High Treason

Following the success of Seven Days to Noon Roy Boulting wrote and directed a sequel, of sorts. High Treason (HT) is another of London-in-danger. This time it s non-nuclear sabotage from within. Boulting reprised the role of Superintendent Folland (played by Andre Morell) from the first movie, but he was the only returning character. In HT, he plays second fiddle to Commander Brennan (Liam Redmond)

Quick Plot Synopsis
Prim Percy Ward leaves his office at military intelligence. At his apartment, he takes out carbons from secret arms shipment orders. He types out the contents and passes to Jimmy Ellis at a modern music concert. Later, while a ship is being loaded, crates of ammunition explode causing much damage and many deaths. Folland and Brennan are called in to investigate. Fragments of a timer tell them it was sabotage. Attention focuses on a foreman named Williams. He is followed and leads them to Jimmy Ellis, who acts very nervous when questioned. Williams becomes a liability to the shadowy organization. He is killed by a dark man with a vague foreign accent. Williams' landlady identifies the stranger as Michael Stringer, a foreigner deported years ago. Brennan questions Jimmy's brother and mother, ostensibly about the death of Williams. Brennan gets a lead on a modern music society Jimmy belongs to. A detective joins the society. At a recital, he sees Jimmy talking with Percy Ward. He follows Ward later, to find that he works at M1(a). Meanwhile, other detectives scope out Stringer's girlfriend, Anna Braun. They follow her and see her at a cafe with Ward. Braun works at a small private college. Agents posing as telephone repairmen find Stringer at the college. The administrator of the college is seen with an MP named Mansfield. Jimmy wants to lay low. Anna tells him the organization won't like that. Jimmy gets nervous, tells his mom and brother, then goes to seek help from his local politician, Mansfield. Walking home, Jimmy is kidnapped and thrown in a barred room in the college. Mansfield is part of the terrorist cell. He decodes a message. "Plan X23, May 7." The rest of the cell discuss the plan at the college. Blow up power stations in England to cripple ability to respond to events in Europe. Jimmy hears all this through the pipes. Everyone makes bombs, gathers guns, etc. Come the day, the gang ride a freight train to Battersea Power Station. Jimmy overpowers the one man left to guard him. He uses the cell's radio to telegraph a warning of the plan. Eventually alerted, the police and army converge on the power station. The gang had overpowered the few staff and were planting explosives. The police arrive. There is an extended shootout. The baddies are all killed and the bombs disarmed. All the while, Brennan chats up Mansfield, finally accusing him of being the cell leader. Jimmy's mother weeps about why it all had to happen. A radio announcer talks tough about not twisting the tail of the lion. The End.

Insidious Infiltrators
HT is the plain open tale of everyday, average citizens becoming "one of them." Here, THEM is a vague reference to some eastern European power. Science fiction will, quite a few times, take that theme -- becoming one of them -- and ramp it up. Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56) is the most famous example, but there are many others. They gave voice to the background fear of "our" being lost -- not by an overt conquest, but stolen, one friend at a time.

Cold War Spotlight
Boulting uses several close-ups of newspapers to suggest international trouble brewing in eastern Europe. Instead of things going nuclear, the premise is that communist spies will recruit local citizens to effect their sabotage. HT is a spies-among--us anxiety tale.

Notes
Homegrown Terrorism -- HT is a companion story to Seven Days to Noon. Where 7DN dealt with a rogue loner with a portable nuke, HT raises the specter of dozens of local folk being turned by the Dark Side to do its bidding. In the modern world of Al Queda, et al, the machinations of a terrorist cell is still quite relevant for today's viewing.

Changed Man -- A recurring character type is the traitor-turned-martyr. At the beginning, he causes the trouble. Something changes partway through, and he dies trying to set things right. In HT, this is Jimmy. He joined the traitors gang, making the fuses for the bombs. Remorse over the deaths he caused trumps his shallow ideology. When the gang turn on him, he turns on them, radioing a warning of the plot. For this, he is killed. This traitor-martyr role will get used in sci-fi films, such as It Conquered the World ('56) where Tom arranges for "It" to come to earth, falling for the promise of peace. Tom then sacrifices his life to stop It. Or, Terror From the Year 5000 ('58), in which Victor finances a time travel experiment which brings death from the future. He dies stopping it. Or, The Mysterians ('59), in which Shiraishi naively helps the aliens until it's clear that they're hostile. He then sacrifices himself blowing up their base.

Dang Peaceniks -- A subtle hawkish message is woven through HT. The blue collar workers duped into helping the foreign power, are told pretty lies about a "world without wars" and promises of peace and tranquility. The printer (suspect) is printing peace rally posters. The contradiction that the group kill and destroy in pursuit of peace seems like Boulting's slap at anti-nuclear peace movements of his day.The final reference to the British Lion is his moral to the story. Only by standing strong and fighting, will Britain be kept free. Peaceniks are dupes of enemy powers.

Old Spies -- Anxiety over enemy spies was far from new when the Cold War dawned. WWII saw plenty of Nazi spy scares. In America, Japanese Americans were rounded up to live in camps for fear some of them might become Pod-people of the emperor. In World War One, there was a near hysterical worry over the Kaiser having spies and saboteurs sneaking about. The explosion at the arms depot at Black Tom in New York was immediately branded sabotage. In Britain, there was the curious nocturnal airships scare. (Scareships) Before all that, the British fretted over French spies working on a channel tunnel so the French army could invade, etc. etc. Angst over spies and saboteurs was (is) well ingrained. Sci-fi flims just swapped out the earthly enemy for ones from outer space and made changes of ideology more like zombie-hood. But, it was the same angst.

Bottom line? HT is less famous than its sibling, Seven Days to Noon, but very much a similar Cold War thriller. There is more action and pretty good pacing overall. The setting inside the massive Battersea Power Station is visually interesting too. For fans of sci-fi, it can be fun to see the format played out with earthly foreigners.

