ralphv1 A solid B monster film featuring giant wasps and that favorite explain-all bugaboo of the Fifties, radiation. It also has a nice performance from Dallas star Jim Davis, a black actor in a sympathetic and intelligent role, and the "mysterious Doctor Satan" as a jungle sawbones. The film overcame some of the limitations of a small budget by incorporating footage from an earlier film, which required Davis to dress like Spencer Tracy. It also required some of the other characters to adopt odd garb from two decades earlier, and engendered some nonsequiter plot developments, but they do not harm the story. The monsters are a little hokey full-sized but are improved as stop action models. It is an entertaining and unpretentious film.

Paul Andrews Monster from Green Hell starts as a rocket is sent into space, scientists Dr. Quent Brady (Jim Davis) & Dan Morgan (Robert Griffin) are being paid good money to conduct research into the exposure of space to living animals, a rocket ship containing some Wasp's has gone missing & stayed in space for six months before crashing back to Earth somewhere in Africa. Quent is worried & newspaper headlines claiming of unrest in central Africa because of sightings of huge monsters does nothing to improve his mood, Quent suspects that the Wasp's aboard the rocket have mutated to an enormous size & are buzzing around Africa scaring the locals. Something must be done. Quent & Dan decide to go to Africa & discover the truth, unfortunately they need to hike through 400 miles of jungle to get to the location of the sightings but once they do their worst fears become a terrifying reality...Edited & directed by Kenneth G. Crane this cheap black and white late 50's sci-fi monster flick has a bad reputation & after watching it I can understand why, apart from the ridiculous monster Wasp's this thing drags badly which is odd considering it only lasts for 70 minutes. The main problem is that it starts off like a rocket with the mutant Wasp's making an early appearance but then the script slows right down & is padded to the extreme, once Quent lands in Africa the hike across 400 miles of jungle lasts for about forty minutes where next to nothing happens. The expedition run short of water, then it rains. A lot. They are attacked by native tribes & generally just walk around a lot as Quent narrates the story so copious amounts of stock footage can be used. Then during the final ten minutes the Wasp's show up again & are destroyed in a Volcanic eruption, why don't they just fly away? I mean don't Wasp's have wings? Can they not fly? Maybe I'm just thinking about this too much, yeah that's probably it. The character's are poor, there's no chemistry between any of them & not even the obligatory romance between the hero & leading lady. The scientist guy keeps referring to radiation but correct me if I am wrong I don't think there is any radiation in space? The film as a whole feels very dated, the scientific concepts used to explain plot points wouldn't convince a seven year old these days & it really does drag at times with a rather rushed climax.Lots & lots of stock footage is used in Monster from Green Hell, some of it quite nice & nicely edited into the final film but it does stand out all the same. Apparently some footage from Stanley and Livingstone (1939) starring Spencer Tracy was used. The special effects are predictably laughable, the toy Wasp's slowing move along with little wings which barely flap & plastic heads that just look so inanimate & stiff. The attacks aren't that good but there is a cool scene in which a mutant Wasp has a fight with a huge animated Python in easily the films best & most (only?) memorable sequence.Probably shot on no money in California with Bronson Canyon doubling up for the Green Hell of Africa, the whole film plods along with no great suspense or resolution. The acting is wooden as expected, I can't say that I personally recognized anyone in the cast.Monster from Green Hell is a pretty bad sci-fi horror giant insect film that as usual for this period blames radiation, the large amounts of stock footage & the tedious expedition through Africa slow things down to a crawl from which the film never really recovers. The giant Wasp's are also silly looking but kind of cool in a quaint way. I can't really recommend it but that giant Wasp versus Python fight was cool & I had a bit of fun with it, if not much.

reptilicus Ah, the 1950's. If you wanted to make a monster movie all you had to do was insert the word "radiation" into the script and that explained where the monster came from, no further explanation was necessary. Hey, I like this film and I make no apologies for liking it. The stop motion animation for the monsters is pretty good, especially that scene where a giant wasp battles a python. Sadly there is an awful lot of jungle and not enough monster.Jim Davis is a scientist firing rocket after rocket full of test animals into space to see what happens when they are exposed to radiation (our tax dollars at work!), this will show what future astronauts have to expect. I guess Jim never saw the movie FIRST MAN INTO SPACE or he would already know. Anyway a rocket full of wasps gets lost up there and eventually crashes in a remote African jungle. Let's not even ask why they launched a bunch of insects into space when they want to see what effect radiation has on mammals; just keep repeating "It's only a movie, only a movie, only a movie . . .". Concluding "There'a a lot of difference between 40 seconds of exposure and 40 hours." Jim packs up and heads for Africa.Meanwhile the wasps have mutated into giants (what? you're surprised?) and are terrorising an area aptly named "green hell". The local doctor (Vladimir Sokoloff) believes the stories of monsters are nothing but superstition but his native pal Arobi (Joel Fluellen) reminds him "Does an elephant run from superstition? Will a bird not light in a tree because of superstition?" Score one for you, Arobi!Jim and company have to walk 400 miles through the jungle to reach green hell and have to deal with no rain, poison waterholes and hostile natives before they arrive. When they finally do get there it's just them against the monsters and they'd better do something before the big wasps multiply!This is really a fun movie and I wish the budget had allowed for more of the monsters. The colour tinting at the end was an especially nice surprise.Now for all you detractors out there, we don't watch a movie called MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL expecting art; we watch it to have fun. That's what "B" movies are for and this one is lots of fun!

BaronBl00d Jim Davis plays a scientist who sends some animals, a few wasps in particular, into space to see how they fare under radiation. Alas, some wasps don't return and turn to gigantic proportions somewhere in Western Africa. Don't expect too much from this cheapie, but the film might be better than you expect prior to viewing. Despite the wasps and their infrequent screen time, the movie has the look and feel of a very cheaply-made film yet is able to tell a decent...okay, almost decent story. Made entirely in California with oodles of stock footage set in Africa, I found the film quasi-authentic. The acting was also somewhat acceptable. Davis was decent as were his co-stars. The film dives at the end with some quick resolution to an enormous problem. As far as bad movies go..you could find many much less entertaining and boring. Vladimir Sokoloff has a nice small role as a missionary in Africa.