From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.movies

On Thursday, November 3, 1994 at 8:19:08rC>PM UTC-5, Rhandon Hurst wrote:

Anyone remeber a 1950's scifi flick with a fungus that grew an
official name of the movie. I have yet to see this movie since
the first time when I was an impressionable child. any help
would be much appreciated. eni...@delphi.com

Man I can't believe someone else asked about this thing. I saw it when
it first came out and a few years ago, when I started going back to
collect on video all those 50s SF/horror movies that were important to
me, I couldn't for the life of me find it. I too thought it was called
'Blood Rust' .
Then I just happen to be looking through The Encyclopedia of
Monsters, by Jeff Rovin, and find the following entry. Text between
lines is entire unedited entry (there were no illustrations): ________________________
BLOOD RUST
First Appearance: 1958, Space Master X-7, Regal Films/20th Century-Fox Species: Extraterrestrial Fungus (implicitly, from Mars).
Features and Powers: The small, red spores multiply rapidly when they
consume human blood or tissue.
Biography: Returning from Earth orbit, the probe Space Master X-7 has
been infested with alien spores. One day, while Dr. Charles Pommer is studying them in his New Mexico lab, his ex-wife Laura enters. In the
ensuing fight, the scientist cuts his hand, and his blood drips onto
the spores. They begin to grow and, when Laura has left, (she's going
home to Hawaii), the fungus consumes the scientist -- though not before
he calls for help. Security Chief John Hand and guard Joe Rattigan
arrive and find a carpet of fungus, which they dispatch with
flame-throwers. However, when they play a tape recording on which
Pommer was keeping notes, they learn that a woman, identity unknown,
has been there to visit him. (The tape recording also contains
Pommer's speculation that the rust-colored spores are from Mars, and
that they are what give the planet its red tint.) Because the woman
may have inadvertantly picked up samples of the spore, the authorities
try to find her. Fearful that she's wanted for Pommer's murder, Laura
quietly continues on her trip. On a train to Los Angeles, the extraterrestrials she was indeed carrying break from her suitcase, kill
a porter, and infest the baggage car; undaunted, she boards a plane to Honolulu, only to have the Blood Rust ooze from her purse! The plane
returns to Los Angeles, where it crashlands; the wreck is promptly
burned, destrying the last of the spores.
COMMENT: Bill Williams played Hand, Robert Ellis was Rattigan, Paul
Frees costarred as Pommer, and Lyn Thomas was Laura. Moe Howard of the
3 Stooges had a bit part as a cab driver. The film was directed by
Edward Bernds from a script by George Worthing Yates and Daniel
Mainwaring.
_____________________________
No wonder we didn't remember the damn title!
- R. Hurst
Austin

I saw it as a kid ( I think!). Always a distant memory!
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