ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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It’s amazing how hard Hollywood worked to provide the sci-fi lovin’ public in the 1950s with the kind of movies they wanted!

Equally amazing is how often they got it completely wrong!

Check out the three less-than-stellar efforts below.

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Queen of Outer Space (1958)

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_____________ Queen Of Outer Space (Trailer)


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In many ways, this is the prototypical 1950s journey into outer space, parodied much later in such fare as Amazon Women on the Moon (1987). It's not as effective as the better World Without End (56), lending itself to ridicule due to the juvenile plot — straight out of a young boy's fantasy of finding beautiful women on an alien planet.

But it also copies, to some extent, the ultimate fifties sci-fi film, Forbidden Planet — just on a much smaller scale of hardy spacemen venturing into alien terrain.

It's unusual in that the credits don't begin until 15 minutes in — which is after the 4-man crew blast off on what seems to be a routine mission into orbit and witness their space station being destroyed by an alien beam. Then, the unexpected — the energy beam hits them and they crashland on Venus, where the ship's captain (Eric Fleming) gazes around the lush vegetation and wonders aloud if it's a lifeless planet.





In some ways, this is also a follow-up to Conquest of Space (1955), which also had a space station and featured Fleming in a similar role.

But then it veers into ludicrous directions on Venus, with the introduction of mini-skirted young females and their despotic queen, who hides a serious facial disfigurement.

Zsa-Zsa Gabor plays one of the young women sympathetic to the newcomers and who defy the queen. The sight of these females running around in their skirts and high heels is what prompts most of the derision directed at fifties sci-fi nowadays. A sci-fi plot which fits a comedy like Abbott & Costello Go To Mars — they actually also go to Venus — is not great fodder for actual science fiction cinema.

But at the same time, it's not without entertainment value — and one can look at it as some kind of strange dream..

BoG's Score: 5 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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War of the Satellites (1958)

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______________ War Of The Satellites - Trailer


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Trying to capitalize on the same year's Sputnik launch, this is a Roger Corman quickie attempt to mask this defect with an involved plot. But it ends up as meandering and slightly confusing.

Satellites are being destroyed — probably by alien forces. The scientist in charge (Richard Devon) is on his way to a meeting at the U.N. building when his car crashes and he seems to be killed (again, due to alien forces).

However, he shows up at the U.N. anyway!

It's obvious (to the audience, not to any of the other characters) that this is not really the human scientist anymore, but an alien. Typically, he no longer expresses much emotionm and more alarmingly he doesn't notice when his hand begins to burn due to a blowtorch. He can also divide into two identical beings.

Soon a 3-ship mission is launched into space. Among the crew are the two main characters played by Dick Miller and Susan Cabot. Miller's character is suspicious of the masquerading alien, but Cabot's can't be convinced. The alien soon begins to dispose of the crew, starting with the guy who had witnessed his hand being burned.

Obviously the title of this film doesn't make any sense. These aren't satellites, they're ordinary spaceships. There's no war among them, such as a conflict between American and Soviet forces, just a vague alien threat.

Miller is in a rare lead heroic role here; usually, he's support or playing an annoying loudmouth. Cabot is fine, and Devon is creepy.

Corman makes the most of almost nothing — a single arch & short corridor is used for most of the ship scenes, with characters running through the same set over & over.

BoG's Score: 4 out of 10

____________________ War of the Satellites


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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The Spider (1958)

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_________________ The Spider (1958) Trailer


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Mr. B.i.G. strikes again — Bert I. Gordon, who also gifted us with The Amazing Colossal Man, now tries to do Tarantula one better — a giant spider.

It takes place in a small American town and adjacent wilderness. Some guy driving back to town at night in a truck encounters a horrific impediment. His daughter and her boyfriend go in search of him the next day, and they find the truck crashed off the road, so decide to investigate a nearby cave.

This cave is well-known to the locals and has spawned some local spooky legends. The young couple do find a couple of fresh skeletons a ways inside, but this is not enough to deter them. Then they fall into what seems like a net of rope, but is supposed to be a large spider web. Next thing you know — that's right — a screeching giant spider! Yaggh! Run away, run away!

(Though they remark on how stick the web is, apparently it can't hold them. Not a very effective web. )



As expected, the authorities (a sheriff and his deputy) scoff at the story from the teens, but the teens gain an ally in their science teacher (Ed Kemmer of Space Patrol fame), who convinces the lawmen to check things out.

They all head over to the cave, along with some insect exterminators. The girl finally locates the desiccated remains of her father, and the giant spider makes its presence known to the others.

Fortunately, they brought along enough arachnid pesticide to spray the monster to death . . . .or did they?

Here's where the story takes an even more loopy turn — the science guy (Kemmer) is certain that the creature is dead, so they place the supposedly dead monster in the school gymnasium. Oh, wait — the science guy says (after the creature begins to rampage all over town) it was just stunned . . . .sorry.

Later, the giant spider selects a particular house to attack — it's the science guy's house, where his wife & son are threatened.

Karma?



Mr. B.i.G. does the FX work himself. as he did in most of his films, and it's adequate, especially if you're a kid.

Less successful is the selection of actors to play supposed high school kids. This was a problem in a few films back then, notably in The Blob, also release in 1958.

There's one in particular — I think the character's name is Joe, and he's a buddy of the boyfriend. When we first see him in class, my first thought was, "What is this 40-year-old doing in this classroom?"

Overall, I was surprised that this movie to be better than I thought it would be in terms of suspense in the first couple of acts, and the pace is pretty good.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10

________________ Earth vs the Spider (1958)


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____________ MST3k 313 - Earth vs the Spider


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)