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It Came from Outer Space (1953)
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Krel
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Hey, that's a good point! Very Happy

Oh, but wait a minute . . . Carlson was totally sympathetic towards the aliens, so he'd realize that if the government learned important info about the aliens' physiology and technology, they'd be fearful and want to "get ready for them" when they came back.

Carlson's character might have kept his trap shut, but you can bet that those kidnap victims are gonna sing like a canary. Besides the government couldn't afford to let an Alien body rot in a potential water source. Besides, the victims stories would support Carlson's story of benign, scared involuntary visitors. The only real casualties in the movie were the Aliens, no humans were killed.

People always write about alien technology as if there would be immediate results. If they got the alien raygun, it could take months or even years to figure out how to disassemble it for examination. Then how long would it take to duplicate it, when the infrastructure isn't there? Drop a smart phone, or Harrier Jump Jet by a jungle tribe, just how long would it take them to duplicate one? It would take decades to get concrete results.

Besides, looking at the raygun as just a weapon is short sighted, as there are so may other benefits from the device. The power source alone would have limitless uses. Think of a tunneling machine using a raygun beam to cut through the Earth. The beam could be used to dispose of hazardous materials. The industrial uses for such a beam are practically limitless.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Very impressive analysis of the situation, David! Very Happy

Shame on me, however, for forgetting all about the host of hostages who were not only abducted, they spent time inside the spaceship — something which Carlson didn't get to do.

Your comment about the alien's carcass in the water supply ties in beautifully with my remark about the possibility of dangerous organisms being released during an autopsy, and it takes it a step further by pointing out that the organism might already be in the environment.

Bravo!

Your analysis of the hand weapon's impact on our technology is equally impressive, both in the way you described the difficulties in reverse engineering it and the various applications the technology might have.

A digging tool! Wow! The scene where Alien/Barbara cuts a gash across the wall of the mine certainly demonstrated the weapon's abilities in that area.

You pointed out that the only casualties were the two aliens (Alien/Barbara Rush and Alien/Joe Sawyer). The first alien died because Carlson defended himself during an attack, but the second one died after being shot repeatedly by a murderous mob, causing the truck to crash and burn.

The government would rightly be concerned that the conduct of the Sand Rock, AZ, citizens might cause the aliens to view mankind as dangerous (which is true) and retaliate in some manner.

We know that the aliens are presented as very peaceful, but the government didn't get to know them like the audience did, so there would be a great deal of paranoia about alien invasion, I think.

That, of course, would figure prominently in the drama when a sequel is made.

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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 12:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Watching this fine film the other night on MeTV's Svengoolie I was startled by the opening of the movie.

It had no pre-credits! That was unheard of for movies in the 50s,& all the films prior to the 50s.
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 4:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

You're absolutely right! In fact, IMDB mentions this in their trivia section.

This was one of the few American movies from the 1950s to place its credits at the end rather than at the beginning.

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 12:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Part of the reason why the credits were moved to the end rather than the beginning of the film was because of union requirements for extended credits for all union members to be included.

Look at any film today and see the loooong list of EVERY union member in the credits and you can understand why if placed at the beginning would send most audience members screaming to the lobby!

Plus they'd forget what movie they went to see in the first place!

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The first movie I recall seeing the endless roll of film credits on was the original Star Wars.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 11:44 pm    Post subject: Re: It Came from Outer Space (1953) Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
No arms or legs — much less hands...

According to Bob Burns in the DVD's bonus material, they did have arms and hands.

Bud Brewster wrote:
... I might be first person to ever ask this disturbing question . . .

What the hell is THIS thing? Shocked


That would then be the alien's forearm, and the branching at its lower end would be the hand.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 11:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:




In the original scene, the right edge of the sphere is suddenly cut off at the last instant, and the mirror quickly comes into view on the left. It looks like they moved the image to the left to leave out the mirror, and then stuck in a digital FX on the right to fill the gap.

What we're seeing here is the meteor/spaceship prop crossing in front of the camera from the right as it collides with the mirror. In the second image the mirror is shattering, resulting in the image breaking up. The shaking of the mirror pieces is evident in the jiggly trails of the sparks, which are essentially straight lines before the collision.
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 10:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I must not be clear on what you're describing, Wayne. What seems to be shattering is the spaceship prop, not the mirror (although I'm sure the mirror shattered, too).

But what appears to be visible are broken fragments of the translucent glass which were held in place by the framework with the hexagonal sections — and we also see portions of the framework itself which have broken away from the sphere.

The biggest portion is at the bottom of the jpeg below (the fourth arrow).






It looks as if the explosion we see at this moment was actually caused by a detonation inside the sphere, blasting the spaceship prop apart.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 1:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're saying you can tell from an out-of-focus prop and a shattering mirror which pieces belong to the prop and which to the mirror? They typically let the approaching object (a train, a meteor, etc.) shatter the mirror. If they could stop the approaching object on a dime, they wouldn't need to film it reflected in a mirror. That's the whole point of the setup.

And what translucent glass? That's an open lattice to let the sparks out. (You wouldn't be able to see any interior details through translucent glass either.)

