Back in the Good Old 1950’s

For the last week or so I’ve been spending around 90 minutes each day watching old SF movies, some of which are amongst my favourite movies of all time. They were (mostly in order):

 

The Incredible Shrinking Man

It Came from Outer Space

This Island Earth

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Tarantula!

The Thing from Another World

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

When Worlds Collide

The War of the Worlds

Them!

Watching so many so close together I noticed several things which jumped out at me. What I hadn’t really noticed before was how often things are ‘recycled’ in these films (and I don’t just mean the plots). Several films starred actors in similar roles, props showed up in several movies as did locations, buildings and, at least twice that I noticed, entire towns. I couldn’t help but notice that both deserts and the city of Los Angeles were recurring themes – most probably because of the location of the studios and the fact that desert locations are (presumably) cheap and (mostly) flooded with lots of available light. Being the beginning of the ‘Atomic Age’ you couldn’t help but notice the oft repeated mention of the bomb tests – often responsible for the particular monster in that movie – and the fact that at least one scientist in each movie had something to do with atomic power or ‘the new atomic engines’!

Speaking of scientists, the range throughout the movies was interesting. Generally they were just called that – scientists – no matter their field or area of expertise. I remember laughing during ‘War of the Worlds’ when it was pointed out that a ‘bunch of scientists’ were fishing somewhere and they could be contacted to explain the situation as if any scientist can explain any phenomena and are completely interchangeable at all times. Plus in WotW the main scientist was an expert in atomics so why should he know anything at all about meteorites? Would a plant geneticist be just as good? At least in ‘Them!’ the lead scientist was an expert in his field – ants. At least they got that right. Plus in ‘This Island Earth’ all of the scientists were atomic experts – tasked with finding a more efficient way of producing atomic energy. At least that one tracked! The other thing that jumped out at me (apart from the fact that 99.9% of the cast were white!) was the use – or misuse – of female scientists. I think in only one (When Worlds Collide) did you see a woman in any kind of meaningful scientific role actually using a slide rule [sidebar: they stopped using slide rules in my maths class the year before we got there so I never learned how to use one. We used Log Tables instead which I loved] during a confirmation exercise to determine if the star/planet combo was actually going to hit us. The only other case of a female scientist doing science stuff was in ‘Tarantula’ where she assisted the main scientist in some lab work. Interestingly she liked to be known as ‘Steve’ – maybe as a way of saying it was OK to be a scientist (complete with white coat) but you can’t be feminine at the same time? [sidebar: In ‘WWC’ the third-wheel was the male lead who played a pilot accidentally let into the secret that the world was going to end but kept around at the request of the lead scientists daughter. BTW – Have you noticed just how many elderly male scientists have beautiful daughters yet we never see their mothers?]

Of course, being the 50’s, the other thing that really, really, jumped out at me was the (at least once) mention of God. I don’t think that God or The Bible came up in either ‘Tarantula’ or ‘Black Lagoon’ but I think it did in every other movie on the list – from 6 days for the Martians to destroy humanity, to the ants in ‘Them’ being a Biblical plague, to the spaceship in ‘WWC’ being an Ark both literally and figuratively and the comment in Island Earth about judging us humans by the ‘size of our God’ – presumably by soon to be extinct atheist aliens. I’m not a huge expert in other countries production of SF movies during that era but I’m fairly confident that God gets far fewer mentions that the US variety.

Overall though 50’s SF movies by and large deserve their classic status. Many of them were cheap, some of them (probably too many) were nasty but a handful were real gems of movies. My particular favourites being ‘This Island Earth’, ‘The Thing from Another World’, ‘When Worlds Collide’ and ‘Them!’ which still has the power to make me gasp and shudder despite its age and the fact that I’ve seen it multiple times. If you haven’t checked out any of my list I recommend you do so. You’ll be in for a treat, just make sure you have popcorn and don’t take them too seriously!