User reviews

I love b-movies and i especially enjoyed navy verses the night monsters. its so bad its good,i would call this a poor mans day of the triffids. i especially liked the music on the soundtrack,its been used in many other monster films like;king Kong vs Godzilla.there's these prehistoric plant monsters that look like tree stumps that walk,and its up to the navy to stop them,led by gung ho navel officer;Anthony Fred Eisley (wasp women,mighty gorga)and busty Mamie van doran(high school confidential)also on hand is billy gray(father knows best)and bobby van. there's some early gore scenes like arms being ripped off,acid burns,etc; kind of gory for 1966.its a perfect b-movie.kind of enjoyable in an odd sort of way.this would've been great on mystery science theater 3,000. i give this b-movie gem 5 out of 10.

I can accept the eight-foot-tall killer trees from the Antarctic that have acid for blood and can rip peoples' arms off, but when Mamie Van Doren lives on a Navy base and no-one makes any sexual comments toward her, then credibility goes right out the window.

Seriously, though, I thought this was an awesome movie when I saw it at the drive-in when I was a kid. More than four decades later, though, I am less enamored with the leisurely screenplay, dim-witted characters, and dollar store special effects. Still, there is a certain pleasure in watching these giant plants shuffle around, snagging people who wander into the jungle one by one against all common sense.

My following views only make sense, in the 'sense' that I'm a UK resident: Back in 1966, I took my little brother to a fleapit cinema to see a NEW movie with the come-on title THE NIGHT CRAWLERS. I was 14, he was 11 - and I was sneaking him in on a regular basis to catch up on horror movies.(That title was the UK title for NAVY VS NIGHT MONSTERS).

Every time something was about to happen, the film 'jumped' to the next scene. We came away deeply dissatisfied, believing that despite the obvious deficiencies of the movie, the stuff that had obviously been 'cut' must have been really, REALLY horrible. I should add that I was already a fan of the source novel: Murray Leinster's THE MONSTER FROM EARTH'S END. Call me 'picky' - but the point of the novel is that you don't know WHAT the hell is attacking the naval crew (Big shades of HP Lovecraft's AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS).The movie poster tells you straight away- - so why bother with the mystery in the movie.

35 Years later, I purchased a copy of the uncut video.

So THAT'S what they cut: A crewman having an obviously false arm pulled off by a man-eating plant, and Bobby Van being pulled into a pantomine tree. (Hmmm - in retrospect, we might have really gone for that in 1966). P.S.) To a former reviewer, the pilot goes mad 'cause the plant squirts acid in his face.

Geisterzug

A once in a lifetime cast mostly just stand about talking in this drab, garrulous cross between 'The Thing' and 'The Day of the Triffids' more redolent of the fifties than the sixties (including the large number of actors in Washington offices dressed as naval top brass looking concerned).

Not as awful as the title would promise (the original novel by Murray Leinster was called 'The Monster at World's End') and therefore not as much fun. Photographed in colour by master cameraman Stanley Cortez, it occasionally looks good but - saddled with far too much talk and a noisy score trying to make what's happening seem more dramatic than it ever is - rarely sounds it.

"The Navy vs. The Night Monsters" is a very dumb but watchable film...that is, if you don't mind watching very schlocky horror films. It's low budget, silly and has one of the dumbest looking monsters you'll ever see!

When the story begins, some odd plants are discovered in Antarctica and they are being transported to a military base. However, the plane is bringing.... DEATH!!! Yes, the plants come to life and can walk....and secret a corrosive and want to feast on people!!! Can the Navy folks stop it or is the human race screwed?!

The film is cheap. One look at the 'monsters' and you'll see how cheap!! But it's not just the monsters, the acting is occasionally bad, the dialog bad and the use of stock footage is pathetic. Imagine....a silver C-47 transport plane crashes...and is a darkly painted C-46! And, later in the film blue Navy fighter planes turn into silver Air Force planes in mid-air due to such sloppy use of the footage.

Of the actors in the film, Mamie Van Doren came off a bit better than you'd expect and Bobby Van makes you want to slap him silly to shut him up, as apparently he thought he was in an Abbott & Costello film, not a horror film featuring the US Navy!!

