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The tagline has nothing to do with the movie!There were no mutants on a mission from hell! All they were was harmless freaks manufactured by an evil scientist (John Carradine). The movie wasn't even scary. Just sort of dull and old.

This is pretty much what you'd expect of a movie starring John Carradine as a doctor trying to create immortality.

The film opens with gorgeous Allison Hayes being delivered by her doctor, played by Roy Gordon, into the hands of colleague Carradine. (Gordon, coincidentally, played Hayes' doctor in "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman," and we know how well that worked out. I wouldn't trust the guy to remove a sliver.) Apparently, Hayes has suffered a nervous breakdown, so what better place to recuperate than in a home/laboratory/looney bin run by Carradine? Naturally, Carradine has an assistant, played by famed thespian Tor Johnson. Tor plays Lobo, which is obviously short for "lobotomy." Tor actually has some lines of dialogue: "Time for go to bed, " "You eat," and "Get my agent on the phone." What's unusual is that Carradine has another assistant, an icy blonde played by former Miss America Marilyn Buferd. Buferd has the hots for Carradine, which is probably the first and last time that's ever happened. Rounding out the cast are Myron Healey as a suspicious character picked up on the grounds of Carradine's home, Arthur Batanides as a druggie, and former centerfold Sally Todd as another "patient."

Carradine explains to Healey that he has created a 17th gland, one that will cause the aging process to be arrested (well, somebody should be arrested). Of course, his experiments thus far have been failures (Lobo for instance), but there is no reason to believe his next one won't be successful. His next operation is on Todd, and he uses "scalpel 23" to insert the gland. How did that work out? Let's just say he turns the former Playmate into Play-doh. Eventually, we get to see his entire collection of "wonder why this didn't work."

Despite the overall awfulness of this film, it appeals to me, probably because of the babes. Hayes and Todd look great, so that's enough to keep my interest. Hayes is miscast as the demure type, but then again, who cares why she was cast? Healey is okay, and had a decent career in film, but he doesn't have the appeal of a leading man. He also arches his eyebrows so much that he could be mistaken for a Vulcan. Tor is Tor, but never goes on a tear. However, he does get to wear a necktie. Batanides' scene of drug-craving is a little over the top, and he seems to calm down way too fast after his injection of R-16. I have no idea what the hell that is.

As usual, Carradine manages to rise above the material, and in this case it was quite a climb. He enjoys himself, parading around in Hugh Hefner-like garb, sitting on Hayes' bed, and even playing Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" on his organ.

Mad doctor uses patients at his isolated psychiatric institute as subjects in his attempts to create longevity by surgically installing an artificial gland in their skulls, with disastrous results.

This film has a suspiciously low rating on IMDb, which I suspect can only be caused by one of two things (or both): its being shown on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" or its being associated with Ed Wood. Since the latter is not likely to impact it, I suspect it is the former.

And that is just too bad. Despite the lampooning, this is a decent film with good effects (the gland), a better than average plot and decent acting. We have John Carradine, a legendary actor and Carradine family patriarch. And he is surrounded by actresses who had been Miss America, a Playboy Playmate (around the same time the film came out) and more...

The script? From a man who went on to write some of the best episodes of "Star Trek". Certainly this cannot be as bad as it is made out to be. Another examination may be in order.

This movie includes a number of distinguished actors playing excellent parts. John Carradine, for instance, plays a gaunt, furrow-faced scientist with a big booming authoritative scientisty voice. Myron Healy plays the mysterious Mark Houston, an average Joe who goes after the ladies with some of the lamest pick-up lines in existence ("Grace? Hmm, pretty name for a pretty girl.") The truly lovely Alison Hayes, she of the sensational chest, plays the aforementioned Grace, a knockout of a girl up to her eyeballs in emotional problems. Sally Todd, a beauty queen in real life, plays Natalie, a relatively well-adjusted knockout blonde who tragically gets turned into a smoked meat sculpture (not on purpose, of course). Marilyn Buferd is the cold, frustrated lady scientist who's carrying a torch for the gaunt furrow-faced scientist guy. Roy Gordon is the scientist-in-cahoots-with-the-other-scientists who looks like the guy on those Monopoly cards. Arthur Batanides is the neurotic palooka who spazzes out at the drop of a hat. Harry Fleer is Jedrow (_not_ Jethro), the hapless victim who looks like Abe Vigoda. And. of course, there's Tor Johnson, who's just his sweet, lovable, playful old self.

