The Hideous Sun Demon, Radioactive Scientist Runs Amok

This film from 1958 had such an affect on the ethos of the American southwest that Arizona State University picked it as their mascot for their athletic teams. Ah...1958...we were all still worried about the affects of radiation. Today we peek into our microwave ovens as our TV dinners are cooking. Back then however, insects were growing to the size of school buses and human beings would regress into monsters every time a nuclear test occurred in the Nevada desert . Hence "The Hideous Sun Demon."

With OSHA nowhere to be found Dr. Gilbert McKenna (Robert Clarke, who also directed) drops some radioactive isotopes in his laboratory. As he is rushed to the hospital the doctors and nurses are confused by what they see. Even though Gilbert was exposed to radiation, his skin hasn't melted and he hasn't sprouted tentacles. Seemingly unaffected, a pretty nurse brings Gilbert to the roof for some fresh air...bad idea! In just a few seconds, Gilbert becomes a reptile-man scaring all the patients and nurses as he runs horrified through the hospital. The lizard-man turns back to Gilbert as he comes back inside. With bad insurance, Gilbert is kicked out of the hospital and he finds refuge at a mountain getaway with instructions to stay out of the sun. Can't beat 1950s medical care.

Men will be men...and Gilbert's ability to follow simple instructions must've burned up in the lab accident. Next stop...a run-down bar where Trudy, a buxom blonde lounge singer, in performing. He falls immediately in love with her and takes her to the beach where they have pre-marital sex and watch the sun come up. Yep...lizard-man returns as Trudy sleeps. She is spared, but he runs out on her causing havoc through the countryside. As the nubile lab assistant Ann (Patricia Manning) seeks to get Gilbert help, the problematic radiation-scientist finds his way back to the seedy bar where he will incur the wrath of a hoodlum with a gun and win Trudy back. The buxom Trudy will be run out on again after the lizard-man kills the hoodlum and flees into the oilfields where some sweet Californians will get in his way.

Will Ann be able to help the clumsy scientist or will she end up in a passionate cat-fight with the buxom lounge singer? Will the lizard-man mangle either of these nubile women? Is Gilbert's metamorphosis into a lizard-man Robert Clarke's ominous statement about the duality of man in a nuclear age gone wild? This is a fun one from the days we all feared nuclear annihilation. We have come a long way...with deadlier nukes and so much more of them, we no longer fear nuclear war. Nope...today we are smarter as a collective people and realize throwing plastic bottles away in the trash is much deadlier than radioactive weapons.