For years on Thanksgiving (appropriately) I and a bunch of friends used to get together and watch lousy movies all day. I then took an informal poll as to which was the worst. This was the hands-down, runaway winner at one such gathering. Whatever talent Mamie Van Doren ever had, she obviously left in her other tight-fitting blouse. (It's interesting to note that as the movie runs on, and gets more insufferable, Mamie's blouses get tighter.) Bobbie Van's utter lack of talent for anything stands naked for all to see, and it's the most horrifying thing in the film. As for the rest of the cast, they obviously know the film's a grade Z disaster and are just walking through it. And, despite the passing resemblance to the ambulatory flora of "Day of the Triffids", the monsters could give "The Horror of Party Beach" or the crawling carpet swatch in "The Creeping Terror" a run for their money as the silliest monsters going. The IMDb should let us vote with negative numbers, or at least give offenders like this a zero!

If you thought those walking trees in The Day Of The Triffids were highly cheesy and camp wait till you see The Navy Vs. The Night Monsters. Next to these the Triffids could have been created by the Bard himself.

On a South Pacific island the scientists who inhabit it are expecting an arrival of colleagues from Antarctica with plant and animal specimens. The plane arrives with a crazed pilot at the wheel and its human cargo apparently jumped from the plane because the cargo door is wide open.

What they've brought from the bottom of the world are some omnivorous plants who now in a more tropical climate are thriving eating all kinds of life in their path. They secrete some nasty acid that makes its food melt down and more digestible.

This whole cast looked like they took this assignment for the tropical vacation. The dialog is spoken with all the force of a noodle in the wind. No one could work up any enthusiasm. Such enthusiasm a you might be stimulated to have will come from Mamie Van Doren whose weapons of mass destruction just bounce all over the screen. I reckon she was the reason people paid money to see The Navy Vs. The Night Monsters.

In that the ticket buyers were not disappointed.

I really like 1950's - 60's sci-fi's, mainly for the laughs and sometimes neat effects etc, but this one isn't funny but it's also not even cool on a sci-fi level or special effects or really anything at all - it's just a very boring, stupid film. To me, it really looks like they got a hold of some pretty bland military footage of fighter jets testing napalm on some pacific atoll and then made a stupid movie around it. The film ends with the napalm footage and 'The End'. It's sort of like a really bad rip off of 'The Thing' only done really cheaply and instead of being based around aliens, it's based around some plant-life they dig up in the arctic which of course comes to life once brought back at the base (just like in the thing), and then spreads out into the surrounding forests a la walking trees, as in dudes in tree suits and then of course, it all has to be stopped which is where the napalm footage comes in. It may 'sound' campy and fun but trust me, it is NOT. It's just really bad and a waste of time and it also feels REALLY long because it's just so bad and so boring. I'm just about to watch 'I married a monster from out Space'... hopefully I'll have better luck with that one.

I would think the title alone would be enough to scare off anyone looking for a good science fiction show. After watching the movie, I was really impressed. I mean I was expecting something stupid, However, you can't judge a book by it's cover. The Navy vs. the Night Monsters was and is a good low budget film. The scenery was above average (making you feel you were really there).The acting was decent and the story was well written. But the title is very misleading and I can understand why it was probably overlooked by most people. Oh well, I gave it a chance and it paid off. If you should come across this movie somewhere, why not check it out. If your a nostalgic sci-fi buff like me, you will enjoy it.

How could you not like a movie with such an outlandish plot and such an infamous cast.

Mamie Van Doren is scrumptious as the Navy nurse heroine. Anthony Eisely ("Journey to the Center of Time") is the hero. Popular song-and-dance man Bobby Van ("Kiss Me Kate") is comic relief. Billy Gray ("Father Knows Best", "The Day the Earth Stood Still") is one of the brave young sailors who battle the Night Monsters (invading plant-creatures from space, ala "The Thing").

The monsters resemble huge mobile weeds (ala "The Day of the Triffids") which have acid for blood (ala "Alien"). The setting is Antarctica (ala "The Thing" . . . sort of), but the climate is a warm and well-lit (ala a studio set).

If all this sounds silly enough to be fun, take heart, it is (but beware of several gory scenes). The film was released by a company called Realart (this is "real art"?).

So bad it has to struggle even to be funny. All the "cute" character bits, plus Mamie Van Doren in an assortment of form-fitting outfits, can't save this nonsensical stock-footage-fest. And those "night monsters"! The Triffids should sue for plagiarism, if not defamation of character. Gad. How did this one escape the MST3K treatment?

