Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker: A Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist

by Randy Palmer

  Day would make use of a budget several times larger than that of ARC’s first science-fiction release, but it was still a low-budget picture. According to Alex Gordon, Rusoff received a little over $3,000 for his screenplay—a pittance even in 1956. The cast received a combined total of $15,402.63, a figure almost matched by the crew’s salary, $12,952.21. Set construction, dressing, and general operations came to less than $10,000. By far the costliest ingredient of the film was Sam Arkoff’s $25,000 salary, which was paid on a deferred basis (after the film was actually out the door and making money).

  Given that there is no dollar figure cited for “special effects” or “makeup,” payments to Paul Blaisdell for his construction of the Atomic Mutant might have come from the $1,472.78 allotted to some mysterious “special equipment.” Presumably Blaisdell would have also received a portion of the monies claimed by the cast because he also played the role of the Mutant. (“I’ve often wondered why the guy who plays the monster in a monster movie is invariably listed last in the credits,” Blaisdell would gripe jokingly to fans.)

  The remainder of the production costs balanced out as follows:

  Bits & Extras — $ 5,048.48 (deferred)

  Wardrobe — 1,983.35 (deferred)

  Production Office — 959.06 (deferred)

  Lighting — 1,972.50 (deferred)

  Camera — 3,937.29 (deferred)

  Sound — 4,982.99 (deferred)

  Music — 3,478.75 (deferred)

  Transportation — 2,149.79 (deferred)

  Location — 1,993.40 (deferred)

  Studio Rental — 6,000.00 (deferred)

  Editing — 6,449.34 (deferred)

  Film Stock — 1,490.52 (deferred)

  Laboratory — 5,192.31 (deferred)

  S. S. Benefits — 4,026.14 (deferred)

  Titles, etc. — 1,021.06 (deferred)

  Insurance — 755.63 (deferred)

  Miscellaneous — 1,288.89 (deferred)

  Alex Gordon (executive producer) — 2,500.00 (deferred)

  Sam Arkoff — 25,000.00 (deferred)

  TOTAL — $96,234.49 (deferred)

  Arkoff’s and Gordon’s deferred fees would be paid later, once the film has been released and was accruing revenue.

  Rather than being called in at the last minute to help rescue a picture from impending disaster, Paul Blaisdell was involved with Day the World Ended from its inception. During the film’s preproduction stages, he got together with Lou Rusoff to help smooth out some of the script’s rough edges. The story was to take place in far-flung 1970, after World War III has charbroiled the earth into one vast wasteland. Remote pockets of civilization still exist, but radioactive fallout threatens to eradicate even these last vestiges of humanity. Blaisdell’s contributions to the story included an important rationale for the surivival of the seven people who make up the cast of the film. He describing to Rusoff how a deep valley might offer a refuge from radiation. Protected by its sloping hills, the people in this valley could remain hidden from the devastating effects of nuclear radioactivity. This would also help explain why one of the characters begins a slow metamorphosis into a degenerative life-form as he wanders across the hills. The closer he goes to the top of the ridge, where a kind of “nuclear vapor” cuts off the valley from the rest of the world, the more he begins to mutate.

  Blaisdell also discussed with Rusoff how the film’s monster, the Atomic Mutant, would evolve, given the conditions of the story line. Paul based his concept on two interconnected ideas: one, that a human being poisoned by radiation from a nuclear blast would experience a radical physical change at the molecular level, precipitating a rapid mutation into something quite different; and two, in a world blanketed by atomic fallout such an individual would generate a thick, metallic hide as a kind of “protective armor” against further exposure to harmful elements. In essence, Blaisdell’s Atomic Mutant was “the man of the future,” in a future where the air and the food are radioactive and the purity of the Earth is a thing lost irrevocably to the past.

  Executive Producer Alex Gordon, who earlier worked with Roger Corman on Apache Woman, lined up some of his favorite actors for Day the World Ended. Raymond Hatton and Adele Jergens were cast in secondary roles. Gordon loved to talk to the old-time stars about their experiences working for the major studios, and in between takes he would often pull up a chair and shoot the breeze. Younger faces included Richard Denning and Lori Nelson, who had both recently worked for Universal, and Paul Dubov, a Corman discovery. Paul Birch portrayed a retired sea captain who seemed like a second cousin to his character in The Beast with a Million Eyes, and Mike Connors, who would gain a respectable degree of popularity with his “Mannix’’ television series twenty years hence, was billed as “Touch’’ Connors in his role as two-bit gangster Tony Lamont.

