This Island Earth is a Legend in the Sci-Fi film industry. This movie was one of the greatest science fictions ever and my absolute favorite in the 1960's when I was a child.
Excellent documentary on the movie. Right NOW on my shelf is a one-foot tall Metaluna mutant and a hand-signed to me by Rex Reason photo of him fighting the mutant. I got to meet and talk with Rex. I had the 8mm Castle film, but it was never on TV. Finally, it came to a kiddie matinee at my home town when I was a senior in high school. None of my friends wanted to be seen there, so I went alone. Not the last time I went alone to a kiddie matinee to see a classic movie. This documentary was gold for me Jonny. I didn't want it to end.
This movie is one of my most cherished memories. As an 8 year old in 1955, my mother made me give assurances that I would not have any bad dreams and then took me to the Park Cinema in Cranston Rhode Island to see "This Island Earth". It was absolutely thrilling, of course to an 8 year old whose only other usual video input was on a 12 inch (yes 12 !!) Black and White TV screen, to see all this cosmic stuff going on. I remember the meteors raining down on the planet and almost wanted to duck behind the seat ! The other great move of that decade that came the following year, in 1956, was "Forbidden Planet" with a young Leslie Nielsen before he switched over to comedy. And that one really was "scary" and with magnificent special effects.
Jimserac, You mentioned 2 of the great classics...absolutely..!! The title " This Island, Earth", is terrific and invokes so much meaning in just 3 words. I always thought that using guided boulders to attack the city was genius. In Heinlein's book, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", wasn't that same thing used by the leaders ( ? ) on the Moon as a threat against Earth? And the other superb classic, "The Day the Earth Stood Still", is still as exciting and imaginative today as it was when it first came out. There were other good and even other great Sci-Fi movies made in the 50's. but these three, and particularly "Forbidden Planet" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still", are, in my opinion, the 'diamonds' of them all.
@Ken Hudson I guess all kids like the monster movies and I was no different. I was born in '52 and lived in a small farm town of about 6,000 ( and it has grown very little since then .) By the time I was 7 or 8, I would ride my bicycle to the local movie theater sometimes on week-ends and especially in the Summer and watch the greats like Karloff, Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and the other monster/horror stars. I always loved sci-fi movies and would watch any that came to town. You mentioned " uncritical absorption". Yep, me too, and as a kid I didn't know anything about movies having any Social commentary angles and stuff like that, I just enjoyed the movie. I was also a huge comic book reader and I remember when Spiderman comics started having a social message written in, I lost interest. I didn't want that; I just wanted pure make believe. I mean, come on...that's what Spiderman and Superman and all the other Super Heroes are....pure make believe.!!
A sci-fi classic. Loved how they brought the airplane into the saucer. The Monitor was cool and showed some real creativity. The way they escaped the Mutant was really done well. I have nothing but good memories of "This Island Earth," the most underrated sci-fi film of them all.
One of the outstanding features of "This Island Earth" is the the early laboratory/workshop scene where the "new age of electronics" is detailed. Very enlightening and dramatic coming from the year 1955!
Yes indeed, they accurately foresaw the miniaturisation of electronic components, certainly capacitors have dramatically reduced in size but increased in performance.
Never saw the film until it was posted. The only reference I knew was by British rock singer Bryan Ferry on his 70s album The Bride Stripped Bare, which included a track called, "This Island Earth."
The sequel would be a short film: they return to the planet and see that it is completely scorched by the nuclear bombardments and there is no life anymore. So they go back again 😉
The sequel, "ALIENS IN THE SKIES", written by screenwriter Franklin Coen in 1956, has Cal and Ruth married and working as scientists at Ryberg Electronics, where they are attempting to replicate the Interocitor using his memories of the device and a copy of the plans he made and hid away. UFO sightings in the southern California area are reported, and at last when Cal and Ruth get their Interocitor working they receive a cryptic video message from Brack - who has returned to Earth in another flying saucer, with an army of Metaluna Mutants, which he unleashes on Edwards Air Force base after landing his saucer there, disabling some Air Force jets and personnel with his neutrino rays. What follows is a battle of wits between the sinister Brack and Cal & Ruth as they attempt to stop Brack's foolhardy attempt to outwit the U.S. Air Force at the Pentagon. It would have co-starred Rex Reason and Faith Domergue, with Lance Fuller reprising his role as Brack, and would have had a million dollar budget, in Technicolor and CinemaScope. We have Universal Studios head Edward Muhl to thank for refusing to put it into production in 1956. Muhl did not care for science fiction, in spite of what the public wanted. His idea of a science fiction movie was the same as Sam Katzman over at Columbia - cheap black & white B-movies with stupid monsters in them for the teenagers at the Drive-Ins across America.
I've loved this movie because of MST3K, I couldn't get the jokes out of my head when I watched the movie on its own. My parents couldn't understand why I kept laughing during the movie. Good times...
HA! When Rex Reason heard about it in 1996, he was really upset, and went to Universal and demanded a percentage for the use of his likeness in the film, and received a generous sum through his attorney to make him feel comfortable about it. I was a friend of Rex Reason and his brother Rhodes from the 1970s until they both passed away.
Unfortunately, I saw this movie as a kid, at an age when I really couldn't appreciate it. I ended up watching it again about 5 years ago & I really loved it.
Thank you for the great video about an awesome film! I never look at any sci-fi film through modern day eyes and sensibilities. To me, I view them as if I'm watching these films at the era in which they were made. In this way, I avoid any thoughts of how 'primitive', for instance, the special effects look as compared to today's films. I can sit back and enjoy a 1930s Flash Gordon serial, without the thought that it's hokey or campy or downright silly as to the acting and/or effects.
I love this movie. I was BORN in 1957, and this SCI-FI movie was one of the FIRST I can remember ever seeing....though not at the theater, the local TV station here in Columbus ran "Chiller Theater" on Friday nights, where at 11:30 pm they started a sci-fi or horror (or sci-fi and horror) double feature, and this movie, along with "The Crawling Eye", and "The Colossal Man" scared the beejezzzus out of me. Love 'em all.
