Sci-fi films of the 50's and 60's: The golden years

[bearfax]

Probably been done before so let me know if it has. But I thought I'd introduce a thread on what were really the Golden Years of Science Fiction film, 1950-69. The special effects were far inferior to today's eye candy, but for many of today's scifis, something has been lost. The 50s and 60s relied much more of the build up of suspense, good scripting, the unseen terror lurking, good story lines. Many of the younger generation of today will never have seen some of these fine productions and may be put off by the lack of quality special effects and the slower pace. But I think the quality of the overall product was often superior.

Lets get started with a fine British SciFi that was quite spooky spooky. It was called

1. THE TROLLENBURG TERROR (1958)

Ok. Its monochrome and some of the effects are amusing by today's standards. But if you get into the mood of this film, sometimes titled the Creeping Eye and The Crawling Eye,it is one of the best of its time.

Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker, a regular of Brit SciFis at this time) is en route to a tourist centre near Mt Trollenburg in Switzerland. He's a U.N. troubleshooter sent by the U.N. to investigate strange happenings on the mountain that parallel incidents in The Andes a few years before. On the same train are two women, one a psychic mind reader who's heading for Geneva for a holiday and some demonstrations of her skill. She suddenly collapses and when she recovers says they must stop at the Mt Trollenburg mountain resort because there's something important there.

Brooks accompanies the women to the centre and learns something of the strange accidents that have been occurring on the mountain. Mountaineers are disappearing, and some are turning up decapitated. And Brooks meets up with a Professor Cravett, in an observatory nearer the mountain, and is shown through his scope a strange radioactive mist that has been centred around the mountain for some time. Back at the centre Brooks finds that the psychic is warning everyone to stay away from the mountain.

Two mountaineers are in a cabin lower down on the mountain and one suddenly seemingly becomes mindless. The strange cloud is seen encompassing the chalet in which they are staying, and rescuers find it frozen inside and one of the men lying inside decapitated. They follow a trail and come upon the other man carrying the head of his partner and still in a mindless state. But he attacks the rescuers and then heads for the tourist centre. His next target is the psychic.

Its well into the film before we see the cause of all this strangeness, including a creature from another world. To say much more is to spoil the surprises.

Its a typical gradually paced film that leads step by step to the chilling climax, with some good acting and sensible scripting. No superheroes, no laser beams, just a solid story line and good suspense. Typical of many Brit scifis of this age. Available on DVD and worth a look if you just want a good story

[bearfax]

2. MONOLITH MONSTERS (1957 US)

Weird title for what is a black and white classic staring Grant Williams and Lola Albright.

Contemporary story about a large meteorite that crashes in the desert in California near a small town called San Angelo. Ben, a local geologist travels out to investigate and finds a large area scattered with black rock fragments he cant identify. He brings a piece back to town to examine and shows local newspaper boss his find and then leaves it in his lab over night. But over night a large wind blows though an open window and knocks over a can of water onto the piece of rock.

Dave (Grant Williams), Ben's boss returns from a trip and finds Ben in the lab in a rock hard petrified state with lots of pieces of black rock scattered about. Meanwhile local school teacher Cathy (Gina Albright), Dave's sweetheart, takes her children out on a field trip into the desert. One little girl picks up one of the strange black rocks and keeps it. She's returned home to a farm outside of town and loses interest with the rock and throws it in a tub of water. The next day a visitor to the girls home finds it demolished, the parents petrified to stone, strange black rocks everywhere and the little girl in a catatonic state. Her arm also is showing signs of being slowly petrified.

Our protagonist Dave finally realises that the black rock when exposed to water, grows and then when reaching a certain volume, explodes. Anyone near becomes part of the rock nature. He also soon realises that the rock is from a meteor out in the desert and of course soon after it starts to rain. Oh no. You can of course guess what happens next. The rocks grow exponentially until they are over a hundred feet high crystal monstrosities, and then they explode leave a huge number of the next generation of rocks to grow. And these huge mountain sized crystals are heading toward San Angelo and threaten to take over the world.

For its time the film has surprisingly good effects and the story line works up the suspense in effective style. Its 50s paranoia at its best and is certainly one of the better 'B' class SciFis of the age. Well worth a look. Good simple story line, adequately acted and well paced. Its available on DVD.

[bearfax]

3. THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE (1961 UK)

The opening scene has a lone man walking the streets of London. It is sweltering hot. The scene then flashes back three months and focuses on that man, Peter Stenning (Edward Judd), a disillusioned recently divorced newspaper reporter on the road to alcoholism. He has been neglecting his duties and his reporter pal Bill Maguire (Leo McKern- later Rumpole of the Baiiley) has been covering for him.

