The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (also known as Monsters of the Night and The Night Crawlers) is a 1966 American science fiction horror film, produced by Jack Broder (and Roger Corman, uncredited), written and directed by Michael A. Hoey, and distributed by Realart Pictures Inc. It stars Mamie Van Doren, Anthony Eisley
Plot teaser:
A group of scientists with Operation Deep Freeze discover frozen prehistoric trees and other specimens in the Antarctic dating back to the first Ice Age; the scientists collect samples for further study and load them aboard a C-47 transport plane.
The dull, workaday life at the Navy weather station base on Gow Island in the South Pacific is interrupted when that same transport plane, on a routine approach for re-fueling, experiences some kind of unusual trouble and crash-lands on the island’s single airstrip, blocking its further use. The seven scientists and crew who were aboard the cargo plane when it left the Antarctic are now missing; the only one found aboard is the plane’s pilot, who is traumatized and in a state of shock, unable to speak.
Unloading the prehistoric cargo from the crashed plane, local scientist Dr. Arthur Beecham recommends planting the trees to ensure their survival in the island’s tropical conditions. Awhile later, Gow Island’s bird population becomes disturbed by something unknown; at the same time, the weather station’s scientists try to figure out a connection between this event and a corrosive residue that starts turning up at various island locations. It slowly becomes clear that the planted prehistoric trees have quickly grown into acid-secreting, carnivorous monsters that move about Gow Island at will during the night…
Reviews:
“It only takes a couple of names to alert you to the quality of this stinkerino – bra-filling blond bombshell, Mamie Van Doren and the face-acting comic foil, Bobby Van (who, for whatever reason, insists on calling everybody “Charlie Brown”). A number of other recognizable, post-50s types also appear, like Billy Gray (Father Knows Best), Taggart Casey (Viva Las Vegas) and Anthony Eisley (on his post-Hawaiian Eye downfall tour).” Willard’s Wormholes
“Those long, meandering, and downright insipid dialogue scenes are perhaps just as much to blame for this film’s failings as the unconvincing monsters – there’s a good twenty to twenty-five minutes of padding where people sit around just talking and talking and talking about what they might do about these terrible night monsters, and sometimes these people are wholly tangential to the rest of the movie (the Admiral and his chronies, for instance, sit around Navy HQ on the mainland blathering about the situation on the island to themselves). There’s also a romantic sub-plot that goes absolutely nowhere.” A Fistful of Cult
“Writer/director Hoey, son of stalwart Brit character man Dennis Hoey, complained bitterly (and publicly) about post-production interference from executive producer Jack Broder, who padded the already talky script with 12 additional minutes in order to achieve the 90-minute feature he’d been contracted to deliver as well as the hokey creature feature title. (Hoey wanted to call it “Nightcrawlers.”) While I respect Broder’s businessman obligations, shorter could have only been better in this case.” Horror 101
Choice dialogue:
“This is ridiculous!”
“That’s the heartbeat of a man in mortal terror.”
Thanks to 1966 My Favorite Year!
