User reviews

As a certified Ed Wood fan, I had been meaning for some time to track down the works of Mr. Phil Tucker.

But, they had eluded me, except for his disasterpiece, his masturwork, his Citizen Kane, his Plan Nine From Outer Space.

That would be the immor(t)al Robot Monster, which I have seen on DVD, and even had the good fortune to see on the big screen, in its super rare 3-D version no less! Jeekers!

So, finally, Netflix allowed me to stream one of his other epics, THE CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS. I have to say, it was almost worth the wait. Fans of the celluloid leavings of Ed Wood, Jerry Warren and Richard Cunha will be right at home here.

This is a pure gold-plated turd, full of the hi-jinx beloved by aficionados of low-budget 50's sci-fi swill. Aliens, mad scientist, stupid gadgets, cheap-arse monsters, yes, fans, they are all here, and they are all awesome. Perfect mindless viewing for a boring Saturday afternoon.

Not sure if this presentation is available on DVD, but if it is not, then it really should be. Somebody get right on that, will ya?

The man who made this film, Phil Tucker, was one of the worst film directors in history. He was responsible for such travesties as "Dance Hall Racket" and "Robot Monster"--the latter of which was among the films in Harry Medved's book "The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time". Incompetence, bad acting and crappy budgets--all hallmarks of this film legend. So, when I saw that "The Cape Canaveral Monsters" was also made by Tucker, I had to watch it, as I occasionally like a terrible movie. After all, with over 12000 reviews to my credit, I need a few truly horrible films now and again after watching artsy, foreign or silent films. Unfortunately, while "The Cape Canaveral Monsters" is very bad, it never comes close to being as bad as "Robot Monster".

The film is supposedly set around Cape Canaveral, Florida. But, being a Floridian, I was amazed to see LOTS of very, very high hills with caves and not a trace of a palm tree or alligator. Frankly, if there WERE caves around Canaveral, they'd be filled up with water, as the land is swampy and very wet. The location was about as un-Canaveral like as you can get--short of filming it in Alaska!

The plot involves two bad actors who have stolen human bodies killed in a car accident. Following their assumption of the bodies as their own, the pair destroy rocket test after rocket test, as their planet does not want the humans venturing into space. They also want to collect a few human specimens to take back to their home planet. Two young folks who work for a professor in charge of the rocket program stumble upon these two undead aliens. Can they stop them or is the Earth royally screwed? The story idea is pretty typical of the genre--and isn't that different from Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space". And, like "Plan 9", the film has a lot of bad acting, crappy props and the like. Bad movie buffs will love watching the Professor deliver his lines as if he's suffering from a traumatic brain injury. They will also love the one-armed guy who clearly has his arm tucked inside his jumpsuit! But the overall level of badness isn't uniform. The male lead isn't a terrible actor and the editing and direction occasionally don't look horrible. Not exactly glowing endorsements, I know, but things that make the film less attractive to those who seek out the very worst! Bad but not quite bad enough is how I see this one.

Director Phil Tucker will always be associated with his 1953 3-D epic "Robot Monster," but after a number of lesser features he made one return to the science fiction genre with 1960's "The Cape Canaveral Monsters," a title that curiously remains in obscurity despite several weird touches provided by Tucker's screenwriting, bypassing theatrical distribution for television screenings in a sci/fi quartet with "The Monster of Piedras Blancas," "The Hideous Sun Demon" and "Flight of the Lost Balloon," all independent productions. Invaders from another world in our solar system are eager to prevent Earth from launching any rockets that might reveal the truth about them, so two alien scientists are dispatched to carve out a cave in the hillside near Florida's Cape Canaveral to set in motion long term sabotage. Originally represented by two dots of light, the creatures engineer the demise of a husband and wife, the man's arm torn off by the force of the car crash, the woman Nadja (Katherine Victor) left with facial scars from a collision with the bloody windshield. Her companion Hauron (Jason Johnson) is naturally eager to find a suitable replacement for his tattered arm, particularly after guard dogs at Cape Canaveral finally rip it off for examination. Another curious notion finds the decomposing invaders retiring for a little off screen canoodling, so it's no wonder that they scour Lover's Lane for mostly female subjects to transmit back to their home planet. One such couple is Tom Wright (Scott Peters) and Sally Markham (Linda Connell), noting strange interference on an illegal radio frequency, enough to lead them to the Bronson Cavern hideaway and the discovery of the space saboteurs. For all its endless talk it remains curiously watchable, not as jaw droppingly bad as the $16,000 "Robot Monster," rather a marked improvement in its uncommon gruesomeness on what may have been a smaller budget, its possession of the deceased prefiguring "Night of the Living Dead," like "Plan 9 from Outer Space" or "Invisible Invaders." The cast is mostly comprised of amateurs, although Jason Johnson played bits in "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (another Lover's Lane highlight) and "The Lost Missile," top billed Scott Peters hardly carving out a name for himself in AIP efforts such as "Invasion of the Saucer Men," "The Amazing Colossal Man," "Attack of the Puppet People" and "Panic in Year Zero!" plus "They Saved Hitler's Brain." Cinematographer W. Merle Connell had previously directed 1952's rarely screened "Untamed Women," but his finest contribution to this minor film was the starring role portrayed by his pretty daughter Linda, whose fresh faced presence makes up for many dull stretches opposite her colorless leading man (Lover's Lane was never more dangerous!). The most familiar face belongs to Katherine Victor, whose long association with huckster filmmaker Jerry Warren extended from 1957's "Teenage Zombies" all the way to 1981's "Frankenstein Island," sinking her teeth into this role for all its worth, a memorable performance under the circumstances.