  Day the World Ended begins with stock footage of an actual atom bomb explosion. Over a blooming mushroom cloud, the disembodied voice of a narrator intones, “This is TD-Day: Total Destruction by nuclear weapons. And from this hour forward, the world as we know it no longer exists. And over all the lands and waters of the Earth hangs the atomic haze of death. Man has done his best to destroy himself. But there is a force more powerful than Man, and in His infinite wisdom, He has spared a few.”

  A man who has been exposed to a high dose of radiation, Radek (Paul Dubov), tumbles down an incline gasping for breath. His face is ravaged by radiation burns; his black and lumpy skin is streaked with poisonous decay. Rick (Richard Denning), a geologist, comes across Radek’s prone form and carries him to a secluded house nearby.

  The house belongs to Jim Maddison (Paul Birch), a retired sea captain who knows much more about the capabilities of nuclear weapons and residual effects of atomic radiation than anyone might expect. Maddison once tugged target boats for the navy during a series of nuclear tests, and will never forget what he saw during those unnerving times. In his tiny refuge, a cabin nestled in the bottom of a deep valley, hidden from the irradiated wastes of New Earth, he monitors the entire range of short-wave radio frequencies, desperate to capture some other sign of life. But there is only static. Maddison’s daughter Louise (Lori Nelson) tests the interior of the house with a Geiger counter. Some radioactivity has leaked inside, but not enough to kill them yet.

  A succession of doomsday survivors come upon the Maddison house: Radek and Rick, Tony Lamont (“Touch’’ [Mike] Connors) and his striptease girlfriend Ruby (Adele Jergens), and an elderly gold prospector named Pete (Raymond Hatton), who arrives with his constant companion, Diablo (a burro). Jim doesn’t want to let them in—there aren’t enough supplies to go around—but Louise insists that as good Christians they are obliged to provide refuge to these lost souls from the poisoned world outside. Jim acquiesces and advises his unwelcome visitors to bathe and change into clean clothes as a safeguard against any radiation they may have absorbed. (Maddison apparently stocked up on clothing as well as food and fuel when he anticipated the coming of the Big Blast. There’s no shortage of clean-pressed duds for everyone.)

  Jim explains that although the outside world has been virtually destroyed, the people in his house have survived because the surrounding hills are full of lead-bearing ore, which acts as a barrier against radioactivity. A strong, steady wind blows through the gorges with enough velocity to keep the contamination away—but who knows how long the winds may last? And should it rain, the whole valley will be soaked with fallout from the heavens. There is also another potential threat to their well-being: mysterious “other forces,” which Jim declines to describe at the moment.

  Rick carries the debilitated Radek into one of the bedrooms. Although Radek seems to be close to death, he tells the geologist, “I thought I was going to die, but I’m not.” Nodding, Rick assures him, “You’ll be all right.” He is ready to shrug off Radek’s mutterings as those of a fevered, radiation-weakened brain, but Radek is already beginning to adapt to a strange, new kind of life. “I must have red meat, nearly raw. I don’t know why,
but it’ll do me good.” Rick doesn’t know it yet, but Radek’s metabolism is undergoing a radical metamorphosis; he is becoming the man of the future.

  Jim seems to draw strength from Rick, who is young and determined to survive against all odds, even on a planet leveled by atomic despoliation. They become friends, and one evening Jim cautiously mentions his navy training and a group of test animals he once saw that had survived exposure to an H-bomb blast. The animals underwent a rapid metamorphosis, but Jim doesn’t offer Rick any further details just now. In the distance is heard the baying of a coyote. “There’s lots of game here now,” muses Jim. “But it’s contaminated. They started coming in a week ago, like this valley was Noah’s Ark.” This is the second allusion to a biblical legend (the first occurs during the opening narration).

  Over the next two months, Tony develops a crush on Louise, who happens to have fallen in love with Rick. Jim realizes that the people in his house may represent the beginning of a new race. He urges Rick and Tony to consider marrying Louise and Ruby. The only problem is, Tony wants Louise, not Ruby. Old Pete, meanwhile, is interested only in continuing to prospect for his ever-elusive gold.