The top part of the space ship bares a striking resemblance of the bridge and lower area of the saucer section of the U.S.S.Enterprise. I've always noticed that.
Awesome. I was born in 1955, and first saw this on Million Dollar Movie, on Channel 9 in NYC. Loved it, and recently watched it, after having not seen it for at least 30 years. It really holds up great. Also, loved Forbidden Planet, Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Brian from Planet Arous, The 4D Man, The Thing From Another World, and many many others.
@@redblade8160 you have me at a disadvantage, sir. The communist censors deleted my freely donated yet priceless insightful, gold minted words - so idk exactly what you're responding to. 😏
I just built a model of the Metaluna Mutant . The character is popular enough that a model maker went through substantial expense to have molds cut for the mutant.
I find the over-use of the word "cheesy" a little irritating. The film was made as good as it could be at the time. You can't blame the filmmakers for not having access to technology that would not be invented for 50 years. I'll take classic science fiction with "cheesy" effects over modern crappy movies with over-used boring CGI.
Well, this is a pretty darn good commentary, all things considered. I'm glad that the film can be seen for it's accomplishments: Placing films, art, writings, etc. within a context and history is the most valid way to view works done in earlier times, and this commentator does quite well with that. (I should add that the commentator has called up some information on the film that I have written about over the years, which have been repeated and reprinted. It's nice to know that one's labors have found their way into the world of cinematic "lore". I knew and interviewed many of the people who made THIS ISLAND EARTH. The director was a friend, among many others. I won't get picky here about some information that isn't quite correct, other than to state, categorically, that the rumor---and it is that---that Jack Arnold re-did the scenes on Metaluna is not true. In fact, this was verified by the guy who started that rumor in the first place, Jack Arnold himself. I interviewed him, and once he knew how much research I'd done into the making of the film, how many people I'd spoken to, paperwork I'd dug up etc., he must've figured, "the jig is up" as he admitted that he did almost nothing on the film. None of the actors and others could recall ever working with Arnold, including Jeff Morrow, Regis Parton, the producer, the editor, the effects crew and Rex Reason who was on screen through so much of the film. He flat out declared that Arnold did NOT work on the film in any scenes he was in, and that would include virtually all the sequences on Metaluna. Rex put that in writing. So this rumor--really an outright lie--- should cease to be repeated, as it has taken on a rather outlandish role in the film's history. ) As to another matter here: That word "cheesy" is so overused it has become, in and of itself, a rather "cheesy" use of the english language. It doesn't really say anything if you think about it, and has become the perpetual "go-to" (another overused phrase) of film commentators. (I believe the word cheesy is a derivation of---evolved from--- another overused word from many decades ago, namely the word "chintzy", based on the word "chintz", which is/was a type of shiny, usually brightly-colored cotton cloth. Chintzy came to mean, generally, something gaudy, colorful and/or inexpensive. I wonder if someone launched the word "cheesy" after mis-hearing the original word and it wound up being repeated and repeated and repeat...ed...etc. as "cheesy"? Well, I've probably put way too much thought into this, but I have to agree that it may be time to ditch that word and substitute something a bit more fine-tuned. Ok, sounds like I'm tearing this fellow's work here to bits. I'm not, or at least it's not my intent. He's done a fine job, and has done very well in his presentation of stills and clips etc, and most of the research is accurate as far as it goes. I applaud this kind of work. I mention these other things since, well, since I'm very close to this film and felt I could help clear up the oft-repeated Arnold rumor. Ok, I better shut up now.
I see lines crossing out what I had to say about Jack Arnold's claim to have re-done big parts of THIS ISLAND EARTH. I'm not sure what that means. Is that section still readable to everyone? Why are there lines thru that section? Curious. Never saw that before.
I loved all the Syfy B movies, especially THIS ISLAND EARTH. Great review, I liked the connections between later movies and TV show references. Another favorite of mine was FORBIDDEN PLANET, 1956. It was star-studded, had great special effects and inspired Gene Roddenberry in his creation of the original Star Trek TV series. Nicely done, thank you.
Producer Wiliam Alland played "Thompson" the unseen journalist in Citizen Kane. The Monitor was played by Douglas Spencer (Scotty from The Thing from Another World).
I only became aware of this film when I found it posted on RUclips. Yes it's primitive by todays standards, but I can appreciate that it is pretty well written and that they were able to get a sci-fi film produced in color. It pre-dates Star Trek by 13 years, which is a pretty long time at this point in special effects technology. Thanks for giving us this video containing all this information about the film.
JonnyBaak, your commentaries are excellent! I sincerely love and admire these films, made at a time when UFOs were considered a probability. Today, after the DoD's release of their UFO films, these pictures have a new relevance. Thank you for your superb research.
I saw this in theaters and, as a eight year old, it stuck with me of several years. It was the most enthralling movie I had seen until then, (I didn't see the Gene Berry 'war of the worlds' until the mid sixties) and even then the mutants of this movie stayed with me in my nightmares. Really great movie.
Nobody ever mentions the music for this movie by Herman Stein, Hans J. Salter, and Henry Mancini, except for Jonny Baak. Thanks! The music suits the visuals perfectly!
Thanks for such a brilliant video. Your films are always so informative and interesting. I have always enjoyed this movie and it's always great to hear about the stories behind the films and the trouble that they went through just to get them made. Once again an amazingly detailed and well documented video. Thanks again.
One of the most original ideas of "This Island Earth" was how the aliens first contact Dr. Meecham: by sending him a catalog of their electronic gadgets. If space aliens ever do send a message to our planet, I'm hoping it will say something like "Please visit our website."
I first saw this movie as a late night double bill with (if you can believe this) Barbarella. It hooked me right from the start and has stayed with me ever since. Some of the special effects are utterly seamless and still stand up today. I saw it in black and white (because everything was in black and white in those days) but even so it was possible to "see" the colour - there was something about it that made it stand out when compared to actual black and white movies like Quatermass. It was possibly the first serious SF movie I'd ever seen, a movie that clearly wasn't just for kids.
