Favorite 50's Sci-Fi Films? (Good or Bad!)

[RCMerchant]

 
The 50's were a peak decade for sci-fi...good and bad. I've been on a 50's sci-fi kick latley...and I'd like to share some of my favorites! Hoo-boy,huh?

Ok...I'll let you in on a little secret...some of these movies are considered classics...and some...well...this IS BAD movies...here  by year....
.INVADERS from MARS (1953)-One of the scariest movies I saw as a little kid. Martians are living underground in back of Jimmy's house. They've taken control of the adults,drag our pal under the dirt to they're base and are real dam ugly. The Head (literaly)
Martian is a bald head with tentacles. Too cool.
.WAR of the WORLDS (1953)-George Pal's epic invasion of Earth. I like the noise the death rays make...which sound EXACTLY like the ones from MARS ATTACKS! Really-compare for yourself someday.
.CREATURE from the BLACK LAGOON (1954)-Ok...this is more of a 'monster' movie...but it could happen...right?
.GODZILLA (1954)-the Japanese version! No explanation why I love this movie,I don't think.
.KILLERS from SPACE-(1954) -Now I guess I have some explaining to do. Ok...here goes...ummm...I can't explain why. I guess the same reason I like Ju-Ju Fruits: They have no nutrietional value...they rot your teeth...but I can eat a whole big box of 'em.
 
.THEM (1954)-My second favorite Giant bug movie...next to...
.TARANTULA (1955)....which wins out because it features deformed,melty looking mutants!
.THIS ISLAND EARTH (1955) -Why MST2K made fun of this movie...I dunno. Stupid robots.
.THE DAY the WORLD ENDED (1956)- It's the DAY AFTER-AIP style!!! And whatta bleak mess! Lori Nelson mike (MANNIX) Conners and freinds battle each other and radioactive mutants...the scariest being a 3-eyed,four armed,multi-horned critter! YIKES!
.BRIDE of the MONSTER-(1956) Lugosi,Tor Johnson,Ed Wood,giant rubber octopus,atomic bomb....nuff sed!
.the INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN-(1957) A masterpiece of 50's sci-fi. Grant William's boat passes through some weird chemical fog...which causes him to shrink. A parrabel of man's impotence in an ever expanding techno....ah...he fights a giant spider-and a giant cat!!! WOW!!!

I could go on...but this is gettin'kinda long-winded,eh? BUT...I NEED to add...
The MONILITH MONSTERS (1957),WAR of the COLASSAL BEAST(1958),HORRORS of SPIDER ISLAND (1958),and...one of my all time favorites of ANY era...the BRAIN THAT WOULD'NT DIE (1959) !!!!



Sooooooo...what are YOUR favorite sci-fi films of the 50's?

[Shadow]

Sooooooo...what are YOUR favorite sci-fi films of the 50's?

All of them.

Seriously. The 50's represents my absolute favorite decade for horror and scifi. I love those flicks. If I had to pick some top faves, they would be:

The Thing
The Blob
Fiend Without a Face
Forbidden Planet
Them
Godzilla
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

Yours truly also wrote some "Monster survival guides" on how to live through an encounter with various 50's beasties. You can access them via THIS page.

Some dork over at Rogue Cinema wrote a series of articles on 50's flicks, but he hasn't gotten off his lazy ass to finish it yet.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

[SynapticBoomstick]

Gads, The Horrors of Spider Island is such a terrible film; unless there are robots in the corner it's tough to stomach

When I hear "B-movie", I also tend to think more of the b&w than the newer variety, though those are nonetheless also B-movies.

Just a few, probably, since my interests span too many years for me to just list movies as they come to me

The Good
(1951)The Day the Earth Stood Still
(1953)The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
(1956)Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
(1957)20 Million Miles to Earth

Yes, I'm a Harryhausen nut

The "Bad"
(1954)The Snow Creature
(1955)The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues or The Bobbing Head of Doom

Unfortunately, many of my favorites are in the 60's era, or this would be easier. Can I just say The Killer Shrews?

[Andrew]

I love the old B&W b-movies and science fiction films.  "Fiend Without a Face" is great, ditto for the original "Gojira" and "Forbidden Planet."  Actually, making a list of the old movies that I love would take quite a bit of typing.  Overall, trying them all is not a bad idea.  The entertaining ones outweigh the bad.

"Horrors of Spider Island" is a pretty boring film.  The girls are nice to look at and the spider monsters (both the arachnid and the man/spider) help you to wake up, but overall it's a nudie cutie film without any of the nudie cutie.  Which means that it really isn't trying to do anything and the characters could be swapped out for cardboard cutouts without losing anything.

[RCMerchant]

I love the old B&W b-movies and science fiction films.  "Fiend Without a Face" is great, ditto for the original "Gojira" and "Forbidden Planet."  Actually, making a list of the old movies that I love would take quite a bit of typing.  Overall, trying them all is not a bad idea.  The entertaining ones outweigh the bad.

"Horrors of Spider Island" is a pretty boring film.  The girls are nice to look at and the spider monsters (both the arachnid and the man/spider) help you to wake up, but overall it's a nudie cutie film without any of the nudie cutie.  Which means that it really isn't trying to do anything and the characters could be swapped out for cardboard cutouts without losing anything.