With a cast like that, how can you go wrong?

I decided to acquire this (albeit from other sources rather than the legitimate Image DVD) following Michael Elliott's solid *** review of some time ago. Surprisingly enough, I found this modest genre outing to be quite engaging and enjoyable most of the way and certainly undeserving of the dubious honor of being currently positioned at #95 on the IMDb's "Bottom 100" list! John Carradine gives his usual commitment to the standard 'mad doctor' role; the hero Myron Healey is quite sympathetic and the film's three female leads (Allison Hayes, Marilyn Buferd and Sally Todd) very attractive. On the debit side are Tor Johnson's amusing blazer-tie-sandals attire and moronic speech ("Time for go to bed" he blurts out to the guests at one point) as Lobo, Carradine's all-purpose assistant (valet-cook-bodyguard- guinea pig) and the incessant histrionics of the other male inmate (Arthur Batanides) – although the insults the latter hurls at the former during breakfast are fairly hilarious! Despite the misleadingly other-worldly title, the villains and crimes perpetrated here are decidedly mundane (especially given the clumsy and panic-stricken antics of Carradine's elderly partner Roy Gordon). It is all well and good that the would-be escaped convict hero is revealed to have been an undercover cop all along but it seems improbable that he would discover Carradine's underground lair of Dr. Moreau-esquire failures (including a creepy pre-CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) wraith-like creature) so easily and it would have been much more convincing if, say, Gordon had inadvertently mentioned it to Hayes or, better still, left them unlocked for some reason. Equally silly is the fact that Carradine reveals the full extent of his experiments to Healey from the get-go and then allows him to roam freely among the potential (and, as I said, good-looking) victims themselves!! Besides, how anyone can mistake a Southern mansion in the middle of a swamp for a health spa is beyond me. In any case, despite the above-mentioned absurdities, the film contrives to end with a bang as we get a good look at the results of Carradine's previous guinea pigs.

Before MST3K, I saw no purpose for movies this bad. This one had dreary cinematography, terrible pacing, poor scientific speculation, annoying acting, the list goes on. Unless you want to make fun of this one yourself, just get that version.

It gets a great MST3K treatment: they had a lot of fun with the above problems, the silly characterizations and most of all, Tor Johnson. I'm not sure if he really saw himself as an actor or just took whatever work paid the bills. :-) His screen presence is, well, just presence. He's just out there without any refinement whatsoever. Definitely funny to watch.

So don't take this one seriously.

The Unearthly was a 1957 Republic Pictures production released on a double bill with "The Beginning of the End" . Director Boris Petrof shot this movie in six days. The script had characters originally developed by Ed Woods Jr.It clocks in at just under an hour

John Carridine is back as Dr Charles Conway a mad scientist who is trying to find the key to eternal life,a role he is playing for the umpteenth time and could emote in his sleep. This time he is using glandular transplants and electric shock to achieve his ends. Instead of immortal super people, he has a basement full of grotesque human monsters. As the old saying goes, "Madness is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results'

Carridine is joined in the cast by stalwart B movie leading man Myron Healey, sexy Allison Hayes, Playboy Playmate Sally Todd, 1946 Miss America Marilyn Buferd, one of Televisions busiest character actors Arthur Bananides, and Ed Wood Superstar Tor Johnson recreating his classic Lobo role.

