PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Hitchcoc This is very good 1950's science fiction. At the center is Curt Siodmak, a pretty good writer who involves us in a tale where the use of a particle accelerator causes magnetism to go crazy. It results in implosions that could eventually end all life on earth. It's up to Richard Carlson and King Donovan, staples in the movie genre of the time, to come up with a solution. This is post atom bomb time and we are treated to a lot of moralizing about life and its preciousness. This could have gotten out of hand but is reined in pretty well. I thought the science was reasonable and the acting quite good. Stereotyping was kept to a minimum and allowed the principles to do their thing. Very good scene in an appliance store at the beginning.

Chris Gaskin The Magnetic Monster was another movie I'd been after for years and recently obtained a copy on E-bay.Nuclear scientists and physicists (The A-Men) are called in when all the metal appliances in an electrical store suddenly become magnetic. They discover this is being caused by a scientist who has invented a new element. But this new element absorbs energy, expanding every 11-12 hours and the A-Men have to find a solution of stopping it before it is too late...This is different to a lot of 1950's sci-fies, no giant monsters or aliens.The cast includes sci-fi regular Richard Carlson (It Came From Outer Space, Creature From the Black Lagoon), King Donovan (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and Jean Byron (Invisible Invaders).I quite enjoyed watching The Magnetic Monster, recommended.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

kalibeans It's April, 2013, an age of scientific advance Mr. Carlson surely would have loved to have seen, and TCM just had a Richard Carlson tribute evening. All his best. These movies have lost nothing of their fascination from the time I first watched them as a young child through now as I'm just a tinch shy of my "golden years". Those of us who fall into this age category have the wonderful advantage of having seen science fiction be translated into science fact. We were the dreamers who saw the beginnings of the space age through these incredible films of the 50's of which Richard Carlson's were among the best. This movie, along with Riders to the Stars, were his first attempts to try to provide more science "fact" than "fiction" and they still to this day provide excellent film watching. They also are from a period where films still relied mainly on actually telling a story, as opposed to whip fast computer generated graphics to provide all the entertainment. The Magnetic Monster delves into the relatively unknown to the average person, but terrifying world of nuclear material, and a batch of it that seems to actually be alive and with a voracious appetite. I found it more like watching a documentary than a film and this one stuck with me, even after all these years. It's well worth a watch and if you have young children, especially age 8-11, try to get them to take a watch with you. I'm sure many a scientist today got their initial thirst for science from some of Carlson's wonderful films. ENJOY!!

Michael_Elliott Magnetic Monster, The (1953) * 1/2 (out of 4) Far-fetched sci-fi has a wacky scientist coming up with an artificial radioactive material that takes up so much energy around it that it could possibly knock the entire planet Earth off its axis. Richard Carlson plays the doctor preparing for his first child but first he must try and find a way to destroy the isotope before the world comes to an end. During the 1950s there's no doubt that people were paranoid over various science experiments that could possibly go wrong and destroy the world and this here led to producers coming up with all sorts of stories to try and get on the big screen. I've seen dozens of such science fiction movies and this one here is without question one of the most frustrating to watch. It doesn't help that we get some pretty bland narration that tries to explain what's going on but there were several times where the story just goes off into directions where you can't help become confused. There are scenes that appear to be happening for no apparent reason and the eventual twist that happens towards the end just isn't all that believable. I think it was a pretty dangerous thing to have a "monster" that really isn't a monster at all. After all, people were expecting giant lizards, giant ants or some sort of radioactive creature but instead this film just delivers a magnetic force. This "force" isn't the greatest killer out there but I give the film credit for trying something different but the problem is that the screenplay wants to go for childish matinée thrills that the "brains" that the story might hold are never allowed to grow or develop into something more interesting. Carlson is a fan favorite and he delivers a fine performance here as do the supporting players including King Donovan, Harry Ellerbe and Jean Bryon as the wife. The finale contains some amazing special effects but THE MAGNETIC MONSTER can't really take credit for them since they were lifted from the 1934 German film GOLD and one can't help but want to track it down after seeing the work edited into this picture.