Cape Canaveral Monsters, The (1960)

* (out of 4)

A couple aliens from an unknown planet come to Earth where they cause a young couple to crash their car. The aliens then take over their bodies with plans to destroy a place where they are setting off missiles. The aliens are against the missiles so they begin to shoot them out of the sky so it's up to a couple other teens to try and save the day. Rumor, myth or truth, it's said that director Phil Tucker attempted suicide after the horrible reviews of his film ROBOT MONSTER. Who knows how much of that is actually true but this thing here is just about as bad. Those art house crowds would be best to stay away from this thing but if you enjoy bad movies then this one here is about as bad and as stupid as you can get. For starters, the plot makes very little to no sense because the screenplay, also by Tucker, never takes any time to explain what the missiles are being used for and we never really get to know why the aliens want to destroy them. The movie runs 68-minutes and the entire story just jumps around without too much logic. One minute a couple teens will get kidnapped and then the very next scene we have their friends, somehow, knowing the aliens took them so they go to find them. There's never any reasoning as to what's going on and this includes some rather silly devices used by the aliens to control the teens. One of the dumbest things is a running joke about the male alien constantly having his arm ripped off. I'm not sure if this was meant as comedy but it does separate this film from countless other sci-fi flicks from this era because the sight of a severed arm wasn't too common in 1960. The car crash at the start of the film was actually filmed fairly well as the camera was placed in the back seat as the "wreck" happened. That's about the best thing that can be said about this film. I wouldn't say this movie is as enjoyable as ROBOT MONSTER but it would certainly make a decent double-feature with that film.

This is a lesser-known effort than the same director's notoriously awful ROBOT MONSTER (1953) but it actually proves somewhat better, if still in no way a good film. It may well be the first zombie picture to receive a sci-fi slant (thus predating George A. Romero's regrettably landmark NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD by 8 years!}), but the monsters' use here is really no different than the various 'alien takeover' ploys we had seen and would continue to see until that particular fad burnt itself out! What is different is that the zombies were rendered so in a car crash, so that the victims are all scarred, bloody and literally torn to pieces (one of them keeps losing an arm throughout)!; their real form, then, is nothing more than a glowing speck which enters the human body through the brain.

The titular site, of course, is the U.S. rocket-launching base and the aliens are here to sabotage their every effort to breach outer space...which they do by shooting an unwieldy bazooka straight at the shuttle (at one point, the man does it while one-armed and hits the bull's-eye regardless – so much for his partner's whining that he should restore his other limb, of course by finding another human donor)! By the way, one of the film's main founts of amusement is the aliens' evident contempt for one another! – incidentally, they occasionally report to their intergalactic superior, who appears on their monitor in the form of a floating pancake!!

