The Alligator People (1959)
Alligator-Human Hybrids
B movie with Beverly Garland venturing into the swamps in search of her missing husband to find a scientist has transformed him into an alligator hybrid
Films of 1959
The Angry Red Planet (1959)
Mission to Mars
1950s B movie about an expedition to Mars that encounters exotic and hostile lifeforms there. Not much happens before the aliens pronounce judgement on humanity
The Atomic Submarine (1959)
Submarine Encounters Flying Saucer
A low-budget but surprisingly reasonable mix of submarine drama and 1950s alien invader film with a submarine crew tracking a flying saucer
Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)
Giant Killer Leeches Amok
A typical 1950s B monster movie. The first half creates an entertainingly torrid drama in the bayous, although when they eventually turn up the giant leeches never get to do much
The Bat (1959)
Old Dark House Thriller
The second remake of the still superior silent Old Dark House classic. The original had incredibly vivid visuals but despite the addition of sound and Vincent Price, this version feels creaky and dated
Black Orpheus (1959)
Modernised Greek Myth
An extraordinary film that offers a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, relocating it amid the Rio Carnival with striking and colourful results
A Bucket of Blood (1959)
Murderous Beatnik Artist/Black Comedy
A quirky low-budget black comedy from cult B movie director Roger Corman with Dick Miller as a wannabe who suddenly receives artistic acclaim when he exhibits dead bodies in plaster as works of art
City of the Dead (1959)
Town of Occultists/Reincarnated Witch
An effort from the early days of the Anglo-horror cycle about a town ruled by a reincarnated witch. This comes drenched in a good deal of heavy black-and-white atmosphere
The Cosmic Man (1959)
Alien Visitor
A low-budget 1950s SF film with John Carradine as a mysterious, shadowy alien visitor. This borrows a good many of its ideas from The Day the Earth Stood Still
Curse of the Undead (1959)
Vampire Western
The world’s first vampire Western featuring a vampire gunslinger. Today it’d be called Cowboys vs Vampires but such casual genre cross-hatching didn’t exist back then and it astride two genres with not uninteresting results
Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959)
Disney Leprechaun Film
This leprechaun fantasy is one of the best and most underrated live-action films Disney ever made. The effects are at a peak of the era and the film plays with a sublime charm that proves absolutely winning
Eyes Without a Face (1959)
Mad Killer Surgeon
Classic French thriller about a mad surgeon who abducts women to graft their faces onto his disfigured daughter. The film has a rare visual poetry combined with moments of horror that are still effective decades later
First Man Into Space (1959)
Mutated Astronaut
British-made SF film that is undeniably influenced by The Quatermass Xperiment about a test pilot turned into a mutated monster after flying above the upper atmosphere
First Spaceship on Venus (1959)
Soviet Space Mission
A Soviet space exploration film from East Germany concerning an expedition to Venus. This was the first film to depict an international space mission but proves stolid dramatically
The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959)
Shrunken Head Curse
Someone decided to make a horror film about the practice of shrinking heads conducted by some South American Indian tribes. Despite starting well, this is mostly dull and pedestrian
The 4D Man (1959)
Incorporeal Man
Surprisingly good 1950s film in which scientist Robert Lansing invents a process that allows him to become insubstantial and walk through walls. The effects are very good and this attains some eerie effect
Ghost Story of Yotsuya (1959)
Japanese Ghost Story
Japanese ghost story based on a kabuki play that has been filmed numerous times. Much more character and story driven than modern kaidan eiga, this builds to a grim and spooky climax with undeniable effect
The Giant Gila Monster (1959)
Giant Monster Movie
A cheap and impoverished entry in the 1950s fad for giant animal movies with the giant monster being unconvincingly represented by an optically enlarged lizard
Have Rocket — Will Travel (1959)
Idiots Launched Into Space Comedy
Full-length comedy from The Three Stooges where the idiots are janitors at a space centre who accidentally launch themselves into space. One of several Space Age films where popular comics where launched into space
Hercules Unchained (1959)
Greek Mythological Hero
Sequel to the Steve Reeves-starring Hercules where Hercules is wooed by an evil queen after drinking the Waters of Forgetfulness. Spectacular but stolid
The Hideous Sun Demon (1959)
Mutated Scientist
1950s B movie, one of several inspired by The Quatermass Xperiment on the theme of mutating astronauts/scientists. Nothing hugely standout from the average, although the creature certainly lives up to the hideous description
Horrors of the Black Museum (1959)
Psycho Crime Writer
A highly entertaining Herman Cohen production where Michael Gough plays a mad crime writer who employs a series of cruel sensationalistic deaths for his victims
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Hammer Sherlock Holmes Film/Ghostly Dog Mystery
Hammer Films’ one and only Sherlock Holmes adaptation. It is beautiful to see the opulence of early Hammer productions brought to bear giving the story unusually effective life
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Haunted House
One of the key films from William Castle, the P.T. Barnum of the horror genre. Castle always approached horror like a carnival barker. Castle does not have much style but the luridness of his shocks proves entertaining
