An average 50's giant bug film that peters out at the end.
Directed by Kenneth G. Crane
Produced by Al Zimbalist
Written by Endre Bohem, Louis Vittes
Music by Albert Glasser
Cinematography: Ray Flin
Distributed by DCA
Running time: 71 minutes
Cast
Jim Davis as Dr. Quent BradyRobert Griffin as Dan Morgan
Joel Fluellen as Arobi
Barbara Turner as Lorna Lorentz
Eduardo Ciannelli as Mahri
Vladimir Sokoloff as Dr. Lorentz
Trailer
Journey into Green Hell
(Full account of the “Green Hill” incident from the personal journal of Dr Quent Brady)
My colleague, Dan
Morgan and I have been put in charge of a U.S. government program that has been
designed to send various animals and insects into earth orbit to test the
effects of exposure to space radiation.
Why do we do this?
"This is the
age of the rocket, the jet, atomic power. When man prepares to reach for the
stars. But before he dares to launch himself into space, there is one great
question to be answered: What happens to life in the airless void above Earth's
atmosphere? Will life remain untouched, unharmed by its flight through space?
Or will it change into…what? There was only one way to find out and we were
working on it."
And how will we do this?
Thanks to the
former Nazi German rocket scientist bastards we spirited out of Germany at the
end of the war, we have lots of V2 rockets with which to conduct our tests and
prepare human beings for what lies beyond the comforting confines of our planet.
It is into one of these rockets that we were able to “load the passengers” and
at 10.15 minus 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 we sent them off “into the wide blue yonder!”
After what seemed
at first to have been a successful launch, the radar operator informed us that
the rocket was “out of normal radar range.”
There was nothing
for it but for Dan and I to consult the……COMPUTER! Who would have thought it
possible? We live in an age where we can simply ask a computer something just
like asking a person and hey presto, it tells us the answer! I bet one day
we’ll wind up miniaturizing these suckers and everyone will have their own
personal computer from which they can get answers to any of their questions. Gosh,
we may never have to think for ourselves again! The computer will just tell us
everything we’ll ever need to know. People will probably even be able to use
these devices to communicate with one another! Imagine being so dependent on a
piece of technology!
Upstairs in the
computer room, Dan read the numbers into the computer: “Trajectory 319…burn
efficiency…. friction coefficient.” The answer we received came out only as an
approximation from which we were able to determine that the rocket would land
“just off the coast of Africa” or more specifically, western Central Africa.
Author’s Note (added later after the “Green Hell” incident) …..
Unknown to me at
the time was that in a remote part of Equatorial Africa near a place called Mt.
Virunga, a certain Dr. Lorentz and his daughter, Lorna had conducted an autopsy
on a native and determined that he had died of paralysis of the nerve centres
caused by an injection of a massive amount of venom. It was concluded that the
venom couldn’t possibly have been that of snake. Their able African assistant,
Arobi was reported to have told Lorentz that a monster was terrorizing the people
in an area known as “Green Hell,” as well as causing the animals to flee.
Lorentz was of the opinion that this so-called monster was nothing more than “a
thing of nature, not of evil spirits.”
Months after the
rocket incident, I have come across a newspaper account with the headline:” CENTRAL AFRICA IN TURMOIL.” It turns out that the turmoil
in Central Africa involved riots caused by (as reported) the presence of gigantic
monsters!
I reminded Dan
Morgan that the failed rocket landed in Africa six months previously. I also
showed Dan the side effects on test animals to exposure to cosmic radiation.
Short exposure caused changes in coloration of the guinea pigs’ fur as well as
behavioural changes in the lizards which seemed to be in a trance-like state.
The baby spider crab was four times larger than its mother for crying out loud!
The “doubling of
size of offspring” set me thinking about the wasps in the missing rocket that were
exposed to huge amounts of cosmic radiation – “40 hours exposure” compared with
the minimal overexposure of the test animals.