1965's "The Navy vs. the Night Monsters" served as cofeature for Realart's already completed "Women of the Prehistoric Planet," both produced by George Edwards and an uncredited Roger Corman, this title written and directed by Michael A. Hoey, son of character actor Dennis Hoey. An adaptation of Murray Leinster's 1959 novel "The Monster from Earth's End" had been in limbo for a number of years (working titles "The Nightcrawlers" and "Monsters of the Night"), Hoey's script trying to recapture "The Thing From Another World" in its isolated setting and unseen terrors (actually more in tune with John Carpenter's 1982 remake). Animals and prehistoric vegetation found in Antarctica are on a flight to the US, making a refueling stop on Gow Island in the South Pacific when unforeseen occurrences leave the plane devoid of all personnel but the pilot, in a state of shock from which he never recovers. One penguin is noticeably missing but the remainder still on board, while the botanical marvels receive a proper burial in the tropical soil near the naval base commanded by Anthony Eisley's Lt. Charles Brown. A strange corrosive substance is found on the plane and even some of the buildings, before the discovery of the fist-sized creatures responsible, designed to look like large spiders. Walter Sande's Dr. Beecham examines one and believes that it's only an infant version of an adult, omnivorous trees based at the South Pole with the ability to pull up the roots and pursue its prey under frigid conditions, now growing and multiplying in the island humidity. Hoey's script is weak on characterization, clunky dialogue, and too much unfunny comic relief, but the mysteries increase nicely until the running time is used up, the payoff achieved by poorly integrated stock footage of fighter jets dropping napalm on the monsters, their scenes added in postproduction by actor/director Jon Hall. Hoey's disappointment in the bereft bark also required Arthur C. Pierce to shoot scenes of mainland authorities arriving at the final solution, just to bring the picture up to feature length. Eisley's assessment to maintain suspense by keeping the focus on the island turned out to be in accord with his director, and while it's not "The Day of the Triffids" it remains a better film than its camp reputation, much of it brought on by the wooden presence of an unglamorous Mamie Van Doren, who owed Corman one more picture on her contract, Anthony Eisley previously introduced in Corman's "The Wasp Woman" in 1959.

I have always enjoyed; Day of the Triffids, but I must say, The Navy vs the Night Monsters has that high cheese factor that makes so many of these 60s films simply fun to watch. While most of the cast was relegated to 'B' films, they did a nice job with the story line and there was a gruesome moment or two. Sex kitten Mamie Van Doren is the nurse, Anthony Eisley is the commanding officer and Van Doren's love interest, Bobby Van the comic of the group and Billy Gray (Father Knows Best) is on of the Navy men that meets one of the 'Night Monsters', face to face. Another staple of late-night TV at one time, this is rarely seen on TV and it's a shame, it definitely deserves a DVD release. Many would argue that the best aspect of this film is the poster artwork and it is fantastic!

The only thing that would have made this movie a lot better would have been a nude shower scene with Mamie. The real night monsters of this film are the ones under Mamie's blouse. And those really are monsters! But seriously, this movie is not half bad once you get past the idiot plot. The cast, such as it is, is worth a look-see in spite of the plot and terrible dialog. The romantic triangle subplot is a mere throwaway and the monsters look like people and midgets camouflaged and moving like the walking carpet in THE CREEPING TERROR. But this movie is a lot more entertaining than that film. For a drive in type horror movie, it's okay as they go, but almost entirely predictable and you can even play the "okay who's the next celebrity cameo who is going to get devoured by these fugitives from a greenhouse.

The Navy Vs. The Night Monsters is basically The Thing From Another World Meets Day of the Triffids. If you like either of those movies, you might like this one...or you might hate it even more for stealing plot elements from both those movies and executing them badly. A plane carrying a load of specimens from the Antarctic crashed on a South Seas naval base and a horde of long-dormant killer plants is released.

My biggest complaint is that this movie would have been better in black and white. The monsters are basically a dark black color anyway, and a lack of color has never hidden Mamie Van Doren's...umm...charms...before. I think black and white would have improved whatever atmospheric quality the director was reaching for as well. The way it stands, the film reminds me of something Sid Pink directed.

The movie has all the standard and rather-cliched characters you would normally find in a 1950's monster movie. Unfortunately, this film was made in 1966. No explanation or reasoning is ever given for the homicidal and suicidal fits that the pilot is prone to...he spends most of the movie laying in a hospital bed or choking people.

