Kronos

Scientist John Emory (`Rocketship X-M' ) is possessed by an alien intelligence which foces him to provide information for invaders who are en route to Earth in a huge spacecraft. Astronomer Jeff Morrow (`This Island Earth') spots the approaching ship through his telescope, but he thinks it's an asteroid on a collision course with Earth (never mind the fact that the image we see through the telescope is obviously a saucer-shaped object that zigs and zags insanely).

The spacecraft splashes down off the coast of Mexico, and the next morning `Kronos' is standing on the beach -- a giant, rectangular robot with four piston-like legs. Kronos begins it's destructive march across the country, draining power from everything it encounters (including an atom bomb which the Air Force drops on it. Impressive scene). Morris Ankrum makes a welcome appearance as a psychiatrist (insteand of a general, for a change).

The plot has an interesting basic concept, but the script is plagued by scientific inaccuracies and unintentionally funny scenes. Jeff Morrow and fellow scientist George O'Hanlon (the voice of George Jetson) make casual comments about `minor shifts' in the orbit of the approaching asteroid -- even though what they (and the audience) see in their telescope is a wildly zig-zagging spaceship. Morris Ankrum is electrocuted when John Emory throws him against a protective fence that surrounds a high-voltage transformer ( Wait a second -- Ankrum is electrocuted by a PROTECTIVE FENCE?).

Despite the embarassing goof-ups, `Kronos' is loaded with special effects by FX wizards Jack Rabin, Irving Block, and Louis DeWitt, who are also billed as associate producers.

Yep, it's black & white and low budget but the film has great ideas and is executed incredibly well for the small amount of money they had to work with. The score by Bert Shefter and Paul Sawtell is probably the best the duo ever wrote. In fact, the title theme was so good it was re-worked for IT, THE TERROR FROM OUTER SPACE. Some people have said they think that cartoon animation was used for walking shots of KRONOS. I think it is stop-motion model animation, especially since Gene Warren is one of those credited for special effects and stop-motion was his specialty. Regardless of how it was achieved, KRONOS is about as much fun as they get. The special effects, while dated-looking now were as good as anything else you would see at the time it was released. I love this film which fortunately, has been preserved on an excellent widescreen DVD. The film has an enduring quality about it and never ceases to entertain me no matter how many times I see it. If you just like to have a plain old good time watching a movie, then I highly recommend KRONOS.

Recient edit: I notice that a lot of the sci-fi movies are being remade. This movie could be remade and with CGI and all the special effects available now, could become a major money maker for the studio that can take on this project. So many remakes have been made that are based on boring original movies and some have been a success, most have not. If any producer that reads this would just watch this movie, he / she would see the potential of this story and as long as the story is followed with the critical elements intact, this could be a success for everyone. ----------------------------------------------------------------- I downloaded this movie last week because I remembered it from when I was a kid and a friend just happened to mention that he had a copy, so I grabbed it. I really didn't either understand or care about the story as much as I enjoyed the 'neat stuff' when I was 7, but after watching it again, I was impressed with the story. A species in outer space has used up all it's energy resources and sends out these machines to roam the galaxy looking for planets with energy producing potential. The machines have the ability to absorb any and all power and convert it into matter, thus growing in size with each meal. The science here was right on, The opposite on E=mc2, or as mentioned in the movie, 'the other half of the equation'. Because of these little bits of physics, I now wonder if the movie was made for kids or adults, Stuff like that was way over our heads back then. If the Machine is successful in locating a suitable planet, it calls for more machines to finish the job. Of course the special effects are primitive, but they make the point. The stream of energy as it flows past the 3 scientists while they are standing on top of the giant, was right on the money. The way the robot closed itself up to absorb the blast of the A-bomb from the jet it magnetically pulled into itself, even the design of the machine, was very original and very cool. All, in all, This is a classic 50's sci-fi movie that should be seen at least once. Of course, at the end there is a moral message and it is: "They ran out of energy because they wasted all the resources and if we don't watch out, we could end up the same way". We never know just where it came from and there are no aliens, just the machine. How was the machine going to get home? Somebody needs to remake this movie, it would be a great movie with all the modern effects in our bag of tricks.

As must always be kept in mind while viewing classic SF cinema, one cannot and should not extricate a film from its historical context. Kronos is no exception. This is 1950's SF movie making at its marginal budgetary best.

Certainly the storyline taxes credibility, involving alien possession of humans, but the ETs at least have a practical purpose for invading than just doing it out of spite. Plus, the dirty work isn't accomplished with sundry flying saucers and blaster rays, but by a huge robot.

The acting is an uneven mixture of serious and melodramatic that oddly adds to the dark overtones of the fims early scenes. The dialogue, littered with quasi-scientific jargon, flows at near poetic tempo.

Ultimately, it is the clever resourcefulness of our nuclear-scientist heroes that wins the day. Now that has to be worth watching!

Kronos is slightly different from other 1950's/Atomic age sci fi's as the 'monster' that threatens the world in this one is a massive robot, Kronos. This was released on video in America as part of the excellent Science Fiction Gold collection, of which I have a copy.

A giant object crashes into the ocean and turns out to be a flying saucer. Scientists are sent to investigate, but one of them gets possessed by an alien and starts acting strange. At the same time, something strange rises out of the ocean and turns out to be a giant robot, Kronos. Two of the scientists land on top of it by helicopter to examine it. It then starts going on the rampage, destroying everything in its path. A nuclear bomb is dropped on it to try to destroy it, but this makes things worse as Kronos uses nuclear energy to get stronger. A method is found to destroy it in the end though and turns out to be a success.

For a low budget movie, the special effects are quite good and the music score is rather creepy.

The movies stars 50's sci fi regulars Jeff Morrow (This Island Earth), Morris Ankrum (Invaders From Mars), John Emery (Rocketship XM), Robert Shayne (Teenage Caveman) and Morrow's love interest is played by Barbara Lawrence. Morrow, Ankrum and Shayne also appeared together in The Giant Claw, made the same year as Kronos, 1957.

This movie is a must for fans of 1950's sci fi, like me.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.