Sometimes, an idea becomes an all consuming vision such that in order for it to be done just right, the visionary behind it must do it all. Only in that way can the artist’s conception of things be fully realized. Orson Welles did it in Citizen Kane, Kevin Smith did it in Clerks and Robert Clarke did it in The Hideous Sun Demon.
Clarke wrote, produced, directed and starred in this 1959 monster-on-the-loose shocker. He previously starred in such genre milestones as The Man From Planet X and The Astounding She-Monster.
From the “successes” of these efforts, Clarke figured he could do it all himself on a flick and make good money doing it. His big brainstorm was to do a variation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Apparently, Clarke decided to update Dr, Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by making a crappy version of it devoid of any of the pathos and themes of the duality of man’s nature that the original dealt with. Instead this one dealt with a dude in a cheesy rubber mask running amok grunting at people.
Clarke plays a scientist named Gil who is studying some strange isotopes when a horrible accident occurred and he got some kind of sun poisoning from the whole fiasco. Also at the lab is his girlfriend and his boss.
His boss is worried about Gil, but also immediately attributes the accident to Gil having a hangover, saying something like, “whiskey and science just don’t mix” and I’m thinking well, you probably should at least have a chaser if you are going to try and mix the two.
Gil’s girlfriend, Ann, is as faithful (and dumb) as a loyal dog and retorts that Gil just had a headache. Gil is rushed to the hospital, hits on some nurses, is taken up the sun deck for a little sun and the next thing you know old lady patients are screaming their fool heads off as Gil starts growling and turns into a budget Creature from the Black Lagoon.
The beauty of this movie is that it is only 75 minutes long and all of the foregoing took place in the first 14 minutes! Robert Clarke knows that us shambling-monster fans have little patience for character and plot since we’re here to see dudes in ill-fitting costumes slobber on voluptuous hotties.
Gil is now on the lam from everyone. He decides to hide where most monsters go when things get a little hot – the dive bar on the outskirts of town.
While there, Gil meets the blonde tramp that he takes an interest in. She and Gil hook up and head to the beach. Gil shows what a monster he’s become when he notices the sun coming up and takes off in the car leaving her asleep on the beach. Hideous indeed!
There is also a scene where Clarke really gets to show us his acting chops. It’s one where he cries in anguish over the beast he has become and that he killed a man while he was the Sun Demon. Clarke was making these pained faces and burying his head in his girlfriend’s chest and wondering what he had done to deserve this fate.
I’m sure that when he did that scene, he was thinking about how great a thespian he was, but it was so forced you just held your breath and looked away until you heard his whimpering stop.
The cops show up to arrest the Sun Demon, so Clarke, who moments before was all broken up about what a monster he had become, runs away. If you were really upset, wouldn’t you turn yourself in before somebody else got hurt? The coolest part was that in his getaway, he drove over a cop. He wasn’t even that crazy, monstrous Sun Demon then!
A city-wide manhunt ensues. The Sun Demon goes running around and is chased by a dog at one point. I was thinking, “what kind of lame monster gets chased by a dog?” But then the Sun Demon turned around ,strangled the dog and threw a big cinder block on its head for good measure. “That’s more like it,” I thought.
A showdown atop a tall building culminates in the expected shot of the dummy the prop people threw off the building in place of Robert Clarke. Conveniently, Gil’s girlfriend and boss are there to watch his nosedive.
The movie doesn’t work on any level. A dumb story competes with a stilted , workmanlike presentation (Much of the time, the single angle shots look like those dull educational films of that era. I kept waiting to hear Gil’s boss talk about the evils of VD.), and ultimately proves that just because you can be an auteur doesn’t mean you should be.
© 2009 MonsterHunter
