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The Mole People

158 statements
30 feature instances
13 referencing feature instances

The Mole People	type	TVTItem
The Mole People	label	The Mole People
The Mole People	page	TheMolePeople
The Mole People	comment	The Mole People is a 1956 black-and-white sci-fi movie starring John Agar and Hugh Beaumont as archaeologists searching for remnants of the Sumerian civilization. After a monologue by an English professor essentially Lampshade Hanging that the movie is fiction, we're brought to a dig site, presumably somewhere in the Middle East, where the search is ongoing.Unfortunately, an earthquake destroys the oldest extant record, but lo! The earthquake has also dislodged a fresh relic which a local boy dutifully brings the heroes.The heroes, along with assistant Lafarge and a helpful guide, head for the top of a huge mountain, where they find a ruined city. Unfortunately, disaster strikes and one of the archaeologists plummets through a trap door to his death. To rescue him, everyone heads into the chasm opened up, but the rappelling process leads to another death and a cave-in.It's thought that the remaining three are doomed, utterly doomed, but it turns out there's fresh air. The remaining passageway leads them to the underground city of the Sumerians. Said city is also populated by the eponymous Mole People, who are forced into labor for the Sumerians.But what other secrets await? It turns out that the Mole People are not too happy about their fate, and also...there happens to be a beautiful blonde woman trapped in here, who is sort of an outcast. Can the intrepid scientists escape? Can Agar ever shut up? And will anyone find out the existence of the Sumerians?For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, please go to the episode recap page. Fans of MST3K will recognize The Mole People story writer Laszlo Gorog as co-writer of Earth vs. the Spider.
The Mole People	fetched	2023-06-15T02:14:54Z
The Mole People	parsed	2023-06-15T02:14:54Z
The Mole People	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Mole People / int_1049848f	type	Aliens Speaking English
The Mole People / int_1049848f	comment	Aliens Speaking English: Seemingly played straight at first with the Sumarians conversing in English with the two archaeologists only for them to explain that "where we come from, your language was recorded on ancient tablets," revealing that its actually Translation Convention, and that Roger Bentley is really speaking ancient Sumarian "with a Harvard accent." The audience is only hearing all the dialogue in English.
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The Mole People / int_121476bd	type	The Millstone
The Mole People / int_121476bd	comment	The Millstone: LaFarge manages to pull this off posthumously. The God Guise is shattered when the Sumerians find his dead body.
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The Mole People / int_18aff462	type	Artistic License â€“ Biology
The Mole People / int_18aff462	comment	Artistic License – Biology: The film gets it right when Beaumont says that creatures living in low-light areas develop near-albinism and extreme light sensitivity. However, that doesn't explain why two minutes' exposure to sunlight makes them look like overcooked beef jerky. (For that matter, there had to be SOME form of lighting present or else the modern characters wouldn't have been able to function.) It wasn't two minutes. It might have been hours or a whole day. The sacrifices went into the chamber during the daytime and were exposed to sunlight for a long time, and then their bodies were removed when it was night on the surface. One of the archaeologists notes that the Sumerians have lost all their pigment after millennia underground. Yet the women who are to be sacrificed have black hair. Maybe it's dyed?
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The Mole People / int_19ebe383	type	Never Trust a Trailer
The Mole People / int_19ebe383	comment	Never Trust a Trailer: The poster (as seen above) makes the mole creatures out to be the main antagonists, when the Sumerians are the real threat, and the moles actually help the heroes out for being kind to them.
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The Mole People / int_1a5bba2b	type	Artistic License â€“ Geology
The Mole People / int_1a5bba2b	comment	Artistic License – Geology: The archaeologists mention that the Sumerian city is beneath "The Flood Layer", the worldwide layer of flood gravel that was laid down by Noah's Flood. There is no such single worldwide layer of flood gravel, a fact that the 19th-century geologists who were very much looking for it were horrified to discover. A few scenes later, they find references to the Flood is an old Sumerian tablet, and Dr. Bellamin is stunned to find "a Sumerian version of Noah's Ark" as if this is some grand revelation, but The Epic of Gilgamesh already contains a Sumerian version of Noah's Ark, and Bellamin has already mentioned having read Gilgamesh. Bentley points out that the Flood has been "proven to be a historical fact", which is also wrong.
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The Mole People / int_2e406a1	type	Hollywood Evolution
The Mole People / int_2e406a1	comment	Hollywood Evolution: Zigzagged. The albino, light-sensitive Sumerians actually make sense (there are species that developed pale skin and light blindness because they live in extreme darkness), but that doesn't explain how humans could somehow create a "forced degeneracy" (as Agar calls it) to turn some people into humanoid mole monsters.
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The Mole People / int_3126c34a	type	Insufferable Genius
The Mole People / int_3126c34a	comment	Insufferable Genius: Agar plays the most annoying and smarmy archaeologist in some time.
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The Mole People / int_45cec696	type	God Guise
The Mole People / int_45cec696	comment	God Guise: The Sumerians think the archaeologists are gods because they come from "the world above" and carry "the Fire of Ishtar" (a flashlight). Their worshiping of sunlight as the Fire is a kind of a Cargo Cult, as well.
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The Mole People / int_4e3d253b	type	Downer Ending
The Mole People / int_4e3d253b	comment	Downer Ending: Only because of Executive Meddling (See the trivia page).
