alexanderdavies-99382 This film is worthy of a higher rating. Apart from including some fine special effects of the times, "This Island Earth" has a good story and a good performance from Jeff Morrow. The acting from the younger leads wasn't so impressive, granted. Regardless, there is much to enjoy. The film includes a rather creepy alien villain! As a 7 year old, I was a bit spooked when I saw the alien for the first time. My late father and I enjoyed "This Island Earth" a few times as my dad was just about old enough to remember this film. The dialogue certainly isn't the worst I have ever heard by a long way. This film has a more intelligent screenplay than the average.

gpeltz Many thanks for the superb print. The Technicolor process was breath taking. This Island Earth 1955, a Universal International release Was Directed by Joseph Newman, Screenplay by Franklyn Coen, from a story by Raymond Jones. Spoiler Alert; Plot details will be discussed: Its a Classic that rarely gets screened. If you have the chance to see it, do so. The Film stared Rex Reason as Dr Cal Meacham, a hard boiled, jet flying Nuclear Scientist. His Lady associate Dr Ruth, played by Faith Domergue, looked sensational. looking less sensational yet heavily made up, is the mysterious Exeter, played by Jeff Morrow. He's the one who sent Cal, the equivalence of an integrated circuit in the fifties, or in this case a Super resistor. Let us not forget that it was 1954, a year before this film was made, that the newly invented Transistor went into production. I was seven in 1955, This was the movie my parents would not take me to. but I do recall the Bug Eyed Monster on the movie poster. It became iconic for the genera , copied with variation in Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) and Mars Attacks Playing cards. 1994, and Tim Burton's movie (1996) The other iconic image was the flying saucer, up till this movie, the subject of cheesy special effects. Starting with the movie, "The Flying Saucer" (1950). Here we get an attempt at making it more than just a Frisbee an attempt to make it a interstellar vessel. The Saucer here was to be out done one year later with MGM's "The Forbidden Planet, released in 1956.(a better movie for many reasons). I recall ordering and receiving the paperback This Island Earth, before I saw the movie, at a revival theater in NY, The book impressed me, particularly in the opening chapters where the Doctor puts together his first Interocetor. There was a craze of "Build it yourself" products, like quartz radios, and more advanced, tube TV's. I liked the concept of building fantastic machines, over, the later introduced plot line of dictators who follow orders. concept. The title, "This Island Earth" Seems to want to allude to the "Islands in the Pacific that were used in World War Two. The Pacific islands were used as stepping stones to win the war. But sadly it doesn't manifest itself in this movie that follows a more common B movie theme; "Interplantary war is Hell" Leading to the madly declared "We must re populate on your planet, that we will conquer" The low budget movie "Killers from Space" 1954 shared more plot points, to This Island Earth, than a copy write lawyer could shake a stick at. In its attempt to show audiences wonders they had never seen before, This Island Earth breaks more rules of physics in the process. Big explosions in space where there should be no sound, friction flaming the saucer like a marshmallow in space, The movie is special and precious. but it was never meant to be funny, I can not watch this without channeling the spirit of Robin Williams, may he rest in peace. Some where in Mork, is Exeter. I like the visual presentation even if the intellectual discourse on the nature of insane leaders is weak. The visuals is about travel and adventure. The color sequences cover the rainbow. We get a taste of the animation and Matte work, that would be so impressive in Forbidden Planet. The scope of the plot races to get us there and back again, as expediently as possible. Faith Domergue's form fitting outfit did wonders for the plot. and those poor Mutants got the short end of scary, used in only two scenes. This was the movie to take your kids to. though they might be board with the cover up plot, and the romance stuff. This is a Nine out of Ten Technicolor Stars.

StuOz Two humans (a guy and girl) are taken away from earth in a spaceship.The colourful images are amazing! The sets! The miniature effects! The mutant!The music is perfectly matched to what is happening on the screen!The actors are first class!When first seen in my 1970s childhood, it was movies like this (and Irwin Allen TV) that turned me into a lifelong sci-fi nut. Everything about this film remained locked in my memory for a lifetime! However, if seeing the film for the first time today, a lot of the impact may be lost as everything about the movie has been stolen or taken and put in other sci-fi productions of the last 60 years

david-sarkies This movie has no point whatsoever. The plot was really thin and it seemed to be more flashy effects that anything interesting. It dazzeled us with lots of explosions and technicolour, but it is 1955, and thus we see though the dazzling effects almost instantly. The movie began interesting, a sort of mystery in which Cal, a scientist working on generating nuclear power, finds some highly advanced equipment in his lab. He is then given a catalogue and from this he builds an Interociter, which puts him in contact with an alien that offers him a job. Cal is interested so he goes to the alien. He travels to an alien planet, with a token female, and goes back to Earth. There is little in the way of a plot, the aliens are not menacing and they get through the obstacles through luck. The main characters seem to bumble through the movie than to get through on their own skills. Personally, this movie is simply dull.There is a small amount of communist propaganda in here, but it is not one where there are lots of speeches. The movie attacks brainwashing, as there is a machine that does it to force people to perform, but the performance of a brainwashed person is much less than that of a free person. There is the alien who has established a headquarters in the middle of the United States and is collecting scientists to help save his planet, but the alien lord wants to brainwash them. Really it seems that they are trying to create a menacing alien force, to mix with the Russians, but they fail. The aliens are on the verge of destruction already and all that Cal says is "no" and that is it.The hidden enemy is a theme that exists in the movie, because the aliens want Earth to move to. Unfortunately, this does not work easy as the alien agent they meet is sympathetic to the humans so they are not as menacing as they could be. Thus to sum up This Island Earth, it is a 1950's version of Independence Day, lots of explosions, little else.