The Beast with a Million Eyes

1955 "An unspeakable horror... Destroying... Terrifying!"
3.7| 1h18m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 15 June 1955 Released
Producted By: San Mateo Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

At a decrepit farm outside a remote American desert community, something takes over the minds of some of the local humans and animals and is able to see through their eyes and control their actions.

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Director

Roger Corman, David Kramarsky

Production Companies

San Mateo Productions

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The Beast with a Million Eyes Audience Reviews

Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film
Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Fritz Souder I'll bet you dollars to donuts that Alfred Hitchcock got his idea for "The Birds" from this odd movie. With birds and chickens attacking people. The effects were cheap but did the trick. Check out the documentary on Roger Corman, he was an interesting guy.Back in the fifties and sixties there were plenty of movies like this and we all watched them to pass the time. They were cheaply made but we all enjoyed watching. I'll bet Alfred and Corman became buddies. Roger Corman sure had some odd movies and I watched all the cheesiness when I was a kid. Here I am many years later wondering why. It's surprising Hitchcock didn't make a movie called "The Cows". Ha ha ha!
sol ***SPOILERS*** The movie "Beast with one million eyes" has to do with this alien spaceship that looks like a futurist, for 1955, vacuum cleaner that takes over people as well as animals brains and cause them to do things that's destructive to themselves. Like going nuts as well as in all directions in and around the nearby California Desert. Why it does that is hard to figure out since it needs their very bodies,that's human bodies, for it or it's occupant,the beast with one not one million eyes,to survive.It's date farmer Allen Kelly, Paul Birch, who figures out what this thing is really all about but only after it ended up killing off half he cast of the movie. That's by destroying their brain cells and leaving them brain dead and in other cases like old man Cheaster Conklin-played by Ben Webber-who back in 1898 road with Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders up San Juan hill-have his cow do the dirty work for it. Allen was a lot luckier since he together with his wife Carol and daughter Sandy, Lorna Thayer & Donna Cole, were able to consolidate their brain power to keep it from destroying them. Not so their pet dog Duke and handyman Karl, Bruce Whitmore. Karl who can't talk due to a brain injury he suffered in WWII was easy prey for it since he was using half not his entire brain to fight it.***SPOILERS*** It's just when things began to look at their worst that Allen discovered the only weapon that can possibly defeat the thing, beast with one million eyes, and together with Carol & Sandy used that very powerful human emotion to put it to flight: The power of love! You can really see how desperate those who made the movie were in that even the special effects were as phony and cheap as any film made by the great bad movie director Ed Wood. Yet you somehow can't help liking the movie in that everyone in it,including the animals, seemed genuinely inspired by it! As if the films massage of "Love Conquers All" as well as the evil alien from outer space meant far more then the movies flimsy storyline or it's even flimsier special effects!
Mickey Micklon A strange thing has flown over the home of a family somewhere in a desert area. As it flew over, it made an unusual whine, and shook the ground and buildings as it passed. The family is already under a lot of stress due to the situation with the crop, and it has put a strain on everybody.Shortly after the thing flew over the property, the animals, domestic and wild alike, begin to exhibit strange behavior which includes attacking the people near them. Eventually, it is learned that the strange behavior comes from a small space craft of unknown origin. Whatever, or whoever, is inside eventually begins to control the humans which it comes in contact with.Let me say first, this movie is horrible. As I watched it, it began to appear that the title was very misleading. However, after some online research, I learned that the title refers to the alien force's (voiced by Bruce Whitmore) ability to see through the beings it possesses. This ability is not very clear, especially when we see the creature in the last minutes of the movie.The acting is not great in this one, and is pretty much forgettable. Out of the entire, extremely tiny cast of six people (on-screen), I would have to say Paul Birch, who plays the father/husband who eventually figures out something to defeat the creature, has the strongest performance of the entire cast. However, that's not saying much due to this being a typical B movie with an extremely weak script.This movie is suppose to be a sci-fi/horror. It does have a touch of science-fiction, but the horror is more laughable than scary. The first wave of the alien creature's attack is through the local domesticated and wild animals. You have the family dog apparently trying to kill the wife/mother (Lorna Thayer) at one point, but it is obvious that the dog is just running around enjoying itself. Not once did it look menacing. Another point, she is attacked by the chickens in the coop on the property, and this is easily the most laughable attack of them all since it's pretty obvious the chickens are being thrown at her from people off-camera.This is a low-budget movie, and it painfully shows when it comes to the special effects. The alien, which is seen briefly at the movie's climax, is obviously a rubber figurine. At one point, as the creature is revealed, it is covered by an eye ball obviously added in post production. The most annoying effect though has to be what is suppose to be the space craft's engine. I actually had to turn down my computer's volume because of it. The noise was not comfortable to my ears.The only reason to see this movie is its message of love. You might roll your eyes a bit when the message is revealed in the climax of the movie with the way it is related to the situation, but it is still a good message.If you like these kind of films, check it out. You probably would enjoy it more than others. If you expect some great scares, then avoid this one since they aren't there. This is not a great movie at all.
BaronBl00d Now it is very easy to lambaste this film for so many things. The cheesy special effects(where reviewers have compared the alien spacecraft to a percolator or tea kettle)or how about the cloth birds thrown at Paul Birch's car. That is the extent of the special effect except of course for the "horrifying" finale where the mastermind is revealed. Somebody pinch me so I do not relive that horror another moment. Okay, let's get real. What about the animals - real, live animals - which are supposedly mad and dangerous. A dog wagging it tail in attack mode? The dog looked liked it was being trained in real time and was about as dangerous as the chances of any actors in this film winning an Oscar. A mad bull suppose to be a milking cow moving on in an attack like molasses. Paper and cloth birds and an innocuous crow sitting in a date palm. Scary stuff. The story basically has some alien mastermind introduced at the film's beginning saying he will take over earth for his dying alien race by first mastering the simple minds of the animals and plants and then moving on to the human beings. Whilst its execution is anything but pretty, The Beast with a Million Eyes is really one of the first nature goes awry films - films like The Day of the Animals, Prophecy, Grizzly, and so on owe the film a little bit - okay, a micro-little bit, but it is one of the first of its kind. What does it have going for it? Honestly not much. Paul Birch is mediocre but at least can act. I wish I could say that about the other thespians but would choke if I tried. Lorna Thayer plays his wife with reckless over-acting. She was an actress of some note and today is best known as the waitress from Five Easy Pieces with the notorious chicken salad sandwich scene. Dona Cole plays the daughter Sandy and she is just awful - no wonder her film career was quite limited. Dick Sargent(the second Darren from Bewitched) and Leonard Traver as the hulking, mute, ax-wielding "Him" are barely serviceable. One minor surprise was seeing great silent film comedian Chester Conklin in a brief but satisfying role. He even gets to do a little shtick for us before his udderly ridiculous departure. I have one big question. Why would an alien mastermind trying to take over the world start on a barely populated date farm in the middle of nowhere. Nothing much here in terms of animal/plant/or human life? You can tell the movie was made on a shoe-string budget and has obvious, for many, irrevocable flaws. But despite all of these imperfections, I found the movie to have some heart and think we should all get together and give it some love. Paul Birch's character would be so happy with that.