The Whip Hand

Sustained fear can lead to paranoia. The Soviets had The Bomb too. Senator McCarthy burst on the scene in 1950, waving his piece of paper purported to have the names of 200 State Department employees who were members of the communist party. In addition to worries about incoming bombers, America began to fear enemy agents inside the country. Many 50s sci-fi films were expressions of this "enemy within" angst. The Whip Hand (WH) was one of the early spies-at-home movies. It is a noteworthy hybrid in that it has some scifi ( a mad scientist attempting germ warfare), commies, and conformist "pod people" (of a sort). Add to all this, that it was directed (and designed) by William Cameron Menzies who gave us Things to Come ('36) and would give us Invaders From Mars ('53), and there is notable sci-fi connections.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Matt Corbin, magazine journalist, is in Minnesota on vacation. While fishing, a rain storm brews up. He slips on a wet rock and cuts his forehead. He gets lost trying to drive back to town. Instead he arrives a gated compound, is told (at gunpoint) to go away. Once in town, residents act strange and nervous when he asks about the compound. A virus killed off all of Winnoga's fish years ago, so it's little but a ghost town now. Matt was ready to leave, but the peculiar townsfolk have him asking more questions and getting peculiar answers. Smelling a story, the keeps poking around. He sneaks into the compound property and sees patients in wheelchairs and a doctor he recognizes. Guards catch him. He says he was just hiking. Back in town, his car won't start and he can't call out. Matt convinces the general store owner, Luther, to help him by smuggling out a message. Luther does, by hiding the message in the delivery driver's clipboard. When the wholesaler calls Luther to ask what the message was all about, Loomis (the inn owner and chief thug) knows. Luther is killed by lethal injection from Ed, the town doctor (and in on the conspiracy). Tensions rise. The mystery man from the compound, Mr. Peterson, meets Matt at the inn. Peterson tries to reassure Matt that nothing is going on and invites him to tour his compound in the morning. Matt agrees, but sneaks out of his room that night. He gets Janet, who was on her way to her brother Ed, with a vial of heart drug. Matt tells her they plan to kill her for helping him. They slip out of town in a canoe and cross the lake to the compound. Matt peeks in a window and overhears the discussions about germ warfare to be unleashed on America. He and Janet planned to slip away into the night, but Janet's absence is noticed. All the bad guys are on alert, looking for them. Matt and Janet overturn the canoe to evade the boat with a search light. Armed me watch points along the shore. Matt creeps up behind the meanest one and strangles him. Matt and Janet trek through the pine woods a long way. They finally come to a cabin. The old woman inside offers to drive them to the next town. All seems to be getting better, until she drives them up to Loomis and his men. She was one of them! Matt and Janet are taken to the compound. In the compound is Dr. Bucholtz, a former Nazi germ expert now working for the communists. He plans to experiment on Matt and Janet too. Ed, unable to give his sister a lethal injection, pulls out a gun and shoots Peterson, who also shoots Ed. Just then, two car loads of G-men with machine guns come storming in. Matt's message to his editor worked. Bucholtz, in a room with bulletproof glass, threatens to blow up the whole compound, spreading his germs anyway. Matt sneaks up behind him, breaks the wires, then knocks him down. Bucholtz is surrounded by sick and disfigured victims of his experiments, and is pummeled to death. Everything is fine now. The story is out. The plot is stopped. Matt and Janet smile and kiss. The End.

Insidious Infiltrators
The grabby theme of WH is that evil communist agents, plotting the downfall of the United States, could be working secretly in remote locations. WH plays up the paranoia of not knowing who you can trust. Enemy agents can look and sound like regular people. They could be friends or even family! The most famous of this genre of sci-fi is Invasion of the Body Snatchers (56). Many other films took up the alien-takeover theme too. The taken-over become conformists, obedient subjects to the will of their authoritarian masters, even to the point of betraying loved ones.

Impact on Sci-fi
Menzies does a good job of working the unknown traitor angle. The best of these is Molly, whom Matt and Janet talk into driving them to a larger town for help. She plays along, but drives them back to Winnoga. She was "one of them" all along. This theme of "becoming one of them," would get used many times in classic sci-fi. The most famous example of this is: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56), but there are many other alien-takeover films. All of them convey via metaphor, that Cold War angst that enemy agents could be right beside us.

Notes
A Tale of Two Films -- Several sources say that WH started out as a different movie. Menzies shot a film entitled "The Man He Found," The "Cambridge companion to science fiction," by Edward James, says the original movie was completed in 1950. In it, the vacationing reporter discovers a compound of Nazis hiding the not-dead-after-all Adolf Hitler. That movie was completed and awaiting release. Howard Hughes, the head of RKO Radio Pictures, wanted it reworked so that the enemies were communist agents. Menzies shot new footage, inserted it and cut out the too-nazi parts. It's said there was a brief scene (cut) in which Matt spots Hitler on a balcony in the compound. Others have written that all the scenes with Bucholtz (played by Otto Waldis) were new. Supposedly, the reworked second version started out with Russian leaders in the Kremlin pointing to spots on a US map. The version I saw (taped from TV) did not have this scene. Perhaps it was cut to shorten run time. Bad dubbing of the guards shouting to find Matt and Janet, suggest a post-production dialogue change.

Cast of Regulars -- The screenplay of WH contains several of the usual movie character roles. There is the dashing young hero, who happens to be single. There is the pretty and unattached love interest who needs rescued. Bucholtz is a blend of Evil Villain and Mad Scientist who suffers the typical fate: killed by his creation. In this case, the victims of his germ experiments. Ed plays the repentant traitor who atones for his sins by being killed by the bad guys. The G-men play the role of cavalry, rescuing the situation in an almost Dies ex Machina sort of way.

Silly Red Fears? -- It is all too easy for folks raised well after the Cold War fear had subsided, to look with smug derision on the whole Red Scare phase of American history. But, swap out Al Queda for Commies and the fear doesn't seem as silly. Spy Fear has been a cultural foible that phases in and out of remission from time to time. Back during World War One, the angst was over (presumed) German spies. Novels such as, "The Spies of the Kaiser" and "The 39 Steps" were popular, even if the actual amount of German intrigue was tiny.

Rocky Details -- Having lived in northern Minnesota, "Two hours from Duluth" as Matt's editor said. it was amusing to see the big craggy rocky landscapes in WH. Actually, the lakes country is mostly flat, sometimes mild hills. What rocks there are, tend to be shoebox sized, round and loose in the soil. Now, it turns out there is a Winnoga Resort, on Lac Seull in Ontario, about 4 hours drive north of Duluth. That lake does have some craggy rock shores. Trouble was, for a commie-spies-in-America story, that lake is in Canada. Oh well.

Bottom line? WH is an interesting blend of Red Scare and sci-fi. It is also a good example of the people-acting-strangely trope which forms the core of many old sci-fi movies. As a B-grade noir "thriller", it's okay, if populated by stereotypic characters. Raymond Burr actually does a nice job of the fake-jovial, insidious schemer Loomis. WH can be harder to find, but instructive for the roots of 50s sci-fi.

