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I feel like there was a missed opportunity in the tagline department. It should have read, ” When in doubt, grenade it out.”
The 1950’s were chocked full of sci-fi monster films. Irrational thought processes, plotholes for days, and rubber suit monsters are all being reused from other films.
It! is the story of a rescue mission of a colonel on Mars who is the only surviving member of his research group. He is picked up, and the new team believes the colonel killed his whole team, and they must take him back for his court marshall. The colonel insists there is something on the planet that killed his team.
Within ten minutes of the film, the creature is already on board and killing a member of the rescue team. You may say, ” Wow, that moves fast!” but the reality is these films were all tightly shot and quick-paced. They rarely exceed the one hour and 20 minutes mark. Here, we don’t even make the seventy-minute mark.
Our miniature flies through space against a black-curtained background with tiny lights as stars set against it. Does this take away any of its charm? Absolutely not! In fact, for me, it gives it even more. Practical effects in the 50s were so much fun. Especially when you think that nobody has seen space. Nobody knew what any of it looked like. There weren’t thousands of pictures taken from space stations and rockets yet.
When our crew confronts the alien for the first time, the group’s first inclination is to put grenades on the air vent covers. Not just one or two. We are talking a dozen. Probably more. Furthermore, they leave the box of extra grenades on the floor. Seems completely logical in a tiny tin can spaceship. Alas, when they blow up, nothing happens. The creature is unharmed as well. When the surviving members decide to use toxic gas, they must use all the gas. Once again, the creature is unharmed.
Something I found incredibly nostalgic was the amount of stock sounds and noises pulled from other sci-fi films. The radios use the same sounds as the Martians in War of The Worlds, a similar noise used in THEM! and Day of The Triffids. Both are favorites of mine. Parts of this were used for inspiration for Alien, aka Starbeast ( for all you nerds out there), and John Carpenter’s The Thing. This feels like The Thing From Outer Space, just on a spaceship instead of an ice base. The two most influential movies for Alien, though, would be Queen of Blood and Mario Bavas Planet of The Vampires, but I digress; there is influence from this as well. Ye old airlock trick saves the day again.
The scene when they open the spaceship and walk sideways down is magical. How they are magnetically stuck to the side isn’t explained and the pull-away shot from a distance doesn’t really show that they are moving, nor is the background. The rocket appears to be moving, though. It doesn’t detract. The naivety and limitations of the time only make these foam-suit alien films even more fun.
The alien looks like the Creature From The Black Lagoon wore body armor. The man behind the mask was played by athlete and stuntman Ray Corrigan. Broad-shouldered and standing 6’2″, Corrigan looks massive in the suit. A very convincing beast, for sure.
There is so much to love about these old sci-fi monster films. They get in, entertain for the entire run time, have minimal downtime, and get out.
Kino Lorber recently released this on Blu-Ray; the print looks clean and clear. I hope to one day own every 50s sci-fi film I possibly can. It’s a shame how many people don’t really know where the inspiration for their favorite sci-fi films has come from.
