From Hell It Came (1957)

Good concept, poorly executed.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Back in the 1960s, when I was just a young lad and when there were only three major television stations to contend with, "The New York Times" used to make pithy commentaries, in their TV section, regarding films that were to be aired that day. I have never forgotten the terse words that the paper issued for the 1957 cult item "From Hell It Came." In one of the most succinct pans ever written, the editors simply wrote: "Back send it." Well, I have waited years to find out if this hilarious put-down was justified or not, and now that I have finally succeeded in catching up with this one-of-a-kind cult item, have to say that I feel the "Times" people may have been a bit too harsh in their assessment. Sure, the film is campy, and of course, its central conceit is patently ridiculous, but does the film give the viewer that one necessary ingredient--namely, fun--that all good movies should provide? Oh, yes!As the film opens, the viewer sees Kimo (handsome Gregg Palmer, the first in a long list of "no-name" actors here), the son of the former chief of this nameless South Pacific island, staked out, face up, on the ground. Wrongly accused of the murder of his old man by the real perpetrators, the new chief Maranka (Baynes Barron) and the evil witch doctor Tano (Robert Swan), and betrayed by his faithless wife Korey (Suzanne Ridgeway), Kimo is summarily put to death by having a dagger hammered into his heart, but not before he utters the words "I will come back from the grave to revenge myself...I shall come back from hell and make you pay for your crimes...." Kimo is then buried in a hollow tree trunk and forgotten. Soon after, the viewer makes the acquaintance of a group of American scientists who are also on the island, studying the radioactive effects from a distant nuclear blast. One of the scientists, Dr. Bill Arnold (Tod Andrews, the closest thing this film has to a well-known actor), is soon distracted by the arrival of the lady scientist whom he has long been pining for, Dr. Terry Mason (Tina Carver), and the team is later startled to find that a fully grown tree--with a grimacing expression on its trunk, and what look like eyes, to boot--has begun to grow out of Kimo's grave! The scientists extirpate the bizarre arboreal growth and bring it back to the lab, where they are stunned to find that the growth is exhibiting a heartbeat! Terry injects it with one of her serums, causing the tree to come alive, escape from the lab, and perambulate (!) over to the native village, to begin its promise of vengeance. Korey is the first to go, after the tree--which the natives call Tabanga--scoops her up and chucks her into the local quicksand pool. Can the new native chief and the scheming witch doctor be far behind?OK, I'm not going to lie to you: "From Hell It Came" IS a patently ridiculous little picture (the whole thing runs to a bare 71 minutes) but, as I said, it sure is fun, AND has a number of other selling points that help to put it over today, more than 60 years since its release as part of a double bill, along with "The Disembodied." For one thing, the acting by the film's leads is surprisingly decent (the thesping by those playing the natives...not so much), and the locales actually look convincing; one can almost imagine that the film WAS shot on a Pacific island. The film is fast moving and compact, thanks to director Dan Milner (whose 1955 film, "The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues," I had also recently enjoyed), with little flab, and, once you buy into its central outlandish conceit, quite a hoot. The film also looks very fine, thanks in part to cinematographer Brydon Baker--especially in the HD print that I just watched--and also contains any number of amusing lines, courtesy of screenwriter Richard Bernstein. For example, I love what Terry says when Bill asks her if she wouldn't prefer a normal, married life: "Being cooped up in a stuffy apartment, having my ears blasted by rock and roll music, isn't my idea of normal!" The picture also showcases one of the lamest, most unintentionally hilarious catfights ever put on film--that between Korey and Maranka's current galpal, Naomi. And as for Tabanga itself, it is a rather pleasing, if ludicrous, creation; another memorable product from Paul Blaisell, who would also be responsible for the monsters in "Day the World Ended," "It Conquered the World," "The She-Creature" and "Invasion of the Saucer Men." The tree monster here is actually a more intimidating proposition than the apple-throwing ones to be found in "The Wizard of Oz," which looked menacing but were still stuck in one place, as well as the one to be found in the 1958 British horror offering "The Woman Eater," which devoured its victims whole but was also immobile. Tabanga, I might add, was understandably nominated, in Harry and Michael Medved's "Golden Turkey Awards" book, for "The Most Ridiculous Monster In Screen History," losing to Ro-Man in "Robot Monster" (granted, it IS hard to beat an alien gorilla in a diving helmet!). But interestingly, "From Hell It Came" itself was NOT chosen for inclusion in Harry Medved's book "The 50 Worst Films of All Time." And it certainly does not deserve to be in that volume. There are far worse films out there--such as "Dracula vs. Frankenstein," The Horror of the Blood Monsters," "The Worm Eaters," "Blood Freak" and on and on--to be sure. The bottom line is that "From Hell It Came" might be silly, but it sure is entertaining. I'm glad that I finally caught up with it....

I always ask this question when reviewing a film like When Hell It Came, was the cast offered nothing better?Set in the South Seas after some atomic testing scientists Tod Andrews, Tina Carver, and William Clark are there to study the effects of atomic radiation on the natives. It seems as though some typhoon blew the atomic debris in their direction.But there's some nasty native politics brewing, Gregg Palmer son of the old chief is executed on some trumped up charge concocted by the new head guy and corroborated by Palmer's own wife who is two timing him. Before he dies Palmer says he's coming back to settle accounts.By God he does when his casket is buried vertically in the ground with him growing out like a tree, one ugly looking tree with a knife that was used to kill Palmer sticking from the bark. When he's uprooted he moves like a Triffid and he's got lots of scores to settle.They call what he is a Tabanga and he's both ugly and quite laughable instead of scary. The cast just looks anxious more like they're waiting for their checks to clear. Linda Watkins who plays the woman who runs the trading post hams it up with her cockney accent like she just came from a road company of My Fair Lady.If you're into bad science fiction for laughs this is your film.

A wrongfully accused South Seas prince is executed and returns as a walking tree stump.They write it out on the screen,then you actually see it happen.Just one example of the time filling in this short movie.20 minutes could have easily been cut out and no one would have noticed. Definitely a very cool looking monster but not much of a fighter. He walks extremely slow and leans to one side so of course it's nearly impossible for the natives to escape him. He lovingly tosses one girl into quicksand,then murders a guy by gingerly rolling him down a hill. It never looks like they are on a tropical island,I'd guess southwest US. It's basically a movie about how dumb the natives are and how the great Americans save them and teach them the error of their primitive ways. Plus they have a girl do the worst Australian accent you will ever hear. The plot almost makes sense and the acting isn't half bad.This is a must see for fans of the genre.

This also is one of my favorite childhood memories. I have searched for a decent copy of this movie for years, and now it is finally available at the Warner Brothers Archives. I bought a copy and its as close to as clear as blu-ray as you will ever fine. I have a 46" HDTV and the movie fills the entire screen and is crystal clear. After obtaining many mediocre copies over the years i really wasn't expecting too much til i bought the one from Warner Brothers. I was amazed and very pleased at the quality! Tobanga RULES! They should have made a sequel to it...like "Son of Tabonga" or something..there has never been a movie before or since this one came out!