Invasion of the Saucer Men

American International Pictures was clearly pandering to the teenage drive-in market with this film. It was released as a double bill with I Was A Teenage Werewolf. The plot of Saucer Men clearly features teens as the heroic protagonists. The plot was loosely based on a short story by Paul Fairman (who wrote Target Earth) but filled out with some additional plot lines. The final production was given a somewhat confused blend of comedy, parody and semi-seriousness. The result is pure B-grade entertainment with few pretensions to any loftier goals.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A couple of New York drifters, Joe and Arty, find rural Hicksburg boring. Joe drives around to find some action. He sees a flying saucer land in the woods and little "green" men get out. Joe rushes to town to tell Arty. Meanwhile, at Lover's Point, Johnny and Joan plan to elope that night, so drive away from Lover's Point with headlights off. (The other neckers complain when he turns them on). They accidently run over one of the aliens. It's dead, but its hand comes off, crawls over and stabs the tire with needle-like nails. Johnny reports the accident but the police think it's a prank. Joe can't convince sleepy Arty that a real alien sighting will make them rich. He goes back up for proof. The aliens ambush Joe and poke him with their alcohol-injecting needle nails. Since Joe was already pretty intoxicated, the extra alcohol killed him. The aliens put Joe's dead body under Johnny's car. The police arrest Johnny, saying the alien story was a lame excuse. The Air Force has since found the saucer, but in an attempt to cut it open, cause it to explode. Somewhat embarrassed, they cover up the site and claim it was a crashed jet. Johnny and Joan escape the police station. The severed hand almost gets them (hiding in the car). They flee and enlist Arty's help. When they put a spotlight in the car, the hand smokes, then poofs away. The aliens ambush Arty, stabbing him with alcohol nails. Johnny and Joan convince their fellow Lover's Point parking gang to help. Light hurts the aliens. They surround the half dozen big head aliens in a clearing as they're dragging drunkenly unconscious Arty. When the kids all turn their headlights, the aliens smoke, the explode into nothing. Arty is too drunk to be a credible witness, so only the kids know what really happened. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The almost serious, yet comic tone, makes Saucer Men a campy sci-fi classic. By 1957, flying saucers and big-headed little green men were sufficiently part of American culture that they could be used as secondary characters instead of the focal point.

Cold War Angle
There's little Cold War in Saucer Men beyond the almost cliche of invasions from beyond.

Notes
Star Gazing -- There are a few actors of note in Saucer Men. Frank Gorshin, who plays the ill-fated Joe, later played The Riddler on the 60s' Batman TV series. Farmer Larkin was played by Raymond Hatton who had been the comi-tragic Old Pete in Day the World Ended '55). Russ Bender played the minor role of Dr. Carmichael in War of the Worlds ('53) and General Pattrick in It Conquered the World ('56). He will go on to do the two "Colossal Man" movies, later in '57 and '58.

Classic Critters -- Paul Blaisdell, one of B-sci-fi's big names in props, created the saucer and the aliens. The little green man with big head and large eyes was, by 1957, stereotypic. Still, Blaisdell managed to craft in a strong menacing expression, much as he had in his mutant in Day the World Ended ('55) and the venusian in It Conquered The World ('56).

They Are NOT After Our Women -- The poster art suggests that the aliens are big enough to carry off the typical scantily clad buxom beauty. Not only were they actually child sized, they never tried to get our women. The closest we come is the severed hand crawling up behind Joan. The poster scene never happens.

Based on the Book -- Paul Fairman's story, "The Cosmic Frame" is much narrower in scope. The movie picks up his basic elements: an alien struck by a pair of teens. The aliens swapping the dead alien's body for a human body, the aliens damaging the car to 'frame' the teen, and an adult thinking he'd get rich exhibiting a dead alien's body. Beyond that, Saucer Men tells its own stories.

Teens Ascendant -- Clueless adults. Only the kids really know what's going on. This was not new. (Think Peter Pan) Saucer Men was a notable first in a trend, however, that pandered to the typical arrogance of youth. Throughout the film, only Johnny and Joan really understand that saucer men have invaded earth. The adults are all too self-absorbed or inept. "No one will ever believe us," says Joan. "Of course, not," says Johnny. "We're just crazy kids." In validation of the nobility of youth, Joan boasts that their peers will surely help. "They're not like our parents or the police. They won't think we're drunk or crazy just because we're young." This teens-rule (and adults are idiots) theme will show up again (and again) in later B-sci-fi too and become almost required in Disney and Nickelodeon programming in the 1990s and 2000s.

50s Physical Innocence -- On screen, at least, 50s teen sexuality is portrayed as rather mild. Even though the youth of Hicksburg seem to do nothing else but canoodle in parked cars, it's just tons of kissing. Clothes stay on. Joan remarks on the invasion on the night they planned to elope, "I expected to be frightened on my wedding night, but nothing like this." Despite many implied trips up to Lover's Point with Johnny, she was still going to be a virgin bride. Oh how times have changed.

Sincere Flattery -- As campy and self-parody-ing as Saucer Men is, it was deemed good enough for a remake. In 1965, B-movie-meister Larry Buchanan revived the plot in The Eye Creatures, though it lacked Blaisdell's talent in costumes.

Bottom line? Saucer Men is campy and entertaining. It tries to be both comic and yet a bit serious with sinister looking aliens. For fans of 50s sci-fi, and a tolerance for the teens-rule flavor, it's a fun (if "lite") diversion.