Okay movie fans, Citizen Kane this ain't. What it is, is an entertaining little horror shocker. Carridine is at his hammy best, particularly when he sees the final results of his surgeries. Healey handles his good guy role with athletic vigor as he tries to thwart Dr Conway's planes. Hayes is sexy as the sheer nightgown clad object of both Carridine and Healeys desires. Tor Johnson once again shows why he was Hollywood's most underrated heavy....literally.When they finally get the basements hidden room, and its filled with Conway's previous failed experiments, they all look the guys of Duck Dynasty.

This movie was created for the smaller neighborhood and drive in theaters, where the primary audience would be teenagers, and they would be engaged in other pursuits rather then watching what was on the screen.

John Carradine is one of those actors from a bygone era that seemed to look at acting as an actual job rather than something to do every now and then while living in multiple homes and living life of luxury. No, he seemed to go from one movie to another taking parts in really good films and really, really bad films. That being said, he has been in more than a couple of films that were featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and this was one of them. Not an entirely bad film, Red Zone Cuba was a much worse film that was featured on the show, this film is a bit slow paced even for a film that has a run time of just over an hour. Basically, just your typical mad scientist film that features a mad scientist, strange monsters and Tor Johnson as a sidekick named Lobo! Yes, Tor appeared as a sidekick named Lobo in like two other films other than this one, but while those two Lobo's were the same character, this one is a totally different Lobo...the distinction is apparently this one speaks. So, it has its moments and the film is upgraded a bit by John Carridine's performance, but overall, just seems like it needed a bit more going on.

The story has a mansion that seems to be in the middle of nowhere, but near the end of the film seems to be right in the middle of the city housing special patients who seem to think they are there for some sort of mental health treatment. Unfortunately for them, the good doctor who resides in the house plans on using them for his experiments to prolong man's life to an eternity using a special gland that he apparently created or something. A man caught outside the mansion and who the doctor believes is an murder on the run ends up being recruited to be a part of the experiments, but this man seems to know something is not right and tries to uncover the truth.

This made for a pretty good episode of MST3K as most films featuring Tor Johnson do. This film had not one, but two shorts which is a bit puzzling seeing as how the film ran 72 minutes which might merit the inclusion of one short, but not really two. Makes me wonder what they edited out of this one. A lot of the riffs in this one were geared to Tor Johnson's Lobo character and John Carridine's mansion that is just about the only place you see during the duration of this film.

So, not a horrible film, but just kind of slow. I would not really want to see the film in its entirety as I cannot imagine it really adding anything to this film. What I did see seemed pretty cut and dry as it was a mad scientist using people as guinea pigs for his crazy experiments. You get to see people misshaped by his experiments and I like how they treat the one girl as if she is dead. It's like, "Oh my, she is now unattractive, let's just leave her here to rot because her life is now over." So if you want to see a film featuring strange experiments, a mad doctor and Tor as Lobo this film fits the bill! Along with like at least two other films...

More fun than a cellarful of monkeys. Carradine goes over the top as the haughty, flawed (mad) scientist. Tor Johnson is Lobo is Tor... proving his bad acting in "Plan 9" and "Bride of the Monster" was his own idea, not Ed Wood's. The three female leads are all famous beauties - Dr. Gilchrist was Miss America in 1946, Natalie was Playboy's Playmate of the Month in 1957 (the year this film was released), and B-movie giant Allison Hayes adds a sultry touch. Unfortunately, almost everyone in this film is INSANE.