I'm sure I'm in a VERY small minority,when I say that I LOVE the HORRORSof SPIDER ISLAND. I know it's boring....but those Spider Island girls got some kinda supernatrual hold on me! I feel the same way about the ASTOUNDING SHE MONSTER and KILLERS from SPACE....I really can't explain the love I hold for some of these truly worthless films.
I dunno...I may need professional counsoling...!

[Andrew]

I'm sure I'm in a VERY small minority,when I say that I LOVE the HORRORSof SPIDER ISLAND. I know it's boring....but those Spider Island girls got some kinda supernatrual hold on me! I feel the same way about the ASTOUNDING SHE MONSTER and KILLERS from SPACE....I really can't explain the love I hold for some of these truly worthless films.
I dunno...I may need professional counsoling...!

Well "The Astounding She Monster" is mostly a movie about a girl wearing a sparkling leotard running around a cabin in the middle of the night.  It still ends up being a little entertaining - probably a 2 slimer for me.  "Killers from Space" I enjoy, because it is really bad.  The big, googly eyes always crack me up and I also love how they defeat the aliens in the end.

[Rev. Powell]

Don't forget INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956).

[HappyGilmore]

Godzilla
This Island Earth
The Blob
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Attack of the Crab Monsters

On a side note, there's a song called The Cockroach that Ate Cincinnatti, which is a novelty song often played on Dr. Demento.  It's got a sci-fi feel, funny, and I wish a movie was made of it.

[peter johnson]

Hands down/no contest for me:
"The Thing" (1951)--
Howard Hawks writing and directing.  Ben Hecht also contributing to the script.  The great overlapping dialogue.  The scene where everyone stands at a different point of the spacecraft visible beneath the ice, and we see by where they stand that . . .  It's a Flying Saucer!!
The scientist guy almost gets everyone killed because of his attempts to befriend James Arness, but when he gets killed, nobody casts aspersions on his dead memory, saying only instead that "he died in the battle".  Honor, ladies and gentlemen, honor!!
The "Dr. Girl" in this one really actually being part of the team, rather than camera candy that screams and fetches coffee.
The feeling/the atmosphere that even though it's just James Arness in a carrot costume, there really IS something alien/unknown trying to eat us & drink our blood.
Just an all-over winner . . .
peter johnson/denny don't open that door!!

[RCMerchant]

Don't forget INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956).

I didn't forget....much like Shadow said...I really do love them all! I only touched on a fewfavorites...there are so many more! BODY SNATCHERS,as you mentioned, ROCKETSHIP X-M (with it's crazy mutants ), Edgar Ulmer's MAN from PLANET X, the classic the DAY the EARTH STOOD STILL, allthe AIP monsters...I could go on forever!

One that really seems to be maligned is the MONILITH MONSTERS. IIt has an almost surreal feel to it...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9Rfp56py4GE

Hands down/no contest for me:
"The Thing" (1951)--

The THING is undoubtly a classic!!! The fact he is rarly seen makes it more so! I would be MUCH more afraid of an unknown,half hidden enemy,than a rubber suit waddling around Bronsan Canyon!

[316zombie]

i love spider island,and i'm a girl!yeah,it's boring,but we do our own commentary during marathons,and it's different every time,much fun!big faves are-
devil girl from mars
terror from the year 5000
attack of the eye creatures
angry red planet
i may be wrong on the decade for some of these,if so,my apologies...

[JaseSF]

I adore 1950s Sci-Fi. How can this thread have gone so long without having mentioned Professor Quatermass?! At times, I feel THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (AKA: THE CREEPING UNKNOWN), is my personal all-time favorite film [other days it might be the 1951 Thing from Another World or 1935's Bride of Frankenstein]. I'm also a huge fan of other Hammer efforts like THE CRAWLING EYE (AKA: THE TROLLENBERG TERROR) and X THE UNKNOWN. Of course, QUATERMASS  XPERIMENT was followed by the almost as good, some would argue even better QUATERMASS 2 (AKA: ENEMY FROM SPACE). Just great films every SF fan should see IMO. Also want to mention the popular trend of finding planets inhabited only by women and every rocketship trip being threatened by a meteor shower was very common (although this might also have been often done in the SF serials of the 1940s - Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon). Anyways this was done in many 1950s films like CAT WOMEN ON THE MOON, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS, MISSILE TO THE MOON and QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE. Have to admit I have a decided soft spot for these. Two more faves from the 1950s not yet mentioned are IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (with it's paranoia gone crazy story written by Ray Bradbury and directed by the one and only Jack Arnold) and FLIGHT TO MARS, which may be somewhat laughable nowadays, but certainly proves entertaining enough and really set the groundwork for a lot of imitators in that era.

[SynapticBoomstick]

angry red planet

That was 50's?! I should have listed that *smacks head* doofus, doofus, doofus!

[flackbait]

angry red planet

That was 50's?! I should have listed that *smacks head* doofus, doofus, doofus!

Weeeelllllllllll.....Technically it was made in 1960, but that can easily be tossed aside since it was still in the same era and a fun little movie.

Everbody's already said my top favorites Forbidden Planet and The Quartermass Xperiment. But I'd like to add The Twilight Zone, while it ain't a movie it is a brilliant piece of sci-fi. Rod Sterling and the other writers/producers were genius's for cooking that show up.

[Andrew]

I think that something that sets "The Thing" (the original) apart from so many other 50's science fiction films is that the dialog and interaction moves at a breakneck pace throughout the story.  Many of the films back then had a more methodical pacing, but "The Thing" tends to race off and carry you along.