20 Million Miles From Earth

Columbia Pictures didn't go out on any artistic limbs with 20 Million Miles to Earth (20Mil). They followed some pretty trodden paths and reused some tried-and-true formulae. Mix in some real artistic talent (Ray Harryhausen) and you get movie which can't miss -- in a safe way. At its heart, 20Mil amounts to King Kong retold. The story is given a sci-fi spin by having the beast come from Venus via an American space ship, rather than a mysterious island. After that, the Kong thread takes over with the notable exclusion of the beauty-and-the-beast element. A colorized copy was released in 2007, but the color adds nothing significant beyond the beast being green.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A typically 50s rocket crash lands off the coast of Sicily. A pair of fishermen row out to the sinking rocket. They rescue two injured astronauts before it sinks. A boy finds a strange tube amid the rocket flotsam on the beach. Inside the tube is gelatinous pod. Pepe sells it to a zoologist from Rome, working nearby. The zoologist's granddaughter, a medical student, is called in to help the two hurt astronauts. While she's away, the gelatinous 'egg' hatches. Marisa returns to find the foot-tall semihumanoid reptile on their table. Leonardo puts it into a cage in his truck. The next day, the creature has doubled in size. Leonardo and Marisa pack up to return to Rome. Pepe has since told the authorities about the egg, so they pursue Leonardo. The creature, now larger, escapes the cage and into the woods. Local officials want to hunt and kill it. The Americans succeed in capturing it, using an electrified net to stun it. They take the creature to the Rome Zoo for study. It is now 30 feet tall. They keep it sedated with a steady charge of 1800 volts. An equipment accident breaks the flow, so the creature wakes up. It breaks it's bonds. An elephant charges it. Their brawl spills out onto the streets. The reptile eventually wins, but flees the military. It seeks refuge in the Colosseum. It is resistant to bullets and bazookas. Eventually, at the top of the Colosseum, the hurt creatures is hanging over the edge by one hand. A tank shot breaks the stones. It falls to the street and dies. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The real star of 20Mil is Ray Harryhausen. He animates his creature very well. The movie follows the popular Harryhausen formula of a cool stop-motion animated monster trashing famous landmarks.

Cold War Angle
There isn't any Cold War in 20Mil. The story is King Kong recast.

Notes
Nice Monster -- Unusual for a 50s sci-fi, the creature is clearly cast in a sympathetic light. Marisa declares him ugly but softens to say that he looks frightened. Colonel Calder tells people that on Venus the creatures are "...not ferocious unless they're provoked." Sure enough, the creature only fights (a dog, a man, an elephant, etc.) after they've attacked it first. Harryhausen's earlier designs for Ymir (the creature is never called this in the film) were at first too animal like -- horns, one eye. It wasn't easy to sympathize with a pure beast, "so I made him more humanoid," said Harryhausen.

Star Watching -- The female lead, Joan Taylor, starred in an earlier Harryhausen film, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers ('56), which also featured Thomas Browne Henry the typical American military officer. John Zaremba plays the American Dr. Uhl, was also in E.vs FS.

Veneer of Science -- Most of 20Mil is pure monster-on-the-loose movie. The thin coating of science amid the fiction is that people wanted to study how the Ymir was able to filter out the toxins in Venus' atmosphere so that humans could live/work there. As it stood, the toxins killed all of the crew except Calder. They physiology of the creature is described as being very different too. It was said to have no lungs and no heart or circulatory system. That's why bullets didn't stop it.

Poster Propaganda -- The movie posters say outright that the beast "invades" the earth. This was the usual sci-fi plot element. Aliens come to US with good or bad intent. Here, though, the Ymir was taken from his home world and brought (kidnapped, you might say) to earth. Once here, he's hunted (mostly out of fear) and finally killed.

Primitive Planet -- Note the perpetuation of the (then) conventional wisdom of planetary evolution. Planets farther from the sun are older, closer younger. Mars is then cast as having had its day and now home to dying civilizations. Venus, is then the prehistoric planet in which life is just getting started. Hence, the Ymir is a dinosaur-man.

Minor Gaffs -- B-movies usually have little errors due to limited budgets. In 20Mil there are only a few. One comes where the creature is in the barn. Calder wants to trap the creature in a wooden cart, even though it had just escaped a steel cage by bending the bars. Second comes in the zoo lab. The sedated creature is clearly breathing -- its chest rising and falling. The biologist is explaining how the creature has no lungs.

Bottom line? 20Mil is definitely worth watching, if only for the fun of Harryhausen's animation. His strong, but misunderstood, creature is clearly the star of the film. Where else do you get to see a fight between a reptilian humanoid and an angry mother elephant? 20Mil is light on content, but strong on entertainment.

X-The Unknown

Hammer Films is more famous for its horror genre productions. X-The Unknown (XTU) showed that they could produce good B sci-fi as well. Some of the special effects underscore the producers' horror genre familiarity, though this is thankfully not overplayed. Overall, the plot is more of a sci-fi murder mystery and monster movie hybrid. Also evident is the long shadow of Professor Quatermass. Produced in the winter of 1956, (released in the USA in May 1957) the structure has an unmistakable Quatermass imprint. A bizarre creature menaces the country and a quirky (not-quite-proper) scientist is the only one who fully understands and can stop the monster.

Quick Plot Synopsis
British troops on training maneuvers in Scotland discover an odd radioactive area. A "bottomless" fissure opens up. Radiation kills one and burns another soldier. A Dr. Royston is called in from a nearby research reactor lab to investigate. He finds no radiation, but the soldiers' burns are clearly from radiation. Later, a boy encounters something frightening in the woods. He is hospitalized with radiation burns. Royston is called in again. The boy's friend tells of going to see an old stone tower. In that tower, Royston finds one of his lead isotope jars. His personal (ad hoc) lab had been broken into and the jar stolen, though the doors and windows were still secure. Next, the hospital is 'attacked' and an x-ray technician 'melted' by the thing. Royston theorizes about the thing as an underground energy-consuming creature seeking food. Clearly, the research reactor will be its next meal. They try to shut it down and ship out the radioactive elements, but the creature is upon them too quickly. It consumes the cobalt and grows. The only hope is Royston's not-yet-successful work on a radioactivity neutralizing "scanner". He tweaks it to working order and (in just hours) the military have two large trailer-housed versions at the fissure site. They lure the monster out with a vial of isotope on the back of a jeep. When it emerges, they switch on the big scanners. The blob glows and writhes, finally exploding. Britain is saved. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The Quatermass structure still works. XTU is a well paced thriller which wisely keeps the monster off camera until near the end. The black and white photography is actually rich and attractive on its own. Even though not as famous, XTU clearly has a killer blob monster a year before the American classic, The Blob, was released.