The lead actor, Rex Reason (his real birth name), had a brother who was also an actor, mostly in 1960's tv. His name? Rhodes Reason. Rex said that he got used to being approached by fans who congratulated him on roles actually performed by his brother. Rex was a contender for the lead in the original (1962) Manchurian Candidate but lost the role to Laurence Harvey after production was moved from Warner Brothers. He left movie acting after this to run a real estate business and do voiceover work.
I remember as a youngster having some bubblegum cards, they had pictures of old horror/sci-fi films on, including Frankenstein and what I now realise was This Island Earth. Each card had a (black and white, as I recall) photo from the film, and a humorous caption below. The card for This Island Earth, predictably, had a picture of the big-head alien creature; the caption was something like 'have you got anything for a splitting headache?'. The one for Frankenstein was the creature and the creator looking at each other, the creator holding a flaming torch; I don't remember the caption. Probably just as well! This would have been over 40 years ago. How old do I feel typing that in?!
I had this one too, IIRC, except it was the German version, and it read "Haben Sie etwas gegen Kopfschmerzen?" ("Do you have something for a headache?") :D
We have to pass this stuff down to our grown kids with some conversations. I still have my collection of old Outer Limits cards, Mars Attacks cards, and Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines. Priceless to my 30 year old son.
A great 50s Sci-Fi film. I really enjoyed watching the building and operation of the Interoscitor. Yeah, that alien was hokey, but still a great film. I need to find a copy for my small Sci-Fi video library.
My favorite memories of the film was the part when they assembled the electronics in the laboratory. Get your interossitors ready! The automated DC-3 was cool too.
Ah, I always loved this movie, especially the cute alien monster, and the interocitor machine, which the guy meticulously assembled. One of the most realistic sci-fi movies to me.
One of my favorites.... in junior high school... yes... before it was called "middle school"... during lunch time they would show about 15 to 20 minutes of a movie, so we ate quick and went off to the auditorium... and more the next day... so this was one of those films, it is where I first saw it... another was "Six Black Horses" with Audie Murphy. which I recently watched for the first time since... WOW... many decades later.... well, great shows...
I always thought it was just OK 😄 The worst movies always make the best MST episodes, and This Island Earth really isn’t that bad. I remember reading once that it wasn’t the crew’s preferred choice for just that reason, but one of the trappings of making MST3K: The Movie was studio interference, and that included choice of film 😕
I know (or, rather, knew Joel Hodgson, and we talked about the choice of this film for MST. He did NOT think this was a film they should've done. He was concerned that they were starting to harming the history of some of the films they made fun of---such as ROCKETSHIP X-M and a couple of the Russian fantasy epics, like SADKO. Some of these films, including THIS ISLAND EARTH were only chosen because they were available as PD or thru special deals they worked out with studios. In the case of ISLAND EARTH, this was the only film in color that Universal had in their library of 50's SF that they could use for their own feature, and color was one of the requirements. Otherwise, they might've chosen something like THE DEADLY MANTIS or CULT OF THE COBRA and lesser films like those.
Some of the things in This Island Earth were begging to be razzed, though. The handholds in the Tubes? "They're magnetic (MST line: and if your hands were made of metal, that would mean something). "Will the tube stop them? Maybe (MST line: Well, no).
it is and it was quite incredible, to see it in a darkened theater, the colour and all was exciting for a 12 year old, awesome back then. Still it's on my 10 best list!
Thank you Universal for making "This Island Earth." A great film, that should be given appreciation for the finished product. I still remember my first viewing.
Great video. I loved all the SciFi and monster movies no matter how much people called them "Cheesy". I have many of these old films on DVD and still watch them.
This has always been one of my favorites. Some of those movies, cheesy as they may seem now, terrified me. I still get nervous swimming in water that isn’t clear, just in case something swims up from the depths and grabs my ankle!
great video! I was 10 in 1970 and got to see all these, sometimes late at night on TV in NYC area. If you take requests, I'd love to have one of these about Forbidden Planet. All good wishes!
Definitely a huge part of my childhood. MY parents would let me stay up late to watch any and all monster movies in the 70's. It was one of my favorites.
I was fascinated by this movie about ten years ago. I couldn't find it on DVD or TV. So I read the book. The book is very different - almost unrecognizable. It's - as I remember - about Islands in the Second World War. Now you can see it almost anywhere but ten years ago it was quite rare. The best sequences are those at the beginning. The aliens recruit earth talent to help them fight their interstellar enemies by giving them a test. They send them a kit for making an "interrocitor". Exeter makes a mistake in referring to "Your Mozart" and exposes his alieness. The best Sci-Fi film of the fifties was of course "Forbidden Planet" but this one is close.
I actually saw this in a re-release in the 1960s and I felt that the first 3/4 were really good, but when they get to Metaluna they are only there briefly, we don't see much of it and then they leave so soon that I wondered why they bothered going there at all because they are unable to repel the attacks on the planet before they leave right before the planet is destroyed. The film only adapts the first 3/4 of the novel which has a long sequence beyond what is shown in the movie.
Agree completely. Would love to see it remade aa a series and have several episodes take place on Metaluna. Even have a brief period where the human scientists help turn the tide, and only afterwards do they discover that the Metalunans plan to relocate to and take over the Earth.
In the documentary included on the Scream Factory blu ray, people interviewed say that Jack Arnold had nothing to do with directing this film; it was only a rumour that persisted without evidence.
