"X, the Unknown" is not some great work of cinema, it is simply a monster movie. But, given that, it is refreshingly clean of all that anti-Man, anti-science, anti-technology commentary that pollutes so many science fiction movies that base themselves on science and at the same time attack it. And the hero of the film is a scientist in the best sense--logical, clear-headed, never acting on emotion, and never trying to defend the monster in this picture in the name of "animal rights". The creature in "X, the Unknown" is an immediate danger to human beings, and must be stopped. But to do this Dr. Adam Royston (Dean Jagger) must identify the nature of the thing he must find a way to destroy. He must discover what it is, what it feeds on, how it moves, and how it defends itself.
My favorite moment is in the hospital after a technician in a treatment room has been "micro-waved" to death by the creature, a radioactive blob of mud that nobody living has yet seen. The only apparent place the thing could have entered the room is through a grill in the wall, but nobody else believes that possible. "Well how small is ten thousand gallons of oil?", Dr. Royston asks. The others who have arrived on the scene don't understand. "Well, ten thousand gallons of oil would have to take up a pretty big area, wouldn't it?" "Yes." "And yet ten thousand gallons of oil could come through the holes in that grill, couldn't it?" Again, agreement. "Then that's how it got into my workshop: it came in under the door. Obviously, this thing can take up any shape it needs to."
All the performances are good, even down to the old, drunken bum in the old watchtower. The music is also notable; good and creepy, like the mud creature it's supposed to "sound" like.
My favorite moment is in the hospital after a technician in a treatment room has been "micro-waved" to death by the creature, a radioactive blob of mud that nobody living has yet seen. The only apparent place the thing could have entered the room is through a grill in the wall, but nobody else believes that possible. "Well how small is ten thousand gallons of oil?", Dr. Royston asks. The others who have arrived on the scene don't understand. "Well, ten thousand gallons of oil would have to take up a pretty big area, wouldn't it?" "Yes." "And yet ten thousand gallons of oil could come through the holes in that grill, couldn't it?" Again, agreement. "Then that's how it got into my workshop: it came in under the door. Obviously, this thing can take up any shape it needs to."
All the performances are good, even down to the old, drunken bum in the old watchtower. The music is also notable; good and creepy, like the mud creature it's supposed to "sound" like.