The Mole People

Lore & Background

The film opens with a narration by Dr. Frank Baxter, an English professor at the University of Southern California, who explains the premise and its basis in the Hollow Earth theories of John Symmes and Cyrus Teed. The story follows archaeologists Dr. Roger Bentley and Dr. Jud Bellamin, who discover a race of Sumerian albinos living deep underground. These albinos keep mutant humanoid mole men as slaves to harvest mushrooms, their primary food source. The ancestors of the Sumerian albinos relocated underground after cataclysmic floods in ancient Mesopotamia. They believe the archaeologists are messengers of Ishtar, their goddess, and sacrifice young women to the Eye of Ishtar when their population increases. One girl, Adad, with natural white skin, is disdained for having the 'mark of darkness.'

Reader's Guide

The Mole People is significant as a mid-20th-century example of the lost-civilization subgenre in science fiction horror, drawing on pseudoscientific Hollow Earth theories. Its reception has been mixed: critic Glenn Erickson noted that director Virgil W. Vogel 'directs as well as could be expected under the circumstances,' while Hal Erickson described it as 'the weakest of the Universal-International horror films.' The film gained later notoriety through appearances on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Svengoolie. Its legacy includes inclusion in home media collections such as The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection DVD box set and a Shout Factory Blu-ray release with audio commentary. The film's fictionalized Mesopotamian history, based on Panbabylonism, erroneously associates Ishtar with the Sumerians and uses Egyptian imagery on temple walls.

Did You Know?

• The film was released on a double feature with 'The Creature Walks Among Us'.
• The Mole People was featured on the ninth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (episode 905).
• A segment of the film was used in 1966's The Wild World of Batwoman.
• The Dark Universe land at Universal Studios Florida does not feature a decayed corpse of a Mole Person.