ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Here are three somewhat atypical movies for the 1950s, presenting us with imaginative tales which march to the beat of different drummer.

~ The first lpw-budge “classic” is an early yarn about alien abduction, in which the victim does just get “probed” and return to Earth, she gets enlarge by a factor of ten!

~ The second cult classic is beloved by fans of science fiction — even though the actor who plaed the main charactr hated the movie after he later became a super star!

~ The third one is rip-roaring yarn about a very ballsy alien invasion — but the title tends to make people snicker! :opps:

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Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)

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This was the female answer to the The Amazing Colossal Man of the previous year.

This time it's a message to all philandering husbands. Whereas the Colossal Man warned us of the dangers of the Atomic Era, this focuses on infidelity issues. The title character starts as a needy heiress who crosses paths with a visiting giant alien.

But, it's not this early encounter which makes her grow; no, being the flighty neurotic that she is, she seeks out the alien giant again later.



This is a short film, just 66 minutes. Keep in mind that it's not until the 38-minute mark that we first see a giant fake female hand. Until that point, it's all just a lurid soap opera. And it's not until the last 10 minutes that the giantess finally goes on a rampage.

A DVD of this film was released a couple of years ago, with an audio commentary by Yvette Vickers (who gives the better performance as the 'other' woman) and film historian Tom Weaver. The DVD was part of a Sci-Fi Cult Camp Classic set of 3 films.

50-foot Trivia: There was remake for TV in 1993 with Daryl Hannah.

BoG's Score: 2 out of 10

The 5th issue of Femforce (AC, 1986) did a take-off on the poster for its cover and the back cover was a supposed follow-up film to the original, as if it starred Sybil Danning in the eighties.

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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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The Blob (1958)

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_________________ Trailer - The Blob (1958)


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Steve McQueen stars, credited as "Steven McQueen" in his first starring role (if you don't count The St Louis Bank Robbery, which was filmed earlier but released after) — hey, everyone had to start somewhere.

McQueen plays a local teen in a small American town (even though he was in his late twenties at the time). Aneta Corseaut, soon a semi-regular on The Andy Griffith Show, co-stars as his girlfriend.

They witness the Blob coming to Earth one night, in the form of a small meteorite. The Blob starts out as a small Blob, the size of a softball, but each time it feeds — primarily human beings — it grows in size, because it absorbs the mass of what it consumes . . .

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The Blob! Above is the poster (and the box cover) included in the Criterion DVD

The picture quality is really excellent, almost like watching a brand-new film. There's an essay inside written by Bruce Kawin in which he opines that audiences may have been threatened as consumers, besides the usual monster scares.

In other words, Americans tend to consume a lot, and here is this monster from outer space who outdoes even us. This may have been stressed in the supermarket scene. I think this was really a stretch on the writer's part . . . but maybe.

The film is a classic 'monster-from-space' story and sets the template for many-a-future sf scare film, with just a slightly slow pace in the middle act, but an effective creepy tone.

BoG's Score: _ out of 10



Here is the Italian poster for the film, art by Sandro Simeoni.

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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)

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____ I Married a Monster from Outer Space Trailer



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I Married a Monster From Outer Space

IMARRIEDAMONSTERFROMOUTERSPACE-1I Married a Monster From Outer Space I-married-a-monster This was pretty offbeat for fifties Sci-Fi: male aliens, whose own females have died out, need to figure out a way to mate with Earthwomen and continue the line. Yow!



The title and description sound ultra-cheesy, but it's a fairly serious effort, with shades of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). My favorite scene is when a few of the disguised aliens sit in a bar trying to figure the next step in their quiet invasion and the bartender picks a fight over their lack of enthusiasm for his liquor. There are some eerie thrills, including the conclusion, where a minor battle is waged after the jig is up.



This should be remade as a classy 'A'-list Sci-Fi thriller, stressing the awkward & strange relationship between wife and alien husband.

Oh, I guess that's been done to some degree — there was a Sci-Fi film called The Astronaut's Wife, starring Johnny Depp & Charlize Theron, released a few years ago.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10




Tom Tryon, the lead, became a writer later of such novels as 'The Other' (horror), after becoming dissatisfied with the Hollywood career (notably after his experience on The Cardinal in '63). The Other was itself made into a strange horror/thriller film in the early seventies. By all accounts, Tryon was gay, a surprise to me considering his rugged, 6' 3" looks & build. I suppose it's not that great of a shock nowadays, but I relate to my parents now as to when they found out that Rock Hudson was gay.

_________I Married A Monster From Outer Space


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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)