  Each night Radek slips out of the house to hunt down wild game. One evening he traps a rabbit, but before he can eat it, a dark, massive shape lumbers into view, scaring him away. A metallic, triple-taloned claw reaches down to grab the carcass for itself.

  The following day Rick and Jim discover the remains of the rabbit and test it for radioactivity. It tips the Geiger counter at 49 roentgen—enough to kill a normal human being. Rick thinks Radek ate the poisoned meat, but Jim isn’t so sure. Rick surmises that if a man were somehow able to survive complete radioactive saturation, a thousand generation changes could take place in a matter of days. What would such a man look like?

  Back at the house Jim tells Rick the rest of the story about the navy test animals. He shows Rick a series of drawings he made of the animals that survived the H-bomb blast. Each animal lived for three days in its altered state. What had been a chipmunk grew enormous fangs, scales, and horns; a dog also grew elongated fangs and horns. The third animal, a monkey, developed a third eye as well as a pair of rudimentary arms and hands depending from each shoulder, effectively making it a four-armed creature. Like the others, it was covered with metallic scales.‡ “That was Nature’s answer to complete nuclear radiation,” Jim explains, “a million years of evolution with one bomb.”

  When Rick and Jim make a check on the radiation density near the edge of the valley, they encounter a mutated man (Jonathan Haze) who bears an unnerving resemblance to Radek. Like Maddison’s unwanted house guest, this man’s bone structure is starting to change, and there are black, metallic scales growing up the sides of his neck. As he dies, he warns them that there are others, stronger than him, out beyond the valley walls. Later that night Radek mysteriously tells Rick, “There are wonderful things happening up there [beyond the ridge].” Rick discovers the skeleton of the mutated man the following morning. The flesh has been stripped off and eaten.

  Louise complains to her father that she has been hearing voices, as if something has been calling to her telepathically. Later Jim discovers a trail of three-taloned footprints encircling the house. He and Rick decide to take turns keeping a watch on the house.

  Late that night after everyone is asleep, Radek unties Diablo and leads the burro into the woods, intending to make a meal of him, but he is killed by the roaming mutant. When Rick and Jim find Radek’s body, they notice deep puncture wounds in the throat. Jim believes that whatever it is they are fighting may have once been human.

  Back at the house, Pete discovers that Diablo is missing. He goes mad and makes for the top of the ridge. Pete dies in the choking, radioactive vapors, knocking Jim, who has pursued him, unconscious with a blow from his walking stick. Jim remains on the perimeter of the valley, soaking up dangerous amounts of radiation, until Rick rescues him. During all the commotion, Tony grabs a kitchen knife and forces Louise outside, apparently intending to rape her. When Ruby sees what’s happening, she intervenes, giving Louise an opportunity to escape. Enraged, Tony stabs Ruby and throws her body off a cliff. With Ruby out of the way, all he needs to do is get rid of Rick and Jim, and he can have Louise for his own.

  In bed that night, Louise is roused by the mutant’s telepathic call. She places a photograph of her boyfriend, Tommy (Roger Corman), next to her bed and then, as if in a trance, opens the bedroom window and climbs outside. As she is walking through the woods the mutant scoops her into his armor-plated arms.

  Jim, now confined to a sickbed, asks Rick to check on Louise. He discovers her missing and sets out on a search, armed with a rifle from Jim’s storeroom. Outside, he calls to Louise and the sound of his voice causes her to regain consciousness, still trapped in the mutant’s arms. As they approach a miniature waterfall, the creature sets her down and moves nervously away, seemingly afraid of the fresh lake water. Instinctively, Louise backs into the lake and calls to Rick, who follows the sound of her voice. Seeing the creature hovering over Louise in the lake, Rick unloads several rounds of ammo into its hide, but the bullets just bounce off its armor-plating. He throws down the rifle and dives into the lake beside Louise.

  At the house Jim hears a voice on the radio and realizes they aren’t the only ones who have managed to survive the nuclear devestation. A clap of thunder heralds the coming of a rainstorm, and when the downpour begins, Jim tests a cupful of the rainwater and miraculously finds it free of contamination.

  Marty the Mutant (Blaisdell) gazes longingly at Louise (Lori Nelson) during a lull in the action of Day the World Ended (1956).

