Films of the 50's Part 8: Sci! Fi!

I used to like science fiction a lot more than I do now. I used to be the six-year old who saw the original Star Wars film multiple times in the theater. But, my tastes have changed. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good sci-fi book or film (and superfans, please don’t correct me about the use of the term, sci-fi, as you just sound crazy). In my mind, the best science fiction isn’t made merely to display the clichés of the genre, including flying saucers, alien races, and the like. In my mind, the best sci-fi is really about us, now, or our recent past, merely set in a sci-fi diorama. Case in point, the philosophical genre writings of Philip K. Dick, a true master. It’s also why I prefer Star Trek over Star Wars at this point in my life. The 50’s were an important time for sci-fi films, in which movies and books went from being relegated to the pulp pile and b-movie tag, to an air of respectability. Well, three of these films achieved it…


The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, Robert Wise)

Let’s try to forget about the recent remake, shall we? The original film displays wonderfully what I love about sci-fi, namely a tale of humanity merely set in a fantastical landscape. The action starts right away, with a flying saucer landing in Washington, D.C. We are immediately introduced to Klaatu, a visitor from another world who is mistakenly shot by a nervous soldier. Gort, Klaatu’s menacing robot companion, emerges to protect his master, vaporizing the military’s weapons.

What ensues is a parable of the Cold War, the atomic arms race that would eventually threaten to destroy the Earth. It’s actually one of the more potent allegories I’ve seen on film. It can also be seen as a religious allegory, with Klaatu as Jesus, donning the name Carpenter when hiding out, trying to find a way to deliver his warnings of peace. Of course, Jesus never warned, nor had an enforcer robot, though that would be a pretty amazing alternate take.

The images of the film are iconic. The sliding rampway to the alien spacecraft, the look of Gort’s cyclopic eye and tubular head, and Klaatu’s handheld device have all inspired many sci-fi tropes to come. But, the film will probably be remembered most for the phrase, “Klaatu Barada Nikto,” a shibboleth that brings our ‘resurrected’ hero back to deliver his important message.


Gojira (1954, Ishiro Honda)

Gojira, or as we all have come to know it, Godzilla, is another parable of the atomic age. Still recovering from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan turned its fears and shock into a dramatic monster movie. Godzilla was the first ‘kaiju’ or giant monster film in what would become a major genre in Japan.

The story is simple enough. Ships and vessels begin disappearing, with washed up crew unable to relay what it was that caused the devastation. Local villagers tell of the myth of Godzilla, and he turns out to exist. Created by a nuclear explosion, the radioactive monster seeks land and begins destroying everything in sight. The effects are terrible, to be sure, but entertaining. But, if the effects got one thing right about Godzilla, it’s his scream. Apparently made by the sound a leather glove along the strings of a double bass, then slowed down, Godzilla’s roar is terrifying.

This film holds a special place in my heart. No, unlike with my last film post, I do not have a crush on Godzilla. Instead, I made a short film with a home video camera in my high school years based on the original Godzilla. It was a mix of live and stop-action, dubbed badly for effect, and featured the destruction of an entire Lego city. The best part was the calm before the storm, a prologue featuring an idyllic slice of life, all set to Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.”


Forbidden Planet (1956, Fred M. Wilcox)

Forbidden Planet is considered one of the more important sci-fi films of the 1950’s. It is one of the first features that got the effects right. Though now dated, it’s easy to see, in comparison to other genre films of the time, they stand out above the rest. The ship, the matte paintings, the set dressings, and the animated “id monster” are all examples of the increased effort that lifted this film above b-movie status.

In essence a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Forbidden Planet tells the tale of a group of space travelers landing on a planet with a pair of lone survivors, Morbius and his daughter, Altaira, along with their now famous construction, Robby the Robot. Morbius reveals the demise of his crew, the technology he found on the planet, and the Krell, the former inhabitants who were all wiped out 200,000 years prior. The entire crew of the newly arrived Bellerophon, including the captain, played by Leslie Nielsen, fall for the fetching Altaira, played by Anne Francis (who I will most likely also write about in an upcoming review of Bad Day at Black Rock). Altaira is a 50’s era bombshell, blonde, bedroom eyes and a mole near her lip. She’s the space version of Marilyn Monroe, and she wears the shortest skirts I think I’ve ever seen.

Like The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet is tale of humanity and man’s infallibility. It is most likely this factor that led Gene Roddenberry to find it inspiring enough to spur his creation of Star Trek. It’s all there: the military like crew visiting unknown planets, the mysteries that have to be unraveled about an alien race, a smart and charismatic yet misguided civilian, and a manly captain who ends up making out with the one girl available, who happens to be a stone cold fox.


Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959, Ed Wood)

Unlike the rest of the films above, Plan 9 from Outer Space is a train wreck. I’m not shattering anyone’s misconceptions about it as the Ed Wood film is now widely known as the worst film ever made. My brother revels in bad films. The inanities of Starship Troopers, Mission to Mars and Van Helsing all appeal to his sense of the high art of absurdity. But, Plan 9 transcends bad film to high art, transcends that again into even worse territory, then jumps again into an altogether different stratum all by itself, becoming one of the funniest, craziest, and unintentionally brilliant films ever made.

Nothing makes sense. It’s as if the film were pieced together from eight different films, none having anything to do with the other, and no effort made to find the logic of transition. Bad acting, bad editing, horrible effects, and the cheesiest narration in existence all lend to the disastrous hilarity. “Unspeakable horrors from outer space paralyze the living and resurrect the dead!” says the movie poster. Does it get any better than that? Tor Johnson, Vampira, and Criswell all became iconic figures of sci-fi, though probably not in a way that any of them envisioned. There’s not much else to say about it. If you haven’t seen it, you should, preferably with friends, to share the joys and pains of this memorable film. There have been many parodies and homages to Plan 9, which seems at times overkill, but the best I’ve seen was in an episode of Mission Hill, called “Plan 9 from Mission Hill: or, I Married a Gay Man from Outer Space.”