Movie: 'This Island Earth' (1955)

(Prepared long in advance for holiday cover)

It's quite different to the book, by Raymond F Jones. The movie strips out a lot of the talkier sections, and the non-confrontational portions, substituting instead some 'MutANT' workmen on the alien planet and some impressive spaceship-guided asteroid attacks. Despite all that, this is a very good but solemn 1950's science fiction movie. Oh, how I wish that humour had been acceptable in old science fiction films, or even the occasional non-apocalyptic ending!

'This Island Earth' does capitalize on the main strength of it's novel antecedent, in accepting the written start, with the mysterious electronics puzzle. Can you think of many other films that begin with a mysterious shipment of components, an electronics catalogue, and the building of a device you've never even seen before? It's not quite as intriguing as the written version - they have a diagram in this case - but still unique.

Watching old science-fiction films, you can forget how smart some of them are, and lose the historical context. Yes, 'This Island Earth' does have an ant monster, and some flying saucer action, but it's not in the bottom drawer of science fiction dopiness. Some thought has gone into it. The casting is interesting, the alien makeup is nowhere near as dumb as it could have been - except for the plastic hair covers - and the exploitation of the female characters is at a minimum, although those coveralls were fairly tight...

So, what is the story about? Boiled down, a nuclear scientist receives a strange higher technology replacement component in the post, investigates, and manages to build a fantastical device known as an 'interocitor' from the components listed in the mysterious Unit 16's catalogue. Then he's whisked off to a mysterious base, which is promptly destroyed, and kidnapped with his old flame to the mysterious planet of Metaluna, which is under deadly siege by some nasty aliens who like to drag in asteroids as assault weapons. Metaluna turns out to be much more imminently doomed than anyone thought, and the scientist and his lady doctor barely escape with the aid of their alien abductor. They're dropped off on Earth, as their mortally injured friend scuttles his ship into the ocean. Of course, it has to be a gloomy ending, as it's a science fiction film.

As I mentioned, there is an awful lot of source material missing from the film, but it's interesting to see what they did do with their tiny budget and humourless 1950s directing style. It's actually very solid, with some interesting and even impressive effects. The production style makes 'spartan' seem more like a consequence of compact alien science away from Earth, but the acting... It can be said that the acting is better than in most 50s genre films. The most interesting actor is written out when the lead scientist runs off to the alien base at the beginning of the film, though. Let's say that the acting is decent.

Oh, how I wish that there wasn't an ant monster, though. Oh, world, why? Some of the book's ending would have been nice, too, but how much can you squish into eighty minutes?

O.