed Agar when he told them he was a messenger from the Gods, after all. Frankly, I think that he'd be a messenger from a lower place than Heaven, but that's just my thought.

Agar eventually becomes the John Brown of the Mole People, helping them to rebel against the guys in skirts who like to whip them just a LITTLE too much. Agar, Beaumont, and a truly dumb slave girl named Adele escape the carnage by the attacking Mole people by climbing up a hole that leads to the surface. Another earthquake finishes off Adele by dropping a pillar on her(and good riddance, says I-why couldn't it have taken Agar with it, too?) and closes the hole, leaving the Mole People large and in charge. So ends the grand saga of John Agar, archaeologist and truly extraordinary pain in the butt.

Here we go with yet another 75 minute movie that has 30 minutes of people walking in silence.When they do talk, it just non-sense. It's a bad story that is quite boring.

It's so easy to make fun of low budget horror films. I refuse to do that. This is an imaginative look at a race of people who live under the earth. They have evolved to be lacking in pigment and their eyes have low tolerance for light. This parallels the non- human creatures who live in dark places. When scientist investigate these characters, they find there is an oppressive culture that has enslaved others. They are actually using ritual sacrifices, so things aren't much better below ground than above it. The use of light comes into the fray and a god, Ishtar, is seen as vengeful. The special effects are reasonable and the creatures are interesting. Take this for what it is and for what a task is accomplished.

Dr. Roger Bentley and Dr. Jud Bellamin lead an archaeological dig in Asia where they search for the remains of Sumerian dynasty, where they make their way up a mountain pass and find the ruins of a temple, but another member of their crew (Dr. Stuart) falls through a pit down to a cavern. The other members of the expedition make their way down (Lafarge and a guide, who like Dr. Stuart, dies after falling down). The remaining three make their way through caves until they find an open area where they are promptly abducted by a strange race of Mole People. The three manage to escape, but are captured by the leaders of the underground city, a race of albinos who use the Mole People as slaves. Elinu, high priest of the albinos, and the rest of the people revere the two doctors as Gods, since their flashlight becomes a sacred instrument to the light-shunning albinos. Adel, a blonde girl of fair skin is given to the doctors as a gift to the Gods, but Elinu believes them to be mortals and wants to have the doctors sacrificed before their influence reaches the albino people and the Mole People revolt. In terms of the Universal monster series, this is a very disappointing effort since they film is not as fun as interesting as previous monster films. The script has various absurd moments and creates little suspense or anticipation. Agar and Beaumont are pretty wooden characters that no actor could have saved. Patrick is beautiful, but her character just seems to a stereotypical "what is the outside world like" person. Napier is hardly intimidating, and the title characters look ridiculous. The sound recording must have been done by amateurs, but the score fits the scenes well. The film does have some fun elements, but they are few and far between and the ending was really a disappointment. Rating, 4.

Of all the silly 50's sci-fi flicks why was this one singled out as one of the worst? What about that silly Peter Graves movie that had killer shrews but was actually collies with wigs? This one is silly but I still enjoy a low budget movie like this. It has one of my favorite "B" movie stars like John Agar and I thought Cynthia Patrick was pretty and charming. And the beavers dad Hugh Beaumont gives his usual stiff performance. It also has a non-hollywood ending, so it surprised me in that regard. And why do the mole people wear sweat shirts? Anyhow, I admit its slow moving and very silly. But I can enjoy it on that level!

Coming from 1956 is another of Universal-International's science-fiction pleasures. They made about twenty of them in the 1950s, brought on by the enormous successes of "It Came From Outer Space" (1953) and "Creature From the Black Lagoon" (1954). An interesting prologue with a real professor on the Earth's interior cores is followed by a great title sequence accompanied by a superb score.

John Agar leads an archaeological expedition in Himalayan mountains to search for an underground lost civilization. Eventually they find them, an albino tribe (although I think, they would be blonde, not with dark hair, due to lack of melanin), who have trained the half-human "Mole People" to be their slaves. Agar falls in love with the lone pigmented character, lovely light-haired Cynthia Patrick, who brings a quiet dignity and gentleness to the part which is most appealing. She's beautifully photographed, appearing simply radiant in her close-ups. Her part is like the eye of a hurricane in story terms, and her scenes are the only ones that permit the audience to relax.

Sacrifices, revolt and chaos ensue, with the Mole People actually the sympathetic characters, an unexpected ending, shadowy cinematography, and solid direction by Virgil Vogel, make this enjoyable. And it started a mini-trend of "..... People" movies: "The Gamma People" (1956), "Attack of the Puppet People" (1958), "Invasion of the Animal People" (1959), "The Alligator People" (1959), "The Slime People" (1963), "Isle of the Snake People" (1971), "The Twilight People" (1972), "The Bat People" (1974), "Pod People" (1983), more.

"The Mole People" is not top-tier in terms of the Universal-International product of the 1950s, but it's not terrible as some reviews might have one believe. It has an entertaining story, good atmosphere, and decent creatures, although it also has a rather sedate pace. Of course, it's hard to knock any movie of this kind that starred John Agar. He's likable as always, and the rest of the cast does effective work. Some of them have some pretty priceless dialogue to recite (you could play a drinking game for every time the name "Ishtar" is uttered).

As many genre movies of this period did, this one begins with exposition, as a scientist named Frank Baxter educates us on various theories as to what exists below the surface of the Earth. Then we begin the story proper, as archaeologists including Dr. Roger Bentley (Agar) are on an expedition in the Asian mountains. They venture inside a mountain, and eventually climb down so deep as to discover an ancient Sumerian race that thrives in relative darkness. They also discover the "mole men" beasts that these people treat as slave labour.

Agar is well supported by actors such as beautiful Cynthia Patrick, playing the "marked one" Adad, Hugh Beaumont as Dr. Jud Bellamin, Alan Napier as the evil priest Elinu, and the always engaging Nestor Paiva as Professor Lafarge. The stock compositions are used to good effect, the special effects are generally decent, and the masks for the mole men are pretty cool. The conclusion is a little rushed, but that could be said of a number of other movies of this kind during this era. The resolution is actually a little surprising.

As directed by Virgil W. Vogel ("The Land Unknown"), who mostly worked in TV, "The Mole People" is nothing special but it *is* reasonably diverting.

Six out of 10.