New Picture

The Magnetic Monster (Ivan Tors; United Artists). The monster in this crackling mixture of science and fiction is a newly discovered radioactive element that grows so fast and has such a powerful magnetic field that it threatens to destroy the earth. In the nick of time, the substance is destroyed by being fed an outsize dose of electric power.

Directed at a breakneck pace by Co-Author Curt Siodmak, The Magnetic Monster is crisply acted by Richard Carlson and King Donovan, as scientists combating the radioactive threat. But the picture's real stars are technological: Geiger counters, electronic microscopes, cybernetic machines. There are also learned references to isotopes, alpha particles, implosions. Clocks stop and metal objects go slithering around under the influence of the magnetic force. A race against time to kill off the element is accomplished by jet plane. The whole thing is up-to-the-minute and quasi-scientifically hair-raising. Best sequence: a flickering, high-voltage climax as the menacing element is smashed to smithereens in a gigantic, subterranean deltatron.

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