I was taking a trip back in time yesterday and read Raymond F. Jones's This Island Earth, a 1952 fix-up of three novelettes from Thrilling Wonder Stories (1949-1950). Zipping through the book with pleasure, I realized that it has been over a half decade since I last saw the movie version of the book, outside of the lampooning it got from Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie in 1996. (Actually, the movie version of part of the book; halfway through the movie veered off into a different direction.) Anyway, I thought I'd revisit the movie.
It should be noted that the film was first released as part of a double feature with Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (another film I should really revisit). This Island Earth was a sorta critical success, with kudos for an intelligent script, some gosh-wow special effects, and the magic of Technicolor.
In the film, Dr. Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) has received at his lab some strange items instead of an order he had made for some electronic condensers, along with instructions on hos to build an "interocitor," whatever that is. Meacham has to set a lot of his scientific knowhow to make the device and, golly gee, it's some sort of a communicating device. A man calling himself Exeter (Jeff Morrow) appears on the interocitor's screen and tells Meacham that this was a test to prove Meacham's ability; Cal has passed the test and is offered a job with a special project that Exeter is funding.
Cal is flown to a remote area in Georgia, where he is among the world's top atomic scientists. Also at this strange facility he meets an old girlfriend, Dr. Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue). He meets Exeter, Exeter's assistant Brack (Lance Fuller), and a whole bunch of suspicious looking people. Cal, Ruth, and another scientist (Russell Johnson) try to flee, but they are attacked and Johnson's character is killed. Cal and Ruth then try to escape in a plane and, while they are up in the air, the entire research facility is destroyed. Then, their plane is sucked up into a giant flying saucer.
It turns out that Exeter is from the planet Metaluna, which is locked in a deadly war with the evil Zagons. Exeter's earth facility was being used to transform lead into needed uranium for the war effort. Cal and Ruth are taken to Metaluna, where the planet is locked in a final (and losing) battle with the Zagons. The leader of Metaluna is "The Monitor" (Douglas Spencer), who plans to transfer his people by "thought transference," which will strip humanity of its free will, but will allow Metaluna to continue the war. Exeter feels this plan is immoral.
I mentioned above that the film had an "intelligent script." Well, the word intelligent can be very relative, but moral and ethical quandaries help push it into a positive zone. It was the technical effects that helped make the movie so popular; the New York Times wrote, that they are "so superlatively bizarre and beautiful that some serious shortcomings can be excused, if not overlooked." Today the film can be considered a creaker but its reputation remains generally positive.
Uncredited cast members include Richard Deacon, Olan Soule, and Orangey the cat (who played Neutron the cat; Orangey's other credits include Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Diary of Anne Frank, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Visit to a Small Planet, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Rhubarb -- that's one talented cat!). Also uncredited is Regis Partin, who played the wrinkled-headed Metaluna mutant who has become a meme in its own right.
Directed by Joseph M. Newman (The Outcasts of Poker Flat, Flight to Hong Kong, Tarzan, the Ape Man [1959]), with an uncredited assist from Jack Arnold (The Mouse That Roared, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Incredible Shrinking Man). Script by Franklin Coen (Alvarez Kelly, War of the Planets, Forged Passport) and George Callahan (The Babe Ruth Story, Adventures of Kitty O'Day, Charlie Chan in the Secret Service). Henry Mancini was one of three uncredited composers for the movie.
Hold on to your propeller beanie! Here come the movie!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJlEoM4_uyw
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