1951

Sci-fi movies of 1951: This was a busy year in the sci-fi genre. Three big classics came out: The Thing and The Day the Earth Stood Still and When Worlds Collide. The "B" market was also gearing up, cranking out several low-budget sci-fi flicks. Quick, cheap sci-fi fun was just getting started.

The Thing: From Another World -- is the classic big mean alien flick. Low-budget, but well done.

The Man From Planet X -- is an obscure low-budget alien-landing film, but with a bit more thought-provoking nature.

When Worlds Collide -- is one of the mega-classics of 50s sci-fi. A handful of people must escape earth before a rogue star collides with it.

The Day the Earth Stood Still -- is another mega-classic, a low-budget, but nonetheless influential nuclear-war warning story.

Five -- is a very obscure low-budget post-apocalyptic tale of five nuclear-holocaust survivors.

Unknown World -- is a low-budget adaptation of Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, but with the goal of shelter from nuclear war.

Flight To Mars -- is a rather lavish B-film in which earthlings encounter an "advanced" martian civilization which wants thier rocket so as to invade earth.

The Man in the White Suit -- is a modest sci-fi comedy, where a miracle polymer has everyone out to stop its inventor.

Captain Video -- is a movie serial in which the Video Rangers must stop the evil Vultura from subjegating the Earth. Ultra-low-budget.

Captain Video

This wasn't a "feature film", but a serial shown before the feature films. I include it here since it was shown in theaters. Serials had been around almost as long as feature films, even back in the silent movie days. They typically had 12 or more "chapters", each ending with some sort of cliffhanger. In fact, the term "cliffhanger" came from the serials. They would usually end with some sort of suspenseful unresolved ending -- such as the hero dangling over the edge of a cliff -- to encourage audiences to come back to the theater next week to see if (or more likely how) the hero escaped.

Since serials were really a marketing tool to bring in repeat viewers, studios tried to spend as little on them as possible. Western serials were about the cheapest, whereas Flash Gordon was fairly pricey, for a serial but still very low-dollar stuff. For sci-fi serials, such as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and others, sparse sets, minimal special effects and basic costumes were the norm. Captain Video was one such ultra low-budget serial. The name and basic premise was based on a live TV series (1949-53), though it bore little outward resemblance beyond the name.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Being a serial, it was a rambling sort of plot. Captain Video is the leader of a cadre of Video Rangers -- a bit like über policemen. The sinister Vultura, dictator on the planet Atoma, has enslaved the inhabitants of planet Theros and has designs on doing the same to Earth. Traitorous Dr. Tobor is helping Vultura in his plans to conquer earth. The Video Rangers battle Vultura's thugs through 12 episodes to thwart his evil schemes.

Why is this movie fun?
Don't expect Star Wars in any capacity. Instead, watch Captain Video as if it were a high-school play. What could you do with some surplus electrical junk, sheet aluminum and some fireworks? Could you have done any better?

Captain Video and his fellow Video Rangers wear fairly simple, shirt, tie and simple service dress uniforms with a few little bits of brass and badges. They wear black football helmets (sans face mask) with goggles (rarely worn), so the rangers resemble motorcycle Maytag repairmen more than futuristic space-travelers. When they DO wear spacesuits, they're recycled from Destination Moon (though they used new "bell jar" helmets).

The pot-bellied Gene Roth dressed in mongol chieftan garb, as Vultura, makes for an amusingly UNimpressive villain.

The recycled props are fun to spot. The villains on the "red" planet Atoma wore leftover mongol costumes -- leather with studs and fur trimmed helmets. The inhabitants of the "green" planet Theros wore leftover arab robes. Gotta appreciate the recycling. I get a special kick out of the robots with their smiling little drawn-on faces, metal "ears" and metal fedora-like hats. They first appeared in Dancing Lady (1933), so were already recycled props when they appeared in Gene Autrey's The Phantom Empire, serial (1936). You'll also notice that the landscape of Earth, Atoma and Theros all look a lot like Bronson Canyon -- also much used in western serials and later serials. If you're quick, you'll spot familiar trees and rocks.

Cold War angle
The enemy planet being named "Atoma" is about as close to a nuclear-angst angle as there is. Not much. Serials were intended as pure (cheap) entertainment, not so much as a vehicle for social commentary.

Notes
There's nothing deep in the Captain Video serials. It's basic good vs. evil stuff. Since the target audience was kids, Captain Video was fairly non-violent. Oh sure, there were fight scenes, but for all the tussling, no one really got hurt. The Video Rangers used non-lethal ray guns which incapacitated people like a tazer.

Fare for younger audiences often have simpler good vs. evil themes and shallowly obvious characterizations. This isn't indoctrination so much as catering. Kids understand good and bad pretty early and like to see good triumph.

The Captain Video serial was shot in black and white, but was colorized via the Cinecolor process to put a red filter over the lens for Atoma shots, and a green filter for Theros shots. The colors helped you know which planet you were on, since it was all the same Bronson Canyon rocks for a backdrop.

Man In The White Suit

As the Monty Python gang used to say, "And now for something completely different." London's Ealing Studios' little B-movie makes a wonderful addition to anyone's sci-fi collection that's getting too gloomy. I mean, you can only take so much end-of-the-world stuff before it starts to bring you down. Even though Man in the White Suit (MIWS) doesn't have saucers or aliens or even atomic bombs, it's still a sci-fi flick. For something completely different, it focuses on chemistry.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Sidney Stratton is a frustrated chemical scientist working in a British textile mill's research lab. When bean counters begin to question some bizarre expenses, AND a tour of executives discover a wacky chem-lab contraption of Sidney's, he's fired. Sidney has had many such downturns, so bounces back. He bamboozles his way back into the lab. Finally, amid some big explosions, he succeeds in inventing a synthetic fabric which won't wear out and never gets dirty. For a brief moment, he's a scientist-savior of the poor -- who will never have to buy clothes again. The moment doesn't last, however. The mill owners realize that such a fabric would put them out of business, so they're out to silence Sidney by buying up (and forgetting) his secret formula. The mill workers are out to get Sidney too, because they would lose their jobs if no one had to buy clothes anymore.

A wild chase ensues. Sidney is finally cornered and the mob descends upon him. He is saved at the last minute when it's discovered that his miracle polymer is unstable. It breaks down after awhile, becoming as fragile as tissue paper. The mill owners are happy. The mill workers are happy. Another failure for Sidney. Yet, as he leaves the mill -- fired yet at again -- he smiles a knowing grin. He thinks he's figured out what went wrong.