At the base, we have the usual motley crew of military brass, rookie scientists and the obligatory German expert, who comes with a geeky-but-cute niece who throws the Doc into a fit by flirting with the young man on his time! The two lovers have to cut loose in order to enjoy some quality time together, meeting with another couple to have themselves a picnic-by-moonlight; however, the hero is too immersed in his work not to notice the static on his pal's radio, which means that a transmitter is being illegally operated in the vicinity (and which, he reasons, may have something to do with the rockets going haywire)! While he and his girl go snooping around, the other two are abducted by the aliens to their cave hide-out and placed half-dangling into what appears to be a sink while the girl is undressed to then be wrapped in a plastic sheet (in preparation for her being transmitted into space), while the boy's body makes for a plastic surgeon's dream as the bruised-up alien pilfers whatever takes his fancy from him – assuming that, if he looks good, he should be less conspicuous when roaming outside!

Hero and heroine are soon in the aliens' clutches themselves, but he manages to escape simply by passing his watch in front of the controls: I have to wonder, at this stage, what would have happened had the leading man not been Physics-savvy! He lands in the home of a hillbilly (who appears before long toting a gun in his pyjamas) and calls the authorities – again, since he is who he is, we do not get the usual wasting-of-time with the hero attempting to make the cops believe his story! Even so, the pace of the 68-minute film is rather slow, being even stopped dead in its tracks at the climax so as to allow most of the cast (including the eminent scientist, who is actually present in some group-shots but not others!) – captured by the aliens by means of a paralyzing gun! – to methodically work out, via mathematical equations, what would cause an explosion from the materials at their disposal inside the cave!

Again, the film is nothing to write home about and yet it does contrive a circular twist ending which was totally unexpected and downright cynical for such a low-brow offering! For the record, this viewing came by way of an old and quite hazy TV transmission that is continually interrupted for ad-breaks (though these were somewhat haphazardly eliminated afterwards).

In preparation of an invasion from outer space two aliens named "Hauron" (Jason Johnson) and "Nadja" (Katherine Victor) inhabit the bodies of a young couple and proceed to carry out their orders to sabotage rocket research at Cape Canaveral. However, after a series of inexplicable rocket failures a young scientist named "Tom Wright" (Scott Peters) begins to have suspicions about possible interference from sinister forces and proceeds to check it out. With him in his inspection of the local area is his girlfriend "Sally Markham" (Linda Connell) who also happens to be the daughter of the lead scientist in charge. But what neither Tom nor Sally fully comprehend is just how sophisticated these aliens are and how inhuman they can be. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was definitely a grade-B, sci-fi film from start to finish which pretty much had nothing novel or original to show for its efforts. Talk about a paint-by-numbers picture. Likewise, the fact that this was a made-for-television movie didn't help much in that regard either. It was all pretty boring. That said I have rated this film accordingly. Below average.

When a couple are killed in an auto accident their bodies are immediately inhabited by extraterrestrial beings. Taking refuge in an underground cave, the aliens attempt to sabotage the United States space program.

Probably the most interesting thing about this film is the story of the director, Phil Tucker. Tucker pumped out six films in two years, including "Robot Monster" and a Lenny Bruce film. Then, after a failed suicide attempt, he made this little-known film. From there he went on to become an editor and worked on such films as "King Kong". So, the story here is more about Tucker than the movie itself.

That being said, the story here is not bad... ignoring the sabotage aspect, we have here a story that may have more to do with vampires than zombies -- the need to use human "life forces" to stay alive. Others have drawn parallels with Romero's "Night of the Living Dead", but I think that is uncalled for.

The idea of a couple aliens arriving on Earth to sabotage the American space programme is actually not bad, but lack of budget and imagination doomed it a schlock ghetto, destined to be remembered by only those who grew up on these types of films during the 60's and 70's. Limitations aside it has a couple effective moments. The one image that stuck in my mind some forty years later followed the alien glowing orbs have possessed the bodies of a couple on the beach and get into a car crash. The male gets one of his arms torn off and the severed limb hangs out of the back window. If you attempt to apply physics and logic to the scene it makes absolutely no sense but it is a very gruesome image. I imagine a crew member crouched in the back seat of the car with his arm dangling there. Luckily these aliens have the technology to restore the limb to its rightful place, but is later torn off again by a guard dog. You may rightly ask why if these aliens can possess a human body why he just doesn't discard this damaged body for a new one, but this would mean not seeing him walk around with one functioning arm. The less you think about these types of films the better. They require the audience to deactivate all higher brain function in order to watch ad enjoy it. This is a hard film to recommend. I had a fondness for it because it was something I watched in the 70's and loved. But a modern audience is not going to be so kind to it and apply the "worst film ever made" stamp on it. My definition of a bad film is one that is absolutely unwatchable and almost painful to sit through. The Cape Canaveral Monsters is too much campy fun to be chucked out with indifference. If you can find it I would give it a marginal recommendation.

