WORLD OF MONSTERS: HERE COMES THE SUN -- DEMON

Friday, June 19, 2026

HERE COMES THE SUN -- DEMON

"The Blaze of the Sun

Made Him a Monster!"

Break out the suds and the sunscreen -- it's summer again in Seattle! After a few days of swelter in the high-80s, it's settled back down to the normal 70s. I know this is peanuts compared to what some of you have to endure, but we're used to more moderate temperatures in the Puget Sound.

Nevertheless, to celebrate the warmer temps, I thought it would be fun to post something on Robert Clarke's perennial B-movie fave, THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON. Enjoy! Mucho mas margueritas, por favor!

Theatrical title card.

After the premiere of THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER in late 1957, actor Robert Clarke received a tidy five percent sum of the modest profits as a condition of his contract. He invested his $3,000 payout in a self-produced science-fiction/horror film loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". While he was learning the craft, Clarke took a screenwriting course from Oscar-nominated Malvin Wald at the University of Southern California (USC), and he and friend Phil Hiner wrote a screen treatment with the working title, SAURUS (Latin for reptile). STRANGE PURSUIT (after a song sung in the completed film) and TERROR IN THE SUN where additional transient working titles during development.

The crew was comprised of film students from USC, and the cast was a combination of would-be actors and actresses recruited from in and around the USC campus, as well as Clarke's friends and family. Clarke himself would play the lead, Dr. Gilbert McKenna (aka the Sun Demon).

Clark wanted an attractive blonde and shapely, full-figured woman to play the role of night club torch singer Trudy Osbourne. As a result, he cast buxom USC student Nan Peterson in her first film role, a former model for Catalina Bathing Suits and, at the time, touring the country as "Miss Vornado", an air conditioning company. Miss Peterson played in a few other B-movies, including THE LOUISIANA HUSSY (1959), GIRL'S TOWN (1959), SHOTGUN WEDDING (1963), as well as guest-starring in numerous TV shows in the 50s and 60s. Marilyn King, one of the popular King Sisters/King Family vocal group (and Clarke's sister-in-law; he was married to Alyce King) was initially considered for the role, but she was pregnant at the time. King did compose and dubbed the vocals for the song, "Strange Pursuit" performed on film by Miss Peterson in the barroom scene.

Filming began in 1957 over twelve weekends using rented cameras and equipment to allow Clarke to continue acting in other movies and the students to attend their classes. The cast and crew were paid $25 a day. Location shots included a four-story rooming house on Lafayette Ave. in Los Angeles used previously as a set for a TV show. "Here we were getting a three-floor house, complete with furniture," Clarke recalled. "In those days you couldn't get onto a sound stage for less than $150 a day. We quickly rewrote the script to make use of the house." Other locations included a bar in Santa Monica, Bass Rock near Trancas Beach and other Malibu locations and Signal Hill, ringed at its base by the City of Long Beach. The climax was filmed at Union Station and the tower of a gas tank owned by the Southern California Gas Company.

Clarke originally wanted Jack Kevan to design the Sun Demon. Kevan was instrumental in creating the famous Universal 50s monster, The Creature From the Black Lagoon. However, Kevan wanted $2,000 for his talents and that was too much for Clarke's shoestring budget. Instead, the monster was created by production designer Richard Cassarino (as Gianbattista Cassarino) at a cost of $500. Cassarino was a busy man on the sets and is responsible for much of the look of the film. As a result, the makeup and costume were credited to "Ben Sarino". In an interview with Tom Weaver, Clarke quipped: "We didn't want it to appear that one person was doing so many different jobs."

The loathsome lizard creature's outfit was designed using makeup on a mask made from a mold of Clarke's face. A skin-diving suit provided the foundation for the monster's suit (and yes, you can see the folds of the rubber in some shots) which proved to be unbearable to wear for any length of time in the hot Southern California sun. "It was hotter than blue blazes," Clarke recalled. The mask was later acquired by the late, great Bob Burns to add to his enormous film memorabilia collection.

When the picture wrapped, the entire production cost a moderate $50,000, due mostly to Clarke's budget-minded eye for using many free location shots and frugal expenditures on much of the equipment rentals, not withstanding the meager payroll. One scene was cut from both the TV and VHS releases because it was deemed too gruesome: when Dr. McKenna squeezes a lab rat to death, blood oozes from between his fingers. The effect was achieved by using ketchup for blood. The rat was not harmed, but it was still considered too grisly for sensitive viewers. The scene was restored in the DVD release.

THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON premiered on August 29, 1958 in, of all places, a Texas drive-in. It soon landed with with Pacific International Pictures where it was on the bottom of a double-bill with DATE WITH DEATH, filmed in "Psycho-rama" and starring famous stripper Liz Renay. After a few more tries with a new distributor (see below) coupled with largely uncomplimentary reviews, it unceremoniously faded away until it was revived on VHS and other media to appreciative cult movie lovers. Clarke ended up recouping some of his losses when he sold the television rights.

"My brother knew someone who owned a drive-in theater in Texas who agreed to show The Sun Demon and back it with a lot of publicity. We made close to $1,000 a night. That gave me some leverage when I started shopping the film. I took it to Universal and Warner Bros., but they didn't want it. AIP said they'd distribute it, but I wanted another picture out of the deal. Besides, it was fairly common knowledge that they kept two sets of books. So I went with a new company, Miller-Consolidated, but they went bankrupt and I lost my shirt. I know the picture is no classic, but I thought it compared favorably with some of Roger Corman's early works like Attack of the Crab Monsters or something along that line." - Robert Clarke

Perhaps the last line of the film spoken by Dr. Frederick Buckle (Patrick Whyte) to Ann Russell (Patricia Manning) after the demon falls to his death from the tower sums up Robert Clarke's movie-making enterprise: "Don't cry, Ann... Perhaps you should cry. The rest of us've got to have any hope that this life [insert "this film" here] was... not wasted."