Cold War Angle
The radioactive mud monster stands as a sort of analogy of atomic power. The nuclear age anxiety is clear in the dead boy's diatribe against Royston and other nuclear scientists. "(You scientists,) setting off bombs you can't control...you're a murderer..." Somewhat ironically, Royston's personal research was for a way to neutralize bombs so they'd be ineffective,. thereby ending the nuclear threat to mankind.

Notes
National Service Issue? -- In one scene, a reporter makes a pointed inudendo in his question to Major Cartwright. "The only man who died was a National Service man?" What's all that about? It's a longer story than space permits. The short story is that Britain had a regular army, made up of volunteers and career soldiers. The needs of empire necessitated that a conscript army (National Service) be maintained, even after WWII. Conscript service was for a year or two. These citizen soldiers (draftees) were sometimes put into hazardous situations (Suez crisis, Korea, etc.) for which they weren't well trained. They were also paid less, housed less well, and used (by the regular "professional" army) for the grunt work. This was a simmering sore point for the British public. Hence the reporter's grumpy accusation. Was Lansing's death yet another example of National Service men being used as expendable drones?

Evolving Absurdity -- Even proponents of the theory of evolution must cringe at Royston's theory of the monster's origin. "Just as man evolved on the surface as an intelligent being, could not a molten energy being have evolved below the earth's crust?" Really. Evolution is just that easy  These beings consume energy, hence the monster's raiding for atomic isotopes. Note the naive optimism which presumes that life of some kind (any kind) can and will evolve if given a hundred thousand years. Royston's theory is not important for the story, fortunately. The monster exists and must be dealt with, even if the scientist has no real clue why it exists.

Beautiful Black and White -- Make note of the cinematography. Most of the outdoor shots are at night. Cinematographer Gerald Gibbs and director Leslie Norman use flood lights to create images rich in tone, yet almost surreally spartan. They focus the imagery on the essential foreground. The effect is similar to the night shots in Them! ('54).

Impersonal Monster -- Most monsters and aliens are personal. They often speak (usually English, handily enough). Those who don't speak usually have eyes and some intellect. Few sci-fi monsters are faceless and formless. A notable earlier example was the expanding isotope in Magnetic Monster ('53). The energy-eating mud monster of XTU will be followed by similarly faceless menaces in Monolith Monsters later in 1957 and The Blob in 1958. It's harder to make a faceless, speechless monster scary. A few writers and directors have tried.

Bottom line? XTU is a well crafted B sci-fi. The acting is reasonable and the pacing good. The special effects are spare so they don't hinder the story, (like Corman's monster carrot did in It Conquered the World '56). XTU isn't especially well known but worth watching.

The Deadly Mantis

This movie is more in line with the stereotype of low-budget 50s sci-fi. It has a good deal of stock footage, modest special effects for a rampaging monster, mediocre acting and a formulaic plot. Universal, which usually produced above-average sci-fi movies, had a less impressive offering in The Deadly Mantis (DM). Nonetheless, DM is the next in line in the notorious "big bug" sub-genre begun by Them! and the giant ants in 1954.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Seismic activity dislodges a giant praying mantis, frozen in arctic ice since pre-historic times. A mystery builds (though the viewer knows) as to what could have destroyed an arctic radar outpost, crashes a cargo plane and terrorizes an eskimo village. A paleontologist is called in by the Air Force to explain a 5 foot long claw tip found at a wreck site. He eventually identifies it as coming from a gigantic praying mantis which he theorizes was prehistoric -- like the mammoth -- which got quick frozen. The mantis is flying south to find the tropics. Along the way it leaves destruction as it eats people. It arrives in Washington DC. I proves invulnerable to ordinary weapons fire, but flies away to the north east. Before it can reach New York City, a jet fighter collides with it in flight. The pilot bails out. The mantis, hurt, flies down and crawls into the Manhattan Tunnel on the Newark side. The army fills the tunnel with smoke to, perhaps, sedate the monster (like bees) and as visual cover for the team going in. Colonel Parkman leads a team in, wearing full body gas suits. They have small arms and three nerve gas grenades. The find the mantis, still plenty strong. The first grenade doesn't stop it. The second slows it down, and eventually causes it to collapse onto the wrecked cars. It's dead. A closing of it's giant arms towards the female lead provides a last bit of suspense, but it's still dead. Cue trite romantic ending. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Despite it's low budget and almost oppressive documentary overlays, DM is a good example of the classic "big bug" sub-genre. See more in the Notes Section. Another small joy is hearing Paul Frees as the uncredited narrator of the documentary sections. Such a great classic narrator voice.

Cold War Angle
For a change, the big bug is not the result of careless nuclear tests. Instead, the giant mantis is a surrogate for soviet bombers. You'll even hear the General telling the public that the Mantis's flight sounds like a group of bombers. Note how much of the film trumpets America's three lines of radar defenses in the north, all the scrambled jet fighters and in-flight footage. Note too, the lauding of the Civilian Observer Corps with private citizens manning their rooftops to scan the skies for enemy planes. Almost the whole movie is a big pep rally for how ready America is to detect and intercept any hostile bombers coming from over the north pole (i.e. the U.S.S.R.) Whether the film was intended to make Americans feel safe, or to impress the Soviets, it still amounts to a long infomercial on American air defense.

Notes
Fourth Big Bug -- The giant mantis is fourth in the line of the big bug sub-genre. First were the giant ants of Them! ('54). Second was the giant spider in Tarantula ('55). Third were the giant grasshoppers in Beginning of the End ('57). Our giant mantis was definitely more suited to villainy than the grasshoppers. She would be followed by scorpions, another spider, slugs and leeches -- not technically insects, but in the same vein.

