A F I L M B Y K U R T N E U M A N N

KRONOS

Cinematography by KARL STRUSS Starring

JEFF MORROW BARBARA LAWRENCE GEORGE O'HANLON JOHN EMERY MORRIS ANKRUM ROBERT SHAYNE

Music by PAUL SAWTELL and BERT SCHEFTER Screenplay by LOUIS GOLDMAN Story by IRVING BLOCK

Special Effects by JACK RABIN IRVING BLOCK and LOUIS DE WITT

Kronos abounds in stunning images and sound effects. Although the acting is competent, there is a minimum of characterization, and ironically, some scenes are too talky. Dr Elliot (John Emery), the director of Lab Central, is possessed by an alien telepathically linked to the giant alien energy accumulator, which Morris Ankrum calls an incubus, but there are no scenes to show us what Elliot was like before he was possessed. A single scene showing him interacting with the other Lab Central characters and displaying a sense of humor would have added immeasurably to what negligible human drama is contained in the script. Such a scene would have required no process shots and could have been adlibbed without additional setups. The scene we are provided, where a truck driver smokes and whistles to the radio before becoming possessed by the alien intelligence, seems gratuitous and forced. The alien intelligence transfers itself to Dr Elliot in that character's first scene.

Karl Struss's cinematography is excellent, and except for overreliance on stock footage to represent scenes of mass destruction and flat painted backdrops to represent parts of Lab Central, Kronos looks far more expensive than it was. Stock footage often looks grainier, damaged, or in softer or shallower focus than scenes shot for the film. Karl Struss's deep-focus cinematography makes most of the flat backdrops look especially artificial and two-dimensional. Shallower, softer focus would have improved the reality of these scenes. In contrast, the beautifully dressed three-dimensional Lab Central sets have plenty of background detail to linger over, much of which has historic importance, including computer equipment from Desk Set, already used in The Invisible Boy and later in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and the control panel of Klatu's flying saucer from The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Two-dimensional cell-animated scenes of Kronos walking across the landscape are inadequate, but are only used two or three times. One error in the cell animation of Kronos, all long shots, is that they show the electrodes ending with tiny, nondescript, and identical knobs. Three-dimensional stop motion, or mechanical miniatures, would have looked spectacular. Miniature work is quite good, except for scale and turbulence control on flames in scenes of mass destruction. This shortcoming is largely masked by superimposed smoke, flames, lightning, laser beams, and radiation. Kronos would have been dazzling in color, but shortcomings in the special effects would have been far more glaring than they are.

The monumentally energetic but emotionally austere music for the end of the world by Paul Sawtell and Bert Schefter greatly enhances Kronos and adds to the sense of menace and doom. It was recycled as stock music for Gigantis the Fire Monster (the American release of the first sequel to Godzilla) and It the Terror from Beyond Space. Sawtell and Shefter often worked as a team, writing the not very memorable score for Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Sawtell wrote the far superior theme music for the TV show solo, though some episodes featured scores specially commissioned from Sawtell and other composers, and most used stock music.

Sound effects are fabulous, and complement the highly pyrotechnic score. The basic physics is daffy but generally commonsensical. Destroying Kronos with Omega particles is too pat and too easy. Something more dramatic and risky should have been devised, though the destruction of Kronos is visually dramatic and satisfying. Kronos' mode of perambulating on four pistons, which only move up and down, should have been discussed by the characters. Not mentioning it and never offering any pretext at explanation has been criticized, though I was never bothered by it as a child. Rarely noticed is the fact that the central pylon ends in a rotating cam at the bottom. This should have helped Kronos move, but it is never mentioned, is barely even glimpsed, and when Lab Central scientists look at a matte painting of the destruction wrought by Kronos, there are two deep ruts in the ground from the four pistons, but no mark made by the central cam.