Simultaneously the USA and USSR explode experimental massive atomic bomb tests at each pole. And then something goes wonky with the weather. Together with a telephonist Jeanne Craig (Janet Munro), Stenning starts to investigate the changes which include massive heat fogs that engulf London. He finally penetrates the political silence and finds that the bombs have tilted the Earth off its axis 11 degrees and consequently London is now closer to the equator. But an even more serious occurrence has occurred to Earth's orbit that will result in their doom unless an answer is found.

The film is black and white but they used a reddish tint to give a sense of the increasing heat. The film mainly focuses on the activities of Peter and Janet, who become the investigators trying to find out what the heck has happened. The dialogue is snappy and entertaining. The effects are surprisingly effective, especially the thick fog, that only sits about three metres off the ground. There are some clever scenes of the couple in a double decker bus, with down stairs in almost impenetrable mist and the air clear above. Same scene from Jeanne's apartment a few floors up from the ground with a view across London with only buildings higher than one storey penetrating the sea like fog. Its well written and believable as everyday people face a potential end of the World scenario

The film is a classy 'B' scifi well worth catching up with. Its available on DVD

[ecgordon]

Definitely agree with you on this one. Perfect example that you only need good writing and acting for an effective SF film. It was one of the very first films I reviewed on my site way back in 2000.

http://templetongate.net/dayearthcaughtfire.htm

[bearfax]

Good review there ecgordon.

I do have it on DVD and I'm surprised it is now hard to get. Before I first saw it years ago, I thought it was your very typical average 'B' SciFi riding on the title coat tails of Day of the Triffids and Day the Earth Stood Still. I was very pleasantly surprised at how good a SciFi it is and that it stands on its own reputation. And it is a very realistic scenario involving the 'what if' style and yes a top story line, well scripted and well acted.

But what would one expect other than a quality effort from Val Guest, who produced many classy 50-60s productions from the UK, including a surprisingly effective 'Abominable Snowman' and the early Quatermass movies. Quatermass II aka Enemy from Space was one I will discuss later and made a huge impression on a 12 year old lad (me) back in the early 60s. Like some other classic monster flicks from that time like THEM and BEAST FROM 20000 FATHOMS, I was loath to go outside at night for some time after seeing it.

[ecgordon]

I need to edit that review, because it seems the DVD is available again.

[bearfax]

4. BEAST FROM 20000 FATHOMS (1953 b/w, US)

One of the first great monster films to follow King Kong, the story is based on The Fog Horn, a short story by Ray Bradbury, though his yarn only deals with the lighthouse that is one of the principal early scenes in the movie.

This was a most successful film at the cinema when it was released earning almost ten times the cost of making it. It had the advantage of using the master of stop motion photography Ray Harryhausen, whose monster, a fictional carnivorous dinosaur called a Rhedosaurus is one of the classic monster productions of the period.

The story begins in the arctic, where the US Govt is testing atomic explosions, this particular event called Operation Experiment. Thomas Nesbitt (Paul Christian) is a physicist witnessing the event. After the explosion he and a small group travel out to the site to examine registers set near the explosion. He and his partner though witness the appearance of the dinosaur, a thirty foot tall, one hundred foot long creature that has been entombed in the ice in a form of hibernation. Its actions cause the death of Nesbitt's associate but he is saved near death from under the ice.

We move to New York and Nesbitt is in hospital recovering from his injuries. But a psychiatrist visits him because of his belief that he has seen a dinosaur. The military think he's bonkers. But unwilling to let it rest he visits a top paleontologist, Professor Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) and describes his story. Thurgood also dismisses the claim, but his assistant Lee Hunter (Paula Raymond) thinks there may be something to the story and decides to assist Nesbitt. Romance in this film is only implied but we next find Nesbitt and Hunter in her apartment going through drawings of various dinosaurs over a cup of coffee, some cookies and who knows what to follow. But out of hundreds of illustrations he identifies his monstrous felon (great memory our protagonist has).

Meanwhile things untoward have been happening along the coast, including the Bradbury lighthouse that ends up rubble. A couple of fishing boats are also capsized and destroyed but one survivor is found and in front of professor Elson he identifies the same illustration as Nesbitt had. Elson is on board.

Meanwhile Nesbitt has convinced an army buddy Colonel Evans (Kenneth Tobey, star in 1951 classic The Thing from Another World) of the validity of the claim. It seems our Rhedosaurus is making its way down to the coast towards its spawning grounds in the Hudson River Canyon (forget what continental drift would have done over that 100 million years ). And that means it has its sight on New York City and a lot of Godzilla like mayhem. And to make matters worse its blood has become radioactive.

