Movielogr

movie poster

Rating: 6.5 stars

Tags

TCM

Seen 1 time

Seen on: 06/30/2011

View on: IMDb | TMDb

The Magnetic Monster (1953)

Directed by Curt Siodmak, Herbert L. Strock

Science Fiction

Most recently watched by sensoria

Overview

The Office of Scientific Investigations tracks down the source of increased magnetism and radioactivity in Los Angeles, and discovers that a man-made isotope is consuming available energy from nearby mass every few hours,  doubling its size in the process.  Although microscopic, it will soon become big enough to destroy Earth; and how to stop it is yet to be determined.  The film’s Deltatron special effects footage is taken from the 1934 German sci-fi film GOLD.

Rated NR | Length 76 minutes

Actors

Kathleen Freeman | Strother Martin | Michael Fox | Richard Carlson | King Donovan | John Zaremba | Michael Granger | Frank Gerstle | Byron Foulger | Roy Engel | Harry Ellerbe | Leonard Mudie | Douglas Evans | Juney Ellis | Charles Williams | Lee Phelps | Jean Byron | Jarma Lewis | John Dodsworth | John Vosper | Leo Britt | William 'Billy' Benedict | Watson Downs | Elizabeth Root

Viewing Notes

The Magnetic Monster is a strange film, more science than science fiction. It starts off as a criminal investigation involving various incidents and deaths due to radiation exposure and magnetization of metal objects, but then heads into The Monolith Monsters territory.

There’s a lot of stock footage here, but it’s used pretty well and cut into the dramatic scenes exceedingly well, and so, somehow, it all works better than it sounds like it should.

It’s still a bit sleepy, but considering it was done in 1953, I think it turned out fairly well.

This was the third movie of the evening in Turner Classic Movies’ final TCM Drive-In feature that they’d been running for about a month on Thursdays. I hope they revisit the idea from time to time because it’s been a lot of fun.

Comments

No comments yet. Log in and be the first!

  BENCHMARKS  
Loading Time: Base Classes  0.0017
Controller Execution Time ( Members / Movie Detail )  0.0266
Total Execution Time  0.0282
  GET DATA  
No GET data exists
  MEMORY USAGE  
538,104 bytes
  POST DATA  
No POST data exists
  URI STRING  
members/sensoria/movie_detail/7099
  CLASS/METHOD  
members/movie_detail
  DATABASE:  movielogr_dev (Members:$db)   QUERIES: 17 (0.0064 seconds)  (Hide)
0.0003   SELECT 1
FROM 
`ml_sessions`
WHERE `id` = '924ee46c1dc19aa05a3197b7a695bef35f0ffd1f'
AND `ip_address` = '216.73.216.111' 
0.0002   SELECT GET_LOCK('a69a083cdbd4204fb88b8164cf29ff29'300) AS ci_session_lock 
0.0002   SELECT `data`
FROM `ml_sessions`
WHERE `id` = '924ee46c1dc19aa05a3197b7a695bef35f0ffd1f'
AND `ip_address` = '216.73.216.111' 
0.0003   SELECT `username`, `user_id`
FROM `ml_users`
WHERE `username` = 'sensoria'
 