Along with, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Forbidden Planet," "This Island Earth" were three of the BEST Sci-Fi films ever made. They tried to remake "The Day the Earth Stood Still" a few years ago and it was a major FLOP. Too bad they didn't put more imagination and money into the project, it could have been an EPIC presentation. I'm afraid if they tried to remake "This Island Earth" in a 21st-century version, they would have another 'major fail.' They have talked about remaking, "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" for a number of years and I believe that would be a BIG mistake. Someone once said: "You can't go home again." Sometimes it's best to leave iconic films back in the era they were meant for. Hollywood has lost its imagination to one extent or another, and can only remake old classics with less artistic and emotional content. I'm a "Baby Boomer" who saw many of the '50s Sci-Fi and Horror films (as a child) when they first came out to the 'Inside theaters and Drive-Ins.' Where would we be without "NOSTALGIA?" It was a better place and a better time.
Most remakes end up a total disaster and disappointment. It takes real love and respect of the original to pull it off. Depending on one's tastes, a film like the original the thing, had tension and horror combined, the Russell version was just a freak show waiting for the next effect. The time machine with guy perice lost the innocent charm that made the Taylor version such a joy to watch. Hollywood unfortunately will not stop making remakes.
This. planet, Earth is a classic, as were a number of others mentioned in the narration and in comments by us enthusiasts. I would also recommend Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.
They have been successful with more vampire, werewolf, Frankenstein, mummy and other science fiction movies. Star Wars copies a lot from Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, Indiana Jones copies a lot from Alan Quartermain, Perils of Pauline and Doc Savage.
i wonder if this film design influenced Roddenberry like Forbidden Planet did? The Metalunan ship always reminded me of the Enterprise saucer section. And the enemy fighter strangely "resembles" the starfleet arrowheads symbol. Hmmm...and there a tractor beam mechanism and the transformation tubes too (it even has a control panel that has to be manned) like Trek's transporter room.
The book is worth reading. The plot involves a “space opera” like the E.E. Smith Lensmen saga. There’s a war going on in the galaxy and Earth gets sucked into the war being as Earthmen have a talent for building interlocutors. But things go badly and the Earth is in danger of being abondoned by the “good guys” because their computers say the odds are bad. Cal Meacham convinces the “good guys” that waging war by computer is a bad idea. By the way, the interoscitors are mind-control weapons!
still a favorite of mine as an intelligent scifi film - it turned into a 1950's scifi film only with the menacing creature - but at least its appearance was minimal
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm 78 years old and I loved it. I come from NYC and I went to every theater that played it.
How appropriate to put Holst's 'Mars, the Bringer of War' in the background of this episode! I like it!
First time I had seen This Island Earth was today. I was impressed by how well this film was done,. in 1955...
This Island Earth is a Legend in the Sci-Fi film industry. This movie was one of the greatest science fictions ever and my absolute favorite in the 1960's when I was a child.
Excellent documentary on the movie. Right NOW on my shelf is a one-foot tall Metaluna mutant and a hand-signed to me by Rex Reason photo of him fighting the mutant. I got to meet and talk with Rex. I had the 8mm Castle film, but it was never on TV. Finally, it came to a kiddie matinee at my home town when I was a senior in high school. None of my friends wanted to be seen there, so I went alone. Not the last time I went alone to a kiddie matinee to see a classic movie. This documentary was gold for me Jonny. I didn't want it to end.
" It came from outer space" was made in 1953.
Huh??? lol
This movie is one of my most cherished memories. As an 8 year old in 1955, my mother made me give assurances that I would not have any bad dreams and then took me to the Park Cinema in Cranston Rhode Island to see "This Island Earth". It was absolutely thrilling, of course to an 8 year old whose only other usual video input was on a 12 inch (yes 12 !!) Black and White TV screen, to see all this cosmic stuff going on. I remember the meteors raining down on the planet and almost wanted to duck behind the seat !
The other great move of that decade that came the following year, in 1956, was "Forbidden Planet" with a young Leslie Nielsen before he switched over to comedy. And that one really was "scary" and with magnificent special effects.
Jimserac, You mentioned 2 of the great classics...absolutely..!! The title " This Island, Earth", is terrific and invokes so much meaning in just 3 words. I always thought that using guided boulders to attack the city was genius. In Heinlein's book, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", wasn't that same thing used by the leaders ( ? ) on the Moon as a threat against Earth? And the other superb classic, "The Day the Earth Stood Still", is still as exciting and imaginative today as it was when it first came out. There were other good and even other great Sci-Fi movies made in the 50's. but these three, and particularly "Forbidden Planet" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still", are, in my opinion, the 'diamonds' of them all.
@Ken Hudson I guess all kids like the monster movies and I was no different. I was born in '52 and lived in a small farm town of about 6,000 ( and it has grown very little since then .) By the time I was 7 or 8, I would ride my bicycle to the local movie theater sometimes on week-ends and especially in the Summer and watch the greats like Karloff, Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and the other monster/horror stars. I always loved sci-fi movies and would watch any that came to town. You mentioned " uncritical absorption". Yep, me too, and as a kid I didn't know anything about movies having any Social commentary angles and stuff like that, I just enjoyed the movie. I was also a huge comic book reader and I remember when Spiderman comics started having a social message written in, I lost interest. I didn't want that; I just wanted pure make believe. I mean, come on...that's what Spiderman and Superman and all the other Super Heroes are....pure make believe.!!
@@marbleman52 I couldnt agree with you more, I saw this kind of movie and others as make believe, that's best!
@@marbleman52 well said
@@marbleman52
Was your tyres let down when you got back on your bicycle?
I think the Metaluna Mutant was and still is one of the coolest aliens in Sci-fi history, not to mention the 1950's alone. It's a classic!!
It was certainly scary with that exposed brain and those crab-like hands. It was the epitome of a Bug Eyed Monster.
Absolutely. Compare this to the celery-on-wheels monster from "It Conquered the World" (1956).
A sci-fi classic. Loved how they brought the airplane into the saucer. The Monitor was cool and showed some real creativity. The way they escaped the Mutant was really done well. I have nothing but good memories of "This Island Earth," the most underrated sci-fi film of them all.
Monitor? Or Interocitor?
Definitely a golden era for entertaining scifi. Some classics.
