Movie That Fell Through the Cracks # 57

I always love finding out about a cool-looking film I had no idea existed. This clip from 1969's THE MONITORS popped up on Facebook this evening and I clicked on it to watch on YouTube. I went back long enough to hit the "Like" button during the clip but afterwards the clip was gone and I wasn't even sure who had posted it! My own profile didn't even indicate I had "liked" anything!

I was meant to see it I guess as It looks amazing! In spite of amateurish acting it has nice cinematography. A check of IMDB revealed that it was done by the legendary Vilmos Zsigmond! Based on a story and screenplay by sci-fi author Keith Laumer, it essentially tells the black-comedy story of an already completed benevolent alien invasion that makes things better and the efforts of a group of people to return to the status quo. The director went on to a long and successful TV career so one is tempted to blame the amateurish quality on perhaps a lack of budget for retakes.

The bizarrely psychotronic cast includes Guy Stockwell (brother of Dean), STAR TREK's green girl Susan Olver, F TROOP's Larry Storch. Keenan Wynn, Avery Schrieber, comic Jackie Vernon, Peter Boyle, Senator Everett Dirksen and Mr and Mrs Alan Arkin and pretty much their whole family!

From what I read, THE MONITORS ran on late night TV quite a lot in some parts of the country a couple decades back but was never released on VHS or DVD. I found one dried up source for the whole film on the Net but I'll keep looking. This one looks great!