Fantastic Photos From Fantasy Films - Unleashing The Newest, Biggest Double Shock The Screen Ever Got!

 Another week, and another Svengoolie inspired installment of Fantastic Photos From Fantasy Films. This time around the subject is a duel magazine advertisement for The Monster That Challenged The World and The Vampire. 

If you go rummaging through your parents (or possibly grandparents) old Look magazines you never find this one, it was printed exclusively in The Motion Picture Exhibitor, a trade magazine for theater owners. Apparently United Artists felt that neither of these two films were enticing enough to market individually so they put them together as a double bill. In UA's defense however, it should be noted that by 1957 screens had been flooded with monster movies and allowing theater owners to get two movies for the price of one was probably the best marketing move they could make.  

Despite their efforts, both films weren't particularly successful either as a double bill or on their own. Today both films are regarded as obscure entries into the genre of science fiction and horror. Some may remember The Monster That Challenged The World, but you would be hard pressed to find someone who has even heard of The Vampire.

Here is some history on both films:

The Monster That Challenged the World (1957) is a science-fiction monster movie, about an army of giant mollusks that emerge from the Salton Sea, California. Directed by Arnold Laven, the film starred Tim Holt and Audrey Dalton.

It was produced by Gramercy Pictures (not related to the former PolyGram division) and released by United Artists.

An earthquake has led to the hatching of eggs belonging to a prehistoric mollusk. The hatchlings emerge from the Salton Sea, escape into an underground aquifer, and proceed to terrorize the citizens of California's Imperial Valley. The navy is called in to battle these monsters. Navy Lieutenant Commander John Twillinger (Holt), teams up with several scientists to battle the threat.

El vampiro (English: The Vampire) is a 1957 Mexican horror film, directed by Fernando Méndez. The film is about Marta, a young woman, who travels to her childhood village, only to find that one of her aunts is dead and another is under the influence of Mr. Duval, who later turns out to be a vampire whose name is the Count Karol de Lavud. It is possibly the first movie to actually show a vampire with elongated canines. F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (Max Schrek) had elongated incisors; Tod Browning's Dracula (Bela Lugosi) did not show his teeth at all.