The Mole People is a 1956 SF film best known from the classic monster photos of the Mole Men that appeared in almost every issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland back in the 60’s. Starring John Agar and Hugh Beaumont, nothing else about the movie can be considered ‘classic’ as it tries to stretch 20 minutes of plot into an 80 minute movie.
Hugh Beaumont, John Agar and Nestor Paiva
Archaeologists Agar and Beaumont discovery an ancient tablet in what looks a lot like the Gobi desert of Mongolia (a place that I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time in digging up dinosaurs) that leads them to climb a nearby mountain(!) in search of an ancient Sumerian civilization. And find it they do, in all of its terrible matte painting glory after most of their team (including seemingly dozens of their climbing support team) is killed on the trek.
Agar, Beaumont, and the only other survivor of their ill-fated expedition, Nestor Paiva, discover a lost city of sun-phobic, albino Sumerians ruled over by a weak king and his crafty chancellor, Alan Napier (TV Batman’s Alfred) who want the interlopers dead so as to not disrupt their cozy lifestyle lording over their subjects. Although I’m not sure how cozy it is. They subsist off of mushrooms grown by their slave race of Mole People, with the occasional cave rat and lost goat thrown in to, I guess, provide some much needed vitamins and prevent scurvy.
Alan Napier (right)
Our heroes keep the Sumerians and their mole people slaves at bay with the help of Agar’s flashlight (sun-phobic, remember?). But, eventually it all goes south and the city collapses on itself (of course). The heroes escape with the help of a plucky slave girl (Cynthia Patrick) and the mole people who rally at the last moment to turn the tables on their oppressors, inspired by Agar’s act of kindness that saved them from a Sumerian whipping.
Other than the Mole People’s imaginative design – attributed to Bud Westmore, but more likely the work of an unnamed studio tech – there is little to recommend this film. The only interesting point for me is speculating on how the underground ecosystem could actually function. I’d like to think that the Sumerians exploited a naturally occuring symbiotic relationship between the Mole People and fungus they cultivated to establish a city-sustaining food source.
Dr. Frank Baxter, cashing a paycheck
A few other things of note. The overlong opening by Dr. Frank Baxter explaining the multiple ‘worlds inside the Earth theories’ is painful watch. It’s hard to believe the Baxter was an award-winning TV presenter who appeared as “Dr. Research” (I want that as my new title!) in the Bell System Science Series of television specials that ran from 1956 to 1962, and whose TV show Shakespeare on TV won seven Emmy Awards, according to Wikipedia.
It’s also great to see hard working actor, Nestor Paiva, playing a respected scientist in a substantial role. Paiva is best known to most film buffs as the slightly dodgy Captain Lucas in Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and its first sequel, Revenge of the Creature (1955), but he also had small parts in Mighty Joe Young (1949) and as the Sherriff in Tarantula (1955). He also had a nice role in one of my favourite Tom Conway RKO ‘Falcon’ movies, The Falcon in Mexico (1944).
Is The Mole People Worth Time? Only if you must see all of the 1950’s SF films associated with Universal (they only distributed this one). Otherwise, skip it.
Availability: I watched the recently released (2019) BluRay version from Shout Factory available from the usual sources. If you must watch the film, this is the version to see – the print is beautiful.
Does anyone else think that the Mole People may have influenced the design of Futurama's, Dr. Zoidberg?