My God! Did the
Ruskies have to go through this when they beat us into space this year and then
sent that dog up there? How come our rockets
keep malfunctioning?
“No-body was
anxious to believe in my theory, not even Dan. On the other hand, no-body could
afford to ignore it. I had written a report and sent it to project
headquarters. They didn’t like it much there and promptly sent it on to
Washington.
“Finally, my
request for leave of absence for Dan and myself was granted. They gave us a
letter for the Territorial Agent at Libreville and wished us luck.
“If there was
anything in my hunch we were going to need it. We booked passage on TWA for
immediate departure. Destination, Africa.”
It seems that once
again we Americans feel called upon to venture into distant lands in order to
clean up a mess wer’e responsible for creating in the first place!
When we arrived in
Libreville, equatorial Africa, the Territorial Agent helped us put together a
plan to travel to meet Dr. Lorentz. The agent informed us that there are
problems in the interior and that the situation is highly disturbed, possibly
dangerous. The area in question is situated around Mt. Virunga, also known by
the natives as “Green Hell.” The agent suggests we visit Dr. Lorentz before
going to Green Hell. This will involve a 400-mile trek to Dr Lorentz’s hospital
compound.
Entry….
“We are still here
in Libreville. The Territorial Agent was co-operative but not too quick in
arranging for our departure. As we sit around the hotel waiting, I find myself
wondering just what is happening in the interior and to the natives and to Dr
Lorentz.”
We didn’t realize
at the time that Dr. Lorentz and his assistant, Arobi had formed a small
exploration party. While exploring, they heard strange buzzing noises which Arobi
seemed to recognize. This was followed by a stampede of obviously panicked
elephants.
Two of the party then decided to make off and leave Lorentz and
Arobi on their own. Both bearers were apparently killed in most unusual
circumstances but no trace of their bodies could be found. All that could be
found was an unidentifiable giant footprint and one of the missing men’s good
luck charm.
Dr Lorentz decided
to continue on towards Mt. Virunga despite Arobi’s protests. While instructing
Arobi to remain behind, Lorentz justified his decision to go on despite the
danger by his belief that “we’ve got to know” and that “knowledge drives out
fear.” You gotta’ admire the old fella! By all accounts a regular Albert
Schweitzer.
As I peel away
another scab of impatience from the month of March and Friday the 23rd
becomes the weekend of the 24th & 25th, it has been
ten days of champing at the bit in this hotel. At least we have our supplies gathered for the
safari as well as some little beauties: hand grenades or baby bombs which are
“potent, portable, pulverizing.” They are the newest development of the US
army. In the good old US of A, if we can’t solve a problem one way, we can
solve it another way by blowing the holy shit out of it!
“On the morning of
the 25th, our safari got under way. The best guide in Central
Africa, an Arab named Mahri, Dan and I ….worked out a schedule. In order to reach Dr Lorentz’s hospital……we had
to walk a little over 400 miles.
“Our schedule
called for 15 miles per day on average. All things being equal, we figured to
reach Dr Lorentz in about 27 days.”
Goddamn! Didn’t I
cut a magnificent figure out there in my crisp white jacket with the huge
padded shoulders! There I stood commanding and impressive, directing and
encouraging the native bearers onward with the majestic sweep of my arm. I felt
sure that under my sure-footed stewardship and command we would make good time
and achieve our goal with ease!
“I found out soon
enough that being on safari involved putting one foot in front of the other and
then repeating the process. The first few days were murder. It was obvious that
working over test tubes was not the right way to train for a hike across the
plains of Africa.”
“A week went by
and then another…I should have been pleased but I wasn’t. Something was eating
at me. It started like a simple itch in my brain but as the days passed it grew
into a feeling. I tried to put my finger on it but couldn’t. Instinctively I
knew that something was going to happen. The only trouble was I didn’t know what….”
My sense of dread
and foreboding was soon realized with the rhythmic sound of war drums in the
distance. “There wasn’t anything we could do except hope we hadn’t been spotted
but if we had, the natives would permit us to pass through without causing
trouble. It didn’t take long before we learned we were wrong on all counts.”
