There are lessons to be learned when you're heading up there in years, like, don't try and pick up 40 pounds of cat litter with one hand, especially when you have a trick back! I'm having trouble sitting today, so, this is a special post to help me go lay down quicker. But, it's something I've wanted to do anyway...
George Pal had some great ideas about fifties science fiction movies. First of all, they were all high quality productions with tons of beautiful scenes depicting realistic forms of space travel. Secondly, the scripts were top shelf! DESTINATION MOON from 1950 took us to the Moon and back with a few hitches along the way, George was smart enough to hire the premier space artist, Chesley Bonestell, to assist in accurate depiction of planets, and, whose art I studied in great detail in the mid fifties after my parents bought our family 3 sets of encyclopedias.
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE from 1951 was an end of the world epic. People choose lottery tickets to either go into space to look for a new place for humanity to start over, or, stay on Earth, which is going to be hit by a roaming rebel planet! Love the giant track the rocket will use to shoot it into space.
George brings on the Martians in H. G. Wells' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS from 1953... Hurray! I love this movie, it's a terrifying look at what it might be like if Earth was invaded by space aliens. Beautiful war machines and creepy monsters make this a classic fifties flick!
In CONQUEST OF SPACE from 1955, the crew heads off for Mars. It's a mission of death for some of the crew and the movie has lots of drama. And, they discover that plants can be grown in the Martian soil.
Alright, Eegah!! and I saw THE TIME MACHINE in 1960, and wow, did we dig this crazy story!! By that time, FAMOUS MONSTERS was our main source for upcoming monster movies, and, there was no way we were going to miss this one! The Morlocks kicked ass too!!
We're back Wednesday with more... From The Dungeon!!
All are the greatest sci-fi movies of all time.
ReplyDeleteMost people who are frightened of showers say it's because of PSYCHO. With me, it's WAR OF THE WORLDS. A shower nozzle used to remind me of the arm sticking out of the spaceship and firing the ray!
ReplyDeletePal had one more Sci-Fi flick, 1968's The Power, which is criminally difficult to see.
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