One of the outstanding features of "This Island Earth" is the the early laboratory/workshop scene where the "new age of electronics" is detailed. Very enlightening and dramatic coming from the year 1955!
Yes, the making of the Interocitor.
Yes, I liked the work on all the parts...lots of interesting details.
Yes indeed, they accurately foresaw the miniaturisation of electronic components, certainly capacitors have dramatically reduced in size but increased in performance.
I always found the scene where they are testing the capacitor a bit jarring. At those voltages, there should have been an arc between the terminals.
Never saw the film until it was posted. The only reference I knew was by British rock singer Bryan Ferry on his 70s album The Bride Stripped Bare, which included a track called, "This Island Earth."
One of my all time favourite movies , I would loved to have seen a sequel .
Says the person who didn't get subjected to an awful follow up ruining what came before it.
The sequel would be a short film: they return to the planet and see that it is completely scorched by the nuclear bombardments and there is no life anymore. So they go back again 😉
The sequel, "ALIENS IN THE SKIES", written by screenwriter Franklin Coen in 1956, has Cal and Ruth married and working as scientists at Ryberg Electronics, where they are attempting to replicate the Interocitor using his memories of the device and a copy of the plans he made and hid away. UFO sightings in the southern California area are reported, and at last when Cal and Ruth get their Interocitor working they receive a cryptic video message from Brack - who has returned to Earth in another flying saucer, with an army of Metaluna Mutants, which he unleashes on Edwards Air Force base after landing his saucer there, disabling some Air Force jets and personnel with his neutrino rays.
What follows is a battle of wits between the sinister Brack and Cal & Ruth as they attempt to stop Brack's foolhardy attempt to outwit the U.S. Air Force at the Pentagon.
It would have co-starred Rex Reason and Faith Domergue, with Lance Fuller reprising his role as Brack, and would have had a million dollar budget, in Technicolor and CinemaScope.
We have Universal Studios head Edward Muhl to thank for refusing to put it into production in 1956. Muhl did not care for science fiction, in spite of what the public wanted. His idea of a science fiction movie was the same as Sam Katzman over at Columbia - cheap black & white B-movies with stupid monsters in them for the teenagers at the Drive-Ins across America.
What would they call it? That Island Earth?
@@TheRadioAteMyTV You cannot predict sequels will be awful though some are.
When Mystery Science Theater did their feature film they paid homage to this movie by doing a great job!
I've loved this movie because of MST3K, I couldn't get the jokes out of my head when I watched the movie on its own. My parents couldn't understand why I kept laughing during the movie. Good times...
HA! When Rex Reason heard about it in 1996, he was really upset, and went to Universal and demanded a percentage for the use of his likeness in the film, and received a generous sum through his attorney to make him feel comfortable about it. I was a friend of Rex Reason and his brother Rhodes from the 1970s until they both passed away.
Spent years trying to track this film down. I remember watching this when I was a kid.
Thank you Jonathan an excellent video
Unfortunately, I saw this movie as a kid, at an age when I really couldn't appreciate it. I ended up watching it again about 5 years ago & I really loved it.
Thank you for the great video about an awesome film! I never look at any sci-fi film through modern day eyes and sensibilities. To me, I view them as if I'm watching these films at the era in which they were made. In this way, I avoid any thoughts of how 'primitive', for instance, the special effects look as compared to today's films. I can sit back and enjoy a 1930s Flash Gordon serial, without the thought that it's hokey or campy or downright silly as to the acting and/or effects.
I was ten years old when this came out. Loved it.
Now I know where the creators of the "Mars Attacks!" cards got their inspiration for the Martians "look".
Invasion of the saucer men is probably nthe movie they got the idea from.
Except it was a 60s collector's card series before it was a movie?
I love this movie. I was BORN in 1957, and this SCI-FI movie was one of the FIRST I can remember ever seeing....though not at the theater, the local TV station here in Columbus ran "Chiller Theater" on Friday nights, where at 11:30 pm they started a sci-fi or horror (or sci-fi and horror) double feature, and this movie, along with "The Crawling Eye", and "The Colossal Man" scared the beejezzzus out of me. Love 'em all.
I was born in 1956 myself and I love all those movies as well. Still do.
The top part of the space ship bares a striking resemblance of the bridge and lower area of the saucer section of the U.S.S.Enterprise. I've always noticed that.
Awesome. I was born in 1955, and first saw this on Million Dollar Movie, on Channel 9 in NYC. Loved it, and recently watched it, after having not seen it for at least 30 years. It really holds up great. Also, loved Forbidden Planet, Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Brian from Planet Arous, The 4D Man, The Thing From Another World, and many many others.
@@johnbockelie3899 Great observation!
Thank you for this video about This Island Earth. It's one of my favorite 50's SciFi movies. Also love the UFO tv series intro music.
This film is still a masterpiece, and anyone should always overlook the dimension of time's limits imposed on it by the era from which it hails.
. As. a young teen I thought it great, Domergue was special!
Excellent wordage
@@brucezar9517
Disagree
@@redblade8160 you have me at a disadvantage, sir. The communist censors deleted my freely donated yet priceless insightful, gold minted words - so idk exactly what you're responding to. 😏
The poster states it was 2 1⁄2 years in the making but most of that was post production
I was 7 years old when I first saw this movie in a theater in downtown L.A. My father and godparent took me with them to see it. Great memory.
I just built a model of the Metaluna Mutant . The character is popular enough that a model maker went through substantial expense to have molds cut for the mutant.
I find the over-use of the word "cheesy" a little irritating. The film was made as good as it could be at the time. You can't blame the filmmakers for not having access to technology that would not be invented for 50 years. I'll take classic science fiction with "cheesy" effects over modern crappy movies with over-used boring CGI.
Well said Mr Franklin.
i stand with you sir.
