Professor Bernard Maury (Dick Welsbacher) and his assistant Creighton Randall (John Froome) are working on a dig in the desert in the southwest when they unearth an unusual find. In a layer of strata that normally holds dinosaur fossils they find a perfectly preserved prehistoric human. Maury instructs Cleetus Henderson (Webb Smith), one of the workmen, to dig out the specimen.
Meanwhile, Dr. John Crawford (Ralph Seeley), the museum director, and Ford Barston (Henry Harvey), the chairman of the museum board of directors that financed the dig, discuss John’s trip out to the site. Crawford’s sister Elyse (Suzanne Farrar) and John’s assistant Paul Benson arrive. Elyse and Barston take Crawford and Benson to the airport. Maury meets them when they arrive at the airport near the site and takes them to a hotel in town. He convinces them to wait until the next morning before visiting the excavation site. Maury never mentions the discovery of the prehistoric man.
Back at the site Maury determines that the ancient man died by being struck by lightning and is at least 60 million years old. That means he existed at the same time the dinosaurs were still around. By now Maury has decided to keep the discovery to himself and not give it to the museum. Randall is against it but Maury blackmails him so that he will go along. Into the discussion comes the foreman of the work crew Henderson. Henderson decides to cut himself in on the deal. Maury has no choice but to go along.
In the morning Randall and Henderson crate everything up while Maury heads back to town to get Crawford and Benson. In the meantime a thunderstorm comes up. The lightning and thunder from it awakens the caveman who goes on a rampage. When Maury and the others get back, Henderson is dead and Randall is off his rocker. The caveman is found lying not far away.
The authorities believe that Randall went crazy and killed Henderson. They pack the caveman up and send it to the museum. Randall they send to the nut house. Now that Maury’s plans have been discovered Barston is not too happy with the archeologist. Maury quits, but before he goes he heads back to the museum to steal the missing link. Before he can abscond with his treasure another thunderstorm comes up.
“The Beast from the Beginning of Time” was released in 1965 and was written and directed by Tom Leahy. Leahy also plays the monster in the movie using the pseudonym Nelson Strong. It is a home grown science fiction horror film shot in Wichita, Kansas. The production was financed by Wichita television station KARD-TV Channel 3, whom Leahy worked for, as well as with contributions by staff and cast members. The budget for this extravaganza was $10,000. The cast is comprised mostly of local television personalities and station employees.
Tom Leahy’s claim to fame was as the host of a children’s afternoon television program in Whichita called “Major Astro”. Leahy did lead-ins and showed cartoons. He wore a spacesuit on a set dressed as a space station. At one time he also hosted a late night horror movie show called “Nightmare” his name was merely “The Host”.
This ridiculous bit of nonsense is basically bad. The script is bad, the acting is bad and the quality of the film is bad. Even Leahy called it “a classic catastrophe”. Unless you watched TV in Whichita as a kid you’ve probably never heard of it. Although it was released in 1965 it was rarely shown on TV. It was resurrected somewhere around 1980 when it was shown as part of a Halloween special in Whichita. The movie has never had a VHS or DVD release and it probably never will. The main thing that saved this film from total obscurity is on-line streaming. You can find this bad boy on Amazon prime video as well as other streaming services and even youtube. Due to both its obscurity and its absurdness its actually fun. Granted it’s not even a good “B” movie but it is ludicrous so that and its rarity make it special.
In 1968 Leahy also did an unreleased and uncompleted pilot sample for a feature length film. Only about eleven minutes long the pilot was called “Green Hell from the Void”. The lead character was played by Robert Carroll. Carroll was a news anchor at channel 3, KARD in Kansas. What does exist is quirky but short. It too is bad; I would have loved to have seen the film completed. Unfortunately Leahy passed away in 2010.
Movie
Green Hell from the Void