Les créatures de Kolos

Aliens come to earth and try to take over by converting people into animated ceramic zombies.

At least, that's what the IMDb write up says. I found this movie to be a bizarrely awful one, because it was simultaneously dull and incomprehensible. This is unprecedented in my movie-viewing - although it is possible that my steel sieve of a memory has blessedly let slip others that match this description. Incomprehensibility usually draws my attention as I try to figure out what is going on. Is this the result of an abysmal script? Terrible editing? Poor actors? There were those, certainly, like Ted Durant as 'The Galaxy Being'.

Maybe it was because there were also some fine actors trying to treat what was going on as normal, performers like George Macready and Hugh Beaumont and Richard Arlen. Well, Arlen was the Mikey of film actors. He'd play in anything. The others, though, are a bit more puzzling. Perhaps they simply liked to keep their names before the public, or needed the money. There are certainly people like that.

I just don't know. Given that I spent a couple of hour looking at it, and half an hour puzzling over this review, I am going to drop the matter. I've wasted enough time on this one. However, if you ignore this review and look at this one, let me know if you figure it out.

This movie actually came off as better to me than most people here think. It might be because there is this one line that's actually really clever. A character says, "Say something" and the guy literally says, "Something". It was nice to have a recognizable actor, Richard Kiel here. The film is still for the most part bad. The bad special effects are particularly noticeable. It really is funny to see these androids lose their body parts and see their faces literally fall apart. It managed to entertain me like that.

Everyone acts like a robot in this. It ends up making more sense than most examples. It's still fairly poorly acted, particularly with how ALL the characters/actors do that. It probably could have been shorter too. When there's not much plot going on, it always drags on. This movie is about an alien who tries to replace people on Earth. There's not much motivation, so it's still skippable. *1/2

Hugo Grimaldi's directorial work will not win him any awards from mainstream Hollywood, but he has made his niche on the world of B-Movies.

This effort was a step up in some ways from his classic, "The Phantom Planet", where he teamed up with production designer and associate producer Robert Kinoshita (the designer of "Forbidden Planet"'s Robbie the Robot and the B9 bot from "Lost In Space"). For openers, this movie was filmed in color, a small process that could have perhaps helped lift "Phantom Planet" out of it's near obscurity today.

However, for all his efforts, "The Human Duplicators" was saddled with the same problems that sank it's predecessor: poor scripting, cheap sets and effects, borrowed soundtrack music and audio effects, even using "Phantom Planet" veteran bad guy, Richard Kiel (Jaws of "Moonraker" and "The Spy Who Loved Me")as an android with a heart, as well as other questionable casting, such as Hugh Beaumont ("Leave It To Beaver"), which hindered the credibility of the characters, ergo so went the plot and any chance of suspense (This debate still rages when you ask the question "What if Hitchcock knew that Ted Knight would be forever associated with the egotistical, clueless TV anchorman Ted Baxter? Would he have removed him from the closing scenes of "Psycho"?).

This silly and incredibly cheap b-movie finds Richard Kiel as a giant alien intent on turning the population of America into ceramic figurines. Watch late at night in a state of alcoholic excess. Fun but stupid.

Richard Kiel really has to stop his testosterone injections. His mega bass voice still can't hide his acting skills or lack thereof.

This one definitely falls into scifi B movie genre, but comes off really really cheap. I guess that gives it its charm. C'mon, someone hooked them up with a lot of dummy mannequins! Also, if you think Kolos frog voice is bad, George Nader's floozy's accent will haunt you in your sleep. She seems really far from Brooklyn. George Nader plays your typical hero with one liners always ready. Whenever he gets hurt in the film, I hope you cheer as loud as I did. Lisa (RAWRRR!) is one of the hottest blind babes in B movie history; well except for Mrs. Ellis (What a fiend you are!) in "Tormented". Hugh sure was cranky during this one; I'm guessing 'Beaver' was ending and he used that for motivation.

"Ah, Beaver. How's Beaver? What about HUGH? No one EVER asks how Hugh is!!"

Watch this movie several times and is it just me, or is this one weird mamajama of a film? Also, Best Brains listed this as episode #420. 420, HMMMMMM????