Teenage Monster (1958)

User Rating:

3.0/10   

Director:

Jacques R. Marquette

Writer:

Ray Buffum (writer)

Release Date:

8 January 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Western

Tagline:

Wild! Wanton! Weird!

Plot:

In a little Western town, a boy is subjected to rays from a meteor. As a result, he grows into a teenaged...

Plot Keywords:

Meteor | Monster | Monster Movie | Beautiful Woman | Mother Son Relationship

Cast

Anne Gwynne	...	Ruth Cannon
Stuart Wade	...	Sheriff Bob Lehman
Gloria Castillo	...	Kathy North
Chuck Courtney	...	Marv Howell (as Charles Courtney)
Gil Perkins	...	Charles Cannon (as Gilbert Perkins)
Norman Leavitt	...	Deputy Ed
Gabe Mooradian	...	Fred Fox
Stephen Parker	...	Charles Cannon as a boy
Jim McCullough Sr.	...	Jim Cannon (as Jim McCullough)
Frank Davis	...	Man on street
Arthur Berkeley	...	Man with burro

Also Known As:

Meteor Man (International: English title)
Meteor Monster (USA) (working title (TV title))
Monster on the Hill

Runtime:

65 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved | UK:PG

Company:

Marquette Productions Ltd.

Trivia:

Cinematographer Jacques R. Marquette and his Marquette Productions created this film because they needed a very inexpensive feature to fill out the bottom of a double feature package with their previously produced The Brain from Planet Arous (1957). Marquette kept the production costs even lower by directing this himself, his only directing credit.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies (2001)

Like Something Seen On St. Marks Pl.

Conflating the Western, horror and teenage movie genres as it does, "Teenage Monster" (1957) is a unique experience indeed. It also features the most frightening monster in a late 1800s Western setting since Mercedes McCambridge stalked through the plains of "Johnny Guitar" (1954). In this film, a meteor that looks like a July 4th sparkler crashes near the mine of the Cannon family, killing Paw and turning young Charles into a mutant of sorts. Seven years later, Charles is the eponymous teenage monster, killing cattle and the occasional passerby, while his Maw must hide him from the townsfolk and deal with her new blackmailing hussy of a housekeeper. Charles, as a teenager, looks like nothing more than a long-haired and long-bearded hippie with bad teeth (I've seen worse walking the streets of the East Village!), despite the makeup work by Jack "Frankenstein" Pierce. His garbled, whining attempts at speech are reminiscent of a constipated canine and are quite pathetic, but still had me cracking up somehow. Anne Gwynne, who was featured in any number of 1940s Universal horror films, is fine as Charles' sacrificing mother, and, actually, their relationship is kinda sweet. Still, the film, fun as it is, is patently ridiculous, and with a very rushed ending to boot. Even my revered "Psychotronic Encyclopedia" calls it "awful." My tastes must be getting more and more dubious, though, because I did have a good time with this unique little quickie.