The Navy vs. the Night Monsters

The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966)

All-Devouring Carnivorous Trees That Move On Their Own Roots!

US Navy battles monsters unearthed from the frozen arctic.

Date of release
1966-11-01
TMDB
4.7 / 10 (11)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
Horror, Science Fiction
Director
Michael A. Hoey

Casting

Interesting facts

The Navy vs. the Night Monsters is a 1966 independently made American science fiction-monster film drama produced by Jack Broder, written and directed by Michael A. Hoey, that stars Mamie Van Doren, Anthony Eisley, Billy Gray, Bobby Van and Pamela Mason. The film was distributed by Realart Pictures Inc.

Production

The Navy vs. the Night Monsters was based on the 1959 science fiction novel The Monster from Earth's End by Murray Leinster. Hoey read Leinster's novel and thought it could make a good science fiction film along the lines of The Thing from Another World (1951). He optioned it and wrote a screenplay, originally titled The Nightcrawlers.

Corman provided some uncredited assistance to executive producer Broder. Hoey said that during rehearsal, Broder announced the film's new title would be The Navy vs. The Night Monsters. "The entire cast was ready to walk out", claimed Hoey. "They were furious that he would give it that title".

Broder wanted to make the film back-to-back with another film, Women of the Prehistoric Planet, using the same crew and Edwards as line producer on both. Hoey thought highly of Edwards, claiming "he was really a creative producer ... a good producer who tried to keep things away from you while you were on the set; keep the picture moving forward smoothly; keep oil on the waters.

The cast includes Billy Gray (of The Day the Earth Stood Still and the TV series Father Knows Best), who Hoey said "had sort of been having a tough time; he straightened his act out but was still having trouble getting back. So they made an offer and he accepted". Hoey was hoping to get a bigger name than Eisley (who was not the first choice) for the lead, but the director was happy with his performance.

Van Doren was cast because she had a commitment to make a film with Corman. Her casting resulted in Hoey turning her character into a civilian. He said, "So I put her in a tight sweater and a pair of slacks about 50 percent of the time".

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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