Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

[joecct]

This started in the War on Terror thread (don't ask me how we got there), but the favorites are:

1. Plan 9 from Outer Space
2. Attack of the Crab Monsters
3. The Crawling Eye

I want to add
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (the saucers do a number on DC).
THEM

Some others -- they I think were British
The Giant Behemoth - big brontosaurus with some nuclear powers does a number on London.

Start listing them and why you love them.

 

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

Before this thread decides if it will live or die, let's all acknowledge something here:

With the possible exception of the really old people on this board (I'm looking at you, Old Pio and Dr. Demento), pretty much all of us are going to be basing this off of our experiences with Mystery Science Theater 3000, right?

My answer would be "Eegah", but I'm pretty sure that one was in the 60s somewhere.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

The original Godzilla (1954) has to be near the top of my list. They even somehow got Raymond Burr to appear in the 1956 US version (Godzilla, King of the Monsters, which, in IMDB, appears to have the same cast as the original except for him). That's the prototype for all the "nuclear accident transforms benign creature into terrible monster" genre.

At the very top of the list, so good that it's even on my list for one of the best movies of all time, open competition, is The Day the Earth Stood Still. The combination of realism and idealism is deftly handled, and the special effects are almost non-existent yet the story is so compelling, and the titular event is so masterfully staged. I still remember "Gort: Klaatu barada nicto" quite vividly (having watched it several times). It's a bare-bones archetypal story, if you've never seen it, you definitely should.

DrD already mentioned Creature from the Black Lagoon. If no one yet has mentioned Them (with an appearance by James Arness) that definitely deserves to be on the list.

and who can forget The Blob, with Steve McQueen no less!



Forbidden Planet received raves in some quarters, being based on The Tempest and all, but I never could get much into it, it was a bit, um, plodding, for my taste (if you've seen the movie you know I'm making a pun here )

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

It's not a movie, and it only had one season in the '50s, but my dad got me hooked on The Twilight Zone. He watched it when he was growing up and has passed that love onto me. During the holiday marathons we'll sit down and watch a few hours at a time. Very few series are consistent with quality in every episode. Seinfeld comes to mind, but The Twilight Zone is, in my opinion, one of the greatest shows of all time. Only one or two clunkers.

It's funny how nuclear war was a topic in so many episodes. Now it's just used in fantasy plots, but back then it was a real threat.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

With the possible exception of the really old people on this board (I'm looking at you, Old Pio and Dr. Demento), pretty much all of us are going to be basing this off of our experiences with Mystery Science Theater 3000, right?

um, no...most of these were televised pretty regularly throughout the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s. Anyone who was a kid in Chicagoland throughout that period remembers WGN and Frazier Thomas and Saturday Afternoon Classics or that Saturday night movie show with Vampira.

Also, for your edification, "really old" is in your 80s.....the fastest growing age cohort in the population is 90 - 100. if you are in your late 60s it is now the "latter stages of middle age."

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

It's funny how nuclear war was a topic in so many episodes. Now it's just used in fantasy plots, but back then it was a real threat.

No kidding! Along with tornado drills and fire drills, we also routinely had civil emergency drills in elementary school during the 1960s, which was code word for "what to do in event of nuclear attack." You cannot imagine how frightening it was when we first began to comprehend what that actually meant.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

For me "War of the Worlds" with Gene Barry is memorable. Scared the bejeezus out of me. The only flick that ever did. I was in about 3rd grade, and called my older brother to come pick me up. Those big, glowing, Martian spaceships gliding down the street, zapping everything in sight with their ray guns, really shook me up.

All three of the "Creature" flicks were great: "Revenge of the Creature," "The Creature Walks Among Us."

"The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" (Ray Harryhausen stop motion at its best) was also outstanding.

But the hands down, all time greatest 50's sci-fi flick ever, nothing even close, is "Them." Terrific cast (not the customary gaggle of no names): Edmund Gwenn, James Arness, James Whitmore, Fess Parker etc. Good fake monsters. Outstanding sound track (that "giant ant" sound is a classic). Good script. Well directed. And, to my knowledge, the film that started the whole "radiation made them get real big and real nasty" genre.

As so MST3K: the flicks screened there were generally 3rd rate, even for sci-fi films. The really good (read: expensive) films were rarely if ever screened.

 

[DrDemento]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

Before this thread decides if it will live or die, let's all acknowledge something here:

With the possible exception of the really old people on this board (I'm looking at you, Old Pio and Dr. Demento), pretty much all of us are going to be basing this off of our experiences with Mystery Science Theater 3000, right?

My answer would be "Eegah", but I'm pretty sure that one was in the 60s somewhere.

Appreciate your reference to me and OP. I may be somewhat senior to most on the board but I have the advantage of a younger vivacious wife with bodacious tatas. My list for the scifi movies of the early years included many that were mentioned already but i must add The Thing From Another Planet. James Arness as that giant carrot creature was just menacing. As a child i saw that in the movie theatre and distinctly remember a few scenes that were later cut and never put back. Similar to what was done with the original King Kong and the scene with the Giant Spider creatures after Kong knocks all the sailors off the big log and they fall down into the ravine. Them! was a classic (if you watch carefully the first credit is in color and then the movie is in black and white. (they did not feel it would be received well enough to warrant spending the money to produce the movie in color). Also add the original Invaders From Mars and of course the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Most of these scared the heck out of me-and i must admit sometimes even now they still do.

 

[MountieBoyOz]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

Are we digging up these films to resurrect MST3K? Please....

