Thread by @ComradeArthur

And we're off!
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The Magnetic Monster (1953) - a live-tweeting

There's quite a few posters for this movie. On about half of them, our hero (the guy in the radiation suit), is more-or-less portrayed as if he *was* the magnetic monster.

Science is scary! There's new types of weapons.

The OSI will take care of that. Office of Scientific Investigation. They seem to have a mandate to deal mad scientists

"The operatives of OSI are called ... A-Men!"
" A stands for Atom.. "

Yeah, they're mostly worried about radioactive shenigans.

BTW, this was directed by Curt "Donovan's Brain" Siodmak!

"yet within this tiny molecule there's a tremendous force that, once unlocked, can create or destroy planets

Our Earth is a planet!"

"My name is Stewart, Jeff Steward. Class of '38 - MIT "

That's ok if you couldn't hack CalTech, I guess

Jeff arrives at his office/lab
Dennis (the number 2 guy): "When was the last nuclear test near Los Vegas"
Jeff: A couple of months ago, why?
Dennis: Could you double check this air sample?

Uh-oh

Jeff: 2280 Disintegrations a minute.

Uh-oh.

Jeff: Let's do another sample

Science!

Jeff: 2360 disintegrations a minute.

Uh-oh!!

Now we shift to an Simon's hardware store staffed by every character actor you instantly recognize but can't name.

Simon starts off pissed because it's 9am and all the clocks on display read 12:12.

He berates a clerk who compains "but I WOUND all the clocks last night!"

Clerk points out even the electric clock says 12:12
----
Another clerk is upset. Small appliances are sticking to each other. They're magnetized!
-----
The doors on the front loading washing machines flap back and forth!!!

A (push) lawnmower attacks! (it just rolls towards the Simon and the clerks)

Simon: Someone is wrecking my store with magnetic power!
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Remember the quote from Dick Tracy's gadget master: "The nation that controls magnetism will control the world."

Simon calls the power company (why?)

The power company calls OSI.

Jeff and Dennis arrive at Simon's.

Simon is having a hard time. There are paperclips hanging from his glasses!

Dennis flings some nuts and bolts into the air - they stick to the ceiling!

They put the probe of their geiger counter (of *course* they have a geiger counter!) on a fishing pole and note there's a lot of radiation coming from the ceiling

Time to start wearing the dosimeters!

Jeff calls his boss.
The boss tells him to put their protective suits and wait for the police.
The police are going to surround the block.
Jeff and Dennis will try to recover the radiation source.
The police will have orders to SHOOT TO KILL.
(shoot who?)

Stock footage of every police car and motorcycle cop in LA deploying.
----
Jeff and Dennis, suited up, head upstairs.

Radiation readings getting pretty high.
Dennis wonders if this might be an example of the hypothetical.... MONOPOLE!!!!

That's some real hardcore science!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_…

They enter a room. Some sort of apartment converted into a lab.
Geiger counter screaming.
---
There's a body!

"Dead for hours.. Radiation overdose"
They keep searching for the source.
under a table they find the kind of container used to hold *hot* isotopes.
Geiger counter going nuts.
The container is empty! All this radiation is just the leftovers, the dust from the source!

Source isn't there but Dennis points out that all that magnetism should make it easy to track down.

Back at the lab, they analyze dust samples - trying to figure out what was in that container.
They can't make heads or tails of the spectrographs.
Jeff: "In desperation,
we decided to submit our findings to the ... ELECTRONIC BRAIN."

An impressive computer montage follows.
------
"The M.A.N.I.A.C. sings with weird voices when it is working"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MANIAC_I

Even the ELECTRONIC BRAIN is baffled.
There's no match in its paper punch cards for this
radioactive element... that can kill!

An city-wide alert is issued.
Watch for weird electrical stuff!

Cab driver at the airport.
His cab's engine is messed up in a weird way.
He follows instructions and calls OGden 2222
(that's how phone numbers looked in the 1950s)

the A-Men ponder while listening to incoming calls.
The cab driver makes his call. Says his screwdriver is stuck to his engine.

MAGNETIZED!!!

Another report to OSI.
The airfield is having extreme interference with its radar.

OSI at the airport.
Cabbie says he dropped off an old man with a briefcase. Doesn't know what time because his watch stopped.
Dennis wanders around the terminal, irritating people with his geiger counter.

There's been plenty of time for the old man to get on a plane to ... anywhere.
-----
Jeff tells the airport manager to order all the planes that left that airport to land NOW.