Why is that local
inhabitants of a place get so annoyed when outsiders enter their territory
armed and without permission and proceed to violate their sovereignty? I just
don’t get it. After all, Dan and I are Americans,
for goodness sake!
Like an advancing
carpet of soldier ants, the native horde advanced towards us while all we could
do was flee to higher ground. We then hit upon a tried and true tactic when
faced with having one’s back against the wall: scorch and burn! We set fire to
the surrounding countryside and hoped that the resulting conflagration and
devastation would prevent the advancing hostile natives from reaching us. The
plan worked. The natives took to their heels and fled the scene helter-skelter.
“To avoid any more
native tribes, we changed course which added another 75 miles of hot wide-open
country. The sun beat down as though it hated us. And then we began to run out
of drinking water. In Africa, that means running out of time…..”
It wasn’t long
before Dan began to succumb to the effects of dehydration. Brave little
bastard! I actually had to force him to drink. We later stumbled upon a
watering hole, but Mahri warned us not to drink. The reason was the presence of
vultures “which only come when death is near.” In this case, a dead lion which
had been poisoned after drinking the water. One poor desperate fellow defied
the warning and drank the lethal water which caused him to scream and foam at
the mouth before quickly expiring.
On we trudged,
dehydrated and almost defeated until the heavens opened up and a rainstorm
brought us much needed relief. The effect on me was instantaneous. I began to
giggle hysterically and was overcome with an irresistible urge to rip open my
jacket, bare my chest to the world and slowly and sensuously rub my torso with
my hands, much to the amusement of the native onlookers and local wildlife I
think.
“The rains kept
coming, more than we needed. Africa is a crazy place. It either tries to
dehydrate you or drown you. We sat it out for two days. Dan recovered nicely,
but I was getting restless.”
I don’t remember
much after the rains because after a few more days of trudging onward I had
developed a fever and had to be carried on a stretcher. I also seem to recall a
lightning strike and a tree toppling over and then…. nothing!
I next remember
waking up at Dr Lorentz’s hospital and catching sight a woman – a white woman, the only one for perhaps
hundreds of miles! I learned that she was Lorna Lorentz, the doctor’s daughter.
She was not exactly a beautiful woman nor even all that attractive. In fact, throughout
most of the time I spent in her company, she seemed to mope about with a
semi-permanent frown and scowl on her face. Still, there was something about her……
It wasn’t long
before I was declared fever-free. In the meantime, I learned that Dr. Lorentz
had left on an expedition to search for the source of all the problems that
were being experienced in the area.
“After a shave and
a shower, I began to feel like myself. I watched Lorna play a few lonely notes
on the organ. I wondered how long we had to wait before Dr Lorentz returned
from his expedition. I wanted to learn of his findings before Dan and I started
on the job that had brought us to Africa.”
We finally
received news about Dr Lorentz but in the worst possible way. Arobi returned to
the hospital and reported that Dr. Lorentz was dead or as he put it, “he’s with
his God.” He died on the path leading down to the volcano where according to
Arobi, a monster killed him and he lay there in the dust, “his life fled away.”
Arobi then showed
us a fragment of a larger object that was embedded in the doctor's shoulder. I
was able to analyse the object and determine that it was part of a stinger
-from a giant wasp! In addition, Dan
discovered that it contained venom.
All that remains
for us to do is to go down into Green Hell and try to do something about the
giant insects. The fear is that if the monsters breed and get out of Green
Hell, the entire world is endangered.
Lorna by this
stage felt that she had “no tears left.” I tried to explain to her that
“experiments sometimes fail” but that “they have to be done.” My words sounded rather
hollow when Lorna told me that they wouldn’t make her father live again.
I think I’m
beginning to understand what I see in that girl. It made no difference to her
that the natives were reluctant to come on the safari as bearers. Nor was she
fazed when I suggested to her “this isn’t the kind of thing for a girl.” Lorna
simply shamed several local villagers into helping as “they couldn’t admit
their fear was greater than a woman’s.”
