THE SCI-FI AND HORROR MOVIES OF 1954

For some reason the other day, I was wondering what it would look like if I compiled a list of all the sci-fi and horror movies from 1954. I thought the list would be strange, you know, 1954, and there are lots more sci-fi flicks than there are horror films. Movies are in random order.

We got our first television in 1953, so, I got to watch movies like KILLERS FROM SPACE on TV a lot because they re-ran them all the time, mostly Friday and Saturday evenings. I liked this one, it was just so weird, and for a kid, it delivered the goods. Love the ping pong eyeballs!

I swear, I cannot remember if my dad took me to see CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, there are a few parts I remember for some reason, and, this was not a movie that played very often on TV at all. Now, I cannot watch it, it's boring as Hell, but the Creature costume is superb!

GOG is another movie they played the crap out of on TV in the fifties. I was creeped out a little by the robots, I loved the sets, but that spinning two-seat centrifugal machine was plain ridiculous!

I can't tell you how many time I saw RIDERS TO THE STARS on TV, but many. The main thing I was interested in was the scene where the astronaut gets toasted by a meteor, of course!

I'd say they started playing GODZILLA on TV in 1955, and soon thereafter, GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN. The original Godzilla is terrifying!

I'm not sure if I saw MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR on TV. As a kid, I probably wouldn't have stuck around for the 55 minutes it took before they showed the monster. Love that damn monster though, a small masterpiece of imagination.

I totally preferred anything sci-fi to horror, the ideas were fresh and space monsters were a new kind of horror. PHANTOM OF THE RUE MORGUE just recycled another ape.

They played TARGET EARTH a bit on TV and it was okay, but watching it now is a real chore, and, there was only one actual robot!

I don't think I ever saw a Bowery Boys movie at the theater. In THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS, the boys are stuck in a haunted house filled with creeps and ghouls, and a man eating plant. Here at The Dungeon, we prefer MASTERMINDS, it's so freaking hilarious!

Vincent Price gives another great performance as THE MAD MAGICIAN, and for a second time the movie's filmed in 3-D, a follow up to HOUSE OF WAX a year earlier.

Here's another one they played a lot on television, another boring movie, SNOW CREATURE. The monster looks like a guy in a suit playing a monster, you can practically see a zipper!

Here's the finest movie to come out of 1954, THEM! They may have played this one on TV but it would have been on some special occasion during prime time.

I can still watch DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS at times, and again, they played this one a lot on TV in our area (Fresno and Bakersfield) in the fifties. It definitely has atmosphere, and a refrigerator shaped robot, unlike the one shown on the poster.

I always loved to watch TOBOR THE GREAT when it came on, really terrific robot. But my very favorite part in when Russians are entering the scientist's compound and they play wartime sounds with dive bombers, machine guns and explosions over the loud speakers (with flashing lights), chasing off the bad guys in a hurry..

Never even saw STRANGER FROM VENUS until like 10 or so years ago. Boring, way too much yakkity-yak, ho-hum. Dude was trying to capitalize on his marriage to Patricia Neal.

Can't remember seeing THE ATOMIC KID but sure I must have. You can tell that a number of actors are going to be chewing lots of rug! Included this title for the Hell of it!

Then there's 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA from Disney, another movie I have no desire to watch again. When the giant octopus attacks the Nautilus at the end, it just looks silly, or maybe just plain stupid.

Here's one for Eegah, our last movie on the list. GORILLA AT LARGE is one wild and weird horror movie starring the lovely Anne Bancroft. Well, there you go, the sci-fi and horror movies from 1954, a warm up for what was yet to come!!