Invisible Invaders (1959)
Alien Invaders Possess the Dead
A B budget 1950s alien invasion film that cuts cost by having the invasion represented by stock footage and the resurrected dead in a series of images that prefigure Night of the Living Dead
Jack the Ripper (1959)
Jack the Ripper Killings
Dramatisation of the Jack the Ripper murders that resembles a cheap British quota quickie but musters some okay gaslit atmosphere. Alas, the film has done little research on the details of Ripper casefile
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Underground Adventures/Jules Verne Adaptation
The success of Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea created a spate of Jules Verne’s adaptation. Here Verne’s tale of explorers in an underground realm has been turned into an absurdly colourful adventure
The Manster (1959)
Two-Headed Man Amok
Fascinatingly torrid US-Japan production about a man who develops a second head on his shoulder that takes over his personality
The Miracle (1959)
Statue of the Virgin Mary Comes to Life/Catholic Historical Romance
A ridiculously melodramatic Catholic historical drama wherein a statue of the Virgin Mary comes to life to take the place of a nun so she can run off and woo a young Roger Moore … A lushly made canvas but otherwise absurdly overwrought piety
The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)
Prehistoric Monster
Minor and largely undistinguished 1950s monster movie. The monster is a blatant copy of The Creature of the Black Lagoon and similarly has biologically improbable designs on the heroine. Routine on all accounts
The Mouse That Roared (1959)
The World's Smallest Country Invades the USA
Peter Sellers comedy where the smallest country in the world invades the USA and ends up accidentally winning
The Mummy (1959)
Revived Mummy/Hammer Film
After their enormously successful revival of Dracula and Frankenstein, Hammer Films and Terence Fisher turned to revive the mummy film, all with the bold, vivid effect of their early films
On the Beach (1959)
The Nuclear Holocaust
The first major film confronting nuclear war full on with the world’s last survivors gathered in Australia. Slightly ponderous today but nevertheless full of potent imagery
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
Alien Invasion/Classic Bad Movie
This has become legendary as the Worst Film Ever Made. Maybe it is but the audience that celebrates its technical gaffes, the purple prose and bizarre bheind-the-scenes stories has contrarily made it one of cultish fascination
Prince of Space (1959)
Japanese Space Opera
Japanese film about a superhero defending Earth against alien invaders that travels into incredibly bad movie stakes with its painfully cheap effects and frequent dialogue howlers
Return of the Fly (1959)
The Fly Sequel
The first of the sequels to the original The Fly where the scientist’s son begins his own experiments
The Shaggy Dog (1959)
Teenager Transforms Into a Dog/Disney Comedy
The first of Disney’s live-action comedies, a comic variant on the werewolf story with Tommy Kirk turning into a dog. Mildly amusing but later efforts would do this type of comedy better
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Disney Animation/Fairy-Tale
One of the finest of all Disney animated films, an adaptation of the fairytale made with the full artistic resources that studio could bring to bear
Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure (1959)
Jungle Hero
One of the best of all Tarzan films made under producer Sy Weintraub who dispensed with the cutsie elements of the earlier films and focused on gritty adventure
Terror in the Midnight Sun (1959)
Alien Monster
Possibly the dreariest alien invader film ever made. A US film shot in Sweden about an expedition to find a crashed meteorite. An alien monster that looks like a giant shaggy Yeti turns up in the last few minutes.
Terror is a Man (1959)
Scientist Creates Beast People
This has the distinction of being the film that started off the Filipino exploitation industry. A fairly blatant copy of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr Moreau, it is mostly routine
The Testament of Dr Cordelier (1959)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Adaptation
Jean Renoir is considered one of the greatest of all film directors – this is his only venture into genre material, a version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Though Renoir seems disinterested in making a horror film, he offers up the most faithful interpretation of the story on screen to date
The 30-Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959)
Giant Woman Comedy
The one and only solo outing from Lou Costello of Abbott and Costello fame made after the duo’s split-up and just before Lou’s death. The film is essentially a comedy remake of the previous year’s Attack of the 50 Foot Woman in which Lou’s newlywed wife abruptly becomes a giant
The Tingler (1959)
Capturing the Spirit of Fear
The finest moment from gimmick master William Castle with Vincent Price as a coroner searching for a parasite that feeds on fear. Full of Castle’s luridly sensationalistic effects and containing the first portrayal of an LSD trip on screen.
The Virgin Spring (1959)
Revenge Film
One of the classic works from Ingmar Bergman, uncreditedly remade by Wes Craven as The Last House on the Left, with Max Von Sydow as a virtuous farmer who is driven to vengeance after three youths rape and kill his daughter
The Wasp Woman (1959)
Rejuvenation Formula/Wasp Woman
Roger Corman cheapie clearly influenced by The Fly in which a woman becomes a creature after using a beauty product derived from wasp venom