Manager says he can't do that.
Jeff explains that, real soon, the magnetism will lock up the engines (no jets!) of the plane the old man is on and it'll crash.
Manager says he can do that.

You'll rarely see such a smoothly running country as in this movie. Things happen FAST.

Meanwhile, Dennis pulls a brilliancy!
He get the old man's name AND the flight he's on!
How?
The old AIRPORT INSURANCE MACHINE.

Once upon a time, there were insurance machines at all the airports.
Worried about your plane crashing? you could buy life insurance Just For That Flight.
Dennis got a hot reading from the machine. He ran the counter over all the filled out forms ...

and the most contaminated form was for Mr. Denker on Flight 17!

I think they took those machines out after a man put a bomb in a suitcase, bought a lot of insurance for his mother and blew her plane out of the sky.

Dennis recognizes the name. Denker is a famous physicist.
----
Here's Denker on flight 17. He looks near death. But he won't let go of that briefcase.

Airport calls the pilot of 17. Tells them to head back NOW because their engines might quit.
PIlot: What do you mean my engines might qui....
Engine: cough, sputter
PIlot: We're coming back.

Jeff tells the pilot, oh by the way you've got a insanely dangerous radioactive source on your plane. You should move the briefcase as fat back as possible - but don't touch.

Pilot steals a cane from a blind man, drags the briefcase away from Denker (who can't do anything by now) and, as the passengers look on says "Don't be alarmed, everything will be all right"

The plane lands.
OSI whisks off the briefcase.
Dennis geigers the passengers. some of them are contaminated.

Jeff interviews the dying Denker.
Denker says he had a metal (name was garbled) and he bombarded with alpha rays for 200 hours - and it turned into a monopole!

He didn't tell anyone because he's a mad scientist, duh.

Denker: "I'm still in possession of my faculties. Remember this, Stewart. Keep it under constant electrical charge. It's hungry. It has to be fed constantly."

"Or it will reach out with its magnetic arm at anything
within its reach... and kill it.
It's monstrous, Stewart. Monstrous. It grows bigger and bigger."

Jeff: How can it be stopped?

Denker: "I don't know. Other (non-mad) scientists have to find a solution.
My contribution is finished.
Know this. In nuclear research there is no place for lone wolves."

Dies

The monopole is sent off to a university where it will be put in a cyclotron.
---
Early the next morning, Jeff makes it back home and NOW he's in real trouble because he broke a date with his wife last night.

Monopoles have more mercy than Jeff's wife.

Actually, she lets him off the hook.
-------
At breakfast Jeff gets a phone call. There was an explosion at the university!

2 men were killed.
------
Jeff: "2 days. 4 murders. Cause of death... the element was hungry."

Back at OSI.
High ranking people are pissed. They blame Jeff because he didn't tell them it would destroy a large building.
---
Not an explosion... an IMplosion!
Every metal part within 100 yards of "it" was drawn in.

Jeff: Did you notice any difference in it after the implosion

Scientist: Yes, it doubled in size and lost its radioactivity and magnetism

---
Doubled In Size.

To the electron microscope!
-----
"It" is easy to handle since it's not radioactive - right now.

It's about half the size of a thumb.

All the scientists and generals freak out. They can see "it" converting energy into mass. It's growing.

Another analysis and computing montage.
MANIAC crunches some numbers.

10 hours pass.

Jeff and Dennis sip coffee next to "it".
suddenly, the meters start popping. J&D look at "it" ... they figure out that it's entering a rapid growth phase and, if it doesn't get energy, it will implode and convert captured matter into itself.

BUT, if they stuff it with electricity, it will use that and grow peacefully without an implosion.
They try that.

It works!
But
Now it's twice as big.

MANIAC reports.
"It" has a cycle 11 hours long.
It doubles in mass every 11 hours and it takes twice as much energy to satisfy it every 11 hours.

Time of next implosion... 5am. Los Angeles will be blacked out to make sure there's enough power. But this is getting out of hand!

"Let's shoot it into space!"
"We don't have a rocket that powerful" (1953, yo)

"Let's dump it in the ocean!"
"In weeks the ocean will turn to steam"

Jeff has analyzed the MANIAC report.
If you overfeed "it" - by a lot - you'd be able to split it into two stable elements.

"How much power"
"900 million volts"

"There's no generator that powerful!"

And it eats the world.

The End.

Psych!
-----
Actually...

General: "Wait! Canada has a secret Deltatron in Nova Scotia. It has enough power. When we tell them what's going on, they'll let us use it."

