Fateful cargo

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Movie
German title Fateful cargo
Original title The Navy vs. the night monsters
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1966
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK Unknown
Rod
Director Michael A. Hoey , Jon Hall
script Michael A. Hoey based on an assist by Murray Leinster
production Jack Broder / Roger Corman for Standard Club of California Productions
music Gordon Payers
camera Stanley Cortez
cut George White
occupation

Fatal Cargo ( The Navy vs. the Night Monsters ) is an American science fiction - or monster movie with Mamie Van Doren in the female lead. The production is based on Murray Leinster's novel Monster from the End of the World .

The world premiere took place on May 19, 1966 in San Antonio / Texas . In Germany , the film was not shown in theaters , but was first broadcast on West German television ( RTL plus ) on January 24, 1986 .

action

A C-47 Dakota of the United States Navy transported to the scientific study penguins and plant samples from the Antarctic in the United States . To refuel, the plane has to land on the ( fictional ) South Sea island of Gow, which is located west of Ecuador . There is a naval base on Gow. In addition to the crew, there are also some scientists on board.

During the flight a jolt goes through the machine, for which the pilots have no explanation. A crew member then goes into the hold to investigate the cause. He was found seriously injured during the approach. Some crew members flee from an invisible danger that comes from the hold and rush out of the open aircraft door.

The pilot, the only survivor, succeeds in landing on Gow, but he is in shock and cannot make any statements. Strangely, in addition to the flight crew and the scientists, a penguin has also disappeared. The base crew is clueless and, since the emergency landing machine the Tower has damaged the airfield, not even via radio reach the superior authority on the American mainland.

Little by little, several members of the base disappear at night. Eventually a guard is mutilated by a running tree and dies. This allows the opponent to be identified. The plant samples contained tree seeds that have now developed into trees. The trees are carnivores that walk on their roots. Since firearms are ineffective against the enemy, one of the scientists builds Molotov cocktails with which the base occupants set the monsters on fire. Nevertheless they threaten to succumb to the overwhelming power of the plant monsters.

Finally, the radio station can be put back into operation. The superior service orders the aircraft carrier Hudson Bay in the direction of Gow and its fighter-bombers destroy the plant monsters with napalm and on-board weapons.

Production notes

Working titles were The Navy vs. the Night Crawlers and The Night Crawlers . The model was the science fiction film The Thing from Another World from 1951. Murray Leinster's novel The Monster from Earth's End from 1959 served as a reference . The film budget was $ 178,000, at the time around DM 700,000.

Other performance titles include Os Monstros da Noite ( Brazil ), Monsters of the Night ( Great Britain ) and Yön hirviöt ( Finland ).

criticism

For the film service , the strip is a “cheap science fiction film of involuntary humor”.

Lore

In 2017 a DVD was edited by Cargo Records Germany . As far as is known, a German-language VHS has not been released, so the film was apparently not available in video stores either .

literature

  • Murray Leinster: Monster from the End of the World . Utopia Science Fiction No. 549 (ca.1965)
  • Philip Strick: Science Fiction Movies , London (Octopus Books Limited) 1976. ISBN 0-7064-0470-X
  • Tom Weaver: Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls and Makeup , Jefferson, NC (McFarland% Company) 2006. ISBN 978-0-78642-858-8

Web links