“Knowing those things are out there gives me the creeps.”
“We need to pick up their trail. Footprints, slime, anything.”
- Lines from “The Slime People” (1963)
My favorite genre of movies is classic science fiction. Yes, those classics that are often called campy, crude, cult favorite, B-movies. I enjoyed them so much in the days of my youth that I’ve been spending some time this summer reconnecting, thanks to an on-line video rental service. Just move the wide-screen TV and DVD player to the patio, pop some popcorn, and pull up in the riding mower and – voila – a home drive-in theater. OK, I’m kidding; maybe it would all work except the mower.
I first experienced science fiction movies on local television. In the 1960’s, it was common for the three local stations to fill time cheaply by showing movies that had long ago left the marquees of theaters. I suppose that it cost more to rent the top-drawing movies, so stations often broadcast the lesser lights. That included the sci-fi group that had been on the screen in the 1950’s and previous decades.
The first two sci-fi movies that I can recall seeing on WDEF’s afternoon “Big Show” were “King Kong” from 1933, and 1958’s “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.” Later, I was a fan of the Saturday late night program “Dr. Shock,” hosted by WTVC Program Director Tommy Reynolds and sidekick Dingbat, aided by puppeteer Dan East.
What was on television had once been shown at theaters. Drive-in theaters and B-movie science fiction were made for each other. Both operated on limited budgets. A drive-in could be built on cheap land outside a city, with a block building housing the concession stand, projection room, and rest rooms. The sci-fi movies frequently originated from small studios which made them on a very small budget. Aside from the money that motivated the business owners, those monsters just looked better on a very large screen.
Many of the actors and actresses in these movies were just starting out, or had been able to hang onto jobs at the B-level but couldn’t move up to star status. It’s always fun to watch these movies, and to pick out the rising stars. James Arness, Jackie Coogan, Aneta Corsaut, Robert Fuller, William Hopper, Russell Johnson, Michael Landon, and Steve McQueen appeared in science fiction before moving on to bigger things. The studios extended their dollars by using stock U.S. military footage of aircraft in flight, missiles being fired, and troops on the move.
Common themes in the movies of fictional science were:
* Radiation leads to rapid growth among insects, people, and reptiles. The nuclear age had made this be on the minds of the public.
* Invasion is imminent. The Cold War era kept the citizenry fearful of outside forces.
* Ordinary weapons rarely can subdue the monsters.
* Suspenseful music sets the mood. It must have been a great time to be a studio musician.
* Someone is going to scream. Some actresses must have been selected simply because they could scream. I imagine that the casting director went home with a headache on audition day.
* A brilliant scientist usually comes forward with the simple solution, aided by a dashing actor and his leading lady. Monsters always have an Achilles heel.
From my summer of science fiction, I’ve picked out my top five, then provided the entire list. See how many that you remember.
1. Attack of the 50-foot Woman (1958). The one that I remember longest is also still my favorite. The scene of the irradiated, jilted, multi-story woman walking taller than power lines sticks in my mind.
2. The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). This jungle-based story resembles Beauty and the Beast, with the Creature finding his love in a lovely lady swimming during a scientific expedition. Marilyn Monroe expresses sympathy for him after seeing the movie in a scene from “The Seven Year Itch.” Whit Bissell, who went on to play on TV’s “Time Tunnel” and other shows was one of the actors in this movie.
3. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956). Aliens come to check out our space exploration program. A misunderstanding leads to a full-scale, world-wide alien invasion. The 1996 movie, “Mars Attacks!” has some elements of this movie.
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Aliens come to take over Earth by replacing people with imposters who are grown in pods. I recall that in an episode of “Barney Miller,” Detective Dietrich responds, “Seen any pods?” when a citizen reports that her husband isn’t really her husband.
5. The Blob (1958). A falling meteor carries a red, gooey substance that “creeps, and leaps, and slides and glides, across the floor, right through a door, and all around the wall” according to the theme song by Burt Bacharach. Teen-agers played by Steve McQueen and Aneta Coursaut have lead roles. McQueen went on to television and film success, while Ms. Corsaut played Sheriff Taylor’s romantic interest on “The Andy Griffith Show.”
The rest of the list of summer science fiction movies watched so far includes:
The Slime People
The Mesa of Lost Women
Village of the Giants
The Brain from Planet Arous
First Man into Space
Invisible Invaders
Dinosaurus!
The Black Scorpion
The Deadly Mantis
The Flying Serpent
Thing with 2 Heads
The Leech Woman
Earth vs. the Spider
War of the Colossal Beast
Giant Claw
Wolf Man
Cat Women of the Moon
The Crawling Hand
Stranger from Venus
Fiend without a Face
Target Earth
The Cosmic Man
I Married a Monster from Outer Space
Monster on the Campus
Attack of the Puppet People
The Lost World
Teenagers from Outer Space
If you have memories of these science fiction movies, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.
I'll conclude by saying that I have spent my summer in other ways. Watching too many sci-fi movies could give me bad dreams, as my mother used to warn.
One of our children came home one year with this space alien toy from the Hamilton County Fair. Wonder from whom he got that interest?
- Photo2 by Harmon Jolley