Prop questions
A. What was used for all the parts shown of the interociter?
B. What ever became of the Unit 16 catalog?
C. What other props are still around and where are they?
A. The interocitor was made of sheet metal (rectangular body) and plastic formed parts. All the sci-fi props from this film were scrapped after the film was completed, unfortunately.
B. see A.
C. see A. One of the 'Ryberg Electronics' wooden crates later turned up in the background in a scene from the 1959 Universal picture "IMITATION OF LIFE". That's the only one I know of which survived the original scrapping in 1955.
Dejael
"All the sci-fi props from this film were scrapped ...."
I seem to recall that the late, great Forrest Ackerman, the Grand Guru of all Horror & Sci-Fi, had managed to find a few items for his collection -- but I'm operating from very old memory. I think I saw either a mask or the whole costume from a "bug monster" in Forry's house/museum in California.
All of his collection was auctioned off some years ago after we lost Forry, but I don't know if anyone managed to keep track of which items went where.
Truly a shame that magnificent collection couldn't have been kept together.
I knew Forry Ackerman quite well for over 30 years, and I saw one Metaluna Mutant head that he had on display in his collection, a replica made by Don Post Studios.
The Metaluna Mutant costume shared the same fate as that of the Creature From the Black Lagoon, and they ended up in the private hands of Universal Studios employees and their family members. Many things from Bud Westmore's makeup shop shared this channel when the studio was finished with them in production and promotion.
The costumes were a separate thing from the props. The Metaluna uniforms were sold to Western Costume in the late 1950s, and that's how the indie production company that made CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS got ahold of them in 1962. After that, where they ended up is anybody's guess.
Dejael
Actually when I asked about the interociter parts, I meant all the hundreds of parts they unpacked from the crates that were lying about before they began the assembly. Looked impressive.
shareThe prop master at Universal went to some of the companies in Burbank including Lockheed Aircraft and gathered many spare parts from avionics instruments, and mixed those together with some of the plastic formed parts of the interocitor on the floor in that scene.
Dejael
Awesome thanks. I read the original story a while ago.
share