H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space" is supposedly his favorite short story and it's mine too. The blend of classic Lovecraftian atmosphere and the sprinkle of science fiction background gives this one a luster the more purely supernatural stories miss by a fraction. The development of the tale is relentless and the utter destruction of the poor Gardner family is difficult to abide, but like a horrific scene of any kind you cannot take your eyes away.
Needless to say, I was eager to at long last see the film adaptation starring Boris Karloff. The title was changed to the frenetic but meaningless Die Monster Die!. The story echoes the original, especially early on with an outsider played by All-American hero Nick Adams who finds a village terrified of the Whitleys, a family he's come to see because he has romantic interest in the young daughter. He finds a family falling apart, living beside a heath on which the plants are dead.
Boris is a scientist who seems to have found a way to make plants flourish using a mysterious meteor he keeps in the cellar, but that same stone is giving off rays that are killing everything around it eventually. There's madness and violence but rarely pacing. The story drags along with Nick Adams doing a better job in the lead than I expected. Boris is always good, but this character is limited. The ending is pretty lame really and has nothing to do with the Lovecraft original. The story deprives itself of the notion that the meteor was sentient, something that gives the original story a quality of the peculiar this movie ignores but making it all about boring old radiation.
"The Dunwich Horror" by Lovecraft made a big impression on me as a youngster. Reading it again, it has less power, but the sheer weirdness of the Whately clan is still among Lovecraft's best creations.
The movie version has very little to do with the original story. The Whately brothers are present, but beyond that it's a pretty standard devil-cult movie popular in the 60's. Wilbur Whately played by Dean Stockwell is an oddball, but alas has no chance to really become to truly bizarre Wilbur of the short story. He's just a cultist. His even more hideous brother is pretty effective when he's off screen, but when the monsterous sibling finally shows up there's no horror at all. It all falls pretty flat.
Ed Begley is okay as Armitage, and I'll give the movie credit for developing a mood early on. It just doesn't do much with all that momentum but squander it with scenes that maunder on. If it wasn't for getting a gander at Sandra Dee's gams, the movie's latter section would have little to offer.
When it comes to Lovecraft, the original is always best alas.
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