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The Mole People / int_56515a39	type	Artistic License â€“ History
The Mole People / int_56515a39	comment	Artistic License – History:The film's Sumerians worship Ishtar, who was an Akkadian goddess. The historical Sumerians' equivalent deity was called Inanna. Given the film's Sumerians have been underground since centuries before the Akkadian language became widespread in Mesopotamia, they shouldn't even be familiar with the name "Ishtar."
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The Mole People / int_738d1a0f	type	Because You Were Nice to Me
The Mole People / int_738d1a0f	comment	Because You Were Nice to Me: The archaeologists often intervene on the Mole People's behalf whenever the Sumerians are punishing or mistreating them. In the climax, when the heroes are locked in the 'oven of Ishtar', the Mole People attempt to rescue them (they fail, but they did try). Or alternatively they were trying to open the door for Adad to escape/join the heroes, in such case they succeed.
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The Mole People / int_79eb1e2e	type	Neutral Female
The Mole People / int_79eb1e2e	comment	Neutral Female: Adad. Possibly justified in that she has been a slave all her life and only knows to do what others tell her, even when Bentley repeatedly tells her she's "free" to do as she wishes.
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The Mole People / int_8124e7a6	type	Sudden Downer Ending
The Mole People / int_8124e7a6	comment	Sudden Downer Ending: Adad and Bentley reach the surface, escaping Sumeria's destruction. Adad runs back for no good reason, gets crushed by a falling pillar, cue credits.
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The Mole People / int_8cb844c6	type	Mr. Exposition
The Mole People / int_8cb844c6	comment	Mr. Exposition: Agar again.
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The Mole People / int_92ac1ba0	type	Alternative Number System
The Mole People / int_92ac1ba0	comment	Alternative Number System: Used as the numerical equivalent of Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe. King Nazar refers to the number of long-lived albinos in their society as "twice-and-a-half times sixty" to sound impressive and ancient, but it's just an overly complex way to say "150". Bizarrely enough for a cheap B-movie, this is a case of Shown Their Work, as the Sumerians did invent the base-60 number system later famously used by the Babylonians.
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The Mole People / int_9afa5bb6	type	Mole Men
The Mole People / int_9afa5bb6	comment	Mole Men: The titular creatures.
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The Mole People / int_a2e887be	type	Secondary Character Title
The Mole People / int_a2e887be	comment	Secondary Character Title: The mole people only have a minor role in the film, but hey, it gives something impressively scary for the movie poster to get those kids' butts in the seats, huh?
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The Mole People / int_a3c0d670	type	Evil Chancellor
The Mole People / int_a3c0d670	comment	Evil Chancellor: The high priest distrusts the archaeologists from the very beginning (rightly pointing out that it is not they specifically who wield the "fire of Ishtar", but rather their flashlight). The King, though, totally buys into the act, making the priest the primary villain for most of the film.
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The Mole People / int_a5e0c01	type	As Himself
The Mole People / int_a5e0c01	comment	As Himself: Dr. Frank Baxter was an actor and writer — but also was an English professor at the University of Southern California with a doctorate, so technically he was a doctor.
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The Mole People / int_abc55125	type	Character Filibuster
The Mole People / int_abc55125	comment	Character Filibuster: Agar goes on a lot of longwinded lectures about things.
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The Mole People / int_b58b4e3c	type	Too Dumb to Live
The Mole People / int_b58b4e3c	comment	Too Dumb to Live: Adad decides to inexplicably run back to a hole so she can be smooshed by a pillar. Halfway between drawing their swords and trying to attack the Mole People, the Sumerian warriors apparently forget how swords work, simply running up to their foes with weapons raised and getting slaughtered to a man, without even a token effort at actually fighting.
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The Mole People / int_b6f54fbe	type	Cataclysm Climax
The Mole People / int_b6f54fbe	comment	Cataclysm Climax: There are a couple minor tremors early in the film in an attempt at Foreshadowing, but really, that earthquake at the end seems to come completely out of nowhere, solely for the purpose of triggering Adad's Too Dumb to Live moment (see also Executive Meddling).
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The Mole People / int_bc74ef27	type	Berserk Button
The Mole People / int_bc74ef27	comment	Berserk Button: Don't drop the mushrooms.
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The Mole People / int_bf67c13e	type	Opening Monologue
The Mole People / int_bf67c13e	comment	Opening Monologue: By Professor Frank C. Baxter, a professor of English, telling the history of hollow earth beliefs in America.
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The Mole People / int_c09dbbbb	type	Weaksauce Weakness
The Mole People / int_c09dbbbb	comment	Weaksauce Weakness: The light from an ordinary flashlight is enough to subdue both Mole Men and Sumerians alike. In full sunlight the Sumerians (except the "marked ones" like Adad) quickly burn to death.
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The Mole People / int_c1b2c63f	type	Dull Surprise
The Mole People / int_c1b2c63f	comment	Dull Surprise: Not quite, but Agar has a very limited, very weird range.
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The Mole People / int_d507ecfc	type	Does Not Like Shoes
The Mole People / int_d507ecfc	comment	Does Not Like Shoes: Adad is barefoot for the entire film, except at the end when she's given a pair of boots.
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The Mole People / int_e68b72	type	The Load
The Mole People / int_e68b72	comment	The Load: LaFarge is an alternate Trope Namer. Later in the movie, he manages to graduate to The Millstone status. Posthumously.
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The Mole People / int_f2407aff	type	Infinite Flashlight
The Mole People / int_f2407aff	comment	Infinite Flashlight: Averted. The heroes' flashlight sees frequent use for their entire stay... which is why the batteries are dead when the villains try to use it in the finale.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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