Page 130 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

110 Mysterious Creatures

American psychic investigator in London through a bizarre transformation machine,
who was forced to battle a group of devil-wor- became a slave to intelligent, human-sized
shippers who paid obeisance to a hideous ants.
ancient demon. In the science fiction classic Donovan’s
Before James Arness (1923– ) became Brain (1953), Nancy Davis (Mrs. Ronald Rea-
television’s invincible Matt Dillon in the gan) (1921– ) played the girlfriend of a sci-
long-running series Gunsmoke (1955–75), he entist who falls under the telepathic control of
played an alien being, a giant, carnivorous the rich man’s brain that he is keeping alive.
humanoid vegetable who terrified a group of The star of such motion picture master-
scientists at an isolated Arctic research station pieces as Champion (1949), Lust for Life
in The Thing (1951). In Them! (1954), he was (1956), and Spartacus (1960), Kirk Douglas
a government agent trying to subdue giant (1916– ) faced supernatural monsters in two
mutant ants that had taken over the Los films. In The Chosen (1978), he played a
Angeles sewer system. nuclear power industrialist whose son (Simon
The recipient of a special Academy Award Ward), turned out to be the Antichrist, per-
in 1949 for his contribution to motion pic- haps the ultimate monster. In The Fury
tures, actor/dancer Fred Astaire (1899–1987), (1978), Douglas’s luck as a father was little
the master of the Hollywood musical, better when his son (Andrew Stevens) devel-
appeared in Ghost Story (1981) as one of a oped incredible psychokinetic powers that he
group of elderly men being stalked by a venge- began to use against others.
ful female shape-shifting spirit. Although Clint Eastwood (1930– )
In the science fiction classic The War of the handily dealt with thugs, outlaws, and crimi-
Worlds (1953), Gene Barry, who starred in such nals later in his career as hardened police offi-
television series as Bat Masterson (1958–61) cers or lawmen, in his cinematic green years,
and Burke’s Law (1963–66), was a scientist he was put up against bizarre monsters that
attempting to thwart a Martian invasion of were much too large to punch out or even to
Earth. He also appeared in The Devil and Miss bring down with a .357 Magnum. In Revenge
Sarah (1971), an offbeat Western about a satan- of the Creature (1955), he played a laboratory
ic outlaw harassing his tormentor’s wife. assistant to a scientist who was involved in
Raymond Burr (1917–1993), television’s placing the captured Gill Man from the Black
masterful attorney in the long-running law Lagoon on exhibit at a Florida aquarium. That
and order series Perry Mason (1957–66), was same year, Eastwood was a jet pilot trying to
not quite so articulate in Bride of the Gorilla kill a giant tarantula that had been created in
(1951). Burr portrayed a scheming murderer a laboratory experiment in Tarantula.
who was transformed into a human gorilla by Peter Graves (1921– ) became well
a witch, the mother of a native girl he had known as Jim Phelps, the authoritative direc-
betrayed. In the movie monster classic Godzil- tor in the television series Mission Impossible
la (1956), he was an American journalist in (1967–73; 1988–90). As a scientist in Red
Tokyo covering the story of a radioactive, pre- Planet Mars (1952), Graves established radio
historic monster’s devastation of Japan’s capi- contact with Martians. Courageously, Graves
tal. Burr’s scenes were deftly spliced into the attempted to thwart the takeover of Earth by a
original Japanese footage to ensure the film Venusian creature in It Conquered the World
obtaining a worldwide audience. (1956), and in The Beginning of the End
In The Devil Within Her (1975), Joan (1957), he battled aliens and their under-
Collins (1933– ), the manipulative Alexis of ground menagerie of huge creatures.
the television series Dynasty (1981–89), had In The Power (1968), George Hamilton
the role of a nightclub entertainer whose baby (1939– ) is a man gifted with supernatural
had been cursed by an evil dwarf. She fared powers imparted to him at birth by extrater-
little better in Empire of the Ants (1977), when restrials who is forced to battle another power-
Collins portrayed a real estate broker who, ful, but evil, mind similarly endowed. In Love

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