When Moles Were More Meaningful

My Own Distressed Copy of Warren's Mole People Tie-In Mag From 1964

Joy Still To Be Had in The Mole People (1956)

By any reasonable standard, The Mole People is a bad picture, but standards among so-called "monster boomers" are not reasonable. We are driven by sentiment and nostalgia same as ones who grew up a generation before on cowboy Saturdays. While these sat home wondering when westerns might come back, we were in seats they'd once occupied looking at sci-fi and horror that at least shared common ground of occasional black-and-whiteness. Soon enough we'd endure with elders a larger public's dismiss of cherished totems. A next group of youngsters would sneer at our Mole People same as we had at Hoot and Hoppy. I got that hard lesson doing early 2000's college shows of meaningful-to-me Kiss Of The Vampire, Tales Of Terror, and others from a childhood the latter generation seemed disinclined to share with me. Said oldies died death of a hundred walk-outs and sour react (not a last occasion for the cold splash, as there would come bitter tide of showing Ann my "scariest of all" Black Sabbath). So what is takeaway from this? To watch The Mole People and ones like it alone for a start, or at most with friends (just one if you can locate him) who understands. The gather of long-term monster fanship is a lot like old-timers I used to see at 16mm western screenings during the 70/early 80's, reaching back decades, but eternally optimistic that somehow youth would wake up and realize there was nothing better than Saturdays spent astride with serial accompany.

A Monsterpiece Among Don Post Masks

So here comes The Mole People on Blu-Ray from Region Two to make me realize how long ago fifty years is. I was lucky enough to see it theatrically in 1964. Otherwise, I'd not care any more than vast majority who came to first Mole sightings on TV or cassette. For likes of The Mole People, there has to be first exposure at impressionable age, as in vicinity of age ten, and even then it's not the movie that matters, but being ten and going to the show for a thing you've anticipated with much excitement. What made The Mole People a joy for some of us, even eight years after it was first released, was a magazine (in fact, "A New Kind Of Magazine") '64-issued by Warren Publications, this being stills and frame enlargements that told the film's whole story in comic book format. It seemed an odd device, even if tried previous with Black Zoo (Charlton Publishing) and again by Warren for The Horror Of Party Beach. Universal did reissue The Mole People in 1964, along with others of its "weirdie" cycle from the 50's, a last go at theatre revenue before release of the lot to television the following year.

Gagging Cynthia Patrick and John Agar Making The Best of a "B" Situation

I wondered at the time if Aurora might issue a plastic model so we might build our own Mole Man. That didn't happen, though there was a Don Post mask, which like all of his, I couldn't begin to afford. By time of seeing The Mole People, I had read the magazine so many times as to render the movie anti-climactic, though this too contributed to novelty. Between the mag and the mask, had there ever been such synergy for a monster pic long played out by the mid-60's? That question lingered as I watched the Blu-Ray, which, by the way, looks great despite somewhat severe cropping to 2:1 (should be 1:85, says expert Bob Furmanek). There is much recorded lore on The Mole People. Everyone who survived the shoot by thirty years or more was interviewed, mostly by Dean-in-that-field Tom Weaver. Thanks to unceasing fan research, we probably know more MP background than for ninety percent of Classic Era output. Just one tidbit I'll repeat: Rock Hudson dropped by the messy Mole pit where the pic was being filmed and asked John Agar, How'd you get into this thing?. Rock was probably doing Never Say Goodbye at the time, or maybe gearing up for Written On The Wind, these the sort of pictures Agar would have preferred working in. Posterity, of course, bestowed the greater gift upon Jack for his endure of The Mole People, for who'd have chased him through convention halls afterward to ask about Never Say Goodbye?