Teenage Monster / Meteor Man (1957) by #JacquesRMarquette
w/#AnneGwynne #GilPerkins #GloriaCastillo
An Old West town is terrorized by a teenager who has been transformed into a monster by the rays of a meteor.
“A teenage titan of terror on a lustful binge that paralyzed a town with fear!”
#SciFi #Horror
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn
Last week I watched Teenage Monster (1957), also known as Meteor Man. As the opening credits rolled, I didn’t recognize a single name. None of the cast members, nor the writer – or even the producer/director, Jacques Marquette. Something told me that Teenage Monster was not a studio picture…
A title card says:
“On a faithful day in June, 1880, in a remote mining section of the old west, a mysterious object fell from the sky, which changed the lives and destiny of that small community. This story is based on a legend that has been handed down through the years. It could have happened…”
I had to love that last part: “It could have happened.”
So what’s it all about?
The movie opens with a little kid named Charlie playing outside. His mother calls him in for breakfast. His father, it seems, is searching for gold and is convinced that he is close to finding the main vein. The mother is supportive, and the kid dreams of moving to town and having his own room – and a pony!
The kid goes on and on about all the details of this fantasy.
Later, at the mine, something that looks like a giant sparkler in the sky appears and explodes directly overtop of where father and son are working. The mother comes running and finds her son laying on the ground. She picks him up and carries him, but he says where is Papa? She sets the boy down and goes to look for her husband. She finds him dead.
Seven years later (?!!), we see what looks like a giant Neanderthal man with long hair and a beard. Is this the kid grown up? The last thing we saw seven years ago was the kid lying on the ground, his face perhaps burned or scarred. The Neanderthal man seems to have a scar on his face in the same place.
So the boy is now a Teenage Monster?
He looks more like a 30 year old monster, but yes.
The Neanderthal teen attacks a prospector for no apparent reason. He throttles the guy and leaves him on the ground for dead.
His mother shows up and gives Charlie shit. “What have you done?” she says. He seems to only speak in grunts and gibberish. Occasionally, he says a word like “yes”. She repeats the fantasy/dream from seven years ago: “When we find the vein of gold in the mine, will live like kings you can have anything you want,” etc.
A few thoughts…
This movie has wasted no time in transforming the boy into a Teenage Monster. And it’s not subtle. Unlike a lot of other monsters in movies from this era, Charlie doesn’t transform into a monster late at night, or when the moon is full, when no one knows what’s going on. His mother knows exactly what he is, and he seems to be permanently in this monstrous form.
A different approach, for sure. Let’s see where it goes…
The plot thickens…
Mother and son strike gold in the mine. All their dreams are coming true.
Meanwhile, the townspeople are trying to figure out what this monster could be. They’re suggesting a 10 foot tall grizzly bear. I just have to ask, how the hell could a normal size man, even one with long hair and a beard, do the kind of damage a 10 foot grizzly bear would do?
Mom is concerned that men are out looking for her son. So why the hell doesn’t she cut his hair and shave his beard? Those are the only things that make him look like a beast. If he was cleaned up, he would just look like a normal man – perhaps with a scar on his face.
What is the Teenage Monster trying to do?
Why the hell is Charlie on a rampage killing multiple people? Apparently he hasn’t done anything for at least a year? When he talks to his mother, he seems quite reasonable. She tells him not to do it. He explains himself, saying he only wanted to pet the cattle, but the man wouldn’t let him.
Oh, I see. The man says don’t touch my cattle, so Charlie kills the guy – and his cattle? The very cattle he wanted to pet? Does this make any sense…?
The plot thickens again…
Charlie kidnaps a woman and brings her home. This could be the motivation I’ve been waiting for. Sexual motivation, like many of the better known serial killers. But that doesn’t really explain the man and his cattle…
Mom winds up bribing the young woman not to tell anyone about Charlie. But the young woman has other ideas… including blackmail and using Charlie to get back at all of her enemies…
So, is Teenage Monster worth watching?
As far as monsters go, this one is pretty campy. Whenever he speaks, it’s cartoonish and silly. A lot of the scenes are repetitious, with the same information being told to us over and over again.
More importantly, it’s hard to sympathize with any of the characters in this movie. Even Charlie’s mother, Ruth, played by Anne Gwynne. She’s by far the most sympathetic – with the exception of town Sheriff Bob Lehman, who is in love with her. She knows her son is guilty of murdering a bunch of people, but she keeps on hiding him.
I understand there’s a whole thing of mothers loving their sons so much that they would do ANYTHING, but really… There have been plenty of real life cases in which the parents of a murderer have turned him in – or at the very least not helped him.
One of the clichés of monster movies is that you always wind up feeling sorry for the monster. And in some ways that is the case here. But it’s still hard to really sympathize with Charlie because he seems to have no real motivation for any of his killings. That is until he is manipulated by a devious character into killing people who she wants dead.
So what is the verdict for Teenage Monster?
Teenage Monster (1957) is a B-movie version of a B-movie. What I mean is… It’s #NotQuiteClassicCinema, but it’s almost like an inept version of it. A character exposed to radiation, which I gather is what must’ve happened here, then slowly transforms into a monster – that’s dramatic and it makes sense. Alternatively, a character who is exposed to radiation and becomes a monster late at night, or when the moon is full, or something like that – this is quite a workable format.
But Teenage Monster goes from 0 to 60 in one second. The kid is exposed to radiation. We jump ahead seven years and he is a hulking monster 100% of the time. His only monstrous attributes are a scar, some bad teeth, and a whole lotta hair and beard. Cut the hair, shave the beard, and maybe clean up the teeth a bit, and you have a fairly regular looking guy.
Why am I wasting time trying to understand this? Teenage Monster is not a very good movie. Its only value is in the camp humour. And there’s not quite enough of that to really make it work. It’s too repetitious, and we don’t feel enough for the characters to keep us interested. It might be worth a look for those with a lot of patience. It certainly made me laugh a couple of times. But I’m unlikely to ever want to revisit it on a #FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn.
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn
Teenage Monster / Meteor Man (1957) by #JacquesRMarquette
w/#AnneGwynne #GilPerkins #GloriaCastilloAn Old West town is terrorized by a teenager who has been transformed into a monster by the rays of a meteor.#SciFi #Horror#NotQuiteClassicCinema pic.twitter.com/Cc4JjaF39I
— Angus Kohm (@AngusKohm) August 24, 2024