Brought to you by... -- Much of DM reads as in infomercial for the Strategic Air Command. They brag for many long minutes of stock footage about the three lines of defensive radar and all the work men and women went through to build it. They're clearly selling the radar defense lines. DM is almost more about how great our radar is, than it is about a giant bug. (see next item too)

Civilian Observation Corps -- Much is made of the COC and even more stock footage was supplied showing the noble citizens scanning the skies from the beaches (very Churchillian), and rooftop balconies. One shot clearly shows WWII aircraft profiles on the wall. This was the origin of the COC. In the years before radar, human eyes and ears were needed to form the defensive sensory network. The COC remained active after WWII, as the Cold War geared up. But, truth be told, human eyes were not as much help with high flying jets. DM may be the last hurrah for the COC. A chance to spot the surrogate commie bomber (the Mantis) and help save the nation.

Model Monster -- The actual monster in DM is reasonably well done for a low budget movie. You'll note that most of the shots of the articulated model are in so close that you can't see the whole thing. Actuators and strings are out of sight. This works well. The articulated head, with it's pointed mouth is kept on camera for only short bursts. This helps too.

Sappy Romance -- As with many sci-fi monster movies, the producers interject a story thread of romance between two main characters. Perhaps the rule in movie-making back then was that audiences demanded some romantic flavor, no matter what the story. "The End of the World: A love story." Predictably, there is a beautiful unattached woman (Ned's photographer) and the brave Colonel Parkman who commanded the arctic radar base, and then gets to command a squadron of Saber Jets to attack the mantis, then gets to lead the gas grenade squad into the tunnel. That guy had obvious pull with the brass. He was everywhere. As usual, the romantic thread got in the way more than anything.

Bottom line? If you're marathoning big-bug movies, you must watch DM. If you'd like to see a Cold War era movie about soviet bomber metaphor played out, you must watch DM. If you're looking for great acting, or good romance, DM is not for you.

Incredible Shrinking Man

Here is another of the timeless classics of 50s sci-fi. Even though shot in black and white, it is far above the usual B-grade movies. Universal was making a name for itself as a producer of above-average sci-fi films. The acting is A-grade performances. The sets and props were reasonably good. The premise would become trite in later decades. But in early 1957, the idea of a man shrinking, becoming tiny in our giant (normal) world was still fairly fresh. The writing was also tight and thoughtful, giving the film a depth far beyond its gimmick. Incredible Shrinking Man (ISM) was not the first film to shrink humans via camera effects, but, it has proven to be the most memorable.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Scott Carey and his wife Louise are relaxing on a boat in the ocean. While Louise is below fetching him a beer, a mysterious fog bank looms up and envelopes the boat. Scott is exposed, and covered with glittery sparkles. Months later, he notices that his clothes feel big on him. Despite much denial by his wife and doctor, he is obviously shrinking. He is sent to a research hospital where they discover that his body has a sort of reverse cancer. His genetic make-up is altered such that all his cells are getting smaller. The doctors theorize that the mysterious radioactive mist altered him. Exposure to a strong pesticide triggered the effect. They attempt to formulate a cure, but it ultimately fails. Scott is now so small that he lives in a doll house. His wife inadvertently lets in the pet cat when she leaves. Scott narrowly escapes the cat, but falls into a box of rags in the basement. Louise finds his tiny blood-stained shirt and assumes the cat ate him. Scott, now only 2" tall, lives in the basement. His voice is too feeble to be heard. His water comes from a water heater leak, his shelter is a matchbox. For food, he must scale a wooden cliff to get to some old dry cake Louise forgot. The water heater bursts, sending a flood that sweeps him away. Louise and Charlie come downstairs to get a trunk. Scott's voice far too feeble to hear. They leave. Scott re-climbs the wooden cliff and battles the spider to the death. Now so small that he can get out the window screen. In an extended soliloquy, Scott reflects on meaning in the universe. He accepts his fate. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Almost everything about this film is well done, tightly paced and well shot. There is more thoughtfulness to it than mere novelty. Jack Arnold (of Creature From the Black Lagoon, and Tarantula, fame) keeps the visuals impressive. Light, tonalities, angles, it all works well. This is one of the 50s' classics and for good reason.

Cold War Angle
There's not much of the Cold War in ISM. The only connection is that it's a cloud of radioactivity which drifts over Scott on the boat. Radiation, once again, is the bringer of doom. Perhaps reflecting the anxiety of the day, the doom just happens to randomly affect the main character as an innocent civilian just trying to live a happy life.

Notes
Size Games -- ISM wasn't the first movie to play photographic games with relative sizes. Devil Doll ('36) and Dr. Cyclops ('40) featured 'shrunken' humans as an effect. Several low-budget dinosaur movies featured ordinary lizards and alligators dressed up as dinosaurs, and filmed to suggest great size. Jack Arnold's own Tarantula used photography of an ordinary spider superimposed to appear gigantic. Here, Jack Arnold shots the opposite, but with greater effect.

Honey I Shrunk The... -- Shrunken people movies have become kitsch by the time Honey I Shrunk the Kids came along in 1989. It has been done so many times. ISM was the memorable start of this trend. In 1957 it was fascinating, especially as Matheson's screenplay turned it into one man's struggle, not just for survival, but an inner struggle for meaning and worth. Here, the shrinking was the prime motivator of the plot rather than a side gimmick to another story.

Man Alone -- ISM is not simply about the novelty of being very small among 'huge' everyday objects. Richard Matheson (who wrote the novel "I Am Legend" in 1954) continues the theme of one man, cut off from the world he knew, having to cope with a terrible new world...alone. Much of ISM touches on this theme. Scott loses his regular happy life. He becomes estranged from his wife and brother, even the family pet becomes a terrible antagonist. He seeks love anew but even becomes estranged from that. In his own basement, he's a castaway, scraping to survive, all on his own.