John Carradine's character, Dr. Conway, has a big problem in "The Unearthly." His experiments on a newly discovered synthetic gland keep going wrong, and as a result, all his human guinea pigs have been transformed into mutant critters that are now overcrowding his basement. We get to see this mutant collection at the end of the film, and it is both the funniest and most horrifying section of this surprisingly well-done little B picture. I say "surprising" only because most film books downplay this movie as hopeless shlock, but I found it to be fairly entertaining. Not too many unintentional laffs, and with fairly good acting, too, especially from Carradine and cult fave Allison "The 50 Foot Woman" Hayes. Tor Johnson, everyone's favorite lumbering mound of monstrous blubber, is also on hand, as Carradine's imbecilic helper, and his is always a welcome presence. Surprisingly, his character's name is Lobo...the same name he sported in Ed Wood's "Bride of the Monster"!!! This may very well be Tor's finest film...but when your other credits include "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "The Beast of Yucca Flats," two of the worst ever, I suppose that's not saying too much. Compared to the other John Carradine "mad scientist" film that I saw recently, "The Astro-Zombies," "The Unearthly" is a little gem of script, acting and direction. Again, I suppose that's not saying too much. But the bottom line is, I really did have fun with this one. Give it a try!

This movie only gets this score from me because of its ending. The whole film is dull and poorly shot, but the twist ending (which I won't reveal) is rather startling and would have been brilliant in a better movie. Unfortunately this is not a better movie. I would like to attribute this ending to the immortal Edward D. Wood Jr. but we can only thank him for the characters and the appearance of token Wood actor, Tor Johnson, who seems to be going for that Don Johnson look. Even as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie, The Unearthly is barely watchable. Even the 'bots could hardly joke and save this poor piece of film with an ending deserving of a different movie.

"Privilege has its own odor."

When compared to films such as Cave Dwellers and Manos the Hands of Fate, the Unearthly was not really too bad, but it still had problems. Mainly it seemed like the film was dragging along most of the time, and the plot seemed convoluted. If it hadn't been for Joel and the 'bots, I would've probably fallen asleep about halfway through the film.

Before I begin my review, I would like to say a few words about Tor Johnson. Tor Johnson... ah, yes, Tor Johnson, the immovable slab of granite. His illustrious movie covering John Carradine, Ed Wood, and even Coleman Francis. Oh, his roles often resembled each other, all right, and he never really said much, but when he spoke, the audience listened. "Time for go to bed," he would say, and darn it if the characters in the movie didn't listen to him. And his speaking role-heavy movies such as the masterful "Plan 9 from Outer Space" proved him the versatile actor he really was. If he were to say "I'm a big boy now, Johnny," as he so spiritedly did in that movie, you believed him. However, though many would disagree, it could be said that Tor reached his performing peak in the movie "The Unearthly" as the unyielding lab assistant Lobo. His major lines, such as "I found him in he garden" and "time for go to bed" have retained permanently a place in the annals of great movie lines along with "Flag on the moon... how'd it get there?" from "Night Train to Mundo Fine." However, it is "time for go to bed" that especially stands out. Never has a single phrase conveyed so much emotion, so much feeling, so much hidden meaning. In all seriousness, the movie "The Unearthly" places itself firmly alongside such classics as "Manos: Hands of Fate" and "Hobgoblins" as being one of the worst movies ever, although it remains somewhat more bearable than most. The plot, revolving around the demented experiments of John Carradine's mad scientist character, is ludicrous, while much of the filming focuses on disfigured faces and the movie's leading ladies. Above all, this is an unpleasent movie, and wanting to turn it off is about as unavoidable as a gag reflex (watching it is about as fun, too). Have fun.

Surprisingly ok for a Mystery Science Theatre Movie. I have seen much worse. And the MST version was not really all that funny either although the shorts at the beginning make it worth seeing. ("Posture Pals" and "Appreciating Our Parents")

Even the crew at Mystery Science Theater 3000 couldn't do much with this low-budget horror movie. It is not scary, just stupid and boring. Lots of talk, and no action. Too bad, as the cast is pretty good for a bad movie.

The title is interesting, though. It has absolutely nothing to do with the story. The producer probably chose it because it sounds spooky. I always like to read about the various titles movies go through from development to release.

Acceptable scare-fare here, with two of the B movie greats, Carridine and Healy, and the prince of the C,D,E,and F movies, Tor Johnson. Not as campy as an Arch Hall Jr. or Dennis Ray Steckler effort-the production values are too good-but still some good giggles at trite dialogue and silly plot.