Golden Age movies are B&W and early color movies, up to about the time 2001
was released (1968).
The "It" Movies
It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955) 77min. b&w
- One of Ray Harryhausens?s first movies, this one featured a giant octopus mutated by radiation that goes
on a rampage near San Francisco, destroying, among other things, the Golden Gate bridge. Talk about a
commuter nightmare!
It Came From Outer Space (1953) 80 min. 3-D b&w
- The first wide-screen 3-D movie, this film based on a Ray Bradbury work is about an alien spacecraft
that crashlands in the desert and whos occupants, rather than being bent on world domination, just want to
get home, and need help repairing their craft. In order to get this help, they start duplicating the locals. The
first movie of it?s kind to show the aliens in a good light, rather than ravening monsters who want to destroy
the American way of life.
It Conquered the World (1955)71 min. b&w
- This early Roger Corman movie featured a ridiculous-looking monster shaped like a cone with fangs. A
scientist (Lee Van Cleef) brings a Venusian to earth, who then wants to take over the earth by turning the
populace into zombies by using these small bat-like creatures. It is stopped eventually by another scientist
(Peter Graves). Most notable for its stars rather than anything else.
It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) 69 min. b&w
- A spaceship returning from Mars has a stowaway.- a monster that attacks the crew, capturing them and
stowing them in the ventilation system for later consumption. The crew is forced to surrender the ship
section by section, finally killing it by evacuating the air from the ship. If this sounds like an early version of
Alien, your right. But then again, this plot was used by A. E. Van Vogt in 1939 in his novel The Black
Destroyer.
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