For its time it was one of the best monster SciFis and still is worth watching even though its pre CGI. And an interesting side issue is the appearance of Lee Van Cleef in one of his first movies, on this occasion as a marksman corporal. His actions are crucial in saving us all at the end of the film. Available on DVD.

[bearfax]

5. THEM (1954, USA, b/w)

Of all the SciFis that scared the freckles off my face, as a youth, this is the stand out. Dated now no doubt but it still has elements in it that make it one of the best SciFis of the era.

What gives this film such a great boost especially at the beginning are a set of scenes in the desert region of New Mexico. The sense of loneliness, starkness, the desert wind and a music score that gives a feeling of something seriously untoward about to happen.

Two police officers driving on a lonely road through a semi-desert region, with a small plane in support, are out investigating a seemingly abandoned car and caravan. En route they spot a small girl wandering aimlessly about fifty yards off the road holding a broken doll. She's picked up but seems catatonic (aphobic as its later diagnosed, through fear). A few miles further along they find the caravan, with its side ripped out and no sign of the parents of the child.

A small team of investigators arrive and can find no explanations other than strange prints in the sand which they copy, a strange sound coming from the desert and sugar strewn about the place. Theft is discounted. The two officers drive further down the road to a small trading post, and find it also has suffered a collapsed wall and the body of the owner torn apart in the cellar. Again no money has been taken, but sugar is found strewn about the place. One officer stays behind that night and one of the scariest unseen events follows.

The source of the attacks of course lead to the discovery that radiation from successive atom bomb tests in the region has caused a mutation of ants to a huge size. And they are breeding and threatening to take over the World. In the 50s this paranoia led to many films of this type in the cold war post atom bomb world, and it led to a succession of quite scary films. This was one of the best and the special effects were remarkably good for its time.

It was well acted with solid performances from James Whitmore, James Arness (pre Gunsmoke), Edmund Gwen and Joanne Walden. Tightly edited and scripted it successfully allowed some quite spine tingling suspense to develop. This film was one of the best at using isolated landscapes, lonely ships at sea and large generally untouched tunnels under the city, to engender a sense of fear in the hidden beasts. And the chirping sound was at times chilling, and in fact made it difficult this once young lad to go outside at night in near bushland suburbia because the sound was so like that made by crickets, and there were lots of them in that area.

Top film although as indicated dated and none of the whiz bang of present SciFis. Again suspense and a good story made this a worthy film to watch. Available on DVD.

[Perelandra]

I agree with #3 and # 5 for sure. I remember the day the Earth caught fire and the twist at the end.
Also Them was great, too.
I would add Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood still(1951 version) to the list.
The Time Machine, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, if course, too,
Forbidden Planet still holds up well, today, I believe.# 3 I saw as reruns on T.V. later and was actually frightened that that could happen- the Earth move out of it's orbit.

[bearfax]

I agree with #3 and # 5 for sure. I remember the day the Earth caught fire and the twist at the end.
Also Them was great, too.
I would add Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood still(1951 version) to the list.
The Time Machine, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, if course, too,
Forbidden Planet still holds up well, today, I believe.# 3 I saw as reruns on T.V. later and was actually frightened that that could happen- the Earth move out of it's orbit.

Oh they are on the list Perelandra...and about a hundred others or more. Forbidden Planet is in fact more favourite SciFi film.

[bearfax]

6. DESTINATION MOON (1950, USA, Colour)

George Pal was the Lucas, Spielberg, Cameron of the 1950s and produced some of the most iconic science fiction films of the age including War of the Worlds, The Time Machine and When Worlds Collide. One of his trailblazing films attempting to give a sense of what humans are realistically to expect traveling into space was CONQUEST OF SPACE about a mission to Mars. But before that he made this little gem, Destination Moon, well before the US and Russia were even close to getting into orbit around the Earth. The film describes the first manned flight to the Moon, and yes there are three astronauts in the ship.

The film is remarkable because of the almost uncanny predictions of what would be faced in space. Of course it deals with the usual issues such as radiation, meteors, extreme temperatures. But it also deals well with the unexpected and in fact one scene preempts something like the problems experienced by Apollo 13. Another is the need to think out of the box in several situations that arise including one where it seems one of the crewmen may have to stay on the Moon. Further as an interesting piece of prognostication regards the involvement of private companies becoming involved in space travel, something only just now emerging.

This film of course is now dated and the effects are certainly well below what we have today, though they were almost state of the art at the time of production. But the film is still entertaining, good suspense, takes its material for the most part seriously and is worthy if only to see how close to the real thing, Pal and his advisers got to the first Moon landing, two decades later.