Well, this is a pretty darn good commentary, all things considered. I'm glad that the film can be seen for it's accomplishments: Placing films, art, writings, etc. within a context and history is the most valid way to view works done in earlier times, and this commentator does quite well with that. (I should add that the commentator has called up some information on the film that I have written about over the years, which have been repeated and reprinted. It's nice to know that one's labors have found their way into the world of cinematic "lore". I knew and interviewed many of the people who made THIS ISLAND EARTH. The director was a friend, among many others. I won't get picky here about some information that isn't quite correct, other than to state, categorically, that the rumor---and it is that---that Jack Arnold re-did the scenes on Metaluna is not true. In fact, this was verified by the guy who started that rumor in the first place, Jack Arnold himself. I interviewed him, and once he knew how much research I'd done into the making of the film, how many people I'd spoken to, paperwork I'd dug up etc., he must've figured, "the jig is up" as he admitted that he did almost nothing on the film. None of the actors and others could recall ever working with Arnold, including Jeff Morrow, Regis Parton, the producer, the editor, the effects crew and Rex Reason who was on screen through so much of the film. He flat out declared that Arnold did NOT work on the film in any scenes he was in, and that would include virtually all the sequences on Metaluna. Rex put that in writing. So this rumor--really an outright lie--- should cease to be repeated, as it has taken on a rather outlandish role in the film's history. ) As to another matter here: That word "cheesy" is so overused it has become, in and of itself, a rather "cheesy" use of the english language. It doesn't really say anything if you think about it, and has become the perpetual "go-to" (another overused phrase) of film commentators. (I believe the word cheesy is a derivation of---evolved from--- another overused word from many decades ago, namely the word "chintzy", based on the word "chintz", which is/was a type of shiny, usually brightly-colored cotton cloth. Chintzy came to mean, generally, something gaudy, colorful and/or inexpensive. I wonder if someone launched the word "cheesy" after mis-hearing the original word and it wound up being repeated and repeated and repeat...ed...etc. as "cheesy"? Well, I've probably put way too much thought into this, but I have to agree that it may be time to ditch that word and substitute something a bit more fine-tuned. Ok, sounds like I'm tearing this fellow's work here to bits. I'm not, or at least it's not my intent. He's done a fine job, and has done very well in his presentation of stills and clips etc, and most of the research is accurate as far as it goes. I applaud this kind of work. I mention these other things since, well, since I'm very close to this film and felt I could help clear up the oft-repeated Arnold rumor. Ok, I better shut up now.
I see lines crossing out what I had to say about Jack Arnold's claim to have re-done big parts of THIS ISLAND EARTH. I'm not sure what that means. Is that section still readable to everyone? Why are there lines thru that section? Curious. Never saw that before.
Oh yeah? Look at all that cheese piled on top of Morrow's and Fuller's heads! LOL
This movie is a "Classic" Great & Fun to watch movie, yes it's silly at times...lol. I'm very happy to say I own a copy in my video library.
I'm writing about the film. What parts do you feel are silly? Thanks.
I loved all the Syfy B movies, especially THIS ISLAND EARTH. Great review, I liked the connections between later movies and TV show references. Another favorite of mine was FORBIDDEN PLANET, 1956. It was star-studded, had great special effects and inspired Gene Roddenberry in his creation of the original Star Trek TV series. Nicely done, thank you.
Neither THIS ISLAND EARTH or FORBIDDEN PLANET were B-movies. Both were expensive A-productions.
I absolutely love those matte paintings.
Another fine and informative video. This film was a childhood favourite of mine. Thanks to Ivan Hutchinson for presenting it.
Producer Wiliam Alland played "Thompson" the unseen journalist in Citizen Kane. The Monitor was played by Douglas Spencer (Scotty from The Thing from Another World).
I only became aware of this film when I found it posted on RUclips. Yes it's primitive by todays standards, but I can appreciate that it is pretty well written and that they were able to get a sci-fi film produced in color. It pre-dates Star Trek by 13 years, which is a pretty long time at this point in special effects technology.
Thanks for giving us this video containing all this information about the film.
I love that film!!
JonnyBaak, your commentaries are excellent! I sincerely love and admire these films, made at a time when UFOs were considered a probability. Today, after the DoD's release of their UFO films, these pictures have a new relevance. Thank you for your superb research.
I saw this in theaters and, as a eight year old, it stuck with me of several years. It was the most enthralling movie I had seen until then, (I didn't see the Gene Berry 'war of the worlds' until the mid sixties) and even then the mutants of this movie stayed with me in my nightmares. Really great movie.
Nice! 🍻
Nobody ever mentions the music for this movie by Herman Stein, Hans J. Salter, and Henry Mancini, except for Jonny Baak. Thanks!
The music suits the visuals perfectly!
Thanks for such a brilliant video. Your films are always so informative and interesting.
I have always enjoyed this movie and it's always great to hear about the stories behind the films and the trouble that they went through just to get them made. Once again an amazingly detailed and well documented video. Thanks again.
One of the most original ideas of "This Island Earth" was how the aliens first contact Dr. Meecham: by sending him a catalog of their electronic gadgets. If space aliens ever do send a message to our planet, I'm hoping it will say something like "Please visit our website."
I first saw this movie as a late night double bill with (if you can believe this) Barbarella. It hooked me right from the start and has stayed with me ever since. Some of the special effects are utterly seamless and still stand up today. I saw it in black and white (because everything was in black and white in those days) but even so it was possible to "see" the colour - there was something about it that made it stand out when compared to actual black and white movies like Quatermass. It was possibly the first serious SF movie I'd ever seen, a movie that clearly wasn't just for kids.
Aahhhh, Forbidden planet is still my favorite, and of course The day the earth stood still.
War of the worlds ?
The Trollenberg Terror 😘
The lead actor, Rex Reason (his real birth name), had a brother who was also an actor, mostly in 1960's tv. His name? Rhodes Reason. Rex said that he got used to being approached by fans who congratulated him on roles actually performed by his brother. Rex was a contender for the lead in the original (1962) Manchurian Candidate but lost the role to Laurence Harvey after production was moved from Warner Brothers. He left movie acting after this to run a real estate business and do voiceover work.
