1950s sci-fi movies

Lon

New member
With Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull being set in 1957 and being an homage to 1950s sci-fi movies, is anyone adding movies from that era to their viewing habits?

I am. I'm going to watch Them! on dvd this weekend and I've added several others to my Netflix list for some summer viewing. I've never seen Them! or any of the others on my list, like When Worlds Collide, Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still and 20 Million Miles to Earth.
 

Deckard

New member
Not really 50s, altho I have been into a more Sci-Fi tone lately, watching Blade Runner, Children of Men, Alien, Aliens, and 2001 the past week or 2.

I wanna rent Close Encounters again before Indy comes out, its been a good year since Ive seen it and also just to sort of prepare for what is to me, the inevitable. :rolleyes:
 
Another atomic blast classic from the fifties is The Amazing Colossal Man. I've mentioned it quite a lot on the Raven. It's addictively awful.
 

Snakes

Member
How about "Them!" I love that movie. Good ole' giant atomic ants.
them-poster.jpg
 

jonesissparrow

New member
Lon said:
With Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull being set in 1957 and being an homage to 1950s sci-fi movies, is anyone adding movies from that era to their viewing habits?

I am. I'm going to watch Them! on dvd this weekend and I've added several others to my Netflix list for some summer viewing. I've never seen Them! or any of the others on my list, like When Worlds Collide, Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still and 20 Million Miles to Earth.

When I read that George Lucas said that KOTCS was going to based on 1950s Sci-fi movies I immediately looked up Sci-fi B movies and also B movies because usually I shun them because I associate with B as in Bad and some of the movies I've seen weren't that bad, best ones are:

Them02.jpg

Watching this was a blast and the old professor made me think of Harrison Ford as I knew from watching this he was going to be the wise old professor in KOTCS.
18864940.jpg


Forbiddden Planet was good

The_Blob_poster.jpg

George mention this movie that the filmmakers was going to emulate in KOTCS I went and checked out and it was WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY better than I anticipated and funny thing is the allegory still holds up to this day. I'm telling you what the Blob is a great family film and its not too scary either, I mean my brother and my grandparents had a blast watching this film on Easter day. One of the best things about the film is that the characters felt real they weren't pushed aside like alot of bad sci-fi films, these were good developed characters that you kind of cared about like Steve.

blobrun.jpg

TheBlob1958_Small.jpg


PF_1850002~Creature-from-the-Black-Lagoon-Posters.jpg

Another film George mentioned and this was good even though I didn't finish it.

Also this movie is the Terminator meets E.T.
242.jpg

If you don't mind too much the cardboard acting it can be kind of good

indiana-jones3_l.jpg

Also I think it would be wise too to watch some Teenage B movies, I highly recommend: High School Confidential (1958) really understand the era that Mutt is in
highschoolconfidential.jpg

HighSchool5Big.jpg
 

Michael24

New member
Good idea to watch some '50s sci-fi flicks before KOTCS. Maybe I'll throw on Howard Hawks' The Thing. I freakin' love that movie! (y)
 

eroc

New member
not sci-fi but watching The Wild One would be good to see how well Mutt invokes the spirit of Brando. Can you dig it?
 

phantom train

New member
Excellent idea for a thread! I've been avoiding spoilers for KOTCS, so I only recently found out about the 50's sci-fi homage in the film.

One film not mentioned yet is a movie I just saw recently for the first time, "Fiend without a Face". This is a late 50's, b&w low-budget film about a small town in Canada where people start passing away without explanation - the reason(s) are something quite disturbing...I would classify this as a sci-fi/horror film.

Anyway, this has a good story and interesting effects, and is worth seeing if you like these types of films.
 

Kooshmeister

New member
I only saw the original 1958 Blob recently (I saw the remake first, oddly enough), and found it was quite good but a little lacking for some reason. Them! on the other hand is quite an excellent film, and I also have a soft spot for The Black Scorpion which despite utilizing the talents of Willis O'Brien tends to get the cold shoulder (it was even featured in a very early episode of MST3K). But beyond those and the Creature From the Black Lagoon trilogy I like:

-The Day the Earth Stood Still
-The Deadly Mantis (more MST3K fodder)
-Tarantula
-Earth vs. the Spider (more MST3K fodder)
-The Amazing Colossal Man (still another movie featured on that show)
-War of the Colossal Beast (Colossal Man's sequel and, you guessed it, an MST3K victim)
-Attack of the Crab Monsters

(And don't get me wrong, I enjoy MST3K and their riffing on even moves I like. After all, if they hadn't riffed on Danger: Diabolik for their final episode I would never have discovered that hidden treasure. ;))
 

phantom train

New member
Though I haven't seen "IJ and the KOTCS" yet, it's possible that the sci-fi B-movie elements in this film may make people interesting to go back and watch more of these '50's B-movies.

One more to add to the list: "Attack of the 50-foot woman" (I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before). Great B-movie from the '50's.

The original is a lot better than the '90's remake.
 
Top