Symbolic End -- Scott's old world, his job, his life with Louise, comes to a symbolic end when Louise, thinking he's dead, is moving out of the house. Scott is being swept along the basement floor by the flood from the broken water heater. He's shouting to be heard, but to no avail. She and Charlie leave up the stairs he cannot climb. LImp and almost lifeless, Scott clings to a wooden pencil floating by. All the water finally drains down a floor drain, symbolic of his hopes and former world. He lays like a shipwrecked castaway on the drain. His former life wrecked and lost, he awakens on the 'shore' of his barren new life.

Symbolic Evil -- The spider in the basement (actually a tarantula for the movie) is more than just an icky antagonist. Scott, narrating, explains. "My enemy seemed immortal. More than just a spider, it was every unknown terror in the world. Every fear fused into one hideous night-black horror." The spider symbolized all of Scott's fears as he faced his shrinking away. He fought and won, releasing him to come to grips with his fate.

Fate -- At the end of the movie, Scott, is now free and outside in the jungle of a back yard, seeing the moon and stars for the first time in days. He reflects on his fate and the universe. He's no longer afraid or even angry. Looking skyward he says, "The universe, God's silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends, is man's conception, not nature's, and I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away, and in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation. It had to mean something. And then I meant something too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something too. To God, there is no zero. I still exist."
This is a pretty weighty message for a sci-fi film.

Bottom line? Watching ISM is a must for a sci-fi fan, and well worth watching just as a movie. There's a lot of thought-provoking 'meat' to it if you're paying attention to the plot and the writing and not on how polished (or not) the special effects are.

Kronos, Destroyer of the Universe

This movie is a cut above the usual B-grade sci-fi. For one, it was shot in "Regalscope", which was a widescreen format, though still black and white. It gave the movie a grander presence. The production team also had some depth via Twentieth Century Fox studios. Kronos also had above-average acting from its principle cast. Jeff Morrow ("Exeter" in This Island Earth ('55)) plays the lead. Morris Ankrum (sci-fi regular) plays a doctor (for a change). John Emery (
Rocketship X-M ('50)) does a good job as the alien-possessed project director. Kronos was co-written by one of the writers who gave us Forbidden Planet: Irving Block. The plot was not quite unique, but has a timelessness which transcends the typical Cold War ecosystem. It's almost two movie plots in one. The first is the evil rampaging alien (in this case a giant cubic robot "accumulator" dubbed "Kronos"). The second is the alien-possession theme as the aliens take over the pick-up driver and then the Director in order to give Kronos target info and trick the authorities into feeding it energy.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A flying saucer approaches Earth. It sends down a small "light" object which lands in the American southwest desert. The light inhabits and takes over a random driver who then drives to a research lab. Once there, it jumps to the lab's Director. Scientists at the lab observe that the saucer (they call it an asteroid) is approaching earth. The possessed director recommends hitting it with nuke missiles. Three are fired, but the saucer only grows. It then flies down into the Pacific off the Mexican coast. The scientists go investigate. Out of the sea looms a 100-foot tall cubical machine with four piston-like legs. The possessed Director looks up nearby power stations. The machine, now named Kronos, marches to a Mexican electrical generation station. It destroys the station as it absorbs much power. Kronos grows. The possessed Director looks up nuclear facilities. Kronos marches towards Los Angeles and a nuclear weapons facility. Conventional weapons cannot stop Kronos. The Director suggests the Air Force drop an H-bomb on it. Dr. Gaskell (Morrow) argues that it will only feed Kronos power, but it is too late. Kronos jams the bomber's controls so that it crashes into Kronos. After the mushroom cloud, Kronos glows, then grows even larger. In a struggle between the Director and Gaskell, the Director receives a high voltage shock, this de-possesses him temporarily. He says they must reverse Kronos's process. Gaskell's plan is to drop special isotope particles on top of Kronos, thereby changing the polarity of his antennae. This is supposed to make him feed on his own stored power, making him consume himself. A lone jet drops the parachute bomb with the isotope powder. It works. Kronos begins sparking and glowing as he consumes himself. After awhile, only a pile of smoldering rubble remains. Los Angeles and the earth are safe. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
The story, while not entirely fresh, interweaves two familiar threads: alien-possession and consuming-monster. It's a good addition to the "They want our..." sub-genre. The acting is pretty good. See Notes section for other details of interest.

Cold War Angle
On the surface Kronos has an energy & natural resources moral to it. The notion of a all-consuming, unstoppable power was an easy resonant theme in the Cold War climate of the mid 50s. The feature of a turncoat "spy" helping direct the power against us, is yet another Cold War angst theme.

Notes
Everybody Wants Us -- A frequent plot motivator in 50s sci-fi is that the hostile aliens want what earth has. They want our world to live in: Zombies from the Stratosphere ('52) Robot Monster ('53), War of the Worlds ('53), Killers From Space ('54). They want our men: Devil Girl from Mars ('53). They want our scientists: This Island Earth ('55). They want our blood: Not From This Earth ('57). In Kronos, they want our energy. The theme of they-want-our-(whatever) will be re-used in years to come. While the innuendo of they-want-our-women has danced around the genre for years, it won't actually be until 1958 in I Married a Monster From Outer Space and 1959 in The Mysterians that "they" are unambiguously after our women.

The Other Side -- Sharing a plot detail with Forbidden Planet ('56), the nameless aliens have figured out how to turn energy into matter. This allowed them to make whatever stuff they wished. The trouble was, it takes massive amounts of energy to make even simple matter. The aliens' lust for stuff consumed all their own system's energy, hence the scout ship with Kronos aboard, to go get more.