Why is this movie fun?
Lots of reasons. For one, it stars Alec Guiness -- who goes on to many big movie roles, including fame as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. He did MIWS back when he was in his mid 30s. The whole script is a hoot with lots of little skits, gags and turned tables. This is one of Ealing Studios' best comedies. AND, how many good sci-fi comedies are there?
The individual skits are fun by themselves, but they're also well connected and paced quickly. I got a good laugh out of the little girl helping Sidney escape from the unionman's basement. The mill owners office fight scene is classic comedy. The climactic chase scene is a riot. It's set up as the usual monster-chase, set in the dark of night. But, instead of the angry mob chasing a dark monster, they're chasing good-guy Sidney in this luminously white suit. Quite the fun swap.

Cold War Angle
There really isn't one. That, in itself, is refreshing.

Notes
Even though MIWS is a comedy, it pokes seriously at capitalism's need for goods to wear out. Factories need goods to fail in order to sell replacement goods. Workers need goods to fail in order to keep their jobs replacing them. Even ancillary folks, like the old washer woman, need good to fail (get dirty) so that she can have a job. Sidney's indestructible, impervious fabric threatens to ruin a whole economic sector -- all by being TOO good. The whole movie's plot, in which the Too Good is suppressed by The Establishment (in this case, both Capital AND Labor), plays out the conspiracy theory which never seems to grow old: Big Business Squashes Wonder Products which would otherwise have been a boon to the common man. Even one of the peripheral mill worker characters refers to such things suppressed wonders as "...that automobile which can run on just water, with a pinch of something or other in the tank..." In MIWS, having Labor be just as up-in-arms as Big Business is a fun (and pointed) twist. The common man might not really benefit as much as he imagines.

The Man in the White Suit is a rather off-the-beaten-path B-movie. It's a very well done B-movie, though. Well worth the effort. Also, listen to the musical score. The Philharmonia Orchestra do a great job throughout the movie.

Flight to Mars

This little movie is actually a gem of a B-movie. Monogram was a B studio, but they put a lot into Flight to Mars (FTM). For one thing, it's in color. They put more than usual into the sets. It's still a B-movie, but it's a B+. The plot is derived from Alexsei Tolstoy's novel Aelita but drew from the book more than from the 1924 movie, which was also (loosely) based on the book. It's more of an adventure than political commentary. Most of the action takes place on Mars. The pacing fairly brisk, for a B movie. Despite using several B-movie cliches, the overall effect works pretty well.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Several scientists (including the requisite one woman) and a reporter take off on an exploratory mission to Mars. The ship is damaged by meteors (which just always seems to happen) such that they have to crash land on Mars. They survive, but the ship is too damaged to return. The crew must go EVA in just flight jackets. They find building structures and encounter the Martians (in space suits) who have cities underground. While industrialized and supposedly technologically advanced, the Martians have never figured out space travel, so aren't much help. Their ruler, Ikron, offers to help the earth men build a new ship based on the design of the one they came in. In reality, he plans to imprison the earthlings and take their rocket when their done. He then plans to copy the earth rocket, creating a fleet, by which he can invade and colonize the earth. "Ours is a dying world" he tells the council. Ikron's plot is discovered as the earthlings are aided by the lovely martian babe: Alita. She helps the crew narrowly escape the guards and commandeer the duplicated ship so they can return to earth. Alita and her father (the "good" councilman) return with the earthlings so that they might get help to overthrow the tyrant Ikron. The End..

Why is this movie fun?
Lots of reasons. First off, this is a fresh sort of space adventure unencumbered with Cold War gloom which was already pervading films. The rocket itself is a cool example of 50s thinking. The smoky flames coming out of the model-on-a-string scenes are pure B-film stuff.

The prevailing notion that alien clothes simply had to have a big lightening bolt icon emblazoned on the chest, is fun to see too. Then there are the huge shoulder pads! Where did that come from? Mars, apparently. It's also kind of amusing that alien workers (especially if employed by the bad guy) tended to wear leather with studs, as if re-used from some sword and sandal flicks. Why are advanced technology workers wearing leather vests with studs? There's some quirky social mythology at work there.

And, speaking of costumes, it's fascinating that 1950s directors (and audiences) were so decided that alien women would be pretty, young, tall, leggy and dressed in micro-skirts and very high heels. Space, it seemed, was imagined to be like Las Vegas.

Another fun thing was that there were no space suits for the earthlings! They just went out in leather bomber jackets, caps and oxygen masks. The martians, however, greet them wearing the michelin-man space suits!! (These were left over from Destination Moon.) THAT is an interesting scene. The earthlings are in caps and leather jackets while the aliens are in space suits...on their own planet!

Cold War Angle
Actually FTM has none of the usual Cold War themes. This is, of course, because it was based on a pre-war book, and a Russian one at that. Still, the writers avoided grafting in any Cold War themes, so FTM comes across as more adventure than moralizing.

Notes
Forerunner -- If you had seen the 1924 film, Aelita: Queen of Mars you would probably not think of FTM as a remake. They seem like very different stories, except for there being earthlings which land on Mars and find martians. The key female martian in FTM is named Alita. That's about your only clue. In FTM, she's a good guy -- dressed in the appropriate white silky short dress, while the other ("bad") woman gets a dark red short dress with spiky shoulder pads. If you saw the 1924 film, Aelita, you'd see a hint at the rebellion subplot repeated. Viewers are told there are those who oppose Ikron and that he'll be overthrown once Alita and a "good" councilman get to earth with our earthling crew.

Color Me Red -- If you watch FTM, notice the colors. It's shot in CineColor. This two-strip process had more a limited color rendering range than Technicolor's three-strip, but was much cheaper. It was something like 20% more expensive than black and white, and required less lighting, so it wasn't out of the realm for a small studio like Monogram. Since CineColor captured colors using a blue and a red filter, it was good at blues, browns, reds, and flesh tones. CineColor didn't do green or yellow very well. As a result, FTM has a decidedly blue-gray and red-brown coloring. The colors seemed very 50s.

Star Gazing -- For actor-watchers, the venerable Morris Ankrum plays the part of sinister martian ruler: Ikron. Ankrum often plays the role of Army General in these B-films, so it's kinda fun to see him out of uniform and in the role of villain. It looked like he had fun doing it.

Bottom line? FTM is a fun B film. For as early as it came in the Golden Decade of sci-fi, it's a fine space adventure.  The sets and costumes are very much a product of the times. FTM is worth the search to find it.

