The Monolith Monsters

Release Date: January 24, 1958
Starring: Grant Williams as Dave Miller
Lola Albright as Cathy Barrett
Les Tremayne as Martin Cochran
Director: John Sherwood
Producer: Howard Christie
Screenplay: Robert M. Fresco, Norman Jolley
Music: Irving Getz, Herman Stein
Cinematographer: Ellis W. Carter
Editor: Patrick McCormack
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Time: BW 77 mins.

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Interesting Tidbits

The Monolith Monsters' exteriors were filmed in the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine, California.

Synopsis

In the desert region of San Angelo, California, geologist Ben Gilbert brings a strange black rock back to his office, where he and bored local reporter Martin Cochrane examine it but fail to determine its origin. That night, a strong wind blows a bottle of water over onto the rock, which begins to bubble and smolder.

The next day, the head of the geological office, Dave Miller, returns to town from a business trip and finds the office destroyed by a huge growth of black rock and Ben dead, in a rock-hard, apparently petrified state. Meanwhile, Dave's girl friend, schoolteacher Cathy Barrett, brings her students to the desert, where little Ginny Simpson pockets a piece of the black rock, later washing it in a basin outside her parents' farm. In town, Doctor Reynolds performs an autopsy on Ben, but when he cannot explain Ben's rigidity, he informs Dave and Police Chief Dan Corey that he is shipping the body to a specialist. Martin returns to the demolished office with Dave, and there recognizes the rock formations as resembling the piece of black rock Ben had been examining.
Source: Wikipedia.com.