The Navy vs. the Night Monsters is a 1966 sci-fi horror film in which acid-secreting, carnivorous trees attack humans. Also known as Monsters of the Night and The Night Crawlers.
The movie was produced by Jack Broder and [uncredited] Roger Corman, written and directed by Michael A. Hoey, and distributed by Realart Pictures Inc. It stars Mamie Van Doren, Anthony Eisley.
Plot [contains spoilers]:
The dull, workaday life at the small American Navy weather station based on Gow Island in the South Pacific is interrupted by the pending arrival of a C-47 transport for refueling. Aboard the aircraft are a team of scientists, an Air Force flight crew, and a cargo of specimens from their completed expedition to the Antarctic. On final approach, something moving in the cargo area unbalances the aircraft. The crewman sent to investigate returns, screaming, and he jumps to his death.
At the naval base, the transport’s radio transmits sounds of screaming and shots fired, and the descending plane suddenly weaves, veers, and crash lands on the island’s single airstrip, destroying the control tower and the island’s only two-way radio. The damaged aircraft also blocks the runway, preventing its further use.
Lieutenant Charles Brown is in command of Gow’s weather station. He, Navy nurse Nora Hall, and biologist Arthur Beecham reach the wreck only to find that the scientists and most of the crew are now mysteriously missing. The only one aboard is the C-47’s pilot, who is traumatized and in a state of shock, unable to speak. The cargo consists primarily of a few penguins, plus several prehistoric trees taken from the frozen tundra.
Unloading the cargo, Doctor Beecham recommends planting the trees to ensure their survival in the island’s tropical conditions. That night, a tropical storm ravages the island. Somewhat later, Gow Island’s bird population becomes disturbed by something unknown. The weather station’s scientists try to figure out a connection between this event and a corrosive residue that begins turning up at various island locations.
It slowly becomes evident that the planted prehistoric trees have grown into acid-secreting, carnivorous monsters that move about Gow Island at night, at will. They reproduce fast and eventually cut off the island with their growing numbers and nocturnal assaults for food. Brown has to hold together his dwindling Navy personnel and the coterie of scientists and civilians while figuring out a way to stop this prehistoric menace. The Navy personnel’s only available weapons prove largely ineffective against the tree monsters. When civilian meteorologist, Spaulding uses Molotov cocktails, fire proves to be the one thing that will destroy them.
The weather station is able to eventually restore radio contact with the mainland to ask for help. In response, the military command sends in multiple aircraft strikes from their nearest base. Fighter jets drop both napalm and fire air-to-ground missiles at the slow-moving night monsters, setting them ablaze. As a result, the threat to Gow Island’s surviving personnel is quickly eliminated, and Brown and Nora are free to pursue a romance which developed in the course of fighting the menace.
Choice dialogue:
“This is ridiculous!”
“That’s the heartbeat of a man in mortal terror.”
“How many more people are gonna die before we stop this killer?”
Background:
The Navy vs. the Night Monsters was based on the 1959 science fiction novel The Monster from Earth’s End by Murray Leinster. Hoey read Leinster’s novel and thought it could make a good science fiction film along the lines of The Thing from Another World (1951). He optioned it and wrote a screenplay, originally titled The Nightcrawlers. Producer George Edwards read it and agreed to finance the film; because of the limited amount of money available, Hoey was hired to direct. He later stated that he was paid $10,000 for the script and his services, $4,000 of which went to Leinster for the film rights, $2,000 to the Directors Guild of America and another $1,000 to his agent, netting him only $3,000 for his efforts. The total budget for the movie was $178,000.
Corman provided some uncredited assistance to executive producer Broder. Hoey said that during rehearsal, Broder announced the film’s new title would be The Navy vs. The Night Monsters. “The entire cast was ready to walk out”, claimed Hoey. “They were furious that he would give it that title”.
Broder wanted to make the film back-to-back with another film, Women of the Prehistoric Planet, using the same crew and Edwards as line producer on both. Hoey thought highly of Edwards, claiming “he was really a creative producer … a good producer who tried to keep things away from you while you were on the set; keep the picture moving forward smoothly; keep oil on the waters. And at the same time make creative decisions that made sense, which was the antithesis of what Jack Broder did
Cast and characters:
Anthony Eisley as Navy Lt. Charles “Charlie” Brown
Mamie Van Doren as Nurse Nora Hall
Edward Faulkner as Robert Spaulding
Walter Sande as Doctor Arthur Beecham
Bobby Van as Ensign Rutherford Chandler
Billy Gray as CPO Fred Twining
Kaye Elhardt as Diane
Pamela Mason as Marie
Russ Bender as C.W.O. McBride
Taggart Casey as W.O. Hollister
Biff Elliott as Cdr. Arthur Simpson
Phillip Terry as Base Doctor
David Brandon
Mike Sargent
William Meigs
Del West as Airplane Guard / Fireman
Garrett Myles
Paul Rhone
Charles Kramer as Corpse
Red West as Navy Fireman
Trailer:
Free to watch online on YouTube [regions may vary so a VPN such as SurfShark is always recommended:
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