THE MAGNETIC MONSTER (1953) is another fun effort from writer/director Curt Siodmak, the man responsible for many of the Universal classics in the 1940s. This one sees Richard Carlson cast as a prototype Fox Mulder with the Office of Scientific Investigation, sent to check out an unusual event at a hardware shop which has caused the whole place to become magnetised. They soon discover that a scientist's experiments in radiation have gone awry, creating a force that absorbs energy and transforms it into matter, causing it to grow regularly. The treatment for this film is decidedly literate, moving away from cheesy monster suits and women-in-peril in favour of an off-screen entity with the potential to destroy the world. Plenty of nuclear threat to fill up the short running time, with an in-depth story that keeps moving forward until the edge-of-the-seat climax, and it doesn't even matter than the budget is obviously low on this one.
Review of The Magnetic Monster
