In the small desert town of Salt Rock, John and Ellen witness a flaming meteor crash-land nearby. They rush to see the crater, and John thinks he sees an alien ship inside until a landslide buries it. Unable to convince the authorities of what he saw, he is branded a crank until some of the townsfolk start acting mysteriously ...
This is an imaginative, exciting, fun science-fiction classic, extremely well directed by Arnold. Harry Essex' script, based on a story by Ray Bradbury, is chock-full of clever and creepy ideas, and in many ways this is the lynchpin fifties sci-fi flick. It has the secretive aliens of This Island Earth, the replacement people of Invaders From Mars, the small-town takeover of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and the desert setting of Them!, but it preceded all those excellent films. The Mojave desert locations in particular play an integral role in the atmosphere and the location photography is superb; the long shots of cars from the telephone-wire alien point-of-view are incredible, and Arnold plays with all sorts of clever techniques to show (and hide) the mysterious aliens. Most of all, this is the movie that put the fun into the fantasy boom of the fifties - it was originally shot in 3D and starts with the meteor ship exploding in your face. It may be a little silly and wooden in places but it's always intelligent and enjoyable, and races ahead to the next mystery or scare. The cast are likable, but watch out for the deliriously sexy Kathleen Hughes, who scorches up the screen in her one scene. Jack Arnold was a great director who never really got much credit, but in my opinion he was primarily responsible for the good-natured adventurous fantasy films of his era; he followed this with three other great movies - The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Tarantula and The Incredible Shrinking Man, all classics, and made many other brilliant films (The Glass Web, High School Confidential!, The Mouse That Roared, several others). His philosophy of imaginative and exciting entertainment has filtered on down through filmmakers like George Lucas and Peter Jackson, but he was the pioneer. Microwave yourself some popcorn, turn off the lights and catch this escapist classic.
This is an imaginative, exciting, fun science-fiction classic, extremely well directed by Arnold. Harry Essex' script, based on a story by Ray Bradbury, is chock-full of clever and creepy ideas, and in many ways this is the lynchpin fifties sci-fi flick. It has the secretive aliens of This Island Earth, the replacement people of Invaders From Mars, the small-town takeover of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and the desert setting of Them!, but it preceded all those excellent films. The Mojave desert locations in particular play an integral role in the atmosphere and the location photography is superb; the long shots of cars from the telephone-wire alien point-of-view are incredible, and Arnold plays with all sorts of clever techniques to show (and hide) the mysterious aliens. Most of all, this is the movie that put the fun into the fantasy boom of the fifties - it was originally shot in 3D and starts with the meteor ship exploding in your face. It may be a little silly and wooden in places but it's always intelligent and enjoyable, and races ahead to the next mystery or scare. The cast are likable, but watch out for the deliriously sexy Kathleen Hughes, who scorches up the screen in her one scene. Jack Arnold was a great director who never really got much credit, but in my opinion he was primarily responsible for the good-natured adventurous fantasy films of his era; he followed this with three other great movies - The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Tarantula and The Incredible Shrinking Man, all classics, and made many other brilliant films (The Glass Web, High School Confidential!, The Mouse That Roared, several others). His philosophy of imaginative and exciting entertainment has filtered on down through filmmakers like George Lucas and Peter Jackson, but he was the pioneer. Microwave yourself some popcorn, turn off the lights and catch this escapist classic.