1958 B-movieMy rating: 11/20
Plot: A space travellin' guy goes to Mars with some other space travellin' guys. An unseen monster kills everybody but him. A second rocket is sent to Mars to pick him up and take him back to earth where he faces murder charges since, as everybody knows, Mars doesn't have monsters. The monster ends up on the ship. Havoc is wreaked.
"Mars is almost as big as Texas...maybe it's got monsters."
Somewhat typical of science fiction from the time period, filmed in black and white in a style that reminds me of The Twilight Zone. There's a complete disregard for science as the space travellers try to kill the creature, inexplicably resembling something from an "Attack of the Swamp Thing" kind of movie. Is it really wise to use grenades inside a small rocket ship? And opening the rocket ship's doors seems like the type of plan that would end up killing everybody.
There's a lot of similarity between this and Alien except there are no characters walking around in ill-fitting underpants. Ill-fitting spacesuits, yes. No undergarments though. The first 1/4 of the movie is interesting in an Alien-sort of way, too, with tension mounting with shadows and sound effects telling the story. There are women characters, but they are not heroically displayed like Ripley or her underpants. Instead, they exist like I imagine they do in most 50's science fiction--to create love story subplots, to clear tables after the other characters have finished eating, to look scared, and to top off the coffee.
The monster is silly. He's a pigeon-toed slimy thing. "It" is Ray Corrigan in a rubber suit. Instead of looking menacing, he sort of stumbles around and grumbles with raised three-fingered hands. The monster was actually much, much scarier as a shadow or as an unseen lurking thing. I figured an actor with "It" on his resume would have it made and looked up Ray Corrigan. He plays a gorilla (or "Gorilla Man") or ape in 17 different films. No kidding. Talk about your type-casting! He also played numerous monsters and a one-eyed innkeeper.
Here's me watching It! The Terror from Beyond Space:
I'm going back to the beginning of your historic year. I love that you picked this movie to start with. When I was around nine I remember watching this late at night, alone, on one of those creature feature channels. It scared the crap out of me and I drove it from my memory for 30-some years. When I came across it last year, I faced my fears and watched it again. Your review is pretty on target although for sentimental reasons I give it a 13.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I liked this one and remember it more than 'Lucky Number Slevin'...good B-movie.
ReplyDeleteGlad somebody's reading these early entries. I'd hate for the words to just blow away in cyberspace and never be seen by anybody. Except winter rates! My man's been there from the very beginning!