She also insisted on accompanying us to Green Hell. Never try to argue
with a woman is what I always say!
The next morning,
we set off on our trek to Mt. Virunga. Along the way a monkey thought it would
be a great idea to chuck coconuts at us from high up a coconut tree. Yeah, we
sure laughed it up but I was thinking as my finger itched and hovered over my
gun’s trigger, ‘laugh it up hairy legs. I won’t miss from here.’ I decided to
resist temptation and the likelihood of Lorna’s scowl deepening and taking on
additional accusatory dimensions.
Amid reservoirs of
perspiration rapidly filling up around our armpits and salt water canals
forming on the backs of our shirts, we pressed on ever deeper into the heart of
Green Hell. And suddenly we came upon a scene straight from Dante’s Inferno: a
village full of dead natives, whose bodies were lying every which way, enveloped
in the eerie kind of silence that presses and suffocates the heart and mind.
What is that old
saying? “A stampeding herd of water buffalo are not stopped by an arrow or a
word.” It seems that our native bearers had never heard of it before as they
unceremoniously departed the scene with great alacrity. Cowardly swine!
And so, with the
African and the Arab left to bear our burdens (as it always seems to be the
case in these kinds of situations for some reason) our depleted party set off
for Green Hell with ominous sign posts as our guide: the giant footprints from
an ungodly creature and the angry rumblings of a volcano. Perhaps Arobi is
right about the volcano: “She is angry today.”
That evening in a
camp-fire scene more reminiscent of an outdoor camping scene involving the
toasting of marshmallows and the telling of ghost stories, I gave our small
party a brief but highly informative lecture concerning the subject of wasps. I
informed them that “wasps are insects that form a colony with the queen at the
head. The queen mates, lays eggs, multiplies even more rapidly than any other
form of life. The creatures we pursue are wasps. No matter how changed their
shapes, no matter how large they’ve grown, they’ll multiply as rapidly as the
tiny insects from which they spring. They will overrun all of Africa unless we
destroy their colony or more importantly, their queen.”
I then went on to
explain to Mahri that ‘we’ve brought weapons from our country”: small bombs
filled with a special explosive to use against the monsters we encounter. Yesiree,
‘Made in America!’
Lorna posed an interesting
question when she asked me, “Why should you be so concerned about what happens
to us?” I simply told her, “a feeling of responsibility, I guess.” I guess! Are you kidding me! None of this
would have happened if we had been more concerned with the consequences of our
actions for others in the world!
As I made my notes
by the fire before retiring, my attention was diverted by a buzzing sound which Arobi recognized. Upon
investigation of the source of the sound, we came across an unbelievable sight:
A titanic battle raging between a gargantuan snake and a behemoth-sized wasp.
The snake was soon dispatched with the wasp’s venom.
Suddenly our camp
site was surrounded by a number of giant wasps. Our adversaries, however failed
to launch an attack. It then occurred to me that “maybe they don’t like fire.”
There was only one thing for it! We proceeded to pour kerosene on the fire and
set the surrounding jungle ablaze. If it worked for us earlier against the
hostile native horde then it might do the trick on our six-legged foes.
The next morning
“I could see no sign of the beast or creatures that surrounded our camp the
night before. Luckily, I was right. Whatever it was, didn’t like fire, and we
kept ours brightly burning until the night faded into the dawn.
“As I looked out
over the plain, I could taste the fear I felt: not only fear for myself, but
for everyone else in the group. I felt certain we were going to discover what
killed Dr Lorentz and I wondered when we found it, would we be able to stop it?