Consumption Personified -- Where Godzilla was the personification of atomic power, Kronos is the visible metaphor for unbridled consumption. In its emotionless drive to find and consume all available power, it leaves a trail of destruction in its wake. Finding power doesn't satisfy it, but instead makes it grow into an even more powerful and hungry energy consumer. Unless it is stopped, it will consume every last scrap of energy on the earth.

Conservation Message -- Rather than the usual nuclear cautionary tale, Kronos cautions viewers not to use up earth's resources. "(The aliens') planet has become depleted of energy. What has happened to them may happen here, if we continue using our resources at our present rate," says Dr. Elliot in his brief lucid moment. This moral plays pretty well to today's audiences, making it remarkable that the story was made in early 1956. (except for the note below)

Great Timing! -- The mid-50s was a time of cheap and plentiful power -- an unlikely place for an energy conservation message. However, when Kronos was released, it found a very receptive audience. In late 1956, the Suez Crisis cut off oil supplies from the mideast. The oil shortage (felt mostly in Europe) shocked people into awareness of our energy supply limitations. When the script for Kronos was being written, none of this had happened yet. Kronos was released at the peak of the West's first oil shortage (not due to war rationing). What an amazing coincidence!

Why Kronos? -- Gaskell says the cubic robot reminded him of a huge metal statue of Kronos, but where was this statue? In Greek mythology, Kronos was one of the Titans, the father Zeus, but hardly any fearsome destroyer of worlds. Kronos was a harvest god, therefore often depicted with a scythe. Perhaps this suggested a "bringer of death" association to the writers.

Checkers! -- Here we have yet another movie using footage of captured V2 rockets. We see some assembly footage, and a bit of transporting them and V2s on launch pads. Among them, if you look, is our old friend Checkers. We get to see him take off twice as part of the nuke missiles sent to destroy the "asteroid".

Bottom line? Kronos is worth well watching if you're a 50s sci-fi fan. Its visuals and effects are pretty good for its day. You can still appreciate the race to stop the energy vampire and the thoughtful script.

Attack of the Crab Monsters

This movie was the top half of an all Roger Corman double-feature with Not of This Earth. ACM was not as imaginative of a story, but managed to be somewhat offbeat from the usual radiation-generated giant critter sub-genre. While it does have the requisite giant animal, per the title, there is a semi-mystical element that keeps things unusual as the scientists disappear one by one. It flirts around the edges as a ghost story.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A plane lands a group of scientists on a remote Pacific island. They are replacements for a mysteriously missing research group sent to study the effects of nuclear test fallout. The plane explodes on take off, trapping them there. There is too much radio interference to call for help. Earthquakes and landslides rock the island. A deep pit appears near the cliffs. That night, Martha hears the voice of one of the lost scientists calling her to the pit. Carson hears it too, so they investigate. Carson falls in. While the others go via a sea cave to look for him, Martha and Dale go back to the house. A giant crab attacks the house (next room), eats their lab mice and deliberately smashes their radio. The next day a better equipped search party for Carson. While in the caves, a cave-in wounds Jules. That night, feverish Jules hears the voices calling him to the pit. He goes and a giant crab claw gets him. Others awaken at his scream. Jules' voice says he and Carson are fine, come to the cave. So, they all do. (?) A giant crab attacks them. Grenades and bullets are useless, but a stalactite falls, piercing the crab's brain. A second giant crab escapes. The scientists take a claw back to study. The molecules of the flesh can move like a liquid, so bullets simply pass through them. Electricity, however, turns it to dust. The crabs are able to create great heat too. Hence the tunnels, pits, earthquakes and downed plane. They are also making the island smaller. Soon no place to hide. Mutated by radiation, the giant crabs absorb life, include their victims' consciousness. Growing ever smarter and more powerful, they plan to dominate mankind. (a female crab has an egg brood). Trapped on the rocky mountain peak (all that's left of the island), Hank powers up the radio transmitter antenna. He topples it across the crab just before it gets to Martha and Dale. Hank and the crab die amid the massive sparks. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
It is part ghost story, with the 'spirits' of prior victims enticing the living to join then. The pacing is pretty good. Despite the huge logical gaps and obviously low budget, the mood of impending doom works pretty well.

Cold War Angle
As per usual, radiation from nuclear tests created the monsters. Symbolically, these monsters absorb people who then try to recruit others to join their collective. This could be taken as either communism or McCarthyism.

Notes
Hand of God? -- ACM opens with a turbulent cloudy sky and a God-like narrator reading Genesis 6:7 -- the verse where God tells Noah that He's going to wipe out the earth. "And I will destroy man..." This opening Bible verse isn't tied in well. Were the life-absorbing crabs God's judgement on nuclear-sinful mankind? If so, it wasn't a very divinely powerful judgement. Was it a blanket caution that nuclear man is bringing this and other troubles upon himself? Other than it being somewhat customary to open a sci-fi film with a Bible verse, there's no connection.

Energy Monsters -- Radiation changed the molecular make-up of ordinary land crabs (whom we are told were ruthless). They absorbed the energy of their victims as well as their minds, Apparently they were able to absorb chemically potential energy too, such as the missing dynamite. They were also able to direct energy (beams?) to down planes and bore tunnels. This last feature is somewhat like Godzilla's atomic breath. These were not simply big critters, as were the giant ants in Them! ('54). They were highly intelligent (though ruthless) energy monsters.

Budget Beast -- The actual crab monster models are predictably low-budget looking. Corman shows a bit too much of them. Their obvious prop-model status keeps ACM from rising into higher 'thriller' status. But, they did what they could with the budget they had.

They're Not After Our Women -- The poster pushes the usual button that the monster is out to capture our prime females. A few scuba scenes tease at setting up the poster image, but it never happens. The crab monsters never pick up Pamela Duncan in their claws.

Gore Rising -- Two scenes in ACM show the inroads that screen gore was beginning to make. Early in, a headless sailor is hauled into the rubber boat. In the cave-in scene, a stalactite severs Jules' hand, which lay just beyond his arm. Gore for sensationalism was becoming more common in the horror genre and was starting to show up in sci-fi.