Unknown World

This obscure little B-movie opened the same month as the equally obscure "Five" (October 1951). "Unknown World" is a Cold War era remake of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. By modern reckoning, it's only the submarine-like drilling tractor -- the Cyclotram -- which makes Unknown World a sci-fi film. The bulk of the movie typical adventure/danger movie. As movies go, even B-movies, Unknown World (UW) is a weak effort.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Amid worries that mankind would be wiped out by a nuclear war, a Dr. Morley advocates looking for shelter beneath the earth in giant caves. His plan is scoffed at and fails to find funding, until a rich publisher's son steps up. He'll fund it if he can come along -- for the adventure. The burrowing submarine-like Cyclotram travels hundreds of miles down, mostly through existing tunnels. Between falls and toxic gas, a few crew members die along the way. Eventually, the four survivors find a huge cave with a glowing sky-like ceiling and lake.

At first, they're jubilant that they've found a haven for mankind to survive. The mood turns gloomy when rabbits they've brought along give birth to dead baby bunnies. The cave supposedly causes sterility. The "Promised Land" haven has a doom of its own. Despondent, they mope around in the Cyclotram, but are meanwhile carried to the surface by upwelling water.

Why is this movie fun?
Maybe "fun" isn't quite the word. Interesting, perhaps. The movie's premise assumed that war was immanent, total and unavoidable, such that mankind's only hope was a big enough bunker to save enough of us. This is a similar mindset to premise underlaying When Worlds Collide. In UW, the haven is sought below instead of above. The sense of fear and foreboding, yet grasping for hope helps UW speak for the 50s. That's an interesting mental exercise.
The Cyclotram itself is only moderately interesting, but due to the low budget, got little attention. I thought it was cool that it had tail fins. (!) Later sci-fi movies will get into gizmo-mania and make co-stars of their ships or machines, but in UW, the machine is a supporting actor at best. The interior's sparseness is amusing. The set designers tried for something submarine-like with some gauges, pipes and valves on the walls, but the overall effect is more boiler-room than high-tech machine. "Technology" was simpler back then. It took less "stuff" to look the techy.

Cold War Angle
This movie is the bunker mentality on steroids. UW opens with several minutes of stock footage of nuclear bomb tests and fake newsreel footage of Dr. Morley predicting the end of mankind. Dr. Morley's solution amounts to a giant-sized case of duck and cover. The end, when the dream of a safe bunker is crushed, we're back in the dangerous surface world. Message? It's weakly delivered, but amounts to: We can't hide after all, so we'd better be very careful with nukes.

Notes
Much of UW is shot in Carlsbad Caverns. The unusual landscape of the caves provides some visual interest when things would otherwise get rather dull. For the most part, the "action" is typical of exploring/adventure films.

There's an odd bit near the end. The crew brought down a pregnant rabbit to test any habitable caverns they might find. (What kind of test is that?) When they reach the big glowing-roof cavern, momma rabbit gives birth, but the bunnies are dead. Dr. Joan announces that the cavern makes life sterile (Huh? Ms. Rabbit was already pregnant) -- mankind cannot hide there and really survive. Nevermind that this element is poorly explained or integrated. The dead bunnies are just there to burst the bubble. The point is that man can't hide.

The characters are pretty much the usual stereotypes. Their "growth" is likewise predictable. The smug and worthless rich boy becomes a brave responsible man in the end. The cold-but-beautiful woman scientist is thawed into romance by the reformed playboy, etc. etc. Dr. Morley is the typical visionary scientist type, but his "growth" is somewhat more interesting. Throughout most of the adventure, he is the pillar of strength and optimism. When the bunnies are declared sterile, he loses his will to live. There's no hope for mankind. He had so completely accepted that life on the surface was doomed, that the failure of "the promised land" was loss of the last hope. When a volcano erupts and causes a tsunami, he doesn't get into the Cyclotram to escape it. Instead, he lets the flood take him. His surrender to doom represents the malaise which which circled over the Cold War culture like a vulture.

While much of UW is fairly routine B-film fare, it's a good look at bunker mentality. The 50s had a lot of that sort of thinking.

Five

"Five" is the first film to follow the stories of survivors of a global nuclear holocaust. There was a movie in the mid-30s called "Things to Come" that dealt with a post-global war devistation of civilization, but it wasn't nuclear. There were lots of survivors in Things to Come. I'll review that movie in a bit. "Five" deals with the modern (1951) world immediately after a global nuclear exchange kills off almost everyone on earth. The movie posters seem to be trying to play up the lurid one-woman-four-men angle, but it's not like that.

Quick Plot Summary
Five people survive death by radiation from a global nuclear holocaust. Two in a bank vault, one in an X-ray room of a hospital, one on top of Mt. Everest, and the last one in an elevator. They all converge on a remote California cliff-side house. Four men and a pregnant woman eek out a meager existence. Tensions arise over what to do for future plans. A sort of who-will-get-the-girl rivalry arises between Michael (elevator guy) and Eric (the mountain climber). The old bank clerk dies of lingering radiation sickness. The mountain-climber kills the black guy. The mountain climber eventually develops radiation sickness too. That leaves the last man and last woman to start anew, like Adam and Eve.

Why is this movie fun?
Five is actually a pretty deep movie for one written, produced and directed by the same guy, in this case, Arch Oboler. (compare with The Flying Saucer) That's not usually a formula for success. Five is probably the first of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi sub-genre. With so few characters, they do tend to fit into archetypes, each embodying something about humanity. There's an interesting dynamic played out between them. The scene where Eric and Rosanne visit the city -- skeletons in cars and busses -- while automated sirens continue to wail warnings to a city long since dead, comes across very strongly. Knowing how many other movies will come later that try to pick up the story "the day after," it's fun to see the first one.

Cold War Angle?
Nothing is made of the Russians or the war, other than that it happened. The culture's overpowering fear of nuclear destruction, nonetheless, is the foundation of the movie. Instead of being set in the fearful "before" time, this movie looked at the "after."

Notes
Each of the five characters stand as representatives of some aspect of humanity.
Rosanne embodies Status Quo Hope that things will get back to normal. Always looking back. Michael embodies Pragmatism. He's always focused forward, defiantly refusing to look back. Mr. Barnstaple seems to represent the old ways -- jobs, capital, investments, etc. Charles is hope too, but not about survival of the old world. He's like Michael in focusing on the future. As an oppressed black man in late 40s America, his hope is tinged with freedom from the old world. Eric is the serpent in the garden of Eden. He represents the dark side of humanity. Egotistical, lazy, lustful, greedy and willing to kill.

