Avoid the Sea or You'll See "The Monster That Challenged the World" -Tonight!

We’ve shown you various watery threats like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, giant octopi, and a piranha or fifty- but tonight on MeTV, it’s a unique sort of subsea prehistoric menace that emerges from the deep to find food- and you can probably guess what item is at the top of its menu- as mankind faces “The Monster That Challenged the World”!

A parachute jump takes place over California’s inland Salton Sea as part of a training exercise, but when a patrol boat is sent to the area where the jumper should be to pick him up, there is no sign of him- only his parachute, floating in the water. One sailor dives in to look for him-but also disappears! The other sailor aboard suddenly sees something rising out of the water, and reacts in fear!

Back at headquarters on land, Lt. Cmdr. John "Twill" Twillinger suspects something s wrong when the patrol boat does not answer radio calls, and takes a rescue party out to investigate. All they find at first is the deserted patrol boat, with some weird slime on part of it. Suddenly, a body floats to the surface- it’s the missing jumper, his face blackened and his body drained of fluids!

Twill takes a sample of the slime back to the base lab, and gives it to Dr. Jess Rogers for analysis. He has some conversation with the recently widowed Gail MacKenzie and her young daughter Sandy, during which his hard-edged persona softens a little.

Another odd event occurs-a young woman disappears after heading out on a swim date with a sailor. Her mother is worried, and the Navy men hit the beach, where they find evidence that the young couple was there- and more of the odd slime like they saw on the boat.

They head out into the sea and divers make some shocking discoveries-including what may be a giant egg near a previously uncharted rift on the ocean floor. Suddenly, the divers are attacked by some kind of giant mollusk (which looks more like a caterpillar, but whatever)! More tragedy strikes, Twill manages to drive off the mollusk, and the so-called egg is taken to the U.S. Navy lab for study. It will be kept under constant temperature control, so that it does not get warm enough to hatch. It is realized that there was an undersea earthquake which opened a chasm in the sea bed, from which emerged these strange prehistoric mollusks, and the authorities plan a way to close up the rift.

Unfortunately, more attacks occur to livestock and humans, indicating that the mollusks have found an escape route further inland. and others. The Navy goes on an inland search-and-destroy mission to eliminate the mollusk menace before there are more deaths- but- what of the mollusk egg back in the laboratory?!

This 1957 film definitely has an odd choice for its monsters, but the creature effects are impressive. We’ll run down the movie cast, which includes some familiar faces like Audrey Dalton, Max Showalter, our old “Dr. T” favorite ( minus the 5000 fingers) Hans Conried, and more- as well as longtime cowboy star Tim Holt as the tough but tender Lt. Commander Twillinger. We’ll also get visits from a couple Sven Squad members, see what appears to be a lost (maybe on purpose) BBC nature documentary, and listen to a new song. As a special bonus- see if I take a test drive in the deadly movie car Christine!

“The Monster That Challenged the World” delivers its challenge tonight on MeTV at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central time. MeTV challenges YOU to join in the live-Tweeting ( or X-ing) during the show on Twitter ( or X)-please make sure to include the important hashtag #svengoolie to what you post. Our local Chicago area viewers get another look at a different underwater menace in “Revenge of the Creature” this morning at 11 am on CW26.

Have you seen the new Sven merchandise in our store (yeah, I have one, all right?!) The new Sven Valentine’s Day “Love Sven” shirts are making a big splash (more favorable than one made by mollusks) and the new Sven collectible lunchbox is turning out to be a real favorite. Check those out at the MeTV Mall here on our website- and check back often, there is more on the way!.

Join us tonight to face the challenge of sinister sea-slugs in the Salton Sea ( try saying that five times fast)on METV!