LIMIT 1 
0.0003   SELECT `MV`.`title_id`, `MT`.`tmdb_id`
FROM `ml_movie_titles` `MT`
LEFT JOIN `ml_movies` `MVON `MV`.`title_id` = `MT`.`title_id`
WHERE `MV`.`movie_id` = 7099
AND `MV`.`user_id` = 1
 LIMIT 1 
0.0004   SELECT `star_rating`
FROM `ml_users`
WHERE `ml_users`.`user_id` = 1
 LIMIT 1 
0.0002   SET SESSION group_concat_max_len 12288 
0.0024   SELECT `MV`.`title_id`, `MV`.`movie_id`, COUNT(DISTINCT MV.title_id) AS mv_count, `title`, `prefix`, `year`, `imdb_link`, `MT`.`imdb_id`, `MT`.`tmdb_id`, `overview`, `certification`, `runtime`, `genre_id_01`, `genre_id_02`, `genre_id_03`, MAX(MP.filename) AS filename, `G1`.`genre_nameAS `genre_name_01`, `G2`.`genre_nameAS `genre_name_02`, `G3`.`genre_nameAS `genre_name_03`, `date_viewed`, `notes`, `MV`.`format_id`, `FMT`.`format_name`, `MV`.`source_id`, `SRC`.`source_name`, `MV`.`device_id`, `DVC`.`device_name`, `MV`.`rating_id`, `STR`.`star_rating`, `rewatch`, GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT(DR.director_name) ORDER BY DR.tmdb_director_id ASC SEPARATOR "|") AS directorsGROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT(DR.tmdb_director_id) ORDER BY DR.tmdb_director_id ASC SEPARATOR "|") AS director_idsGROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT(ACT.actor_name) ORDER BY ACT.tmdb_actor_id ASC SEPARATOR "|") AS actorsGROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT(ACT.tmdb_actor_id) ORDER BY ACT.tmdb_actor_id ASC SEPARATOR "|") AS actor_ids
FROM 
`ml_movie_titles` `MT`
LEFT JOIN `ml_movies` `MVON `MV`.`title_id` = `MT`.`title_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_movie_posters` `MPON `MV`.`title_id` = `MP`.`title_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_lookup_genres` `G1ON `MV`.`genre_id_01` = `G1`.`genre_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_lookup_genres` `G2ON `MV`.`genre_id_02` = `G2`.`genre_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_lookup_genres` `G3ON `MV`.`genre_id_03` = `G3`.`genre_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_lookup_formats` `FMTON `MV`.`format_id` = `FMT`.`format_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_lookup_sources` `SRCON `MV`.`source_id` = `SRC`.`source_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_lookup_devices` `DVCON `MV`.`device_id` = `DVC`.`device_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_movie_ratings_ten_star` `STRON `MV`.`rating_id` = `STR`.`rating_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_junction_movies_directors` `JMDON `MT`.`title_id` = `JMD`.`title_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_directors_new` `DRON `JMD`.`tmdb_director_id` = `DR`.`tmdb_director_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_junction_movies_actors` `JMAON `MT`.`title_id` = `JMA`.`title_id`
LEFT JOIN `ml_actors_new` `ACTON `JMA`.`tmdb_actor_id` = `ACT`.`tmdb_actor_id`
WHERE `MV`.`movie_id` = 7099
AND `MV`.`user_id` = 1
ORDER BY 
`date_viewedDESC 
0.0002   SET SESSION group_concat_max_len 1024 
0.0003   SELECT `event_title`, `JME`.`event_id`
FROM `ml_junction_movies_events` `JME`
LEFT JOIN `ml_movie_events` `EVON `JME`.`event_id` = `EV`.`event_id`
WHERE `JME`.`movie_id` = 7099 
0.0003   SELECT `tag`, `JMT`.`tag_id`
FROM `ml_junction_movies_tags` `JMT`
LEFT JOIN `ml_tags` `MTON `JMT`.`tag_id` = `MT`.`tag_id`
WHERE `JMT`.`movie_id` = 7099 
0.0002   SELECT `star_rating`
FROM `ml_users`
WHERE `ml_users`.`user_id` = 1
 LIMIT 1 
0.0002   SELECT `rating_id`
FROM `ml_movies` `MV`
WHERE `MV`.`user_id` = 1
AND `MV`.`movie_id` = 7099
 LIMIT 1 
0.0002   SELECT `star_rating`
FROM `ml_movie_ratings_ten_star` `MR`
WHERE `MR`.`rating_id` = '15'
 
LIMIT 1 
0.0003   SELECT `MV2`.`date_viewed`, `MV2`.`movie_id`
FROM `ml_movies` `MV`
LEFT JOIN `ml_movies` `MV2ON `MV`.`title_id` = `MV2`.`title_idAND `MV`.`user_id` = `MV2`.`user_id`
WHERE `MV`.`user_id` = 1
AND `MV`.`movie_id` = 7099
GROUP BY 
`MV2`.`movie_id`
ORDER BY `MV2`.`date_viewedDESC 
0.0002   SELECT `comment_id`, `comment`, `commenter_id`, `timestamp`, `username`, `email_address`
FROM `ml_comments` `MC`
JOIN `ml_users` `MUON `MU`.`user_id` = `MC`.`commenter_id`
WHERE `movie_id` = 7099 
0.0002   SELECT `username`, `date_viewed`, `MV`.`movie_id`
FROM `ml_users` `MU`
JOIN `ml_movies` `MVON `MV`.`user_id` = `MU`.`user_id`
JOIN `ml_movie_titles` `MTON `MT`.`title_id` = `MV`.`title_id`
WHERE `MT`.`title_id` = 4092
ORDER BY 
`date_viewedDESC
 LIMIT 10 
  HTTP HEADERS  (Show)
  SESSION DATA  (Show)
  CONFIG VARIABLES  (Show)