On Thursday, November 3, 1994 at 8:19:08 PM UTC-5, Rhandon Hurst wrote:
> >Anyone remeber a 1950's scifi flick with a fungus that grew an
> >official name of the movie. I have yet to see this movie since
> >the first time when I was an impressionable child. any help
> >would be much appreciated. eni...@delphi.com
> Man I can't believe someone else asked about this thing. I saw it when
> it first came out and a few years ago, when I started going back to
> collect on video all those 50s SF/horror movies that were important to
> me, I couldn't for the life of me find it. I too thought it was called
> 'Blood Rust' .
> Then I just happen to be looking through The Encyclopedia of
> Monsters, by Jeff Rovin, and find the following entry. Text between
> lines is entire unedited entry (there were no illustrations):
> ________________________
> BLOOD RUST
> First Appearance: 1958, Space Master X-7, Regal Films/20th Century-Fox
> Species: Extraterrestrial Fungus (implicitly, from Mars).
> Features and Powers: The small, red spores multiply rapidly when they
> consume human blood or tissue.
> Biography: Returning from Earth orbit, the probe Space Master X-7 has
> been infested with alien spores. One day, while Dr. Charles Pommer is
> studying them in his New Mexico lab, his ex-wife Laura enters. In the
> ensuing fight, the scientist cuts his hand, and his blood drips onto
> the spores. They begin to grow and, when Laura has left, (she's going
> home to Hawaii), the fungus consumes the scientist -- though not before
> he calls for help. Security Chief John Hand and guard Joe Rattigan
> arrive and find a carpet of fungus, which they dispatch with
> flame-throwers. However, when they play a tape recording on which
> Pommer was keeping notes, they learn that a woman, identity unknown,
> has been there to visit him. (The tape recording also contains
> Pommer's speculation that the rust-colored spores are from Mars, and
> that they are what give the planet its red tint.) Because the woman
> may have inadvertantly picked up samples of the spore, the authorities
> try to find her. Fearful that she's wanted for Pommer's murder, Laura
> quietly continues on her trip. On a train to Los Angeles, the
> extraterrestrials she was indeed carrying break from her suitcase, kill
> a porter, and infest the baggage car; undaunted, she boards a plane to
> Honolulu, only to have the Blood Rust ooze from her purse! The plane
> returns to Los Angeles, where it crashlands; the wreck is promptly
> burned, destrying the last of the spores.
> COMMENT: Bill Williams played Hand, Robert Ellis was Rattigan, Paul
> Frees costarred as Pommer, and Lyn Thomas was Laura. Moe Howard of the
> 3 Stooges had a bit part as a cab driver. The film was directed by
> Edward Bernds from a script by George Worthing Yates and Daniel
> Mainwaring.
> _____________________________
> No wonder we didn't remember the damn title!
> - R. Hurst
> Austin
I saw it as a kid ( I think!). Always a distant memory!