[ecgordon]

Surprised you didn't mention that Robert Heinlein co-wrote the screenplay and served as technical advisor. It's credited as being based on Rocket Ship Galileo, but I've always thought it had more in common with "The Man Who Sold the Moon."

[bearfax]

Surprised you didn't mention that Robert Heinlein co-wrote the screenplay and served as technical advisor. It's credited as being based on Rocket Ship Galileo, but I've always thought it had more in common with "The Man Who Sold the Moon."

....and it was co-written by Robert Heinlein....

[bearfax]

7. X - THE UNKNOWN (Brit b/w 1956)

Hammer Films started in the early 50s to move away from its supernatural horror themes and begin making SciFi/horror productions. This film was one of their first of this type.

As with many scifi horror films of this time the use of strong suspense and keeping the main attraction off camera, with only the sound of its actions apparent, ensured a growing tension of the unknown. And these films always seem to use isolation and what appear as simple innocent situations that go terribly wrong to build up the suspense.

X-The Unknown starts simply with a group of soldiers in the marshes, checking on radioactive signals in the area. They come across an unusual signal that results in the water of the marsh boiling. The soldiers run for their lives but one later dies of radiation poisoning and another has serious bad burns on his back. But no one seems to know why. Soon after a couple of kids enter the marsh and head to a small tower in the centre. One of the boys ventures into the tower and witnesses something so terrible that he cant describe it. The boys flee from the site but the adventurous lad dies, again from radiation poisoning.

Along comes Dr Royston (Dean Jagger) and Dr McGill (Leo McKern) from the Atomic Energy Commission. They search the tower and find a dead old man with a canister of radioactive material, that is no longer radioactive. More deaths follow and soon after a strange Y shaped hole is found that seems bottomless.

The creature doesnt appear until well into the movie, and its determined to be something that lives far underground and comes up for food every couple of decades. Its food is radioactive material and it just so happens its heading for an atomic energy establishment, no doubt to feed. And the town of Inverness is between the creature and the plant.

The special effects are fairly basic, but the use of isolated areas, swamps, lots of screaming off camera and the growing menace of this creature that is increasing in size as it feeds, helps maintain a clever though simple story line. As with many films of the era, it feeds on the cold war paranoia of the time.

Good early scifi that shows you dont need bags full of money to make a scary and enjoyable production. Its available on DVD and anyone interested in scfis of that era should give it a look

[bearfax]

8. IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE. (USA, b/w, 1958)

Originally this little pearl was to be called It! The Vampire from Beyond Space, but fortunately the producers thought otherwise. Watch this one closely because many of its characteristics will remind you of ALIEN, and in fact Alien was based on the template of this film. Another noted point was that the monster is played by Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, his last acting part, who was famed in the 30s and 40s for his roles in many theatre serials put out by RKO in competition with Buster Crabbe's Flash Gordon thrillers.

This was the age of the one stage spear like rocket ships, that landed vertically and had several decks inside. The premise has the first manned space ship sent to Mars with a crew of ten, meeting what seems an unknown disaster. All but one of the crew, Colonel Ed Carruthers (Marshall Thompson), have been killed and like in the recent The Martian film, the one survivor cannot leave the planet and is stranded until he can be rescued.

A second ship with nine crew make the journey to Mars and its captain is convinced Carruthers has murdered the rest of the crew because it was the only way he could survive with limited food and water, after its found their ship was unable to take off. Upon arriving, an investigation finds the emaciated body of one of the crew with a bullet hole through him. Carruthers is accused of murder, and the ship takes off to return to Earth.

But unbeknownst to the crew, a service door is late in being closed and something manages to slip into the ship. Soon after crew members start to vanish (the creature is sucking their fluids and then dumping them in the air ducts) when they go down to the lower decks. One crewman attacked survives long enough to warn the remainder that there is a humanoid monster on board and they soon realise the this is the cause of the first ship's disaster. And its coming for them. They cant allow it to get to Earth.

What follows is one of those Alien like spine chilling progression of events, as the creature, able to survive bullets, grenades, gas and electrocution, gradually seeks to work up the multiple decks to his food, the crew. And its strong enough to rip metal and tear through bulk heads. Only fire seems to keep it at bay. And one by one the crew meet their maker.

If you've seen Alien, the answer in killing the beast lies in the tactic used in that film. And like so many films of its day, it uses suspense effectively in what is a fairly simple story as the crew are pushed back and back to the top deck trying to work out some way to survive. The effects are quite good for the time, and the inside of the ship looks quite believable. The confined space adds to the sense of entrapment and panic. It was quite successful upon release and certainly one of the best movie space fictions of the age. Its worth watching just to see where Ridley Scott got his ideas for the Alien film, and is well worth watching, even if the special effects are now quite dated. Available on DVD