From Ray Bradbury's great science fiction story!
Based on a story by the great lyrical SF writer, Ray Bradbury, this low budget but interesting aliens-on-Earth thriller is dated, but at only 81 minutes well worth a viewing for SF fans, and could work well in a double bill with Don Siegel's superior The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). And like Body Snatchers, often viewed as a reflection of contemporary Cold War paranoia, this film could be seen as an expression of Americans' fear of the Red Menace, the personification of the unknown other from a strange land. Hollywood was in the grip of an FBI and governmental witch-hunt for Communist sympathisers in the few years leading up to this film, with many unlucky writers, directors, actors, musicians and others being blacklisted from working in the movie and TV industries.
The story, set in small-town Arizona, USA, begins with science writer, John Putnam (Richard Carlson), and fiancée, schoolteacher Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush), investigating a large meteor crash. Descending alone into the crater, Putnam discovers that the meteor is actually a crashed space craft. He examines some strange tracks he finds outside the craft, little knowing that he too is being observed by an off-screen presence within the space craft. Other people, including a local newspaper reporter, arrive at the scene, but before anyone else can see anything, the space craft is hidden by a massive land-slide.
Can Putnam convince others of what he has seen, and what he suspects (that non-Terrestrial life-forms are on Earth)? What is the reason for the mysterious sounds on the telephone wires outside town? What is to be made of the disappearance of certain townspeople and the strange behaviour of others?
As I said, the film is dated, and the theme of alien visitation has been pretty thoroughly explored in the almost 60 years since this film was released, but it's still a fun watch. The script is intelligent (Wikipedia says "it is said Ray Bradbury wrote the original screenplay and Harry Essex merely changed the dialogue and took the credit"), and takes some interesting turns that resonate very ironically with a Red Menace paranoia reading. The acting by the leads, Carlson, in particular, and also Charles Drake as the local Sheriff Matt Warren, is very good. The weak link in the chain is the special effects, which at the time were probably rather poor, and for 21st century eyes are decidedly ropey though not without their own kind of kitsch charm.
Funny how so many movies in this period, in order to signal reliability in a male character, give him a pipe, even if, like Putnam in this tale, the character uses it only as a prop, never actually smoking tobacco in it. Funny too, how, although Putnam is characterised as a lonely intellectual seeking the solitude of the desert, he seems to be able to greet almost everyone in town by their first name, and everyone seems to know him.
- Rating: Matinee
- When seen: 8 Apr 2011
- Where seen: Home, on iPad
- More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist#The_Hollywood_Ten
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Came_from_Outer_Space
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Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.
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