"Science fact and science fiction are not the same. Not in the least."
There is an earthquake at the bottom of the Salton Sea in California. Something is released from it’s underwater confinement. A Navy pilot testing parachutes disappears. Two sailors are sent to pick him up. All they find is a parachute. One of the men dives into the water to look for the pilot. He never resurfaces. When the pick up boat is found only one sailor is on board and he is in a state of shock. Lt Commander John 'Twill' Twilliger (Tim Hold) is the new commander on the base. It is his job to find out what happened.
A strange radioactive goop is found on the boat and a sample is taken to Dr. Jess Rogers (Hans Conried) to be examined. Next two swimmers go missing. The same goop is found. Navy divers go into the water to check it out. They find underwater caves that were not there before. They also find a sac of some kind. They bring it up. It’s an egg.
Suddenly A giant mollusk-like creature that was released from the underground cave appears. It kills one of the divers. Then it breaches the water drooling all over the place. They poke it in the eye and it goes under again. Now the Navy needs to pull out all the stops to kill this menace to society. The civilian defense is put on alert.
Alas some of the monsters escape into the All-American canal system near a naval base. The Navy’s next challenge is to find any remaining monsters and kill them. And any eggs that may have been laid.
"The Monster That Challenged The World" was released in 1957 and was directed by Arnold Laven. This is another giant monster movie popular in the 50’s. For some reason I have a great fondness for it. The actors are good. Many of them you’ve seen before in many other movies and TV shows. Even if you don’t know their names you’ve seen their faces. The monster looks like a saucer eyed caterpillar and kinda stupid. But that’s OK. The face in the egg is hilarious. We also get to watch a movie of slimy mollusks and slugs.
It’s actually a good low budget movie. It’s not as well known as some but it’s right up there with them as a classic “B” movie. This is the little movie with the big name. It just needs a better PR department.