Rosanne goes to the city with Eric, hoping to find her husband, or at least other survivors. Her hopes are dashed. She finds her husband's skeleton and no one else alive. Eric discovers that he has radiation sickness sores (his doom) and runs away whining in an almost childish response to his mortality. Abandoned by Eric, Rosanne eventually makes her way back to the cliff-top house and Michael. Along the way, her baby dies. This struck me as odd at first, since the baby seemed the usual "new-life" motif. But on second thought, the baby (from her dead husband, Steven) represented the last vestige of the Old World. Once that last scrap of the old was gone, Rosanne was ready to stop looking back at the old, and face the new. The movie ends with her walking up to Michael who is re-tilling the corn field. She carries a shovel too, and says, "I'm ready to help you now." (helicopter lift up and zoom out)

Like many of the post-apocalypse genre, there is a hope of mankind rising phoenix-like from the ashes. Civilization was destroyed, but not man himself. "On the Beach" (1959) was a bold departure from this formula. There, everyone died and stayed dead. In "Five," mankind's pragmatic nature triumphs, but only after letting go of hope for saving the old world, and shedding the sinful old man (as typified by Eric).

Like several other 50s sci-fi films, there is a strong dose of religious point of view. The film opens with nuclear blasts, clouded skies and quote from Psalm 103:16. "The deadly wind passeth over it, And it is gone: And the place thereof Shall know it no more..." (note: the word "deadly" was added for the film. It's not in the Bible). The Charles character quotes a black poet who wrote a paraphrase of the creation account in Genesis. The end of the movie puts up a quote from the Book of Revelation (ch.21) about the coming of the New Heaven and New Earth. Amid all the human struggle in Five was a spiritual undercurrent.

While any mention of God seems to really rankle some sci-fi fans, the Christian cosmology makes an interesting background to the action in "Five." Man's self-destruction isn't seen as a Great Oops, but as expected. The modern world didn't make a wrong turn, so much as it knowingly drove off a cliff. The survival of a remnant is also, then, seen as prophesyed. The remnant of mankind didn't WILL itself to survive, but was ALLOWED to live. The more religiously minded 50s audiences would have gotten this. The more godless minded of today miss it completely.

Five is a pretty obscure little film. It wasn't easy to roust up a copy. But, if you're a fan of the post-apocalypse genre, this is like finding a lost great grandfather's trunk up in the attic.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

The autumn of '51 was a good one for sci-fi fans. Following just a month after the impressive film, When World's Collide, came another movie that would also become a classic. The Day the Earth Stood Still (TDESS for short) was shot in black and white, but was not a cheap affair. TDESS made a big impression on audiences. For years afterward, the key line "Klaatu barada nikto" was part of the American vocabulary. TDESS is one of the must see sci-fi classics.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A flying saucer comes to earth, touching off much anxiety. (recall The Thing just six months earlier). The saucer lands in Washington DC. Troops encircle the ship, weapons drawn. The alien, Klaatu walks out (in full helmet) says he comes in peace. An edgy soldier mistakes a device Klaatu holds as a weapon and opens fire, wounding the him in the shoulder. His big robot, Gort, emerges, sending the crowds running and screaming. Gort zaps some rifles, a tank and a couple artillery pieces before Klaatu stops him. Klaatu is taken to the hospital. He wants to meet with earth leaders but is stymied by red tape and petty politics. He escapes the hospital and, incognito, and takes up a regular human life in a boarding house as Mr. Carpenter. He's still trying to get the earth to listen to his message. If the earth takes its nuclear threat tinto space, the galactic powers would be forced to destroy the earth. Klaatu gets the earth's attention by stopping all electric power for a day. Hence the film's title. He tells Patricia Neal that if anything happens to him, she must say to Gort: "Klaatu barada nikto" or Gort will destroy the earth. The authorities discover Klaatu. A chase ensues. Klaatu is killed. Neal delivers the cryptic message to Gort. Gort brings Klaatu's body to the saucer. There, he resurrects Klaatu. Armed soldiers surround the saucer. Klaatu emerges and sternly repeats his warning to the earth, then leaves. Only behaving responsibly with nuclear power will spare mankind from annihilation.

Why is this movie fun?
TDESS was the first "friendly alien" movie (if we leave the Man from Planet X as undetermined) that stands in stark opposition to the very-hostile alien in The Thing. Michael Rennie is great as Klaatu/Carpenter. You find yourself rooting for the alien instead of the earthly powers. Patricia Neal is great as the sensitive human. Her jealous boyfriend (the venerable Hugh Marlowe) is credible too. The pacing is good, even by modern ADHD standards.

The inside of the Klaatu's ship is pretty cool too. The set designers put a lot of thought and effort into making the interior un-earthly. Lots of metal and acrylic. This might be the first interior set of a flying saucer in movies. TDESS set a high standard for others to meet. Few do.

Cold War Angle
The Soviets aren't mentioned as villains. Instead, there's a tense spy-on-the-loose subpot which depends on Cold War anxiety for its motivation. The robot, Gort, is an embodiment of "the bomb". As Klaatu explains, his people created a bunch of robots like Gort to act as galactic policemen. Perpetrators of violence would be vaporized. Gort-bots keep the galactic peace via the threat of annihilation. (A Carthaginian Peace?) Even though Klaatu's people created the Gort-bots, they live in fear of them. Sounds rather like The Bomb (with legs).

Notes
Biblical Analog -- TDESS interweaves several Biblical themes to tell its basic Cold War pacifist warning message. A stranger comes to earth to deliver his message that mankind can yet be saved from impending judgement. Rather like Christ. Klaatu adopts the name Carpenter -- Jesus' occupation as a young man. He goes about life on earth as "one of us," for awhile. Like Christ, Klaatu dies undeservedly, and is brought back to life. Still the benevolent messenger, he delivers his warning, then rises into the sky (in his saucer). This story line -- a misunderstood benevolent messenger from on high telling mankind of impending judgement -- makes for a strong plot line. No wonder TDESS makes a lot of people's top 10 lists.

They're After Our Women! -- TDESS may be the first sci-fi movie to have one of THE big archetypal sci-fi visual scenes: The Abducted Woman -- the alien/robot carrying off the beautiful earth woman. This visual icon has deep and profound roots in our culture. It deserves an essay of its own, so I won't go into that here. Many movie posters featured The Abducted Woman imagery, even if the scene never took place in the film. TDESS actually has one. In this case, it's benign, but the power of such a visual is huge.

