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Film: It Came from Outer Space
Year: 1953
Director: Jack Arnold
Writers: Harry Essex
Starring: Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush and Charles Drake
Review:
This was a movie that I first heard about thanks to the opening song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It is one that also has popped up on a couple of podcasts that I listened to as well. It is one of the sci-fi films that was referenced there. This went on a list of ones to check out for my Traverse through the Threes for Journey with a Cinephile: A Horror Movie Podcast. Other than that, I didn’t know much about this one.
Synopsis: a spaceship from another world crashes in the Arizona desert. Only an amateur stargazer and a schoolteacher suspect alien influence when the local townsfolk begin to act strangely.
We start this off seeing a flaming ball crash to Earth. We then learn that we are near Sand Rock Arizona. John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush) are together. She is preparing to leave when they see the flaming ball go by. They were outside with John using a telescope when it happened. He noticed it crashed near a local mine.
The duo rushes over to enlist the aid of Pete Davis (Dave Willock) who is a pilot. They takes his helicopter to the crash site. John goes down into the crater. It is there he sees what the cause was. He can’t explain it, but it looks like a spaceship. There is then a landslide that John must escape from and it buries the ship. It is around this time that Sheriff Matt Warren (Charles Drake), Dave Loring (Alan Dexter) who is a reporter and others come out to the area. John says what he saw and no one believes him. Due to loving him, Ellen does.
The couple has an encounter on the road with seeing something out of this world. They stop but can’t find it. The next day and around this same stretch, they come across two guys working on the telephone lines. Frank Daylon (Joe Sawyer) is the boss and his employee is George (Russell Johnson). They hear something strange. These workers head up to see what is causing it while the couple go the other way. The latter two don’t find anything and go back the way they came. Our two workers though, encounter something that could be from space.
People start to act strange around town and even Sheriff Warren starts to believe that John might be right. It takes Ellen disappearing to get him to round up a posse of men to save her. John meets with the alien and it tells him what they want. John must decide to let them complete their mission or fight to save the people from the town.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start then is that I left off things that would fall into spoilers. There isn’t a lot to the story here, as it is basic. This runs for 80 minutes as well. Delving into what we get, this is a body snatcher story at the heart of it. This is common for the era. I’m not sure that I fully buy into this being an allegory for communism like Invasion of the Body Snatchers is or at least thought to be. We do have similar elements. An alien comes from space and then it takes over people from the town. There is more to this though that gets revealed later.
What I think is great here is that this is based off a story and treatment from Ray Bradbury. This movie is more critical of humans and our nature. The alien might not be the villain here. Their plan requires them to fix their ship. The people they’re taken over are being used to gather supplies. Part of this is that the alien would stand out. These people would be able to move about without drawing attention. The problem is that their loved ones know there is something off about them and that raises the alarm. Their fear is realized when Sheriff Warren gets a posse together to rescue the townspeople. John knows what their plan is and asked to stop them in good faith. He is torn, not knowing if he can trust these extraterrestrials. Something interesting though, John is trying to help them where they aren’t giving much of a reason to believe them. That is a bit of an issue I noticed.
That should be enough for the story so I’ll go over to the acting. I thought this was solid. Carlson does well as this guy who knows what he’s seen but can’t prove it. He tries to get Dr. Snell (George Eldredge) to back him up. The evidence isn’t there. I thought Carlson’s portrayal of the motivations for John were good. Rush is solid as his love interest. She does fall under the power of the aliens, but I like how she does that. It requires showing no emotions. Throughout we saw her doting over John so when the change comes, we know. Drake is good as our ‘military’ guy. He is no-nonsense and will fight for survival. Other than that, I thought Sawyer, Johnson and the rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed.
All that is left then is filmmaking. Now I’ll be honest, the DVD cover for this made me think this was going to be schlocky. This was a Universal-International film. It is lower budget, but not lower quality. The cinematography was good. This was filmed in 3D. Watching it in 2D didn’t detract as they didn’t focus so much on making this pop. What they did was natural. The effects were done cheaply, but still practical. I would have liked to see more of the alien. What we did though hit me in the soft spot. I like the effect when we’re seeing from the alien’s eye. The soundtrack also worked and fit what was needed. Credit as well to the design for giving us an eerie noise simulating the alien.
I’m also going to take a section here to go over things I picked up from watching a featurette on the DVD, Universe According to Universal and watching this a second time with commentary on. What I didn’t know was that Universal has been a leader in the cosmic/space horror subgenre. Dropping the atom bomb influenced these movies in the 1950s, which makes sense since it showed us the impressive power of that weapon. There was also the Red Scare and fear of the outsider. The commentary was done by film historian Tom Weaver and he echoes a lot of these things. His wealth of knowledge about this movie and the industry is amazing. He gave me interesting insight into things like Bradbury being upset he didn’t pen the screenplay, but also isn’t bitter. He was sassy though. There were different things that Bradbury, director Jack Arnold and others wanted to do with this movie. The studio had the final say. It sounds like we wouldn’t have seen the alien if not for the studio heads. This was also the first 3D sci-fi film and the first widescreen film to be shot this way. That was impressive. Learning how things were done gives an interesting insight. I’d recommend both if you like this and just want to learn even more. It gave insight that I didn’t normally have.
In conclusion, this was a solid sci-fi/horror film from the 1950s. It is light on the latter elements though if I’m honest. The best part here is the story. I love the commentary on humanity and how we might be the dangerous ones. The acting was solid. It brought the characters to life and made it seem like a difference to the ones under alien influence. This was well made. Cinematography and sound design as the bright spots. The practical effects were cheesy, but I love that. Not one I’d recommend to everyone. If you like this era of cinema or sci-fi movies like this, give it a watch.
My Rating: 7 out of 10