A couple of aliens (who in their native state appear to be small balls of light) have reanimated the damaged bodies of a couple killed in a car-crash and are kidnapping people (preferably female) and sabotaging Earth's rocket program as a prelude to invasion. Helmed by Phil Tucker, the man who brought 'Robot Monster' to the screen in 1953, this film is as cheap looking but much less entertaining than the legendry tale of the 'Ro-men' from the Moon and their nefarious plans to destroy Earth with their Calcinator Death-ray. Although 'Cape Canaveral Monsters' takes place in Florida (hence the title), it was filmed on the opposite coast and the characters spend a lot of time running around Griffith Park and the Bronson Caves while looking for, or escaping from, the extraterrestrial zombies. Alien infiltrators impeding our space program and kidnapping our women is nothing new and the only novelty in this film is the beat-up look of the alien's resurrected bodies (one of whom has twice lost an arm and is the recipient of a 'chin transplant'). The script is terrible, especially the nonsensical pseudoscience Tucker sprinkles into the conversions between hero Tom (Scott Peters) and occasionally one-armed 'monster' Hauron (Jason Johnson). The special effect are limited to two glowing circles and some cheap-looking 'science-y' props (once again Tucker's vision of alien technology involves bubbles). As the aliens, Johnson and Katherine Victor (as Nadja) are moderately entertaining but the rest of the cast ranges from non-descript to awful (especially Brian Wood as cranky cracker Elmer). Not a lot happens and even less makes sense so, unless you are a highly tolerant fan of 'bad' movies (or a Phil Tucker groupie), give 'Cape Canaveral Monsters' a miss.

Aliens plan to invade.

But Cap Canaveral may detect the invasion before the aliens are ready. So it is time for a preemptive strike.

The aliens spot a couple of likely bodies on the beach. Creating an auto accident so they can pilfer the left over bodies the aliens are now in position to foil our Cape Canaveral space project.

Will the aliens be detected and harassed by snotty students armed with a transistor radio?

Or will they frees dry a couple of human specimens.

Let this story be a warning to all who past their curfew plan to make out in a convertible on the beach.

The aliens look really hokey. With fake scars and missing limbs.

One fun thing is to look at all the old technology and cars.

The final film directed by the creator of 'Robot Monster'; whose title alien had at least worn a helmet to indicate that he was from outer space. This pair reconnoitring the Hollywood Hills for a planned invasion of the Earth look more like a vacationing couple. Which is what they probably were before they swapped bodies before the credits the way The Mysterons used to in 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'; to which Tucker's malevolent little green circles from space bear a passing resemblance.

As played by the sneering, scar-faced Katherine Victor, with the suspiciously Russian-sounding name 'Nadja', the female half of the pair seems to be the one wearing the trousers (literally as well as metaphorically); and like the Robot Monster they keep in touch with their controller via a radio (here topped by what resembles an enormous rotating Pringles Dip) concealed in the Hollywood Hills while the rest of the cast wander about the vicinity and talk. And Talk.

After the launch of Sputnik by the Russians in 1957 there were many attempts to launch American satellites that for a while were all ending in failure. I remember as a kid seeing the launches and seeing them fail every couple of months or so. By 1960 however we seemed to be getting it right and the following year we were sending men in space for the Mercury project.

So in 1960 The Cape Canaveral Monsters was already a dated film on release. This dud of a science fiction film is as big a dud as some of those early launches from Cape Canaveral. This would have you believe that aliens who when not taking over dead human bodies are just dots of light are worried about our progress in space flight and are sabotaging our space program. Has to figure, if not aliens then its those Communists on orders from Moscow.

A cast where you never heard of anybody performs their parts on the level of grade school drama. Some newsreel footage of our failure satellite launches integrated into some bad special effects and worse acting characterizes this film made by klutzes.

How can any horror fan growing up with horror flicks of the late 50's through mid 60's ever deny films like The Cape Canaveral Monsters, Attack of the 50ft Woman, Amazing Colossal Man, etc.? Excellent drive-in horror! We start with a seemingly innocent couple who are driving to a rocket lauch. BUT... A spaceship lands while they're enroute. And this radioactive alien (who's just a hairy white man made to look big) contaminates them and turns them into The Cape Canaveral Monsters. Then, they go on this mission with a laser shooting missiles and satellites when they are launched from Cape Canaveral. It's really quite fun.