You do understand the setup here, right? The mirror is mounted at 45° to the camera axis. The meteor/spaceship prop moves from right to left toward the mirror on a path 90↑° to the camera's axis. Visually the prop appears to be heading straight into the camera, and is allowed to run right through the mirror.



This type of shot is normally edited to end just before the prop (rather than its reflection) enters the camera's field of view from the side. But in this case the shot extended through the passage of the prop all the way past the camera, showing the mirror shattering.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
You pointed out that the only casualties were the two aliens (Alien/Barbara Rush and Alien/Joe Sawyer). The first alien died because Carlson defended himself during an attack, but the second one died after being shot repeatedly by a murderous mob, causing the truck to crash and burn.

Rereading this, I don't think that the mob was murderous, I think that they were panicky. I do admit the distinction is small. You're just as dead either way, but one is a tragic lapse of character, judgement and reason on the part of normally good people, and the other is deliberate nefarious intent. I like to think that they were good people who loss their sense of reason.

I also think that the Aliens were also starting to panic. Otherwise they wouldn't have sent one of their own to try and kill Carlson's character. A man they knew had sympathies for them. Although he was cautious enough to carry a .38 with him.

David.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Well, dang me, I've finally got it straight, Wayne. Rolling Eyes

What had me so confused was that I didn't really know what you meant when you said "What we're seeing here is the meteor/spaceship prop crossing in front of the camera from the right as it collides with the mirror."

I understand now, but I didn't know that in addition to the reflection of the sphere racing towards the mirror, we see the actual sphere in that last instant as it streaks across the frame from right to left and smashes the mirror.

You described it perfectly, but somehow I misunderstood and came up with all that crap about the sphere itself smashing, and then the pieces of it and the mirror flying around, etc, etc.

It's a clear case of the "cyclorama syndrome" again (a reference only you will get, I'm afraid. Embarassed)

Anyway, now that I've got all that straightened out, can you explain why there appears to be a second mirror showing on the left side in the original footage before it was "fixed" for the DVD?

(Corrected shot from the DVD)






(Original shot from the VHS tape and the trailer)





I know that your diagram of the method used to make the shot of the burning sphere is accurate, but I've never understood why there seems to be an image of another mirror IN the reflection caused by the mirror in your diagram! Shocked

Help me, Obi Wayne Orlicki! You're my only hope!

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 1:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's something odd going on in that shot. If it's a mirror as suggested it's reflecting some other piece of glass reflecting the same model. But wait a sec... the film was originally shot in 3D, so I wonder if that reflection is of some other element set up for shooting the other eye for the 3D process?

The ball sure looks like it's hanging from a hook.

The Wikipedia entry of the film quotes the DVD Commentary by film historian Tom Weaver commentary as claiming "The special effects created for the in-flight alien spacecraft consisted of a wire-mounted iron ball, with hollowed out 'windows,' with burning magnesium inside." Not certain how accurate this is, though.

The same source reinforces the note upthread about the Metaluna Mutant design originating in this film, as per, "Universal's make-up department submitted two alien designs for consideration by studio executives; the rejected design was saved and then later used as the 'Metaluna Mutant' in Universal's 1955 science fiction film This Island Earth."

There's a nice, brief writeup on the film at TCM: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/79482/It-Came-from-Outer-Space/articles.html

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I've discovered a clue which I'm hoping we can use to figure out this strange mystery.

The phantom mirror is not visible at all until the last instant, then it comes into view like a ghost. Oddly enough, the phantom mirror on the left is not visible at all until the light from the approaching sphere increases the light level near the mirror which the camera is facing!

These screen shots were made only a fraction of a second apart. Notice how the phantom mirror has just started to appear in the first one, and it materializes progressively as the light from sphere brightens during its approach.










Suddenly I realized that this reminded me of the way a two-way mirror works, the type used in police interrogation rooms. It only allows objects which are located behind it to be visible if the light on the other side is bright enough to compete with the reflection caused by the light in front of it.

I'm not sure if my modified version of Wayne's diagram below is done correctly, but it shows a second mirror behind the main one. The increasing brightness of the light on the set (as the burning ball got closer to the main mirror) briefly allowed us to see the second mirror by looking right through the main one.

I have no idea WHY there would a second mirror behind the main one, but what we see in the trailer, when examined closely, seems to suggest there was. So, we're not seeing a reflection of it in the main mirror, we're seeing it right through the glass of the main mirror when the light gets bright enough.






___________ It Came From Outer Space - trailer


__________

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One other oddity. As the second reflection passes in the ghost mirror it looks as if you might be seeing the supporting hook in profile, whereas the main image is head-on. Regardless, whatever this ghost mirror is, the image of the ship on it looks probably perpendicular to the path of the sphere, not in-line with it.

Studying these frames I'm not seeing any background shift at the moment the ball hits the mirror, nor in the reflected ghost image, which leads me to suspect the mirror was half-silvered all right, allowing the camera to see through it to the painted backdrop straight ahead AND the model coming at said mirror at the right-angle.

I believe many 3D films of the time were shot with two cameras, so, again, this might be an artifact of the setup for that. Hell, it might be artifact of the prism used in some 3D cameras.

Barring that, perhaps they were doing a two-fer here, with two beam splitters and two cameras to get the shot from two different angles, but caught a reflection of the second mirror setup as the model passed in front of it.

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