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El Sonido Prehistorico
Sound of Horror
The Prehistoric Sound / Sound from a Million Years Ago / El Sonido de la Muerte
Spain 1964
produced by
Gregorio Sacristán de Hoyos for Zurbano Films
directed by José Antonio Nieves Conde
starring James Philbrook, Arturo Fernandez, Antonio Casas, Soledad Miranda, José Bodalo, Ingrid Pitt, Lola Gaos, Francisco Piquer
story by Sam X.Abarbanel, screenplay by Sam X.Abarbanel, José Antonio Nieves Conde, Gregorio Sacristán de Hoyos, Gregg C. Tallas, music by Luis de Pablo
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Professor Andre (Antonio Casas) his niece Maria (Soledad Miranda) &
his assistant Stravos (Francisco Piquer) are doing some excavations in some Greece caverns,
but althopugh they do find some amazing things - a mummyfied Neanderthal
man, big petrified eggs, the professor is not content since he is in
fact looking for a treasure hidden in the vicinity for which he has only
half the map. Thank god right about then, Asilov (James Philbrook) & Dorman
(José Bodalo) - along
with Sophia (Ingrid Pitt) & their driver Peter (Arturo Fernandez) -, who have
the other half, show up . But unfortunately, one of the petrified eggs has already
hatched & turned into an invisible killer, with Stravos being its
first victim. The rest of the gang are fleeing to the nearby house they
are staying at along with their housekeeper Kalyope (Lola Gaos), who was
always dead frightened of the caverns. In fact the invisible creature
seems so dangerous & the sounds it emanates so frightening that our
gang locks itself in the house with all windows shut & doors bolted.
For some reason though, that does not keep our frightened housekeeper
from going outside on her own free will to get some water from the
fountain to cook the gang some coffee - of course she gets it. The
others realize once again what danger they are in & almost fall
victim to a sibling of our creature that decides to hatch right then in
their midst, but is promptly burned. The next day Andre decides to take
the offensive & goes to the caverns to blow the creature up - a not
very thought out plan considering he has no idea if the creature is in
the caverns & if not, where it is (it's invisible, you know, hence
you can't see where it is) - & what do you know, the creature is
right behind him & kills him. The caverns of course are blown up
with the professor (who doesn't mind all that much anymore since he is
already dead), the creature escapes & lays ruins to the house's
kitchen, & later attacks Maria who can escape, if just. Then the
gang come up with an ingenious (?) plan: They cover parts of the grass
outside the house with flour (it's never explained why they do have all
the flour, neither how they would know that the creature would cross
exactly that part of the grass) & once they see its footprints,
throw axes at it. The plan works inasmuch as they do wound the creature,
but when they try to escape by car, they have to realize that the
creature actually hid on the carroof. Finally Dorman, who was already
severely wounded by the creature, sacrifices himself by acting as bait
& blowing up the car.
The whole idea of having an invisible creature that cannot be seen
but emanates abstract, creepy noises is, while not brandnew even back
then, pretty good, however, the translation into film is less
successful: For one, sometimes glimpses of the creature (it's supposed
to be a dinosaur I think) are seen occasionally, diminishing the effect
of the creatures threat, & the characters do sometimes act highly
unreasonable, frequently opening doors & windows for an invisible
threat when they are supposed to lock themselves in, ever so often
throwing all caution to the wind just to get the story moving, etc, so
that you actually after a while wish them to die if just for their
stupidity.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
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