Mayor: Nova Scotia is 4,000 miles away. How can we fly it there in only 11 hours?

General: Our new jets can go 600 mph - and they're non-magnetic!

General makes phone calls and Things Start Happening.

General: "I like this world. Let's keep it in one piece."

The USAF is *not* messing around.
They bring out a State Of The Art F-94 Starfire to carry "it" to Nova Scotia.

First US Fighter to have an afterburner!

Jeff and Dennis will also go to Nova Scotia in another jet.

AND... all the inflight pictures of the speeding F-94 (air to air refueling and so on) are of an F-86.
They don't look even a little bit alike!
Boo, Hiss.
-----
(The movie REALLY gonna cut some corners when they get to Nova Scotia)

Jeff notes that, when they get to Nova Scotia, they don't know exactly what to do. But they'll have 95 minutes to figure it out.

J&D arrive at the Deltatron. Oddly, it's 1700 feet underground. In a mine shaft under the ocean.
Why?

Because "The Magnetic Monster" was a low budget movie ($105,000). It didn't have anywhere new enough money for the spectacular set and action sequences to follow.
What they did have was a copy of the 1934 German movie "Gold" which DID have the budget for a giant set to blow up.

So they splice footage in from that movie.
Also, the actors from "Magnetic Monster" starting wearing outfits that match those in "Gold" so the scenes fit better.

Stupid and brilliant at the same time!

Jeff talks to the director of the Deltatron.
How much voltage can it put out?
Director: 600 million

Jeff: Gulp.

Director: It might be able to do more. But we haven't tested it. The insulators might not hold.

Jeff: we don't have time to test it.

BTW, the Canadians don't know what's going on. They've just been told to cooperate.

(reminder - they need 900 million volts)

They arrive at the Deltatron. It's very much like a Spectre base from a James Bond movie. Which is more or less what was going on in "Gold"

Giant doors or gates open to reveal the Delatron. The gates are there in case the Deltratron explodes - so the ocean water doesn't flood the rest of the base.

Behold!
The Deltatron!!

Jeff inspects the control panel. There's a sign that says Max Voltage 600 (million)

Dennis tells the director about the 900 million.
Director is pissed. Deltratron is his baby - he's put 11 years into it.

Director calls Canadian defense minister.
Director gets the bad news. Jeff is in charge.

Jeff goes to a control panel and starts throwing big switches.
Impressive Deltatronic stuff goes on.
He peers into the place were "it" is. Lots of stuff is happening to "it'

There's a huge plunger switch in the control panel marked DANGER. Jeff starts pushing it in.
Giant arcs of electricity bounce around the Deltatron complex.
The insulators can't handle the power!

He pulls the plunger back. That was just a quick test.
Jeff says he's about to close the flood gates. Everybody else should leave.
In 7 minutes he's going to go to FULL POWER PLUS 50%.

The director rushes up the Jeff and screams something but I can't make it out.
He's upset about something.

Jeff makes the director run off.
Then Jeff pushes the Plunger of Doom all the way in.
The Deltatron SCREAMS!

Jeff rushes to get out before the flood gates close.

OH NO.

The director runs back to the control panel!

Jeff has disabled the control panel so that the Deltatron can't be turned off.

BUT

The director jams the flood gate control so the gate can't close!

Note that the director still doesn't know that the monopole is going to eat the world.
Director: Now you have to shut the generator. You have to!
(because if the Deltatron blows, the flooding ocean will kill all 400 people in the mine)

Jeff grabs a bolt cutter and finagles the jammed cables on the flood gates.
They start closing and he barely gets out.
-----
The Deltratron is arcing like a a Tesla coil gone mad.

Deltatron go BOOM.
Massive explosions erupts on the ocean surface!

On the dry side of the flood gate, assorted metal objects fly through the air and clang on the gate.

Uh oh.

Jeff: "It's still alive. It's the end"

DENNIS PATS HIM ON THE BACK AND WALKS AWAY!!!!

A few seconds later the metal things fall to the ground!! No more magnetism!!!

Jeff: "We killed it, Dan! We killed it! It's gone forever!"

He looks like a madman.

Back home, Jeff enters the house he just bought with his pregnant wife.

THE END.

Starring Richard Carlson and King Donovan.

That's a damn fun movie.

roll it up!

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OMG - this is the first movie of the OSI trilogy!!
#2 - Riders to the Stars
#3 - .... GOG !!!!!!!!!!!