When I first heard of the title, I thought it was another stupid back yard production by some amateur film maker. But when I saw the show I was pleasantly surprised. Of course this is a low budget thriller and the story is quite interesting. Most of the actors in this movie are professionals who have appeared in other films, the quality of the film print is above average and the scenery is very colorful as compared to to other similar low budget "C" movies. But the title can be very misleading. If you are a nostalgic sci-fi buff, I recommend you buying or renting this movie because you just might get a kick out of it. P.S. look for familiar faces as you watch the show.

When I was a little kid this film gave me the creeps, but now its just a cure for insomnia. The only thing that makes this film watchable is Mamie Van Doren in a blouse that looks like its about two or three sizes too small and shows the thing (or should I say things) that made her one of the icons of B-movies. This film will always hold a special place in the hearts of fans of Ms. Van Doren.

Navy vs. the Night Monsters, The (1966)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

This now legendary cult movie has the reputation of being one of the worst ever made but I wouldn't go that far. The film has a pretty simple storyline as a Navy base has a plane land where only the pilot is alive and the rest of the crew have mysteriously disappeared. The only strange thing is this acid material that is all over the place. While the doctors try to figure out what's going on, more deaths happen and sure enough it's because of those killer trees brought back from Antarctica. The killer tree genre didn't deliver too many movies and you just need to watch this one to understand why. Again, this is no where near the worst movie ever made but at the same time I will call it one of the most disappointing because it really isn't as bad as what you've heard. I think the biggest problem with the film is that it really doesn't do anything with its silly and stupid plot. Yes, the plot is incredibly dumb but so were the majority of stories that were used for our sci-fi and horror favorites. The filmmakers want us to believe that trees have come to life and can attack people. Fine, do something with it. The first hour of the film pretty much has everyone talking about terrifying these creatures are yet it takes forever to get to see them in action. Once they do go into action we get a few nice laughs because of how silly they look. The low-budget is obvious with the special effects and especially one scene where a man gets his arm pulled off. An even stranger thing is why this movie was made to begin with. Outside it being shot in color the thing really looks and feels like something made ten or fifteen years earlier. When you think of what was going on in the film world by 1966 it's as if the filmmakers of this thing were in a coma and didn't realize how out-of-date their movie was. The performances, as you'd expect, are all rather wooden and this includes cult favorite Mamie Van Doren who plays the head nurse. She's suppose to be playing this brilliant mind but I think you know how that turned out. At least the directors were smart enough to keep her in tight shirts. At 88-minutes this comes off as one of those films where you keep watching and keep yourself entertained hoping that something good eventually happens but in the end there's not enough there to make it worth the effort. THE NAVY VS. THE NIGHT MONSTERS isn't a good movie but sadly it isn't bad enough to be fully entertaining.

Oh sure, the Navy is going to let a mammary goddess like Mamie Van Doren loose on an island with maybe a hundred horny sailors. But then drive-in impresario Roger Corman had an uncredited hand in the production, and he was never one to forsake a tight sweater. Actually, Mamie's more subdued here than I expected. Now if only someone could wake her up. Speaking of the cast, it's really Walter Sande's movie despite the low billing. His screen time overshadows that of the two leads, but then who'd recognize his name on the marquee. After all, Hollywood is a commercial industry.

The movie does manage a strong point. Namely, the good-natured ribbing among the Navy personnel creates a believable and entertaining atmosphere. Then too, the naval base really looks and performs like one, unlike the usual budget saver. Plus, I like the way civilian malcontent Spaulding (Faulkner) finally wakes up and pitches in with the others. But, oh my gosh, those tree monsters! Straight out of Corman's closet of cheesy rubber. I guess writer- director Hoey didn't want them, but we know who prevailed. On the industry ladder, producers count for more than even writer-directors. But then, the director or somebody could have picked up the pacing since there's little suspense to carry the tempo. Yet, how scary is a tree-hugger in reverse. At least we don't have to groan at first monster sighting till later in the movie.

I see that writer Hoey had high hopes for the project before he lost control. I just hope his original monster was scarier than something growing in my front yard. Judging from IMDb's notes, Hoey had something like 1951's horror classic The Thing in mind. That makes sense given the parallels in icy polar settings, isolated military bases, and snappy dialogue. But there, of course, any similarity ends.

Anyway, no one expects Oscar bait from a title like navy and night monsters. And, from that standpoint, the movie comes through, despite the occasional stabs at quality.