TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN (1959)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *cosmological*

Of the various SF-features whose original forms were recut by schlockmeister Jerry Warren, I never got a look at one of his first, INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE. Thus I was able to view the original American-produced, shot-in-Sweden film, TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN, without any preconceptions.

TERROR was produced under the direction of Virgil Vogel and written by Arthur C. Pierce. But perhaps shooting on the icy mountains had a bad influence on the filmmakers, for TERROR's pace is truly glacial. The film feels as if it had been produced by some Swedish Chamber of Commerce, replete with vistas of impressive snowy landscapes, often with determined individuals foraging across them. 

The script opens with a tease-- a UFO crashing into one of those snowy landscapes-- and then takes its sweet time delivering on the promise of that opening. An American scientist, in Sweden with his ice-skater niece Diane, forms an expedition to investigate the impact site. The usual romance-arc is supplied by a young Swedish scientist, Doctor Erickson, who's depicted as much more of a "player" than your average fifties big-brain. Even before he meets Diane Wilson, it's established that Erickson likes the ladies, and implied that Diane will be the one who brings him to heel. Prior to the expedition getting going, the film devotes considerable space to the cat-and-mouse game between the two young people, with the result that Diane, though apparently scornful of Erickson's lasciviousness, stows away on the expedition. This is also the only way the script can put the female lead in a "damsel in distress" situation, since the budget isn't great enough for the film's monster to come searching for her, KING KONG style, in the city.

Once the expedition reaches the crash site, they must contend with the crew of the ship: lean, black-robed men who never speak or otherwise communicate their intentions. They don't seem to be concerned about effecting repairs to their ship, and when they do leave, the ship takes off without incident. Additionally, the robed men unleash-- possibly unintentionally-- a tusked beast-man about twenty feet tall. Is the beast-man an escaped specimen or a guard dog? Hard to say, but he develops a Kong-like crush on Diane and waltzes away with her. There's also an odd scene in which Diane has escaped the monster, only to run into the robed aliens, who simply surround her and stare at her until she passes out. 

Finally, the expedition mounts an attack on the beast-man, and this scene is the most winsome, since we see a bunch of men with torches chasing down the monster a la many Frankenstein films-- but this time, the "villagers" are in snowshoes. They drive the monster over a cliff with the torches, and then the robed aliens leave, with no one even venturing a guess as to what it all meant.

TERROR is pretty dull and devoid of anything fearful. Since Pierce tended to imitate more popular films, I think here he was going for an unholy blending of KING KONG and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. The courting game between Diane and Erickson is modestly diverting in contrast to any of the film's SF-elements. If Warren's ANIMAL PEOPLE is a worse picture, it can't be by much.