“As we broke camp,
I told Arobi and the others to check on the ammunition. I kept asking myself
the same question: If we found it, would we be able to destroy it? I didn’t
know the answer, so I did the one thing everyone else does when they face the
unknown – I quietly prayed……”
Author’s Note (added after the “Green Hell” incident)
Mt. Virunga was
becoming more and more active. Dan summed it up by observing that the “old girl
is really smokin’ this morning.” We proceeded to enter a valley accompanied by
the cacophony of sounds coming from the giant insects. When we got to the area
the sounds were coming from, I went on ahead alone to reconnoitre. Soon after I
identified the queen and colony, we made good use of the grenades and went on
the attack. You can imagine our disappointment when we discovered that the
explosives had no effect on the insects. In fact, our actions only served to
enrage them. Next time I pray it will be for the kind of Mother Of All Bombs that
could take out any number of insects, a mount Virunga and a sizable chunk of central
western Africa!!!!!
Not being in
possession of such a product of American know-how, we just managed to escape
with our lives by ducking into a nearby cave. I had to lob one of the grenade-bombs
into a box of bombs to prevent one of the giant insects from harming us. The resulting
explosion succeeded in closing the cave entrance.
There we were,
entombed in a sealed cave illuminated only by the light of torches. After
considerable time spent rummaging around and exploring our subterranean prison,
Morgan and Mahri finally managed to discover an exit.
As we emerged from
the tunnel, Mt. Virunga erupted with lava. The hot magma flowed down into the
area containing the wasps, finally destroying them. Just like that!
I could only stare
aghast and observe, "Well, it took a volcano to do what we failed to
do." Dan added, "Nature has a way of correcting its own
mistakes." As I watched the growing lake of molten lava, I couldn’t help
but silently ponder how all our efforts to correct a wrong we had committed
were virtually for nothing. No matter what we did, the result would have been
the same……...
*******************************
Points of Interest
Monster from Green Hell was originally shown as a double-feature with the film The Brain from Planet Arous. It was also distributed in 1958 on a double bill with the English-dubbed Japanese film, Half Human.The stop motion animation for the monsters was, considering the small budget, quite well done, especially during the scene where a giant wasp and snake do battle.
The film had quite a lively start but gradually became duller, especially with all that interminable trekking through the jungle done punctuated by a substantial helping of stock footage scene at the expense of featuring more of the giant wasps committing acts of carnage and mayhem. And that all too frequent voice-over narration!!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!
WASPS FACT FILE
By Trounce - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1999896
- Nearly every pest insect is preyed upon by a wasp species, either for food or as a host for its parasitic larvae.
- Wasps also consume dead insects and eat flies around the garden.
Dangers
- Wasps can present a threat to those who are allergic to their sting. Their sting causes anaphylactic shock which can be fatal.
- The venom in wasps contains a pheromone that causes other wasps to become more aggressive which can pose a problem if we try not to swat them near their nest or other wasps.
Stingers
- Unlike bees, wasps can sting repeatedly.
- Only females have stingers, which are modified egg-laying organs.
Habitat & Organization
- Wasps live everywhere except Antarctica
- They live in colonies forming self-contained communities with each following a caste order of queens, males and workers.
- A colony can grow to 50,000 wasps in one summer.
Life-cycle & Habits
- A male wasp is called a Drone whose function is to mate with the Queen. After they have fulfilled this function, they die soon afterwards.
By Alvesgaspar - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2659081
- Wasps feed their young meat such as insect larvae.
- The only wasps that survive the winter are young fertilised queens as the cold weather kills the males, workers and foundation queen.
- The new queens emerge in the spring to build new nests. Initially the queen lays up to a dozen eggs and when they hatch into larvae she feeds them until they become workers.
- The workers forage for food, feed the new larvae and defend the nest.
- In late summer, the colony produces males and new queens. They then fly away to mate and the queens find a place to hibernate.
- Wasps make nests from paper by chewing up strips of bark and spitting it out again to form a rough paper.
- Some wasps make nests in basements, sheds or dark, cool places.
- In Australia and elsewhere there is some concern about European wasps and their aggression. People are warned to be careful about drinking from soft drink cans and at picnics when wasps are around.
©Chris Christopoulos 2017
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