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| "IT" on the rampage |
IT, THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958).
Director: Edward L. Cahn.
Colorized.
The first ship to explore Mars has only one survivor, Colonel Edward Carruthers (Marshall Thompson of
Mystery Street), who is suspected of murdering the other crew members to conserve dwindling food supplies for himself. Carruthers insists that a hostile life form killed the others, and he's right -- this highly dangerous creature sneaks aboard the ship holding the members of the second expedition and kills them off one by one while Colonel Van Heusen (Kim Spalding), Ann Anderson (Shirley Patterson of
The Land Unknown) and their colleagues try to figure out how to destroy the beast.
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| Bice, Doran, Greer and Spalding |
It, the Terror from Beyond Space, written by Jerome Bixby, whatever its low-budget flaws, remains a highly entertaining and suspenseful space monster flick, well-directed by the prolific Cahn. Spalding and Paul Langton probably give the best performances, although the others -- including Ann Doran, Dabbs Greer, Robert Bice and others -- are also effective.
It uses the same score as
Kronos, which came out the previous year. The picture moves fast so that you might not wonder how on earth it's a good idea to use grenades on a space ship! As has been noted by me and others many times, this film was very influential on the big-budget
Alien, which uses the same plot and some of the same plot elements -- blasting the creature out of the air lock at the end, for instance -- as well. Ray Corrigan [
The Monster and the Ape] plays the monster and the ubiquitous Pierre Watkin is an official back on Earth.
Verdict: Memorable sci fi creature feature which works quite well in color. ***.
Looks interesting. The only name I recognize from the cast other than Thompson is Dabbs Greer, who I remember from Little House in the Prairie.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ever saw an episode of that show, but I have seen Greer in many, many movies. IT is a lot of fun!
ReplyDelete