ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Remember the days when we were wide-eyed, sci-fi lovin’ kids, way back in the 20th Century, when cars had fins and girls were a mystery, and the local movie theater had amazing posters out front every Saturday that we stared at in awe and yearned to rush into the theater where the movie was playing?

The Saturday Matinees we saw after being dazzled by those posters rarely lived up to our expectations . . . but we still have fond memories of those hours we spent stuffing our face with popcorn and gazing at that big screen.

How many of the posters below seduced you into watching the movies they glorified so enthusiastically? Some of these features dazzled us so effectively when we were young that we enjoyed he movies, despite their cinematic flaws.

The titles below are links to All Sci-Fi threads, so if you have fond memories or good anecdotes to share, click on the titles and take us back to your childhood for a brief visit to that legendary age.

Gentlemen, welcome to . . .

The Age of the Saturday Matinee!
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Rocketship X-M (1950)



The "teasers" here are pretty straightforward. The title has the word "rocketship", and there's a rocket on the left side, zooming into space. A group of frightened space explorers are being threatened by god-knows-what!

The only way to get to the bottom of this mystery was to fork over 35¢ and get a seat close to the screen.

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Five (1951)



This one sure doesn't look like science fiction, but your buddy down the block said it was all about the end of the world, so you decide to take a chance. Besides, there's always the previews and a cartoon.
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Lost Continent (1951)



Hot damn! Dinosaurs and a rocket and a sexy native girl in a short dress! You're just hopin' it's not another of the "lizard shows" with Battling Iguanas!

(Unfortunately, it was . . . )
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The Man From Planet X (1951)



This one looks really promising! A pretty girl seems to be sitting on the Moon, and she looks ready to pucker up if the spaceman gets frisky — in spite of the fact that he's allegedly "The WEIRDEST visitor the world has ever scene!"
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Red Planet Mars (1952)



Wow, this one must be good! Strange lab equipment with a hugh video screen which shows a tidal wave swamping New York while a handsome scientist clutches his busty girlfriend. This one definitely requires a large popcorn and a Super-Gulper Sofa!
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Donovan's Brain (1953)



Strange poster. Some guy with creepy eyeballs is watching some other guy strangle a woman — or he's watching himself do it in a mirror! But any movie with "brain" in the title is bound to be scary.
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The Magnetic Monster (1953)



A monster . . . that's magnetic? Hey, there's a new idea. The poster says "The thing that came alive!" The poster is full of puzzling stuff that piques our curiosity. We knew it would be interesting to look at the poster again after seeing the movie, just to see if it makes more sense!
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Phantom From Space (1953)



An alien is toting a shapely lady, while a big red planet looms in the background and a nifty rocket is zooming through space. And what's the deal with that crowd in the lower left corner, watching the Red Planet Romeo making off with the hot honey?
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Project Moonbase (1953)



At last! A bonafide space adventure, complete with a rockin' rocketship and a spinning space station. This is one I'll be sittin' through twice!
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Target Earth (1954)



Bless my souls, do I see giant robots attacking a city with their death rays! And here's another brave hero with a firm grip on a winsome wench — who seems to be gripping her protector just as firmly. I'm thinkin' this movie is gonna be good!
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Tobor the Great (1954)



Wow, what a poster! A robot is either rescuing a damsel from some deadly danger, or he's taking her to the senior prom. After all, the blurb at the top says, "A man made monster with every human emotion!" Geez. that covers a lot of territory!

But this kid-pleasing poster has enough imagination to tempt you and your friends, and even though you never see the Prom Queen in the movie, it had some great moments!
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Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)



We shelled out the price of a ticket for this one, but we never saw a green, bald-headed guy. However, other than the chromatic exaggeration, the poster doesn't promise any thrills the movie doesn't deliver.
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King Dinosaur (1955)



The artwork for this one is sub-standard in quality, but we can't resists a flick with dinosaurs! We heard from the kids on block that it was about a planet which wanders into the solar system, populated by dinosaurs!

How could we possibly go wrong with THIS one!
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Fire Maidens of Outer Space (1956 England)



The poster is no Norman Rockwell, but the artist sure packed it with juicy promises! Take a look at the close-up of the teaser inserts and the text of the claims they make!




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It Conquered the World (1956)





A cone-shaped alien monster with evil eyes and a set of teeth that would terrify a shark!

But the monsters looks kinda goofy. Perhaps a better title would be "The Dunce Cap that Cracked Up the Audience".
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The Werewolf (1956)



A gorgeous poster for this cool looking movie, and it's on a double bill with one called Earth vs the Flying Saucers. We better tell Mom will be home a little late.

And there were two version of the poster outside the theater! The other one shows the werewolf in a whole different color!