Remake: New Agenda -- The basic story was remade in 2008, by 20th Century Fox. Keanu Reeves stars as Klaatu. He has a giant robot named Gort. Klaatu has come to save the earth, but from there, the two movies diverge. In 1951, mankind's sin was not taking nuclear weapons seriously. In 2008, mankind's sin was not taking the environment seriously. In 1951, Klaatu came to warn mankind to behave and live in peace..or else.  In 2008, Klaatu came to take samples of nature away from us and destroy us for being bad to the environment. In 1951, the message was hope. In 2008, the message was doom.  Quite a few fans of the '51 version dislike the trendy changes.

Bottom line? The original TDESS is a must-see for any classic sci-fi fan. There are just no two ways about it.

When Worlds Collide

This is one of the block-buster classics of early sci-fi movies. It's theme was so potent that offshoots have been remade in several other movies. When Worlds Collide (WWC for short) was a big budget film, shot in color, with a large cast, and fairly expensive sets, models and special effects (for its day). WWC usually makes classic sci-fi fans' top ten lists. Never mind petty quibbles over the science cited in the movie. The science is just there to support the premise. What if the earth was about to be destroyed? What would mankind do? With the usual romance elements and human drama, that question is explored.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A rogue star and its planet are hurtling on a collision course with the earth. The planet, Zyra, will come close to the earth, causing massive floods (ala Noah) and earthquakes, but it is the rogue star itself -- Bellus -- which will plow through the earth, burning it up. By the time astronomers discover Bellus and Zyra, the earth has less than a year left. Governments are paralyzed. A rich, selfish, wheelchair-bound billionaire agrees to finance the building of a rocket ship on the condition that HE gets to come. Hundreds of people build the ark with a sense of hope. It is a race against time. As the end nears, human drama complicates things. Only 44 people, chosen by lottery, will be able to go. A pair of young lovers is split up by the lottery. The billionaire's aide tries to steal the young lover's ticket, but is shot by the billionaire. As the end nears, chaos breaks out. All the lottery losers want aboard anyhow, but it's too late. The space ark takes off just in time, but leaving the selfish billionaire behind. Alas. Bellus destroys the earth. The space ark lands, albeit roughly, to find Zyra strange, but very earth-like. The remnant of mankind escaped the destruction of the old earth, to begin anew on a new world.

Why is this movie fun?
It's interesting that WWC used the same rogue planet plot device as Man From Planet X, which opened about 4 months earlier. This time, however, it was a collision course. In fact, the roles are reverse from Planet X. This time, it's the earthlings who are trying to escape their doomed world to another. The theme of WWC is thought provoking.

The acting is pretty good, even if some of the roles are fairly stereotypic. The rocket itself is a cool looking example of what 1950s thinking imagined rocket ships would be like. It's this fascination with sleek rockets that would lead the culture to tail fin mania in the latter 50s. The takeoff of the rocket-ark is made all the more dramatic by having it gain speed racing down a track, then up a ramp (rather like the V1s in WW2). A conventional vertical blast off would have been too slow for the urgent mood.


Cold War Angle
The threat of world destruction has been up-scaled for effect. The name of the rogue star, Bellus, reminded me of the Latin word for War: Bellum. "War" was coming and would totally wipe out the earth. Where many films imagine some survivors of a global nuclear war (see review of "Five"), WWC posits an inescapable total destruction of the earth. Yet, WWC looks at both the hopeful and the gloomy. The space ark represents the hopeful glass-half-full. The earth's anarchy and violence which they leave behind represents the pessimistic glass-half-empty view.

Notes
Based on the Book -- WWC was based on the 1933 novel by Edwin Balmer and Phillip Wylie. The plot of the movie follows that of the book generally, with many of the usual book-through-hollywood caveats. In the book, it's two planets, not a star and a planet. The two planets are named Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta. While the movie makes only one mention of other rockets leaving earth, (yet only shows one) the book is more clear that several space arks left earth.

Noah In Space -- George Pal (the producer of WWC) is known for including fairly overt Christian messages into his productions. WWC is no exception. The movie opens with a shot of an ornate Bible, opening to a couple verses from Genesis -- the part where God is so disgusted with the corruption and violence of the earth that he decides to wipe it all out, (except for Noah, etc.). Pal is making a pretty strong social commentary right off the bat. The whole story line is a modern adaptation of the Noah's Ark account, right down to the animals, two-by-two. The ruthlessness and violence that break out on earth as the rocket-ark is about to take off, stand as a vindication that the "old" mankind was indeed corrupt and violent and deserved to be wiped out. You don't find yourself feeling too sorry for those being left behind. Certainly no tears were shed for rich Mr. Stanton.

Pre-Owned Home? -- Another fascinating part, which seems to get little comment, is when they get to Zyra, and disembark their ark, on the far left side of the Zyran landscape (painting) is some very man-made looking cuts in that cliff. Ahead of them are clearly two pyramids. Nothing is said of them. In the novels ("When Worlds Collide" ('33) and "After Worlds Collide" ('34)), the new planet was inhabited, but the advanced race had died out as "Zyra" coursed through cold, deep space. A movie sequel to WWC was planned, but George Pal fell on hard times, and the project was scrapped.

Pre-PC -- A feature of WWC which would be much more apparent today than in 1951, was that the space ark carried only white people. A half-century after the making of the film, even cereal box art is careful to show a politically-correct mix of white / black / asian / latino cartoon children frolicking behind the giant cereal bowl. Were the makers of WWC being subconsciously racist? That is (and has been) debated. A minor note on that, is that in the novel, many space arks are built in different countries. Many of them make it to the new planet. In WWC, about a half hour into the runtime, Dr. Fry says that other ships are being built too. WWC is the story of that one particular ship, which happened to end up with a crew (cargo?) drawn from only the all-white labor force at the shipyard.

Tough Lot -- A sort of subtext to WWC is triumph of egalitarianism over elitism. When the time came to go, only 44 people, out of the hundreds, could go. Surely everyone working on the ship had to realize this. It was built with only 44 seats. Those would be filled by a ruthlessly fair lottery. 22 men, 22 women. They weren't chosen for their skills, or their breeding proclivities or genetic makeup. They were chosen by simple lot.

Bottom line? WWC is a great sci-fi classic. It strives to explore big ideas with little wallowing to petty drama (unlike many in the B-grade films). It is a must-see of classic sci-fi.

