Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Virgil Vogel directs this Sci-Fi classic concerning two archeologists, Roger Bentley (John Agar) and Jud Bellamin (Hugh Beaumont), who discover an underground civilization of albinos deprived and fearful of sunlight making slaves of a populace of half-human, half-mole creatures. The only weapon the two explorers have is a...flashlight. Bentley and Bellamin befriend the slaves from their torturing and earn their trust in showing a way back to the earth's surface. Very low budget and the mole people are not very scary after a decent introduction.Cynthia Patrick plays Adad, a pretty outcast of the albinos, who is given away to Dr. Bentley, compliments of the High Priest (Alan Napier). Other players include: Rodd Redwing, Nestor Palva, Phil Chambers and Joe Abdullah.

Silly B-movie has a kitchen sink plot and fun mole monster masks and gloves for the performers, with the highlight being fine matte painting work of the lost civilization village deep underground. Archaeologist John Agar (Tarantula) and his team (Hugh Beaumont (Leave it to Beaver), Nestor Paiva (Creature from the Black Lagoon), and Phil Chambers) discover Sumerian albino civilization who worship Ashtar and are tormented by light. They enslave creatures who work labor, offering them mushrooms and the whip in return. The women are also subservient, often whipped for clumsiness or not adhering completely to the men as expected. Cynthia Patrick is a beautiful blonde named Adad, considered particularly notorious for "having the mark" (she doesn't have their pale flesh or pain of light), Agar's love interest. Alan Napier, hardly recognizable, is the high priest who connives behind the people's selected king (Rodd Redwing) and wishes to destroy the intruders. Napier is entertaining as the scheming priest, just looking to seize total power over the people, looking at the intruders as his path to doing so. The mole people look campy in suits with bulging humps on their backs. There's an inexplicable opening from a Southern Cal English Professor positing theories from others of note regarding the earth's core which introduces the film. A flashlight is considered a power (light) of Ishtar which Agar uses to influence the people from attacking them! The ending is rather uncalled-for...why would Adad run around confused when an earthquake emerges, heading towards (!) where she just escaped from??? The reason of the studio for this-- interracial coupling is a no-no--says a lot about that point in time. The mole people being heroic was a nice change in the formula. Hard for the film to be taken too seriously but the earnestness of the participants makes this all the more a treat.

My pre-viewing research on "The Mole People" uncovered that it's not that well regarded by a number of fans of science fiction and monster movies from the 1950s. So I was prepared for the worst when I sat down to watch it. After watching it, I can understand why there are negative feelings towards it... though I didn't find it quite as bad as some people have made it out to be. Some of the sets and special effects don't look too bad, for one thing. But production values aside, the movie is kind of tough to sit through. Although it involves scientists finding an underground kingdom, the movie is surprisingly dull for the most part. Don't let the fairly short running time fool you; the movie moves very slowly, with a lot of blatant padding throughout, like the completely unnecessary opening sequence. And there is no sense of awe, wonder, or excitement. Instead, there is an almost casual attitude. A slight tongue in cheek attitude might have added some goofy charm, but there isn't even any comedy relief here. It goes to show that adding major studio gloss does not always make a movie better than low budget independent efforts.

Ah, yet another appearance by the great John of Agar. However, this is acceptable (this time) since the Mole People is one movie that I enjoyed a lot more after seeing it a few times. I think Hugh Beaumont as Dr. Jud Bellamin really threw me for a loop.Beaver:"Gee Wally, where's Dad?"Wally:"Aw, you know he's away on that archaeological trip in Asia." Beaver:"Boy, Mom sure does miss him."Without going too much into the story (oh, don't worry. John 'I have a line every minute' Agar will take care of that), the fun of this adventure is seeing how these poor dopes got into this fiasco in the first place! Ah, stock footage - the under-appreciated staple of any B movie recipe. You'll find that along with some matte paintings. Although, they do add to the grandeur of the underground dwellings. As the journey progresses, our pre-Indy archaeologists discover pasty faced minions, mushrooms galore, Nike worship, really goofy Sumerian chants, and much, much more. Special mention goes to Adad who provides top notch quality service. She is proof that being a marked one can be a good thing - RAWRRRRR!!What doesn't this movie have? You've got eccentric high priest Elinu played by Alan Napier (best known as stately Wayne Manor's Alfred). LaFarge never fails to cause chaos and hilarity. There's a guilty pleasure in seeing John Agar's failings in the movie...they don't occur often, so I relish those rare moments. The most memorable over-the-top award goes to Frank Baxter as the 'Down Down' Doctor who explains some (totally uninteresting) theories and proceeds to introduce the feature The Mole People as proof. This reminds me why I really don't miss college lectures.So, watch this one. Please, don't disturb Ishtar on the way out.