Sadly, this was the only movie role Fred ever got. He died ten years later in a Hollywood back alley, drunk on nectar and decaying flesh.
Monster From Green Hell (1958) gets off to a fair start, as two biologists experimenting with putting life into outer space lose track of one rocket load full of wasps. Fairly lackadaisically, they wait six months to start looking for their lost vessel, motivated by reports out of Africa indicating something is upsetting the wildlife.
We then get a fairly nice tramp through the wilds of Africa, dealing with the weather and hostile natives, and it’s not too badly done, even in black and white. Eventually, nearly dead but still heavily armed, they win through to the area where a local European doctor has made it his life’s work to minister to the natives, only to find that he’s gone down before the monster in an area known as Green Hell.
Sadly, things slowly go downhill as the special effects are not up to the task of showing how the monsters are destroyed. The actors do their best, but while the cinematography up to this point was rather good for the era, it falls apart when faced with monsters, volcanoes, and hand grenades.
But it’s all good, because there really wasn’t enough conflict to make it worth the money to do good special effects. This script needed a couple of more drafts. While the first half of the movie is rather pleasant, the second is disappointing.
