Monster a Go-Go

Monster a Go-Go!
Original theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bill Rebane Uncredited: Herschell Gordon Lewis
Written by	Sheldon Seymour
Screenplay by	Bill Rebane Jeff Smith Dok Stanford
Produced by	Henry Marsh Bill Rebane Sheldon S. Seymour
Starring	Henry Hite
Narrated by	Herschell Gordon Lewis (uncredited) Bill Rebane (uncredited)
Cinematography	Frank Pfeiffer
Production company	B.I. & L. Releasing Corp.
Distributed by	B.I. & L. Releasing Corp.
Release date	July 1965 (1965-07)
Running time	68 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Monster a Go-Go! is a 1965 American science fiction horror film directed by Bill Rebane and Herschell Gordon Lewis (who remained uncredited in association with this film). The film is considered to be one of the worst films ever made.

In 1993, the film was featured in an episode of the satirical film-riffing television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 on Comedy Central.

Plot

The plot concerns an American astronaut, Frank Douglas, who mysteriously disappears from his spacecraft as it parachutes to Earth. The policeman in one scene inspect the landing sight of Douglas's capsule and notices a burned patch, only to dismiss it as a prank. The vanished astronaut is apparently replaced by or turned into a large, radioactive humanoid monster. This is revealed when it comes into the scene and kills off Dr. Logan. A team of scientists and military men also attempt to capture the monster – and at one point succeeds and imprisoned in the lab, only to have him escape. Neither the capture nor the escape are ever shown, and are simply mentioned by the narrator.

At the end of the film, the scientists later corner the monster in a sewer under Chicago, but the monster suddenly disappears. The scientists receive a telegram stating that Douglas is in fact alive and well, having been rescued in the North Atlantic, perhaps implying the monster was an alien impersonating Douglas. The narrator provides the film's closing dialogue:

As if a switch had been turned, as if an eye had been blinked, as if some phantom force in the universe had made a move eons beyond our comprehension, suddenly, there was no trail! There was no giant, no monster, no thing called "Douglas" to be followed. There was nothing in the tunnel but the puzzled men of courage, who suddenly found themselves alone with shadows and darkness! With the telegram, one cloud lifts, and another descends. Astronaut Frank Douglas, rescued, alive, well, and of normal size, some eight thousand miles away in a lifeboat, with no memory of where he has been, or how he was separated from his capsule! Then who, or what, has landed here? Is it here yet? Or has the cosmic switch been pulled? Case in point: The line between science fiction and science fact is microscopically thin! You have witnessed the line being shaved even thinner! But is the menace with us? Or is the monster gone?

Cast

• Henry Hite as Frank Douglas/The Monster
• June Travis as Ruth
• Phil Morton as Col. Steve Connors
• Peter M. Thompson as Dr. Chris Manning

Production

The film had an unusual production history. Director Rebane ran out of money while making the film. Herschell Gordon Lewis, who needed a second film to show with his own feature, Moonshine Mountain, bought the film, added a few extra scenes and some dialogue, and then released it, creating an odd, disjointed film with little continuity. Rebane had abandoned the film in 1961; Lewis did not finish the film until 1965 and so was unable to gather all of the original cast, resulting in almost half the characters disappearing midway through the film to be replaced by other characters who fill most of the same roles. One of the actors Lewis was able to get back had dramatically changed his look in the intervening years, necessitating his playing the brother of the original character. At one point, when a phone supposedly rings, the sound effect is obviously a person making a noise with their mouth.

The actor playing the film's monster, Henry Hite, was seven-foot-six, but the director wanted the monster to be ten feet tall, so Hite was filmed from an upward angle in every shot.

Reception

Critical reception has been predominantly negative. The film is regarded as being one of the all-time worst. Allmovie gave the film a negative review calling it "an incoherent concoction brewed solely to fill space on a double bill".

Home media

• Monster a Go-Go! was released with Psyched by the 4-D Witch as a DVD double feature by Something Weird Video.
• The MST3K version of the film was released by Rhino Home Video as part of the Collection, Volume 8 DVD set.
• The film's original director, Bill Rebane, released a "Special Collector's Edition" with commentary and other extras on Synergy Entertainment on October 19, 2010.

External links

• Monster a Go-Go at IMDb
• Monster a Go-Go at Rotten Tomatoes