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.
Review of The Mole People
