Favorite 1950's sci fi movies

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washman

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In no particular order...........

 

The Thing From Another World

When Worlds Collide

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Invaders from Mars

Forbidden Planet

War of the Worlds

This Island Earth

Creature from the Black Lagoon

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Them!

 

These are my favs for a number of reasons. Production quality, storyline, character development, plot, climax, and special effects are all factors that I use to make up this list.  Naturally it is not all inclusive. I'm sure others will have their favorites as well.

 

I think all of them still hold up, especially in light of over reliance on CGI to drive the storyline in today's flicks.  And I don't understand "reboot" terminology today. You reboot a computer, you remake a movie. No more no less.

 

One of the worst so called "reboots" was The Thing.  While John Carpenter's version is more to the tune of the JW Campbell novella and a masterpiece of special effects, the 2011 version was an orgy of CGI run amok.  And it only really shows a bit of shine at the very end where it "morphs" into the beginning of the Carpenter film.  I truly believe Carpenter's version will be recognized as one of the all time greats, if not in my generation then perhaps in the future.

 

The 1978 version of IOTBS was ok.........but only Kevin McCarthy can really bring a genuine sense of panic and paranoia that was so commonly found in 1950's movies.

 

And how many more times are they going to redo King Kong?  The 1933 version remains the best by far;  the 1976 DDL version with Jeff Bridges is ok as far as remakes go, but gets a little too bogged down in the romance with Jessica Lange.  And if you're going to have a big ape go postal, have him do it in NYC.

 

I know CGI is better, faster, cheaper...........blah blah, but it has virtually no scare factor for me. I mean, can you sit through the Eddie Quist transition in the Howling and not get creeped out?  It sure looks like Dee Wallace was!
 
all classics

and a new one I think will be as well is "The shape of water". I really liked it.
My hubby asked me if those were new 50's Cadillac's in it. They were 1962 models.
The 80's version of body snatchers is good to me, as is the War of the worlds remake.
Is "Them" the one where aliens take over humans but you can't tell them apart?
Same concept as body snatchers without the pods.
 
<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">1958's "Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman"...in the end, "she finally got Harry all to herself".</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That high-voltage brassiere really put the film over the top...but maybe she was just power hungry...</span>

twintubdexter-2018030322323804137_1.png
 
The 50's Sci-fi horror shows were based on "mutations" from the Atomic Age-now its "Mutations" from pollution.Loved the 50's movies-the old "rubber Suit" days rather than CGI-some of which is rather corny.
 
Does Anyone Remember...

“The Day of the Triffids”? It may have very well been one of those Saturday Afternoon made for Television “Creature Features”. I’ll always remember the ice cream truck with the loudspeaker on top to draw the Triffids closer to the ocean so they could be sprayed down with salt water.

I remembered the part about the loudspeaker on the truck before I posted the link. It’s odd the things we remember as children. I used to have a nightmare as a child about tall black objects growing from the ground, crashing over, and trapping me. It wasn’t until MeTv aired a movie called “The Monolith Monsters” several weeks ago that answered the question about where my nightmare came from. And it only took fifty years for me to find out. It’s funny how impressionable the young mind is. Has anything like this ever happened to you guys? I think this is one reason why repeating old movies is good.

Mike - No. Both bodysnacher movies had the same name just different people. “Them” was about giant ants.[this post was last edited: 3/4/2018-05:36]

 
'Devil Girl from Mars' (1954). I remember seeing it one Saturday afternoon on BBC2, during the early 1980s. I hadn't seen it since (I didn't even know its name!), until I came across it on the internet about six months ago.

'X, the Unknown' (1956) ... has a very young Frazer Hines, ten years before he starred as a regular companion in Dr Who.

'Earth v the Flying Saucers'

'Fire Maidens from Outer Space' (1956)... purely for the theme tune!

Thank heavens for the search-ability of the internet. Lol
 
Have many of these movies on DVD.Somewhere I have Day of the Triffids on VHS.Would like to replace the crappy VHS tape with a DVD copy of this movie-and I too liked the ice cream truck used to attract the Triffids-and the simple cure of salt water to fight them!And liked how people got blined by the meteors that brought the Triffids to Earth-that made the people easy prey for them!My brother and I watched that movie at the Holloman AFB theater-anytime we walked by a large plant and this was at night imagined it would reach out and grab us.
 