The Man From Planet X

This little low-budget film was released in the spring of 1951, the same time as "The Thing", but failed to get much attention. Obscure as it is, it's notable for having a couple of sci-fi movie firsts. It was the first movie to depict an outer space alien as a little "green" man with a large head (a pattern we all take for granted now). Yes, it's a black and white movie, but the Enid character said his face had a green glow. There ya go. Little green men had to have their debut sometime. It was 1951.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A Professor Elliot discovers a strange planet which has entered the solar system, headed towards Earth. A space craft is found out on the foggy moors of Scotland, complete with a little green man who seems friendly. The alien follows the professor back to his observatory/castle. A former student of the professor, the greedy Dr. Mears, tortures alien (by cutting off his "air" supply) in an attempt to get the secret of the alien's lightweight-yet-strong miracle metal. After this sort of treatment, the alien turns menacing. He kidnaps the professor's daughter, Enid, and uses a mind-control beam to make villagers set up his ship to communicate with the approaching Planet X. He's the vanguard as his people seek to abandon their dying planet and take over the earth. Before the alien can transmit, however, the army shows up and blasts the spacecraft to bits. Planet X wooshes by harmlessly. No invasion, or anything. The End.


Why is this movie fun?
There are so many "firsts" in this movie, that they're fun to spot. Little green man with a big head is a biggie. It also featured mind-control where normal humans become emotionless slaves of the alien. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) made this plot device famous, but it was in use earlier -- like in this little film. Also fun is the very minimal sets. The Scottish village is a painted backdrop. All the "outdoor" shots are done in the dark with lots of fog. The whole thing might have been shot in someone's garage and backyard, for all you know. This all gave it a distinctly film-noir feel. The Constructivist space ship is interesting too. It's a merging of simple geometric shapes, like spheres, cones and cubes -- not at all the soon-to-be-stereotypic saucer shape.

Cold War Angle
There isn't too much of the Cold War in Man From Planet X. No nukes, no Russians, and not too much tension, when you think about it, over a possible impending invasion of hostile aliens. The plot focused tightly on the individual alien and rescuing Enid. Concerns over an invasion seemed secondary at best.

Notes
In the B-film tradition of budget thriftiness, Man from Planet X was shot on sets left over from Victor Fleming's Joan of Arc (1948). The acting is typical B fare -- although it's fun to see William Schallert as a young man, playing the unscrupulous Dr. Mears. Despite it's very B level production levels, Man from Planet X has it's interesting points. Would the alien have been friendly if Mears hadn't accosted him? Why would a whole dying planet's civilization have just wooshed by doing nothing if they had hostile intent? Did mankind, via Mears' greed and the army's haste to blow stuff up, ruin what might have been a peaceful meeting with an advanced culture? Did the earth's haste to destroy a single (maybe) hostile alien doom a whole planet's? Man From Planet X suggests such possibilities, but coyly doesn't answer them. Where The Thing left no doubt that aliens are hostile, Man from Planet X l left the door open. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding. That's kind of cerebral stuff for a B film.

Bottom line? Man from Planet X is simple fun for fans of classic sci-fi. Just keep in mind its low budget.

The Thing -- From Another World

This is one of the major classics of 50s sci fi movies. Released in April of 1951, it was the first full-length film to feature a flying saucer from outer space, which carried a hostile alien. The budget and the effects are typical B-grade stuff, but the acting and pacing are well above the usual B levels. Kenneth Toby and Margaret Sheriden star. James Arness (more known for his westerns) plays The Thing.
You really don't notice that the sets are all a few crude rooms. Outdoor shots were few. The pacing is good to, and keeps your interest throughout.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Experts are dispatched to a remote post in the arctic to investigate a mysterious explosion. They find a disc shaped craft buried in the ice. They mistakenly destroy the craft while trying to extract it, but they find an occupant, still frozen in the ice. The crew take the stranger-on-ice back to the base. The alien accidentally thaws out. It and goes on a killing rampage. The alien, a plant-based life form, needs human blood for nourishment AND to nurture its "seeds". So, it stalks and kills several of the besieged crew. Bullets are no use. Even a severed alien limb retains some life. The only force it doesn't like is fire. The crew finally kills the alien by luring it onto an electrified grid. This burns it to a shriveled crisp with electrocution. While everyone is happy, the reporter captures the gist of the reality. We must always "Watch the skies!"

Why is this movie fun?
The Thing was the first to feature film to have a hostile alien that was not simply an ordinary human in funny clothes (ala. Ming the Merciless and The Purple Monster -- both of which were in serials). It was also the first movie that hypothesized that alien life might be very different from human. This was the first look at an alien alien. Granted, he was still a humanoid (played by James Arness in the rubber suit!) but he was big, ugly and menacing -- not just a plain guy in a hooded leotard. A pace setter for future aliens.

Cold War Angle
The Thing is also the first movie which shifted fears of invasion by Soviet hoards (or missiles) onto an invader from outer space. The monster alien in The Thing is a surrogate for human invaders, but has all the classic villain qualities. The plucky Americans confront the deadly invader menace. Invasion story themes in fiction go back to the early 1800s when the English worried about Napolean's armies invading England. The Thing fits the classic invasion story pattern well.

Notes
The Slow Reveal --
The monster gets very little camera time for most of the movie, which helps it seem all the scarier. I've read that the original cut had more close-ups of the monster, but these were edited out to keep the suspense. By the time you see more of him at the end, there is sufficient tension that the alien does not comes across as just a really big bald guy. Through scene cuts and climactic tension, you're more engaged with the story. Lesser directors would make the mistake of showing too much of their monster and too soon.


Budget Saucer -- For the flying saucer, all they had to fabricate was the tip of a tail fin (it was frozen in the ice, you see), and have a ring of men each standing over the presumed edges, to define the sizable disk. The journalist characters proclaims "We've found a real flying saucer!" This is a neat solution for having no budget to build a full sized flying saucer prop.

Happily Ever After? -- Even though the story ends with the monster destroyed, the question lingers -- what happens if more of them land? The Thing doesn't wrap it all up with a happy ride-into-the-sunset ending. Instead, the news reporter radios in his story with the cautionary advice, "Watch the skies!" We won that round, but the threat remains. This was the mood of the nervous Cold War era. You might win a battle, but the war loomed over you forever. Eternal vigilance was required. We're never really safe, even when we win.

Bottom line? The Thing is one of the famous classics of the 50s. It's formula would be copied many times in various ways. The story would even be remade in 1982, but with a bit of Invasion of the Body Snatchers spin to it. The Thing of 1951 should be on the must-see list for anyone delving into 50s sci-fi.