Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Monster from Green Hell Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 6, 2022

A friend who's a Downbeat award winning jazz guitarist once told me after I had heard him making countless phone calls to book himself on a quasi-national "tour", often getting either demurrals or outright rejections, "In jazz guitar playing, there's Pat Metheny, and then there's everyone else". Something at least somewhat similar might be said with regard to stop motion animation and Ray Harryhausen, since other than that legendary figure, my hunch is even many ardent film fans would be hard pressed to name another practitioner of this now basically moribund art. And yet, there were and actually continue to be others who have taken countless hours to provide just a second or two of fluid motion by moving maquettes a fraction of a fraction of an inch and then snapping a still photograph, as Laika Studios, located near my hometown of Portland, Oregon, admirably proves. While not a major part of Monster from Green Hell, no doubt due to funding priorities, stop motion shows up in this little remembered science fiction tinged outing from 1957 or 1958 (depending on which source is cited), though it was evidently actually filmed in 1956, according to the commentary by Stephen R. Bissette included on this disc as a supplement. As Bissette also gets into, there was a veritable glut of "giant insect" films that started appearing in the wake of Them!, which had come out in 1954, and Monster from Green Hell is perhaps consigned to "and the rest" territory in that weird little subgenre, if I may be permitted to mix media and reference the hilarious first season theme from Gilligan's Island, a series which featured only seven characters (aside from regular visitors), but which only managed to mention five of them for its debut year in its opening credits.

Monster from Green Hell isn't exactly a model of narrative innovation and/or exposition, so suffice it to say that Quent Brady (Jim Davis) and Dan Morgan (Robert Griffin) are part of a scientific team who are part of a pre-NASA exploration of sending various creatures into orbit to see how they do (a la the real life Laika, as a matter of fact), which results in giant mutated wasps appearing in Africa, where one of the team's rockets crash lands. That ultimately sets the pair out on an expedition to the Dark Continent to figure out what's going on, a quest which soon brings them into contact with Dr. Lorentz (Vladimir Sokoloff) and his daughter Lorna (Barbara Turner), who have already had to deal with natives who have expired from rather outsized wasp stings.

This is all pretty by the numbers stuff, with a bit of pseudo technical jargon thrown in early in the game, but then an almost African safari element as Brady and his cohorts attempt to track down the wasps. What makes this kind of hilarious, beyond the actual concept and execution, that is, is that the producers of this "epic" had purchased rights to footage from the 1939 biographical film Stanley and Livingstone, which results in unabashed laugh provoking cutaways to scenes of animals and tribal activities, along with wide shots of Spencer Tracy in his white suit and pith helmet, which the smart production designers of Monster from Green Hell wisely decided to put Jim Davis in as well, so that there's some tangential connection to continuity.

One of the interesting production elements of the film, aside from the too brief use of stop motion animation, is that it had a color sequence for the last couple of minutes, which is ostensibly reproduced here (in "color" that isn't exactly accurate looking). It's a kind of odd production choice for a film that even insert booklet essayist Don Stradley calls a "howler", as he recounts various misadventures by a production team that was probably more concerned with the bottom line than any "artistic" merit.

Monster from Green Hell Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Monster from Green Hell is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Film Detective with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in either 1.85:1 or 1.33:1. I've included screenshots from both aspect ratios so that those interested can do a compare and contrast. There are pluses and minuses to each of them, though I found the 1.85:1 aspect ratio to be the more consistently pleasing of the two. The Film Detective tends not to include a wealth of technical information with their releases, and that's once again the case here, with only a generic "restored in a new 4K transfer" touted on the cover, though it's perhaps salient to note that commentator Stephen R. Bissette mentions Wade Williams in passing, and whatever source element was utilized may have come from Williams' private collection, as with some other releases from The Film Detective. In either aspect ratio there's manifest damage and age related wear and tear to report, and even a cursory parsing of screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review will show some pretty significant scratches in particular. That said, a lot of the transfer boasts very good detail levels and generally consistent contrast and black levels. There's an almost comical mismatch with the footage from Stanley and Livingstone in terms of clarity, detail, grain and contrast, but I suspect that's the way things always looked. The color footage is pretty problematic from a palette standpoint, as can probably be gleaned from the two screenshots I've included. There's a wash of almost rust brown-red during this sequence, which is perhaps appropriate given the fact it depicts a volcano erupting, but some more color correction might have been warranted. Aside and apart from fluctuations due to the use of the footage from Stanley and Livingstone, there's a naturally resolving grain field.

Monster from Green Hell Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Monster from Green Hell features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. There are some signs of age related wear and tear, including a bit of background noise and occasional pops, but the overall sound of the track is decently full bodied, offering good accounts of dialogue (such as it is), some goofy sound effects and another fun score from the venerable Albert Glasser. Optional English subtitles are available.

Monster from Green Hell Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Missouri Born: The Films of Jim Davis (HD; 14:41) is an appealing overview of the actor's career by C. Courtney Joyner.


• Audio Commentary with Artist / Author Stephen R. Bissette

Additionally, the insert booklet includes an essay by author Don Stradley called The Man Behind the Monsters, which focuses on some of the lesser remembered names behind this enterprise like Jack. J. Gross, Philip N. Krasne, and Al Zimbalist, who evidently didn't have a middle initial.

Monster from Green Hell Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is another cult release which has certain "meta" elements which may provide at least as much interest as the actual film. In that regard, all of the supplements on the disc and perhaps especially the insert booklet essay may provide some additional allure for the prospective consumer. Technical merits are decent if improvable, for those who may be considering making a purchase.