Very good film! I didn't notice the mutant's ordinary trousers and it certainly didn't spoil the effect.
Really enjoyed this video as knew nothing about the films production. Thank you!
I remember as a youngster having some bubblegum cards, they had pictures of old horror/sci-fi films on, including Frankenstein and what I now realise was This Island Earth. Each card had a (black and white, as I recall) photo from the film, and a humorous caption below. The card for This Island Earth, predictably, had a picture of the big-head alien creature; the caption was something like 'have you got anything for a splitting headache?'. The one for Frankenstein was the creature and the creator looking at each other, the creator holding a flaming torch; I don't remember the caption. Probably just as well! This would have been over 40 years ago. How old do I feel typing that in?!
I had this one too, IIRC, except it was the German version, and it read "Haben Sie etwas gegen Kopfschmerzen?" ("Do you have something for a headache?") :D
@@durrcodurr Some humour travels well; even to the depths of space, it seems.
I remember those cards, too.
We have to pass this stuff down to our grown kids with some conversations. I still have my collection of old Outer Limits cards, Mars Attacks cards, and Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines. Priceless to my 30 year old son.
"You'll Die Laughing" cards?
The introduction of the Interociter was the most important science fiction hardware ever concaved.
A great 50s Sci-Fi film. I really enjoyed watching the building and operation of the Interoscitor. Yeah, that alien was hokey, but still a great film. I need to find a copy for my small Sci-Fi video library.
My favorite memories of the film was the part when they assembled the electronics in the laboratory. Get your interossitors ready! The automated DC-3 was cool too.
I loved the aliens sending a spare part to the scientist which he'd never seen before. It is a unique story. Thanks for making this!
Why did he pull the plug of the machine
@@mojothepyruttleworthy3270 I thought to keep it from blowing up.
One of the top ten old sci-fi movies, EVER!
To appreciate the film, you've got to read the book. Its an anology of the WWII Allied march through the Pacific Islands. Very enlightening!!
Very informative. I recently rewatched this film and enjoyed it even more than I did the first time.
Excellent!
Where's my interossitor? I ordered it eons ago!
You can only order the parts...some assembly is required...and NO batteries are included!
My telepathic orders always get screwed up!
You've got an interossiter?! We can use it to get back to earth! Why don't you tell me these things?!
I check under my bed for a moo-tant every night
Ah, I always loved this movie, especially the cute alien monster, and the interocitor machine, which the guy meticulously assembled. One of the most realistic sci-fi movies to me.
One of my favorites.... in junior high school... yes... before it was called "middle school"... during lunch time they would show about 15 to 20 minutes of a movie, so we ate quick and went off to the auditorium... and more the next day... so this was one of those films, it is where I first saw it... another was "Six Black Horses" with Audie Murphy. which I recently watched for the first time since... WOW... many decades later.... well, great shows...
The theme that occurs when they approach Metalluna was used on "Monster Movie Matinee" in my hometown of Syracuse in the mid 70's-early 80's.
The MST3000 version of this film is genius.
I agree. Some hate MST for making fun of this movie. It's a good movie on its own and also the MST version is funny as hell.
I always thought it was just OK 😄 The worst movies always make the best MST episodes, and This Island Earth really isn’t that bad. I remember reading once that it wasn’t the crew’s preferred choice for just that reason, but one of the trappings of making MST3K: The Movie was studio interference, and that included choice of film 😕
I know (or, rather, knew Joel Hodgson, and we talked about the choice of this film for MST. He did NOT think this was a film they should've done. He was concerned that they were starting to harming the history of some of the films they made fun of---such as ROCKETSHIP X-M and a couple of the Russian fantasy epics, like SADKO. Some of these films, including THIS ISLAND EARTH were only chosen because they were available as PD or thru special deals they worked out with studios. In the case of ISLAND EARTH, this was the only film in color that Universal had in their library of 50's SF that they could use for their own feature, and color was one of the requirements. Otherwise, they might've chosen something like THE DEADLY MANTIS or CULT OF THE COBRA and lesser films like those.
@@RK-eo8gl I'm one of them.
Some of the things in This Island Earth were begging to be razzed, though. The handholds in the Tubes? "They're magnetic (MST line: and if your hands were made of metal, that would mean something). "Will the tube stop them? Maybe (MST line: Well, no).
The photography of this movie is superb to say the least.
it is and it was quite incredible, to see it in a darkened theater, the colour and all was exciting for a 12 year old, awesome back then. Still it's on my 10 best list!
@@michelleregis6181 Watch again the flight sequence of the beginning. How come the colors are better than those of today ?
Thank you Universal for making "This Island Earth." A great film, that should be given appreciation for the finished product. I still remember my first viewing.
Me too! I was 8 years old in the summer of 1955 when I first saw this movie at an Art Deco Neon theater, and loved it!
I am watching this video on my DobbsVision sync-lock interocitor. Looks great!
Superb review thank you. Love this movie cached it since I was a kid and am 54 now. Always marveled at the Enterossiter and wanted one.haha
It was basically a Flat Screen TV. You can find those anywhere, now.
Probably one of the best movies ever.
I first learned of this movie from mst3k the movie, and later was surprised how much of This Island Earth was cut out.
I was a fan of mstk3k until they butchered this movie.
Great video. I loved all the SciFi and monster movies no matter how much people called them "Cheesy". I have many of these old films on DVD and still watch them.
This has always been one of my favorites. Some of those movies, cheesy as they may seem now, terrified me. I still get nervous swimming in water that isn’t clear, just in case something swims up from the depths and grabs my ankle!
Great underrated film.
Great Job!
The mutant made a surprise appearance with robby the robot in loony tunes back in action. It still scared me as an adult!
I love this classic science fiction movie I saw this when I was a kid. And still every once in a while we'll watch it. Classic science fiction movie.
great video! I was 10 in 1970 and got to see all these, sometimes late at night on TV in NYC area. If you take requests, I'd love to have one of these about Forbidden Planet. All good wishes!