Evil Collective -- ACM almost fits into the alien-takeover sub-genre. The 'absorbed' colleagues ceased to be individuals and became part of the 'new' order. Atypically, they became part of a single physical 'thing' but with separate consciousness. In line with the sub-genre, their personalities changed. Instead of friends, they became proponents of the new order, seeking out their colleagues to be absorbed too. This 'turning' fits the existing mood (fear) of communism.

Electronic Savior -- Once again, good ol' electricity saves the day. No conventional weapon could kill the crab. High voltage, however, does it's usual magic. This plot device was already a bit threadbare by the mid-50s. Nonetheless, it won't be the last time our friend the kilowatt saves our day.

Poor Russell -- Once again, Russell Johnson plays the tragic hero. As in This Island Earth ('54), he gives his life to save the male and female leads. Retirement to Gilligan's Island may have seemed relaxing.

Bottom line? If plot holes, cheap props and marginal acting bother you, it may not be enjoyable. If you're a Corman fan, or an aficionado of 50s radiation-mutant-critter movies, you'll enjoy ACM.

Not of This Earth

While not nearly as well known as some of his quirkier films, Not of this Earth (NoTE) is perhaps Roger Corman's best movie. It stars Paul Birch as the strange alien man in black suit and sun glasses. He starred as the besieged father in Day the World Ended ('55). He plays the role well. The female lead is Beverly Garland, who played Claire in an earlier (and more famous) Corman film, It Conquered the World ('56). She plays her role pretty well too. The pace stays fairly lively and not as entirely predictable as may low-budget B-movies can be. NoTE double-billed with Attack of the Crab Monsters making for a Roger Corman double-header. NoTE was the better of the two.

Quick Plot Synopsis
The film opens with a murder. Seeing a strange man's all-white eyes kills a young woman. The man drains her blood into bottles in his aluminum briefcase. Later, he comes to a hospital seeking a blood transfusion. He uses mind control to convince the doctor that there's nothing amiss. He and the doctor arrange for one of his nurses (Garland) to be his live-in nurse and give him daily transfusions. Mr. Johnson is actually an alien from the planet Davana whose population is dying. Radiation from a protracted nuclear war is causing their blood to deteriorate. Mr. J kills a vacuum salesman and three wino bums (by showing them his white eyes) to fill out a shipment of blood back to Davana for tests. He next sends a live specimen (a chinaman), using a matter transporter in a hidden chamber in his living room. If human blood is suitable, the Davanans will conquer earth and use people as pasture animals to provide them with blood. The nurse's boyfriend is a policeman, aware of the string of blood-draining murders, suspects something's wrong. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman arrives, also wearing sunglasses. She's a Davanan who escaped before Davana lost their war. They're both now trapped on earth. Mr. J gives her a transfusion of blood, but it's tainted with rabies. She gets sick and dies. The doctor examines the dead Davanan woman. With proof of aliens, the policeman rushes to save his nurse girlfriend. Mr. J is chasing her down with his big black Cadillac. Mr. J catches her and uses mind control to send her home to make her transport herself to Davana. The cop-boyfriend arrives and gives chase. While trying to flash his white eyes at the pursuing motorcycle cop, Mr. J crashes and dies. The spell is broken. Nurse stops before transport. At his grave, nurse and cop muse about the strange man. The grave stone says "not of this earth." Behind them walks (out of focus) the figure of another man in black suit, sunglasses and aluminum briefcase...The end. (?)

Why is this movie fun?
Despite the usual low-budget issues, NoTE is engaging and keeps a pretty brisk pace. There are some plot twists which keep things from getting predictable. There are also several unexplored story threads which give the movie depth. All this is pretty good for budget-B-movie. See more in the Notes section.

Cold War Angle?
While not a dominant subtext, nuclear war is present as the problem which has doomed the planet Davana. Not only are the losing their protracted war, prolonged exposure to the radiation has ruined their blood. War is killing them, even if they hadn't lost militarily. That's the cautionary lesson for us.

Notes
Vampires in Space -- There is something compelling about vampires. Long the stock of horror stories (and films), the blood fetish occasionally factors into sci-fi. Here, it is a sci-fi fit. The Davanan's need new blood to replace their radiation damaged blood. Nothing supernatural. It's quite biological and gone about in technological ways.

Stranger in Town -- One effective feature is how "Mr. Johnson" is not automatically familiar with all of earth's ways. He might be advanced, but he doesn't know everything. He can't drive well. He doesn't know doctors require blood tests, he's unaware of blood diseases like rabies, etc. etc. These are small things, but help create a mood of his alien-ness.

Transporter First -- In NoTE we have the first matter transporter device. Until NoTE, all aliens arrived in ships or saucers. The Davanans arrive, not in a ship, but by beaming down. They beam back supplies and even test subjects. While transporters would become a common sci-fi feature in years to come, Corman had them first.

Eat Local -- The Davanans always referred to the earthlings as "sub-humans." They had to interact with the people, but did not consider them equals. Earthlings would be a feeding stock, kept at "pasture" to provide blood for the Davanans until the last earthling was consumed. The trope of aliens-eat-humans was not particularly common yet in 1957. HG Wells' novel War of the Worlds (1898) featured the martians feeding on earth blood. This plot feature was not a part of George Pal's 1953 screen version. The Thing ('51) had the alien requiring human blood to feed his seedlings, but he crashed here by mistake. The Davanans came purposefully to feed. Earthlings were merely wild beef. This was plot feature was still rare in early 1957.

If Looks Could Kill -- A quirky feature is that the Davanans can kill earthlings by eye contact. It's not like they have heat vision or anything. It requires actual eye contact. If an earthling sees their all-white eyes, it somehow fries the human brain and they die. No rationale is offered. That's just how it works. It's odd, but it solves the violence problem. No ray guns. No bludgeoning, etc. They just die, like those who looked upon the mythical Gorgons.