 

[DrDemento]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

For me "War of the Worlds" with Gene Barry is memorable. Scared the bejeezus out of me. The only flick that ever did. I was in about 3rd grade, and called my older brother to come pick me up. Those big, glowing, Martian spaceships gliding down the street, zapping everything in sight with their ray guns, really shook me up.

All three of the "Creature" flicks were great: "Revenge of the Creature," "The Creature Walks Among Us."

"The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" (Ray Harryhausen stop motion at its best) was also outstanding.

But the hands down, all time greatest 50's sci-fi flick ever, nothing even close, is "Them." Terrific cast (not the customary gaggle of no names): Edmund Gwenn, James Arness, James Whitmore, Fess Parker etc. Good fake monsters. Outstanding sound track (that "giant ant" sound is a classic). Good script. Well directed. And, to my knowledge, the film that started the whole "radiation made them get real big and real nasty" genre.

As so MST3K: the flicks screened there were generally 3rd rate, even for sci-fi films. The really good (read: expensive) films were rarely if ever screened.

And if you look quickly you can see a young Leonard Nimoy in THEM!.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

um, no...most of these were televised pretty regularly throughout the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s. Anyone who was a kid in Chicagoland throughout that period remembers WGN and Frazier Thomas and Saturday Afternoon Classics or that Saturday night movie show with Vampira.

Also, for your edification, "really old" is in your 80s.....the fastest growing age cohort in the population is 90 - 100. if you are in your late 60s it is now the "latter stages of middle age."

Ahhh, Frazier Thomas. Garfield Goose, who thought he was king, and typed out messages with his beak.

You probably remember Ned Locke, too (Ringmaster Ned). During my time at DU WGN purchased Channel 2 in Denver and renamed it KWGN. At that same time a couple of us were getting some "go" chicken at Denver Drum, and who should be standing in line but Ned Locke? I thought I was pretty cool about it, didn't make a big deal, just casually asked him "who's minding the circus?' "or I almost didn't recognize you without your whistle" or something stupid. He gave me a big grin. And we chatted for a moment or two. Think about it: Ringmaster Ned!!!!!

 

[Kepler]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

In addition to the many great ones already mentioned (Them!, Day the Earth Stood Still, and Beast from 20,000 Fathoms in particular):

The three Quatermass movies and their BBC serials -- understated British sci-fi

Horror Hotel (aka City of the Dead) -- not sci-fi, but best witchcraft movie ever made

Pretty much anything by director Val Lewton (e.g., the original Cat People)

The Beginning of the End -- Peter Graves tries to save Chicago from giant grasshoppers

The Day the Earth Caught Fire -- Brit sci-fi with the immortal Leo McKern

Forbidden Planet -- shocked it hasn't been mentioned yet

Kronos -- giant electricity-sucking robot clunks across the southwest

 

[Kepler]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

And if you look quickly you can see a young Leonard Nimoy in THEM!.

In the hospital?

 

[DrDemento]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

In the hospital?

Nope-Fess Parker is the supposed mental patient. Nimoy is in a military uniform and has only a couple of words as he passes a report to someone. Watch carefully next time-it is a very short cameo.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

Nope-Fess Parker is the supposed mental patient. Nimoy is in a military uniform and has only a couple of words as he passes a report to someone. Watch carefully next time-it is a very short cameo.

"Make me a sergeant in charge of the booze."

 

[Kepler]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

Nope-Fess Parker is the supposed mental patient. Nimoy is in a military uniform and has only a couple of words as he passes a report to someone. Watch carefully next time-it is a very short cameo.

Huh. Totally missed it, I will definitely watch for it next time.

BTW, I second Pio's (I think?) nomination of it as simply a well made movie. Despite the monsters it's really a suspense / psychological thriller, and I have always maintained it has one of the best slow burn build ups ever done.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

I'm repeating my post from the other thread. Why? Are you kidding?!

Not only have I never seen "The Crawling Eye," I've never heard of it. I blame my parents.

You may have heard of it as "The Trollenberg Terror." I think that's what it was called in the theaters, while TCE was what it was called in Drive-Ins.

I agree with the Doctor -- the build-up is better than the pay off. That's true of a lot of the Brit B&W scary movies.

For the young-ins, here are the ladies mentioned in the posts below:

Yvette Vickers:

Joan Weldon

Margaret Sheridan (looks much mousier and IMHO cuter in "The Thing," but I couldn't find a good photo)

Joan Taylor (yes, I would say the Doctor has a type...)

Martine Beswick

And my personal favorite,

Venetia Stevenson

Sheridan in particular in addition to her beauty was also a legitimately good actress.

This has been another episode of, When Women Were Women. (No silicone was expended during the making of this picture.)

 

[Kepler]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

A few more lovely ladies of 50's sci fi:

Anne Francis from "Forbidden Planet" (she's the one on the right):

Dana Wynter from "Body Snatchers":

Mala Powers from "The Colossus of New York":

Kathleen Hughes being checked out by Barbara Rush in "It Came from Outer Space":

 

[Old Pio]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

Another sci-fi babe was Faith Domergue, who starred in something called "The Cult of the Cobra." I don't have a picture of her and couldn't post it if I did, since I don't know how. All I recall was she would occasionally transform herself into a Cobra and slither off into the sunset.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Favorite 1950's SciFi movies

Yvette Vickers:

Anne Francis from "Forbidden Planet" (she's the one on the right):

Martine Beswick

And my personal favorite,

Venetia Stevenson

Sheridan in particular in addition to her beauty was also a legitimately good actress.

This has been another episode of, When Women Were Women. (No silicone was expended during the making of this picture.)

Mmmm...

Aside: How about The Blob for old school B-movie cheese?