  At the lake the mutant’s skin begins to smoke as torrents of pure rainwater cascade off its radioactive flesh. The creature seeks shelter under a tree, but the storm is too great, and it perishes in the cleansing liquid. Rick and Louise climb out of the lake and head back to the house.

  But Tony is planning to kill Rick and aims a revolver out the open window as he and Louise approach the house. With his last reserves of strength, Jim pulls out a gun from beneath his pillow and shoots Tony dead. Jim tells the young lovers about the voice on the radio, of the possibility of starting a new life over. “If that thing couldn’t live, then neither could others of its kind,” Rick theorizes. Any other nonhuman threats will soon perish as well.

  Jim, his body weakened by radioactivity, expires. The following day Rick and Louise pack supplies in preparation for their new journey. Before leaving her family home forever, Louise turns the photograph of Tommy face-down beside her bed, perhaps never to realize it was his monstrously mutated form that had been calling to her telepathically and had then carried her off before being liquefied by the rainstorm.

  Although it may not be obvious at first that the unseen boyfriend (who is named only once, in the opening scene when Paul Birch refers to him as “Tommy”) is the three-eyed mutant seen in the film’s climax, clues do exist in Lou Rusoff’s script. Unfortunately, the rushed nature of low-budget filmmaking obscures what should be more apparent. What is not explained is how Tommy became trapped on the far side of the valley, where radioactivity is mutating all life-forms. The early reference to a plan to save three people—Jim Maddison, Louise, and Tommy—would seem to suggest that the boyfriend was thought to be close enough to the valley to be saved. Perhaps he even lived with the Maddisons.

  Since the only time Tommy’s human form is shown is when Louise looks at the framed photograph in her bedroom, budget-conscious Roger Corman eliminated the need of hiring a professional model or actor to pose as the boyfriend by taking a photograph of Lori Nelson and himself for the picture. It might have made more sense to photograph Paul Blaisdell standing next to Nelson, since Blaisdell in fact played the mutated Tommy. But who knows? Maybe Corman was feeling rather Hitchcockian that day.

  Paul Blaisdell’s monster outfit, which he nicknamed “Marty the Mutant,” was the first in a long line of full-body costumes he manufactured during t
he 1950s that accentuated innovation rather than realism. For Corman’s doomsday tale, Blaisdell was freed from the kind of pressures that had so constrained his contribution to The Beast with a Million Eyes, and consequently he was able to design a much more versatile movie monster. Instead of a miniature puppet or automaton thrust awkwardly at the camera lens during a harried and hurried climax, Blaisdell’s three-eyed Atomic Mutant was a full-body suit manufactured to his own build. Although his creations for other science-fiction pictures would be even more impressive, Blaisdell’s first life-size film monster gave 1955 audiences enough of a rise to generate invaluable word-of-mouth promotion for the film.

  Long before the first frame of film was ever exposed, Blaisdell began working on a series of sketches of the mutant for executive producer Alex Gordon. Brainstorming sessions with scriptwriter Lou Rusoff opened up an entire line of thought on the creature’s appearance and habits. According to Rusoff’s story, the Mutant was originally a human being; therefore the monster had to be roughly humanoid in shape. (Those who argue that Blaisdell took the easy way out by making his creatures humanoid in appearance sometimes forget that when a script called for something truly different—as in the case of It Conquered the World, made several months later, or Not of This Earth, which followed in 1957—Blaisdell designed something remarkably different.)

  In the details as they were worked out by Rusoff and Blaisdell, the Mutant’s appearance was dictated by two important considerations: (1) radioactivity, which had to be the catalyst for changing a human being into a monster, and (2) environment, which determined the extent of those changes. The more contaminated the air, food and water, the more severe the changes would be. Blaisdell later recalled: “I designed the three-eyed mutant on the basis of how such a creature might evolve as the result of atomic explosions, along with how the people in the house could avoid becoming mutants by maintaining themselves in a valley hidden from atomic radiation. Lou Rusoff managed to incorporate that idea into his story.’’ For the “first-stage mutant” design—the degenerating human, Radek—Paul came up with a weblike makeup used to suggest a kind of spreading disease. Although he didn’t actually apply the makeup materials, Blaisdell advised the production’s makeup artist, Steven Clensos, how it could be done using a special liquid adhesive (the kind used to glue down false eyelashes) and ordinary dime-store glitter. The triple-orbed Atomic Mutant, of course, required quite a bit more work.