The Mole People (film)

The Mole People
Poster by Joseph Smith
Directed by	Virgil W. Vogel
Produced by	William Alland
Written by	László Görög
Starring	John Agar Hugh Beaumont Cynthia Patrick
Distributed by	Universal-International
Release date	1956 (1956)
Running time	77 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$200,000

The Mole People is a 1956 science fiction film directed by Virgil W. Vogel. Universal released the film in December of 1956, simultaneously with their jungle adventure film Curucu, Beast of the Amazon. The two films appear to have been released on a double feature.

A narration by Dr. Frank Baxter, an English professor at the University of Southern California, explains the premise of the movie and its basis in reality. He briefly discusses the hollow earth theories of John Symmes and Cyrus Teed among others, and says that the movie is a fictionalized representation of these unorthodox theories.

Archaeologists Dr. Roger Bentley and Dr. Jud Bellamin find a race of Sumerian albinos living deep under the Earth. They keep mutant humanoid mole men as their slaves to harvest mushrooms, which serve as their primary food source because mushrooms can grow without sunlight (although the principles of thermodynamics would in reality prevent a fungi-based diet or other diet without input from photosynthesis from being sustainable on a trans-generational basis). The Sumerian albinos' ancestors relocated into the subterranean after cataclysmic floods in ancient Mesopotamia. Whenever their population increases, they sacrifice old people to the Eye of Ishtar, which is really natural light coming from the surface. These people have lived underground for so long that they are weakened by bright light which the archaeologists brought in the form of a flashlight. However, there is one girl named Adad who has natural Caucasian skin who is disdained by the others since she has the "mark of darkness." They believe the men are messengers of Ishtar, their goddess.