TEENAGE MONSTER (1957)

In June, 1880, on the outskirts of an Old West town, Ruth, her husband Jim and their 10-year-old son Charlie are hunting for gold in a cave when a meteor falls from the sky, killing Jim and scarring Charlie's face. Seven years later, Charlie has become a large, hairy, deformed man, still with the mind of a child, barely able to communicate. He and his mother have been living in an isolated cave while Ruth still looks for gold. Occasionally the restless Charlie escapes, killing cattle and sheep, scaring children, and sometimes killing a person who stumbles into his path. Ruth finally discovers a vein of gold, buys a small house, and keeps Charlie isolated in an upstairs bedroom. She also begins a mild flirtation with Bob, the local sheriff. Jealous of the attention his mom is giving to someone else, Charlie eventually attacks Kathy, a young waitress. Ruth pays Kathy not to tell anyone, and to live with them as a companion. When Kathy's boyfriend Marv finds out she has money, he takes the money from her, and she gets Charlie to kill Marv for her. Eventually, Kathy starts blackmailing Ruth, then decides to get Charlie to kill both Ruth and Bob. There are unhappy endings all around.

The thing anyone who has seen this movie will tell you first is that there isn't really a teenage monster—the actor playing the "teenaged" Charlie, Gil Perkins, is fifty and looks it, and the hairy monster makeup ages him even more. The second thing they'll tell you is that the movie isn't very good. It isn't, not even as a campy good-bad movie. It was made because the producer needed a second feature to run with his slightly better B-horror film THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS. At least two of the cast members are legitimate actors with careers: Anne Gwynne (Ruth) who appeared in over fifty B-films and TV shows from 1939 to the 1950s, and Gloria Castillo (Kathy), known to sci-fi fans for INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN. They both overact, as does Gil Perkins (the monster), who had a long career in TV and in stunt work. Perkins growls his dialogue in a way that makes it understandable only half the time. The slightly manic edge brought to the performances encourages kinky psychological readings of the plot that were almost certainly not intended by the filmmakers. Stuart Wade, as Bob, gives the only low-key performance, but it doesn't help. The repetition of the monster constantly escaping and his mother constantly telling him not to gets wearying. The director, Jacques R. Marquette, was mostly a producer and cinematographer and never directed another film. Not recommended. Pictured are Perkins and Castillo. [YouTube]