Tonight we took a break from our Roger Corman Fest to watch a weird little thriller called "Frozen Alive"(1964), starring Noir hero Mark Stevens as a doctor researching the medical benefits of cryogenics. In the modern day, the process involves folks who are preserved after death, but in the movie, the researchers are studying the effects of freezing living beings, starting with monkeys. The screenwriter didn't bother to explain exactly why they were cooling the chimps, other than to see if they could be brought back to life once thawed out. I believe the premise was to stop the progress of cancer and other diseases until a cure could be found, whereas now the idea is to stop death itself.
At any rate, Stevens and his partner "Dr. Helen Weiland" (Marianne Koch) are about to give a speech in front of the Low Temperature Research Foundation, where they will announce their intention to freeze a human subject within the next year. They display the frozen monkeys to the group and all are impressed, except for one man, "Professor Hubbard" (John Longden). He draws the line at freezing a human being. As he oversees funding, the future of the project is in his hands.
"Using apes is one thing but I will not be a party to this. When the current budget runs out the project will be cancelled".
The doctors are crushed by this news and try to convince Hubbard to change his mind, but Stevens has another problem to deal with; his wife Joan (Delphi Lawrence), a reporter, is having an affair with "Tony" (Joachim Hansen), a co-worker. Tony wants Joan to leave her husband, but she's only cheating on him to make him jealous. She believes Stevens is having his own fling with the attractive Dr. Weiland. He isn't- their relationship is only professional, but that doesn't quell Joan's suspicions. She drinks and carries on with Tony and blames it all on Stevens and his project, which takes up all his time and keeps him in the company of his female partner.
One day, Joan steals Tony's gun and shows up at the lab to threaten Dr. Weiland. Stevens arrives in the nick of time and talks her down. They go home together where he once again reassures Joan that he loves only her. This time, Joan believes him. She's embarrassed by her behavior and vows to stop drinking and seeing Tony. The next day, she goes to his apartment to return the stolen gun, but Tony catches her in the act. An argument ensues when she tells him the affair is over, and while Joan is waving the gun around she accidentally shoots herself. Tony, being a shady guy to begin with, wipes the gun and stages the scene to look like a murder. Then he leaves his apartment and sets up an alibi for himself. When Joan's body is discovered by the maid, she calls the cops. They immediately suspect Dr. Stevens, Joan's husband. After all, his wife was seeing another man. The doctor must've found her at his place and shot her, happens all the time.
If you're wondering where the sci-fi went, that's why I referred to this movie as a "thriller" at the top of this review. I was expecting it to focus on the cryogenics experiment with perhaps an unusual story of freezing a man into another dimension or something along those lines, but instead it turns first into a domestic dispute and then a murder mystery. Now the police are involved and trying to locate Stevens, but wouldn't you know it, he's just this minute frozen himself. Yes indeedy. The cops show up at the cryo lab and are told by a Veddy Brrrittissh senior scientist that Dr. Stevens isn't available for questioning because he's now unconscious with a body temperature of minus 80-C.
"A likely story", right? But it's true, and a total coincidence! Stevens did not jump into the cryo tank to escape a murder charge - as we've seen, he didn't do it and besides, he doesn't even know his wife is dead. He only volunteered for chillin' because he didn't want the project to end without a human experiment. They had no one else lined up so he decided to do it himself, and it was the perfect time because he was no longer preoccupied with the turmoil at home. He and his wife had just reconciled and all was well.
Yeah, but try telling that to the cops. They aren't buying it, and the Intimidating Inspector demands a thaw-out. "We've got to talk to talk to him"!
"Yes, well I'm afraid that isn't possible"! - the senior Brit.
This tug-of-war will lead to a climax where Dr. Weiland is forced to resuscitate Stevens, to avoid being hauled off as an accomplice. When it looks like he might die in the process, she stops in mid warm-up and orders the liquid nitrogen turned on again. Will Dr. Stevens have to remain frozen forever, or will there be a last minute reversal? I can't tell ya, but it's not gonna be a huge surprise. The movie gets points for the murder mystery and for having a "cool" cryogenics lab (couldn't resist the pun), but I was a little disappointed that it wasn't the full-on sci-fi movie I was expecting. I'm still gonna give it Two Regular Thumbs Up because it only runs 66 minutes and the story never lags. See it for yourself if you're running low on Cormans.
Since we once again have a shorter than usual review, I'll give you a quickie about another flick I watched last weekend but neglected to mention because it wasn't that great and I did have some Corman Classics to write about. It was called "Terror in the Midnight Sun"(1959), a Swedish production in which a meteor strikes Lapland. At least, it looks like a meteor but on closer inspection it turns out to be an Alien Spacecraft. The "meteor effect" at the beginning of the movie is pretty good considering the budget, and so is the photography. The movie was actually filmed above the Arctic Circle, in the land of the midnight sun, so there is truth in the title, and the filmmakers get bonus points for selecting Lapland, of all places, as the setting for an Alien Invasion. But the Swedes also show that they can make as incoherent a cheapie sci-fi as any American outfit, and instead of building on the impressive opening sequence, the "director" shifts gears to spend the next twenty minutes developing a romance between the scientist sent to study the meteor, and a local ice-skating champion - the daughter of his mentor.
Huh? (yeah, that's what I was thinking too).........Ice Skating? In the middle of a Monster Movie? I mean, I know we're in Sweden, but.....
Well anyway, you just know the Ice Skater is gonna end up getting carried off by The Monster. It's just too bad they spent so much time getting to this point. Maybe they avoided the eventuality because they knew they had One Of The Worst Monsters in Sci-Fi History. He's supposed to look like a Yeti, but instead his costume resembles a lot of throw rugs sewn together with an ALF Halloween Mask where the face goes. He isn't the pilot of the spacecraft, either. There are a couple of Coneheads who are controlling him with the Standard Intent of world domination. The Coneheads are really cool and I don't understand why the director didn't make more use of them. He could've had a good movie if he did. Instead, I've gotta give "Terror in the Midnight Sun" a below average rating of just One and One Half Stars. It's worth seeing for the Coneheads and the unusual setting, but overall it was nothing to write home to Lapland about. /////
That's all I've got for the moment. See you later tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
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