A Childhood Favorite

With all due respect, I think you're memory is a little fuzzy. Creature Features (WGN Channel 9 in Chicago) never showed this movie. The AIP pictures were broadcast almost exclusively on WFLD Channel 32, usually on their Saturday and Sunday afternoon Sci-Fi Cinema series. I watched this several times in my youth (1960s–70s) on WFLD. It may also have been shown on Screaming Yellow Theater with Svengoolie and later Son of Svengoolie, but never on Creature Features (which I also watched religiously nearly every week). Creature Features showed mostly the Universal Shock Theater and Son of Shock movie packages, as well as a few non-Universal flicks like The Beast with Five Fingers, The Mask of Fu Manchu, The Undying Monster, etc.

I will, however, agree that it is a sentimental favorite, and I really don't understand the low rating here on IMDb. Up until the climactic monster-on-the-loose rampage the movie plays things pretty serious and sincere, and actually tries to portray the mental agony that Col. Manning and his fiance were going through, as opposed to the juvenile, schlocky treatment other typical ’50s monster movies would have given this subject. Though the effects suffer from budgetary restraints, I think overall they're pretty well thought out and cleverly realized. I always liked the miniature camel and elephant, and when I finally visited Las Vegas as an adult one of the first things I had to see was the Pioneer casino that Manning ripped the sign from during the climax. Ah, memories!