Thanks for the interesting history of This Island Earth. One bit of trivia: Coleman Francis (Hollywood's OTHER Ed Wood) had a bit part in the film.
Mt Wilson is part of my view out my window!
Definitely a huge part of my childhood. MY parents would let me stay up late to watch any and all monster movies in the 70's. It was one of my favorites.
I'm back into classics lately for film.
you have to look at these films, when they were made. great effects for the time.
I was fascinated by this movie about ten years ago. I couldn't find it on DVD or TV. So I read the book. The book is very different - almost unrecognizable. It's - as I remember - about Islands in the Second World War. Now you can see it almost anywhere but ten years ago it was quite rare.
The best sequences are those at the beginning. The aliens recruit earth talent to help them fight their interstellar enemies by giving them a test. They send them a kit for making an "interrocitor". Exeter makes a mistake in referring to "Your Mozart" and exposes his alieness. The best Sci-Fi film of the fifties was of course "Forbidden Planet" but this one is close.
Thanks for all the background info on this.
Another fun sci-fi movie of the 1950s.
it was special to me
Subbed and awesome narration. 👍
One of the greatest sci-fi’s ever
amazing. i never this movie existed until now? how? thank you
I actually saw this in a re-release in the 1960s and I felt that the first 3/4 were really good, but when they get to Metaluna they are only there briefly, we don't see much of it and then they leave so soon that I wondered why they bothered going there at all because they are unable to repel the attacks on the planet before they leave right before the planet is destroyed. The film only adapts the first 3/4 of the novel which has a long sequence beyond what is shown in the movie.
Agree completely. Would love to see it remade aa a series and have several episodes take place on Metaluna. Even have a brief period where the human scientists help turn the tide, and only afterwards do they discover that the Metalunans plan to relocate to and take over the Earth.
This was a good movie for it's time.
A classic. great effects for it’s time. one of my all time favs! True story, i have seen this film in 8mm, 16mm, 35mm, VHS.
hey me too
Oh yay, I wish I had some popcorn!
"Universal International? If it's universal it's already international..." -Mike MST3K
In the documentary included on the Scream Factory blu ray, people interviewed say that Jack Arnold had nothing to do with directing this film; it was only a rumour that persisted without evidence.
Not even Second Unit? That's odd.
Just bought this movie on DVD!😱👽👾🛸
That mutant monster in the movie scared the shit out of me!
This was a great movie the special effects were really good a head of it's time and the script was great plus the cast was great
Great movie. I saw it 1963 at a local theater.
Wow! I would’ve loved to see that on the big screen
Svengoolie is scheduled to show TIE this Saturday (11 April) at 8PM Eastern on MeTV.
A lot of Universal Classics in rotation on that Program. Definitely worth watching if you're a fan of Old School Genre Films.
NICE to meet a fellow Aussie scifi fan!
Along with, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Forbidden Planet," "This Island Earth" were three of the BEST Sci-Fi films ever made. They tried to remake "The Day the Earth Stood Still" a few years ago and it was a major FLOP. Too bad they didn't put more imagination and money into the project, it could have been an EPIC presentation. I'm afraid if they tried to remake "This Island Earth" in a 21st-century version, they would have another 'major fail.' They have talked about remaking, "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" for a number of years and I believe that would be a BIG mistake. Someone once said: "You can't go home again."
Sometimes it's best to leave iconic films back in the era they were meant for. Hollywood has lost its imagination to one extent or another, and can only remake old classics with less artistic and emotional content. I'm a "Baby Boomer" who saw many of the '50s Sci-Fi and Horror films (as a child) when they first came out to the 'Inside theaters and Drive-Ins.' Where would we be without "NOSTALGIA?" It was a better place and a better time.
Most remakes end up a total disaster and disappointment. It takes real love and respect of the original to pull it off. Depending on one's tastes, a film like the original the thing, had tension and horror combined, the Russell version was just a freak show waiting for the next effect. The time machine with guy perice lost the innocent charm that made the Taylor version such a joy to watch. Hollywood unfortunately will not stop making remakes.
This. planet, Earth is a classic, as were a number of others mentioned in the narration and in comments by us enthusiasts. I would also recommend Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.
@@brucefritzges8759 twenty thousand leagues is a good film but, we're only talking about films referencing space be it invasion or on other planets.
They have been successful with more vampire, werewolf, Frankenstein, mummy and other science fiction movies. Star Wars copies a lot from Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, Indiana Jones copies a lot from Alan Quartermain, Perils of Pauline and Doc Savage.
They had a creature similar to The Creature from The Black Lagoon in Hellboy and also in a movie titled the Shape of water.
i wonder if this film design influenced Roddenberry like Forbidden Planet did? The Metalunan ship always reminded me of the Enterprise saucer section. And the enemy fighter strangely "resembles" the starfleet arrowheads symbol. Hmmm...and there a tractor beam mechanism and the transformation tubes too (it even has a control panel that has to be manned) like Trek's transporter room.
Short movie but l loved it, one of the best sci fi of the 50s.
The mutant was the cherry on top for this great sci-fi flick.
That isn't a mutant. It's a genetically engineered creature the Metalunians created.
Up till the mid-60s, you could still buy an 'interocitor kit'.
From Heathkit.
The book is worth reading. The plot involves a “space opera” like the E.E. Smith Lensmen saga. There’s a war going on in the galaxy and Earth gets sucked into the war being as Earthmen have a talent for building interlocutors. But things go badly and the Earth is in danger of being abondoned by the “good guys” because their computers say the odds are bad. Cal Meacham convinces the “good guys” that waging war by computer is a bad idea. By the way, the interoscitors are mind-control weapons!
still a favorite of mine as an intelligent scifi film - it turned into a 1950's scifi film only with the menacing creature - but at least its appearance was minimal
9:49 Was it the studio's insistence that "There has to be a monster" the reason the Mutant was added?