I was going to say 'Day of the Triffids' - but it was a 1962/63 film, with Howard Keel. Carole Ann Ford appears in it, before she starred in Doctor Who.
 
"CGI-some of which is rather corny"

I agree.

Computer rendering is still not good. I was unimpressed by the CGI in the Alien Prometheus film.

I am unimpressed by the CGI monster realisation in modern Dr Who. To my eyes, it looks completely fake.

You can't beat proper 'hands on' rubber monsters, animatronics and all.
 
The Day the Earth Stood Still. In the last clip below there's a shot of a housewife taking her wet laundry out of a Westinghouse front loader when the electric on Earth is "neutralized" as a demonstration that Klaatu means business.





 
This one is a little later but one of my favorites.

 

Quatermass and the Pit (a.k.a. Five Million Years to Earth in the United States) is a 1967 British science fiction horror film from Hammer Film Productions, a sequel to the earlier Hammer films The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2. Like its predecessors, it is based on a BBC Television serial Quatermass and the Pit, written by Nigel Kneale.<sup id="cite_ref-Quatermass_and_the_Pit_2-0" class="reference">[2]</sup> It was directed by Roy Ward Baker and stars Andrew Keir<sup id="cite_ref-Quatermass_and_the_Pit_2-1" class="reference">[2]</sup> in the title role as Professor Bernard Quatermass, replacing Brian Donlevy who played the role in the two earlier films. James Donald, Barbara Shelley and Julian Glover appear in co-starring roles.

The storyline, which is largely faithful to the original television production, centres on the discovery of a mysterious object buried at the site of an extension to the London Underground. Also uncovered nearby are the remains of early human ancestors more than five million years old. Realising that the object is in fact an ancient Martian spacecraft, Quatermass deduces that the aliens have influenced human evolution and the development of human intelligence. The spacecraft has an intelligence of its own, and once uncovered begins to exert a malign influence, resurrecting Martian memories and instincts buried deep within the human psyche.

Nigel Kneale wrote the first draft of the screenplay in 1961, but difficulties in attracting interest from American co-financiers meant the film did not go into production until 1967. The director, Roy Ward Baker, was chosen because of his experience with technically demanding productions such as A Night to Remember; this was the first of six films that he directed for Hammer. Andrew Keir, playing Quatermass, found making the film an unhappy experience, believing Baker had wanted Kenneth More to play the role. Owing to a lack of space, the film was shot at the MGM studios in Elstree, Borehamwood rather than Hammer's usual home at the time, which was the Associated British Studios, also in Elstree.

The film opened in November 1967 to favourable reviews and remains generally well regarded.
 
@cuffs054...

Ooooh - I've got 'Quatermass and the Pit', on a suitably ancient format... Laserdisc! Lol

It was a 1990's Encore/Lumiere release, along with 'The Devil Rides Out' and 'Dracula Prince of Darkness', as a 'Hammer Box Set'.

When BBC TV celebrated 50 Years of television in 1986, they repeated the BBC version of Quatermass and the Pit, first seen in December 1958 - January 1959.
 
I have the original "thing" on laserdisc-haven't fired up my laserdisc machines in years.Have a Pioneer combi machine that can play CDs,Laserdisc,and first generation DVD.The machine is largely not useable on newer DVDs.the Japanese still use Laserdisc.
 
Mine is a Pioneer CLD-1450, unmodified, but this model was popular because it could play US NTSC discs by transcoding to PAL 60Hz, provided the tv/monitor had a suitable 'modern' chipset.

ThamesValleyLaser of Oxfordshire, offered a service to modify the machine, to allow true NTSC 60 Hz output. I think another possible modification was fitting of a S-Video socket.

The remote control handset could also be modified to provide a button to allow switching between analogue audio and digital audio. NTSC discs had the capacity to allow commentary tracks on analogue, and standard audio via digital. PAL discs only offered a programme's audio.
 

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