Kronos (film)
Kronos (a.k.a. Kronos, Destroyer of the Universe) is a 1957 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film from Regal Films, produced by Irving Block, Louis DeWitt, Kurt Neumann, and Jack Rabin, directed by Kurt Neumann, and starring Jeff Morrow and Barbara Lawrence. Kronos was distributed by 20th Century-Fox as a double feature with She Devil.[2]
| Kronos | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Kurt Neumann |
| Produced by | Irving Block Louis DeWitt Kurt Neumann Jack Rabin |
| Screenplay by | Lawrence L. Goldman |
| Story by | Irving Block |
| Starring | Jeff Morrow Barbara Lawrence John Emery George O'Hanlon |
| Music by | Paul Sawtell Bert Shefter |
| Cinematography | Karl Struss |
| Edited by | Jodie Copelan |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century-Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 78 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $160,000 (estimated)[1] |
Since the film's release, it has been widely praised for its above-average storyline and its farsighted portrayal of the consequences of over-consumption of both natural and man-made resources; it has achieved minor cult status as a result.[3]
Plot
A huge, blinking flying object from deep space emits a glowing ball of electrical energy, which races to Earth. It intercepts a man who's driving his pickup along an isolated road in the American Southwest desert country late at night. The electrical entity takes over the man's mind and directs him to LabCentral, a U.S. research facility where a pair of scientists have been tracking the flying object, thinking it is an asteroid.
The possessed man knocks out LabCentral's security guard, then proceeds into the main building where the entity leaves the pickup driver and enters the mind of Dr. Hubbell Eliot, the chief of LabCentral. Meanwhile, in a research lab below, astrophysics Dr. Leslie Gaskell and his computer science associate, Dr. Arnold Culver, who have been tracking the flying object, realize that it is not only headed toward Earth but is also moving as if under intelligent guidance. They order three nuclear missiles to be fired, but they fail to destroy the object, which dives into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico.
The two scientists, along with Vera Hunter, LabCentral's staff photographer and Gaskell's girlfriend, rush to Mexico. After their arrival at Manuel Ramirez's beachside hovel, they see an enormous dome, glowing and steaming, appear on the ocean horizon. The next morning the party find that the dome is gone but a stories-tall machine that has appeared on the beach. Its four-legged body features two mobile antennae that resemble the terminals of a capacitor.
They use a small helicopter to land atop the strange machine, glimpsing its complex inner workings before being forced to leave as the machine begins to move, and fly back to LabCentral. There, the possessed Dr. Eliot, who has lists of power stations and atom-bomb arsenals around the world, telepathically directs the machine, which has been named Kronos by the news media, to methodically attack power plants in Mexico, draining all their energy. In doing so Kronos grows larger with every energy-absorption episode, consuming more and more power as it moves, unhindered, from one power source to the next. Four Mexican Air Force fighter planes attack, but the ever-growing alien machine easily destroys them and continues on its energy-draining rampage.
Meanwhile, when Kronos is absorbing energy, Eliot is momentarily freed from the influence of the energy force binding his mind to serving Kronos. In a lucid, unpossessed moment, Eliot tells his returned colleagues that Kronos is an energy accumulator, sent by an alien race that has exhausted its own natural resources; they have sent their giant machine to drain all the Earth's available power and then return it to their dying world.
The United States Air Force sends a B-47 bomber to drop an atomic bomb on Kronos on Eliot's recommendation, but Gaskell warns the Air Force General in charge of the mission that an atomic explosion will simply supply Kronos with more massive amounts of energy. The General attempts to abort the bombing mission, but Kronos magnetically draws the jet to crash into it, and absorbs the bomb's nuclear blast. The alien machine, now grown to an immense size, appears unstoppable, harvesting all forms of energy at will.
In another lucid moment, Dr. Eliot locks himself in an hermetically sealed room and smashes the only electronic keypad for the door; and he and the energy force which has possessed him expire. As Kronos draws near Los Angeles, Gaskell realizes that reversing the monster machine's polarity will force it to feed upon itself, until it is destroys itself in a gigantic implosion. Gaskell, Culver and Vera convince the Air Force to bombard Kronos with nuclear ions which will cause the polarity to be reversed; this experiment works, and Kronos is obliterated in the resulting implosion.
Cast
- Jeff Morrow as Dr. Leslie Gaskell
- Barbara Lawrence as Vera Hunter
- George O'Hanlon as Dr. Arnold Culver
- John Emery as Dr. Hubbell Eliot
- Morris Ankrum as Dr. Albert Stern
- Kenneth Alton as The Pickup Driver (Script name: McCrary)
- Jose Gonzales-Gonzales as Manuel Ramirez
- John Halloran as Lab Central Security Guard
- John Parrish as Gen. Perry
- Marjorie Stapp as The Nurse
- Robert Shayne as Air Force General
- Rosa Turich as Senora Ramirez
- Don Eitner as USAF Meteorology Sergeant
- Ron Kennedy as USAF Control Tower Sergeant
- Gordon Mills as A Sergeant
- Richard Harrison as A Pilot
Production
Kronos was filmed in a little more than two weeks (mid-January to late January 1957) in California; special effects were created by Jack Rabin, Irving Block, and Louis DeWitt.[4]
The idea of an alien machine absorbing energy is similar to the giant alien machine from the later (1966) Star Trek television episode "The Doomsday Machine" which destroys planets and uses them to fuel itself.[5]
George O'Hanlon, who plays Dr. Arnold Culver in the film, had just finished his popular series of Joe McDoakes comedy shorts and would be later known as the voice of George Jetson in the popular cartoon series The Jetsons.[6]
Reception
Critical response
When the film was first released in 1957, Variety gave the film a favorable review: "Kronos is a well-made, moderate budget science-fictioner which boasts quality special effects that would do credit to a much higher-budgeted film ... John Emery is convincing as the lab head forced by the outer-space intelligence to direct the monster. Barbara Lawrence is in strictly for distaff interest, but pretty".[7]
Film critic Dennis Schwartz was disappointed in the film's screenplay and acting. He wrote, "German emigre to Hollywood, Kurt Neumann (Tarzan and the Amazons/Son of Ali Baba/She Devil), directs this b/w shot, dull, so-so sci-fi film, that's played straight-forward, is humorless and all the thespians are wooden. It's based on the story by Irving Block and the weak script is written by Lawrence Louis Goldman".[8]
See also
References
- Internet Movie Database Business/Box office for
- "Kurt neumann, director, dies in mystery". Los Angeles Times. Aug 22, 1958. ProQuest 167255402.
- Kronos on IMDb
- Kronos at the American Film Institute Catalog. Production Date: mid January to late January 1957. Accessed: July 22, 2013.
- The Doomsday Machine on IMDb. Accessed: July 22, 2013.
- The Jetsons on IMDb. Accessed: July 22, 2013.
- Variety. Staff film review, 1957. Accessed: July 22, 2013.
- Schwartz Dennis. Ozus' World Movie Reviews, film review, May 26, 2011. Accessed: July 22, 2013.
Bibliography
- Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009, ISBN 0-89950-032-3.
External links
- Kronos at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Kronos on IMDb
- Kronos at AllMovie
- Kronos at the TCM Movie Database
- Kronos information site and DVD review by Glenn Erickson at Savant Review
- Kronos trailer on YouTube