Perhaps he only turned into a werewolf under a Blue Moon.
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The Astounding She-Monster (1957)



Hmmm . . . where's the "monster"? Is it hiding behind the shapely gal in the sexy outfit? Or is her face so ugly we'll have to cover our eyes from time to time?

Wow, we sure hope so!
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Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)



Now, here's a poster that crabs your attention. (I mean . . . grabs it. )

A bathing beauty is dangling from a rope, while a monster crab is all set to gobble her up! This is the kind of image that will lure a monster-loving kid into a darkened theater.
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The Brain From Planet Arous (1957)



What's not to love about a movie with a floating alien brain whose eyes glow, and a maniacal John Agar (also with glowing eyes on special occasions) who tries to seduced Miss Joyce Meadows on a lawn chair.

Gee, you'd think the poster would include that scene,eh?


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The Giant Claw (1957)



Imagine the dilemma the poor artist faced when asked to make a poster for this movie! It must be so hideous that the poster would be banned!

And yet he rose to the occasion by finding a clever way to present the monster. He just showed a stylized lower half of the monster bird as it clutches both a plane and a missile with murderous ease.

(Little did we realize that this was the Grouho Marx of monsters!)




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Monster from Green Hell (1957)



Okay, let's give credit where credit is due. The poster accurately portrays the giant wasps — both the full-sized props and the stop motion models we see in a few brief scenes.

But when we were young and enthusiastic about stop motion, that part looked might cool@
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The Monster That Challenged the World (1957)



Here's a poster that will haunt your young dreams for the coming week — and if the monster really does chomp down on that lovely lady in the negligee, you might need to barf into your box of popcorn!

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Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)



Hot toe mighty!

Okay, there is NO WAY this movie has a scene like the one in the poster. Who'd have thought that a giant honey bun like her could terrorize a city, tie up traffic, and give those guys standing below her a view that would hypnotizes them!
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The Brain Eaters (1958)



Here again is a poster that caused us kids to frantically buy our tickets, dash into the auditorium, and breathlessly await the scenes that inspired that promotional artwork!
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12 to the Moon (1960)



Who could resist a movie about a dozen brave astronauts who romp around on the Moon?

And look! Mars is right around the corner! (The upper right corner to be exact!)
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The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)



The poster for this movie is interesting, if not very exciting. But when your 12 years old you just can't get enough stories about invisible guys.





Ah, yes — The Glorious Age of Saturday Matinees!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[tmlindsey]

Alas, the days of the Saturday Matinee were long over when I was a kid in the 70s. I did enjoy watching Matinee at the Bijou on PBS when I was younger (as did my wife).

Now, if I went, it would just be Manatee at the Bijou

If we ever hit the lottery, we hope to buy/build a small theatre and revive the Saturday Matinee concept.
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"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"

[Gord Green]

Oh yes....Those were some of the best hours I ever had!


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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Morbius]

Great post Bud! A trip down memory lane. I saw some of those films with my parents as a young child and as I got a little older I could go to shows by myself or with childhood friends. Also, 1954 20k Leagues Under the Sea, the Nautilus.

[Bud Brewster]

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Gentlemen, thanks for the kind remarks! I'm very glad you enjoyed it. And Gord's wonderful picture is absolutely perfect, a work of art that really makes a statement about this lost chapter in American history.

By the way, I apologize for the number typos in my post!
I got a bit weary while working on it yesterday, and I posted it without giving it a thorough proofreading top-to-bottom. It's a complex posts with lots of formatting codes, and it's easy to make small and embarrassing mistakes.

But when I starting fixing them today I realize I'd made a serious creative error!

The first half of the post (which I composed last week as a Word document) started out as a fond tribute to the way kids might have reacted to various posters for those Saturday Matinee features.

But yesterday, when I came back to the Word document and finished the post, I forgot about that and started writing standard comments about the movies!

Gord's image made me realize that I'd stray from my True Mission!





I suspect you guys wondered why I wandered away from the nostalgic premise, about halfway through the post.

Gentlemen, I apologize.

To fix this error, I scrapped most of the comments in the second half and wrote new ones that stuck to what the post was supposed to include — short descriptions of how our younger selves must have felt before we saw the movies, when we first beheld those amazing posters!

I hope you'll take a look at the revised version. If nothing else, you'll be amused by a whole NEW set of typos!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Always have loved movie posters, thanks so much for posting these, Bud.

Awesome movie posters, just like movie trailers, could make mediocre & poor films appear as if they were Academy Award candidates.

Conversely, I've seen so-so movie posters where the film itself is fantastic! One example of that s the inferior movie poster for the fantastic & classic Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. It looks like it came out of a fifth grade art project.

