Mammoth skyscrapers of stone thundering across the earth!

That's a tagline that gets attention! The Monolith Monsters (1957) by Universal Pictures was one of those early sci-fi films that I always recall with clarity and admiration.

Lola Albright, Grant Williams and Les Tremayne star in the story of a meteorite that crashes to earth scattering it's shards within a valley outside of a sleepy Southwestern desert community. A local geologist finds a fragment of it in a roadway, and not recognizing the mineral takes it back to the laboratory to study. In the morning his partner, Dave Miller (Grant Williams), finds the lab wrecked and the geologist himself petrified. As the mystery unravels it is discovered that when damp, it grows into black, crystal-like shafts which absorb all silica nearby, including that of animals or humans who come in contact with it. Once all silica is absorbed and the monolith grows to its fullest possible height, it becomes dormant. However, it may easily topple, shattering into many fragments which wait to grow into new shafts if they contact water.

The scary thing is that a rainstorm is on the way and once the meteorites receive that much water they can tower to hundreds of feet in height before crashing down - and they are in a valley that spills out right onto the town. How are the residents to survive the terrible onslaught of these Monolith Monsters? You'll have to get it and see!

The movies was filmed primarily on the back lot of Universal City, CA but the exterior shots were from the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine, California right between Kings Canyon National Park and Death Valley National Park.

I recall how I thought it was scary that a rock, when wet, would absorb silica from the human body and effectively turn you to stone by removing the chemical that made skin and tissue flexible. Plus the thought of 500-foot high rocks tumbling over crushing houses like matchboxes was enough to make any 10 year old a bit on edge!

I was able to watch it again recently (it's part of a double-feature DVD with The Incredible Shrinking Man) and I still find it humbling to compare we frail humans to the power of these mammoth killer rocks! You can rent it from Netflix but the DVD is a bit pricey at Amazon.com at $34.95 (it's part of a 10-movie set) but you can get it on eBay for under $10.00.

One thing's for sure - when I do finally finish my basement and have a Viewing Room, this will be one of the posters on the wall!