The Monolith Monsters

The Monolith Monsters is a 1957 film about rocks from a meteor which grow when in contact with water threaten a sleepy Southwestern desert community.

Directed by John Sherwood. Written by Jack Arnold.

Mammoth skyscrapers of stone thundering across the Earth!  (taglines)

Prof. Arthur Flanders

• Dave, if it is a meteorite, the chances are it's been hurtling around our universe for a good many centuries. The answer to your question lies buried in those centuries. We'll just have to dig for it.
• You've got to remember, Dave, when this hit our atmosphere, it burned at such a fantastic temperature, that its metal-bearing compounds could have been altered - left ready to activate, to grow!

Other

• Narrator: From time immemorial the Earth has been bombarded by objects from outer space. Bits and pieces of the Universe piercing our atmosphere in an invasion that never ends. Meteor, the shooting stars on which so many earthly wishes have been born! Of the thousands that plummet toward us, the greater part are destroyed in a firey flash as they strike the layers of the air that encircle us. Only a small percentage survives. Most of those fall into the water which covers two-thirds of our world. But from time to time from the beginning of time a very few meteors have struck the crust of the Earth and formed craters - craters of all sizes sought after, poured over by scientists of all nations for the priceless knowledge buried within them. In every moment of every day they come from planets belonging to stars whose dying light is too far away to be seen. From infinity they come. Meteors! Another strange calling card from the limitless regions of space - its substance unknown, its secrets unexplored. The meteor lies dormant in the night - waiting!
• Martin Cochrane: The desert's full of things that don't belong. Take the salt here. Used to be an ocean bed. Now that ocean knew that the middle of a desert was a pretty silly place for it to be, so it just dried up and went away.
• Joe Higgins: Look at the dog - it's as hard as a piece of granite!

Dialogue

Prof. Arthur Flanders: No telling what went on inside of it. It's been gathering the secrets of time and space for billions of years.

Dave Miller: Billions of years? And how long have we to unlock its most important secrets? Three hours or three minutes?

---

Chief Dan Corey: Evacuate? The entire town?

Dave Miller: Chief, the rocks are gonna come crashing through here like an avalanche over an anthill. There won't be a living thing left. You won't even be able to tell where San Angelo was.

Prof. Arthur Flanders: When they're no longer confined to the walls of the canyon, whwn they break out into the valley floor, their rate of multiplication is going to be frightening.

Chief Dan Corey: You mean they'll grow even faster?

Dave Miller: Each one that shatters will make a hundred more.

Prof. Arthur Flanders: When that hundred shatters, there'll be ten thousand of them. The third cycle will create a million. Unless we stop them, they'll spread over the whole countryside.

Dave Miller: With enough rain, there's no boundary they can't cross.

Taglines

• From Outer Space They Came - Meteor Borne, Meteor Strange!
• Stranger Than Anything Science Had Ever Discovered As Thrill Crowds Upon Thrill!
• The most startling science fiction concept ever brought to the screen!
• Now The Amazing Monolith Monsters Reveal Powers Shocking Beyond Belief!

Cast

• Grant Williams — Dave Miller
• Lola Albright — Cathy Barrett
• Les Tremayne — Martin Cochrane
• Trevor Bardette — Professor Arthur Flanders

External links

• The Monolith Monsters quotes at the Internet Movie Database