This Strange and Somewhat Obscure Little Movie is a Victim of Herd Mentality.

Potential Viewers have Their Minds Poisoned by Ghouls Posing as "Film-Critics".

These Supposed Insightful Investigators of B-Movies who Love to Point-Out the Inadequacies of Shoe-String Budgets and Film-Makers with Questionable Talent.

The Ridicule and Rotten Tomatoes Thrown at this Barely a Budget, Little Seen Sci-Fi Horror Hybrid, is Linked to the Infamous Writer/Director Phil Tucker.

Tucker Became a Whipping-Boy for the "Bandwagon" Bunch of Eye-Pokers because He made what the "Cult of Criticism" Deemed "One of the Worst Films Ever"...

"Robot Monster' (1953)

This Straight-Faced, Scientific Jargon Infused Effort from Tucker, is so Entertaining with its Near-Genius Use of Very Limited Resources,

Once Watched Shames the Aforementioned "Nattering Nabobs of Criticism".

The Claims of Incompetence and Ineptitude are Rendered Moot and Without Merit.

The Movie's Failure to Deliver Prints to Theatres and thus Destine it to the Fringes and Ending in a Television Package with No Previous Release.

That's Why there is No Promotional Art in Existence.

The Film is a Seldom Scene Piece of Primitive Art.

Imaginative, Resourceful, and quite a Hoot.

It Incorporates Sexploitation Ingredients, a Snazzy Score, and Trite but Effective Sound and Visuals.

Over All, this may be a Candidate for the Best Movie to Receive the "So Bad its Good" Slogan.

The Cliche Haters Love to Hang on the Victims of Their Vitriol.

Lurid, Seedy, Sleazy, and Tons of No-Money Enjoyment is there for the Non-Sheep.

Those Seekers of the Unusual.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Phil Tucker; Produced by Richard Greer; Executive Producer: Lionel Dichter; American TV syndication release by American-International TV. Screenplay by Phil Tucker; Photography by W. Merle Connell; Edited by Richard Greer; Music by Gene Kauer. Starring Scott Peters, Linda Connell, Jason Johnson, Katherine Victor; Harriet Dichter, Chuck Howard, Bill Vess and Joe Chester.

Incredibly dated science fiction film about alien saboteurs infiltrating the American space project. Amateurish acting, with special hamminess from Linda Connell as Nadia the Spacelady. It has a few unintentional humorous moments to keep it from being discarded out of hand.

I did not know this science-fiction film from the director of ROBOT MONSTER, which was on the same line, the same spirit, same atmosphere and also the same kind of directing as this one. I mean a not so bad stuff, regarding the match box budget which was allowed to it. It is on the same scale as the Roger Corman's films from the fifties. It is really enjoyable, fun, perfect material for the drive in audiences on saturday evenings programs. It is not a masterpiece, and only the science-fictions fans will appreciate it. We are lucky that ths movie is still available, easily simple to find, to purchase. But, of course, don't watch it at the first degree, it is not WAR OF THE WORLDS....

Cape Canaveral Monsters Review 1960. Humans. One armed man. Dogs. Aliens. Aka The Ape Canaveral Monsters - indeed. See the many monsters at Ape Canaveral before The Revolution!

Monster analysis and count: Humans: A great many; movie is populated with them.

Alien Severed Arm: 1 (Note: arm was also previously severed).

Aliens: 2 Energy masses disguised as humans. (Note: one is one-armed for part of the movie). (they are not LGM) Dogs: 2 Pig Latin: ixnay {pig latin invented by the 3 Stooges is employed}

The humans are the real monsters. You will see spacefaring technology, rockets, computers, transistor radios, lots of found footage of rocket launches. Ape-tastic: 1; Black Monolith with Apes: 1; Conelrad Alert: 4; Human Alert: Monsters; Indian Head Test Pattern: 1; Monkeys at a Typewriter: 2; Poop Show: 0; Propeller Cap: 2. Fun Fact: only movie with "Ape Canaveral" in the title.

History of the Ape Canaveral Breakout: the revolution began at the Ape Canaveral Launch Facility when the space apes began their rampage. The revolution spread. The whole of the Continent of Ape Canaveral was taken over by the magnificence and bravery of these astronaut apes!

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