[Bud Brewster]

___More Visits to —
__The Glorious Age of Saturday Matinees!

We must remember, of course, that Saturday Matinees were not restricted to B-movies and cinematic clunkers that were only palatable to intelligent minds if viewed through the innocence of childhood.

Occasionally we would arrive at our neighborhood theater to see a movie which was destined to become a classic — unbeknownst to us — after we saw tantalizing trailers on our venerable black-and-white televisions.

These were distinctly different experiences from those Saturday afternoons when we didn't really know what were getting into, and we desperately hoped that the dazzling posters we saw outside would keep their promises when we got into the theater and the lights went down.

But our movie-going experiences always started with those golden moments when we stepped up the display case along the sidewalk and took a gander at those posters behind the glass.

Here's few of the posters we admired which were not just filled with empty promises — they were artistic renderings of the true wonders we were about to see on that big screen inside the theater.

So, let's find out if my predictions below jib with the memories you folks have from your Monsterkid days.
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Destination Moon (1950)



You've watched the previews on TV several times after you got home from school, but your television is black & white — and yet the poster at the theater makes you wonder if the movie really is in color!

Your imagination runs wild! Are you really going to get to take a Technicolor trip to the Moon . . . while munching on popcorn and sharing Raisinets with your best friend?
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The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)



You and your friends arrive at the theater and crowd around the poster display case next to the ticket booth.

"Hey, guys! Check out the poster! This movie looks swell, don't it? It's got a space guy, a big blue robot holding a screaming chick, and a giant hand crushing the Earth! Guys, I think we better load up on snacks — 'cause we don't want to miss a minute of this one!"
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Flight to Mars (1951)



As posters go, this one is a feast for the eyes!

There's a spacecraft control room, a guy captured by Martians in spacesuits, a hot chick in a short dress and high heels . . . and the prettiest rocket ship you've ever seen.

Imagine your gang of buddies rushing up and exclaiming —

"Come on, guys! I'll race you to the snack bar!"
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When Worlds Collide (1951)



Here's a poster to drive young minds mad! Earth is destroyed, a loan spacecraft makes a hasty getaway, skyscrapers topple over, and tidal waves wash away all the works of Man!

Your best friend rushes up and interrupts your admiration of the poster.

"Hey, Jimmy. I heard this flick is by that guy who made the movie about going to the Moon! Betcha' this one will be pretty keen!"
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The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)



This is Monsterkid eye-candy of the purest kind. I wonder what the youngsters said when they saw this work of art outside the theater! Maybe something like this?

"I saw the preview for this on TV yesterday. A cop gets EATEN by the dinosaur! I think we oughta stay and see this one twice, okay?"

"Yeah, but look what is says in that red circle in the corner."



"Ah heck — we'll just lie about our age!"
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It Came From Outer Space (1953)



How do you make an effective poster for a 3D movie?

Well, it ain't easy, but this one did it! And sci-fi lovin' guys flocked to the theater to see if the title of the movie really did zoom out at the audience!

They weren't disappointed.
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War of the Worlds (1953)



What are the clues we see here that made the kids think they were in for an afternoon of all-out alien invasion?

Gee, not much.

Just an angry red planet hanging in the sky while it rained down death rays from a fleet of alien ships! And two terrified people watched in horror as the Earth and all it's people are annihilated!

Not a bad bit of afternoon entertainment for the wide-eyed youngsters who paid 35¢ for a front row seat to armageddon.
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)



This one is a special case, because I know of one Monsterkid who saw this movie in 1954 and was so inspired that he eventually became a marine biologist . . . and later on, a member of All Sci-Fi.
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Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)



The poster doesn't do this movie justice. What the youngsters who saw this movie in 1954 remember about it in the years to come is more likely to be this.





I must admit, this is certainly the image that ]b]I[/b] like best!

But this was the Holy Grail of monster movies in the 1950s, and the Creature was the heir apparent to the Frankenstein monster, who reigned supreme during the 1930s and 1940s.

Love live the King . . .

As for the influence these movie had on American manhood,
God only knows how many young boys swam around underwater in public pools wearing swim mask so they could ogle the pretty girls in bathing suits from the neck down without fear of being chastised!

(Guys, if I seem to be speaking from experience on this subject, well . . . )

Oops! Busted!
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Them! (1954)



Picture this!

You're twelve years old and you're standing outside the local theater gazing at the poster for this movie.

You're wondering why monsters, aliens, and robots always snatch up gorgeous girls in slinky evening gowns or negligees while they're surrounded by ordinary people who seem to hold no interest for these amorous and apparently amoral abominations!

Suddenly your best friend, Bob, comes up and says, "Hey, come on!! The movie is about to start. Go get your ticket, Dude!"