Rumors of War -- A motivating back-story in NoTE is the protracted war between the Davanans and their unnamed enemies. This is reminiscent to This Island Earth in which the protracted war between the Metalunars and Zahgons is what brings Exeter to earth. The Davanan's total war becomes the motivation for alien incursions on earth. In both cases, they need earthlings to help. In the first film, the need was noble. In NoTE, it was cruel.

Sympathy for the Vampire -- Birch plays the alien as an almost tragic figure rather than the typical swaggering evil villain. Instead, he's sickly, and ordered to die if necessary to save his people. The female Davanan adds to the tragic mood. She was a refugee -- one of the last to escape their war's destruction. She too is sickly and dies of earth germs (rabies) -- shades of Wells. This vulnerability makes the Davanans more complex as antagonists.

Bottom line? For fans of 50s sci-fi, NoTE is well worth watching. It has a good pace and enough unexplored complexity uncharacteristic of B-movies. There's enough there to merit repeat watchings.

The Gamma People

This is an obscure British sci-fi movie, and not easy to come by. The basic premise is pretty traditional -- that of the evil scientist conducting inhumane experiments in a remote European castle. The actual execution of the plot could charitably by called quirky. At times, the word 'bizarre' seems to fit better. The movie cannot quite decide if it's anti-communist, anti-nazi, or anti-science. It dabbles in all three. The writers tried to interweave a comedy thread which can't rise much beyond a half-smile. The drama or suspense moments regularly scrub off any comedy momentum. The overall result is a movie that tries to make some sort of statement, but doesn't take itself seriously.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Two reporters, Mike and Howard, are on a train to Salzburg to cover a music festival. Their train car becomes detached from the rest of train, gets onto a different track and rolls downhill a long ways into the tiny and virtually unknown "Democracy of Gudavia". There, they are jailed as potential spies by the Sergeant Schultz-like commandant of the guard. The journalists are released, but not allowed to leave Gudavia by one subterfuge or another. A man manages to slip them a note, asking for help, but this man is murdered that night. The journalists are intrigued. They visit the castle of a Dr. Boronski, who is the 'big man' of Gudavia. While a good front is put on, there are hints of something afoot. The doctor has been experimenting with gamma ray bombardment of the human brain -- particularly in pre-pubescent children of Gudavia. It produces either prodigies such as the piano virtuoso Hedda and the mini-tyrant Hugo, or it produces imbeciles. Hedda's father tries to smuggle her out of Gudavia by night, but Boronski's mob of imbecile minions kill him and capture Hedda. Mike and Boronski's not-too-willing assistant Paula sneak into the castle to free Hedda. They are caught and subjected to Boronski's mind-draining gamma beam. Howard arrives with men from the village. They fight their way through the imbecile minions. Just before it is too late for Mike, Paula and Hedda, Hugo has a change of heart and pushes Boronski onto some electrical equipment, sparking a big fire in the lab. Howard helps them escape. Boronski dies in the fire. Afterward, everything has returned to a sort of quaint 19th century alpine sort of normal in Gudavia. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
While it's not an especially original theme (evil scientist), the oddness of the story is curious enough to keep a viewer's interest piqued.

Cold War Angle
While this thread is present, it's so tangled with the others, that it's not particularly clear. The closed (and fearful) society alludes to the Iron Curtain. Boronski's confiscation of the children in order to 'improve' them, also hints at the social controls of a communist state.

Notes
Confused Comedy -- A fair amount of the dialogue between Mike and Howard seem intended to be comical. The bumbling commandant also seems to be designed for laughs. The rest of the movie tries to be spooky or menacing or moody. The regular interspersing of moody and comic tends to deflate both. Like eating ice cream and a sirloin steak at the same time.

Nazi Ghosts -- Much of Gamma People is built around a lingering fear and loathing of the Nazis. Gudavia is an alpine state, speaking German, with troops in late 19th century parade uniforms. Youth in the crowd of citizens wear Lederhosen. Boronski's real name was Dr. Macklin (i.e. Dr. Mengele who experimented on children). Boronski's children wear uniforms highly reminiscent of Hitler's youth squads, the Hitler-Jüngend. Hugo himself is the very picture of the Nazi ideal. The defeat of Boronski and rescue of Hedda and Hugo (who becomes a nice boy) amount to a sort of symbolic retelling of the Allied victory and 'rescue' of the German people.

Faster Eugenics -- Boronski explains that man will eventually evolve into a smarter, more talented being. Rather than wait for the slow pace of 'evolution', he bombards young (less formed) brains with gamma radiation to speed up the process. His success rate is low, but he presses on. He intends to use his Übermenschen to breed a superior race, and use his living-zombies as an army of minions. This two-groups paradigm (superiors and subhumans) is also a very Nazi way of seeing things.

Not Obviously Evil -- The character of Dr. Boronski is played almost too cooly. He comes across as genial and maybe even correct. This makes his shift at the end, training his beam on Mike, Paula and Hedda seem out of place. Rather than poor directing, this may be a subtle commentary on the Nazi's or despots in general. They can act pleasant and reasonable at first, but become monsters.

Catching Some Rays -- Radiation was still a pretty mysterious thing in the 50s. Magnetism was thought in the early 1800s to be able to heal amazingly or do magical things. In the later 1800s and early 1900s, electricity was imagined to have magical powers to heal or create monsters. While both of these have lingering reputations, it was radiation in the 50s which marginalized them. Radiation was the new magic catalyst to just about anything the imagination could dream up -- for good or ill.

Bottom line? Gamma People is a strange little movie. For fans of 50s sci-fi, it can be fun to watch because it is so confused and quirky. For viewers expecting more logic and who like their comedy and drama separate, this might not be a movie worth watching -- let alone buying. For the fan, however, it's odd enough to be worth the watch.