zetes Review of The Mole People

The Mole People (1956)

A pretty good B sci-fi that anticipates Planet of the Apes

[7/10 · 23 October 2006]

Surprisingly good B sci-fi. John Agar and Hugh Beaumont star as archaeologists who gets trapped in a world below the Earth's crust. They discover two intelligent species there, a race of Albinos apparently descended from Sumerians and the mole people. The mole people are initially the scarier race, with their ugliness and their big claws, but the superstitious, ultra-religious ways of the albinos prove more threatening in the long run. The script is fairly intelligent, and anticipates Planet of the Apes in many ways. Yes, the B-movie production level is at times risible, and the ending is very odd – read IMDb's trivia section for an explanation (though avoid it if you haven't seen the film, as the one piece of trivia is an enormous spoiler) – but otherwise it's a fine movie. I was racking my brains to understand why it was rated so low – only 4.4 – then I figured it out: it was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. That show really is a bane to real movie lovers. So far, this is the only film in Best Buy's sci-fi set that I've really liked besides The Incredible Shrinking Man.