Still gazing at the poster, you say, "Eddie . . . why do the monsters always grab pretty women?"

Your friend just chuckles and says, "Because the guy who painted that poster is just as horny as we are! Now come on, Eddie! We need to hit the snack bar!"
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Morbius]

Bud, you got that right!!

[tmlindsey]

You might enjoy this:

____ Matinee at the Bijou reconstruction

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"Have you never wondered what it would be like to walk between the ticks and tocks of Time?"

[Bud Brewster]

___Yet ANOTHER visit to —
__The Glorious Age of Saturday Matinees!

By the mid-1950s the public was eager for more science fiction, but Hollywood was mostly interested cranking out low-budget sci-fi that didn't live up to the posters — and even the artwork declined in quality!

But each year they still made a few good ones that thrilled audiences — both young and old alike. And the eager monsterkids rushed to theaters for those fabulous Saturday Matinees.

Here's a few of the great sci-fi movies from the middle years of the Fabulous Fifties, along with some noteworthy films we enjoyed, despite their B-movie status.

As I've done above, I'll try to capture the feeling we got when we went to the theater and wondered it the posters we saw prepared us for a great adventure . . . or just teased us with false claims.
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Conquest of Space (1955)



Imagine the wide, wonder-filled eyes of the kids when they first saw that beautiful poster!

The FX in this George Pal production are stunning. So the eager young space cadets certainly got their money's worth when they saw this movie. It is undoubtedly the best interplanetary adventure of the 1950s, because it includes a magnificent space station, a space shuttle, and a terrific space ship that carries a crew to Mars and back!

Unfortunately the story has some problems, but the kids in the 1950s probably didn't let that spoil the fun.
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It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955)



Unfortunately our two imaginary Monsterkids — Eddie and Bob — wouldn't be very impressed by the poster for this movie, even though the movie itself is amazing, despite its low budget!

So, I figure the conversation outside the theater would go like this.

"Eddie . . . is this what the scenes of the big octopus are going to look like?"

"No, don't worry, Bob. I saw the preview yesterday, and I think they used a real octopus! A really BIG one! Or a real small city to make it look big. But it looked so good in the previews that my mom said I shouldn't go see it, because it would be too scary."

"Really? So . . . how come your here now?"

"I told Mom we were going to see a Western. Come on, Bob, I've got a whole dollar to spend at the snack bar, so I'll need your help carrying all the stuff."

"What? I've got a dollar, too!"

"Oh . . . okay, we'll just make two trips before the movie starts. Come on!"
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Tarantula (1955)



Okay, so here were are, one week later — and the two boys are gazing at the poster above, with big round eyes and slack-jawed amazement.

"Eddie . . . that's a very big spider. Will it really be that big?"

"Come on, man, we both saw the preview last night when I stayed over at your house and we watched The Big Movie Shocker with Bestoink Dooley. The spider looked that big in the preview to ME."





"Okay, yeah, it did. Hey, I wonder if the spider will eat a lady in a pick dress."

"Don't silly, Bob. The monsters never eat the ladies they carry around in the posters. That would be too gross, and parents wouldn't let their kids go see the movies."

"Oh . . . right. They'd make 'em go see Westerns! Heh heh . . . So, let's go rob the snack bar, Pardner!"

"Right!"
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This Island Earth (1955



Picture the scene in 1955 when two young boys stood in front of their local theater and gazed at this poster in the glass-covered display case.

These two seasoned veterans of countless Saturday Matinees are well aware that posters sometimes lie, and Hollywood just wants to cheat them out of their hard-earned 35¢ by promising great science fiction movies and displaying flashy posters which bear little resemblance to the movies they'll see inside the theater.

And so . . . they ponder the situation.

"Eddie . . . there's an alien monster with claws and a big brain."

"Right. But I'll believe it when I see it."

"Okay . . . but there's a cool flying saucer and lots of explosions."

"We've seen lots of explosions before. Big deal."

"That's true. So, Eddie . . . we shouldn't get our hopes up. Right?"

"Right. And by they way, you owe me a buck from last week. I bought the snacks."

"Oh yeah. Well, like I said . . . we shouldn't get our hopes up."
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Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956)



Apparently, Columbia was cheap when it came to poster artists, because their posters tended to suck.

This amazing movie should have had a poster as impressive as the better ones for the great movies from this era.

After all, I saw this movie at the Roosevelt Drive-in in 1956, and my memories of that occasion have inspired mental images like this!





And yes, that IS an old picture of the long-gone Roosevelt Drive-in. I not only pasted in the saucers, I had to replace the unimpressive sky with something more picturesque. (Damn, I'm good!)



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

[Krel]