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This Island Earth [VHS] [1955] starring: Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason, Lance Fuller, Russell Johnson

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Rating: - Entertaining, if simple Sci-Fi Movie.

I liked this movie, but it was a dreadfully long time in getting going - about three quarters of an hour.

Okay, so the budgets weren't big for this type of film , and from today's perspective, the Special Effects pretty simple, but I love these old Sci-Fi movies from the 50s and 60s - a time when imagination was the key.

I wasn't familiar with any of the cast, but this did not matter.

An entertaining - if simple Space movie from 1955 featuring your 'typical' Space Creature/Monster!.

Rating: - This is a pretty important step in the history of science fiction cinema.

First, it was made in color, which is not common in genre cinema of the time, and also because it was shot with a budget rather conspicuous.
Indeed the interplanetary war scenes are quite realistic in the eyes of the beholder.
The special effects department, headed by Clifford Stine (who has worked with Jack Arnold, the director contacted first for the realization of this work, which then passed to the less talented but more docile Joseph Newman) works very well and there awl in special effects, however, are never overwhelming or free over action.
As for the mutant (the work of very good Bud Westmore) that at one point appeared in the film, we can write that it was in no way foreseen in the original script, but that he believed was imposed by the production requires the presence of a monster to be included in various advertisements to entice the public to see the film.
Moreover, the figure dell'extraterrestre is, unlike the usual, certainly human and I share the same concerns and fears that may have a human being when faced with the catastrophe of war.
Is never bad, even if it prevails in the first part of the mystery about who he really is, much less pervaded by an aura of superiority, as some wise alien films before (see 's excellent "The Day the Earth stood still" by Robert Wise). Jack Arnold participates in post production on this film because the production called to redo some scenes set in the planet Metaluna, as not convince those who invested the money in this work as too boring to be subjected to public scrutiny. Arnold succeded and managed to find a new visual verve.

Rating: - A good 50s sci-fi experience.

This film will offer you a typical 50s Sci-Fi experience. It features everything you might be expecting: spacecraft and space travel, strange looking alien creatures ,and the kind of acting that makes you realize why some of these actors vanished after this film. Rex Reason(with his impressively deep voice) is not the greatest actor,but he does have a handsome presence. This is a fun look back at the paranoia of America in the mid 50s.

Rating: - My earliest S.F. memory

This was my first ever experience of Science Fiction which I remember fondly. I liked it so much I also bought the paperback many decades later. I was particularly bowled over by the thought that there could ever be beings from another planet, that they could be amongst us, that strange devices called interroceters could be used as an intelligence test & the bug eyed worker on Metaluna was very scary, when I was 5 yrs old. I actually enjoyed the paperback better as the film doesn't stand the test of time so well. On the whole I would watch this if it comes up on the telly, I would read the book (much more believable & interesting) but I can't honestly recommend anyone buy the film except for nostalgia.

Rating: - Cold war sci-fi of the first order.

When this was made Sputnik was still 2 years away. You'll expect spaceships bouncing on their strings - so when you see the special effects you'll be blown away. This is not Star Wars - but you will be immersed in the paranoia of 1950s America. My only criticism is that they spend so little time on the alien planet. I guess the special effects caused serious budget problems - plus ca change!

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