On this day, 5 June, in 1953, Universal-International released It Came From Outer Space. It’s especially notable because it isn’t a film you can easily reduce to an allegory about communist fears.
Listening to people now days you would think that the only thing on the minds of Americans in the 1950s was the rise of communism. Certainly, people were afraid of that — mostly because they were constantly told to be afraid of it by the media’s easy alliance with the government. But people feared a lot of things. And people really did fear invaders from Mars!
Hopeful Aliens
But It Came From Outer Space is a hopeful film with nice aliens who just happened to crash on Earth and are trying to repair their space ship and get back home.
Today, I’m pretty tired of this. I want to bang my head on a wall whenever I hear about Gene Roddenberry’s “optimistic vision” of the future. What it ended up being was his boring vision of later television drama where everyone is so well-adjusted the plots seem more like clever puzzles than stories about human beings.
Drama!
It Came From Outer Space isn’t like that at all. That’s mostly because everyone thinks that John, played by Richard Carlson (Creature from the Black Lagoon), is suffering from a concussion. And then when the sheriff does believe him, there’s more conflict.
And the moral of the story is something we all know: humans suck. It makes a great pairing with Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
William Alland
It Came From Outer Space also features Barbara Rush (When Worlds Collide) and Russell Johnson (This Island Earth). It’s based on a Ray Bradbury story.
But I think the real hero is William Alland. He is one of the great unsung heroes of psychotronic film. In the 1950s, he was producing really great films genre films that were also really well made. And they were thoughtful without becoming didactic and boring.
Part of this was his work with director Jack Arnold. The man knew how to stage a shot! He didn’t need a bunch of moving camera. The scripts did the heavy lifting. And Alland’s production did most of the rest. All Arnold needed to do was not mess it up. And frankly, many directors couldn’t handle that. Arnold made the films better.
This same group made Creature from the Black Lagoon the next year.
You can get a good print of it (MPEG4) for free at Archive.org. Unfortunately, it doesn’t embed correctly. There is a Blu-ray of it available that comes with a commentary by Tom Weaver, for those who are fans.
Other 5 June Anniversaries
Filmmakers
- Charles Ogle (1965-1940): Actor who played the creature in the first Frankenstein.
- Russell Streiner (1940-): Producer of Night of the Living Dead and other films.
- Mark Wahlberg (1971-): Actor in Planet of the Apes and The Happening.
Films
- Gog (1954): Robots in an underground facility are out of control.
- Final Exam (1981): Slasher shows up for final exams.
- Harry and the Hendersons (1987): A family adopts a Big Foot.
- The Stepfather (1987): A man jumps from family to family looking for one that doesn’t deserve to be murdered.
- Split Second (1992): In future London, a cop goes after the “man” who killed his partner.
- The Truman Show (1998): Man learns his life has been a TV show.
- Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck (2007): Film about the serial killer.
- The Commune (2009): A daughter visits her father at his creepy commune.
- Land of the Lost (2009): Inoffensive comedy based on the TV show.
It Came From Outer Space poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
