20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) User Reviews

Better than average

[henry-girling · 7/10 · 13 August 2003]

This is a simple enough film. Rocket returning from Venus crashes near Sicily and a foetal thing grows to become a giant lizardy humanoid type thing. The acting is ordinary and the script predictable.

What makes it better than average for a 1950s monster movie is the Ray Harryhausen animated Venusian, called a Ymir here. Photographed in atmospheric black and white, its progress from small caged creature to being loose and dangerous on the streets of Rome and fighting an elephant is engrossing. You can't help rooting for the Ymir, attacked along the way by dogs and soldiers. The Ymir becomes a character like Frankenstein's creation or the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Excellent work by Harryhausen, and far more interesting than the CGI dinosaurs from Spielberg's over praised (and underwhelming) Jurassic Park trilogy.

Ray Harryhausen's creature steals the film...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 8 June 2008]

Or should I say, Ray Harryhausen's creature IS the film. Compared to the creature, the human habitants here don't have a chance to emote and are only what one might charitably call "adequate" to the task.

WILLIAM HOPPER lacks the energy and personality he put into playing Paul Drake in all those "Perry Mason" TV movies. He appears to be almost immobilized and never changes his expression, even when the creature is doing maximum damage to the surroundings. JOAN TAYLOR is quite forgettable as "the girl", a woman who tells Hopper that she's "almost a doctor", when introducing herself. She's almost an actress too.

But nobody is going to give a whit about the acting in this sort of thing, so I'm happy to report that the frightful looking bit of slime that turns into a fast-growing creature with a human torso and scaly skin is extremely well animated by Harryhausen, who creates some very realistic looking fight scenes and displays of temper as the creature goes on the loose. There's an awful lot of screaming going on, both from the creature and the spectators who run into him.

Helpful too is the fact that this was filmed in Italy, where the action takes place, and there's a terrific climax shot in the Roman Coliseum where the creature finally meets his fate.

For the child in all of us, this is terrific fun--but just don't expect much from the human cast. The story is absurd and follows the usual sci-fi pattern of keeping you glued to your seat just to see how it all turns out.

humans could be such asshats...

[traitorjoe666 · 7/10 · 3 October 2015]

Don't get me wrong, it's an enjoyable flick, but it typecasts humans *perfectly*, for the asshats they usually are.

This is the King Kong epic, only with a reptilian "ape" kidnapped from Venus, not some obscure tropical isle. And of course, "humanity" wins by murdering the creature when it proves to be inconvenient.

I'm hoping the purpose of the flick was to be a sort of expose', rather than rooting for the "good guys" to kill the "bad" creature, and if so, this hits the mark dead-on.

The unfortunate creature, Ymir, is taken from his native Venus as an egg, where he later hatches into a cute little lizard-critter. But of course, the "scientists" react by grabbing, capturing, and caging the little critter, to be experimented on, without even wondering what it needs as far as food, water, etc. And the nerve to call it "so ugly"... like it'd think the pink squishy things imprisoning it were paragons of beauty?? Okay, Joan Taylor is seriously hot, but still...

So, when Ymir can *finally* escape, all he does is grunt at his captors and wanders off, never so much as touches them. Only when provoked does he react in anger; they even *say so*! He wants to eat, gets attacked by a dog, and only then gives the dog a beat-down. He gets repeatedly attacked, and only when pitchforked in the back does he attack his attacker. He's electrocuted and recaptured, experimented on some more, and only through human incompetence is able to escape again. But from there, he's met with guns, flamethrowers(!), tanks, all sorts of weaponry. Finally, in his last-ditch effort to escape by just blindly climbing to nowhere in particular, he's howitzered and finally murdered. Yes, murdered.

Yay, "humanity".

So then, finally, can the gorgeous almost-doctor and square-jawed military-dood go have a nice quiet meal in a dark cafe. Gives ya the warm-fuzzies just allllll over.

Again, I'm really hoping that was the intent of the movie, to show humans in the light they've earned throughout history. Maybe it'd be a wake-up call to some. We can only hope.

This creature scared me in 1957 - love to see it again.

[Tee_Ess · 24 April 2004]

I saw this gem in 1957 at the Vineland Drive In, La Puente, California (which still exists! Saw Hellboy there last night.) The creature was so believable it scared me into peeking from beneath a blanket. I was eleven. I was hooked. Sci-Fi rules. Harryhausen's work is amazing and reason enough to seek it out. I was thrilled to discover it is available on DVD, and disappointed that some TV stations cut the elephant/creature fight scene for fear of upsetting animal rights folks. I will definitely find that DVD - and thanks to someone for noting the Full screen version is best, the "Wide-screen" is actually cropped top and bottom. I wanna see it all!

Incredible! The creature has to be taken alive!

[lastliberal · 7/10 · 27 November 2009]

I have to admit I was drawn to this because it was set in Sicily, but they really never got far from Rome.

It is a significant film for the fact that special effects were done by Ray Harryhausen, who has a cameo in the film (watch for the man feeding the elephant at the zoo.).

William Hopper, who played Perry Mason's assistant Paul Drake, will be a familiar face for those who grew up during the 50's and 60's. Joan Taylor was also on TV a lot during those years. They both have a rich sci-fi history in films like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, "Men Into Space", and Conquest of Space.

The little Godzilla-like monster from Venus is the focus of the film as they try to find and capture it. Of course, Hooper knows all about the creature when facing it. Such plot holes would raise howls of derision today, but it was common in the films of the 50's.

An enjoyable reach into the past with a film that entertains more than a lot of the DTV we see today.

Average entertaining 1950s monster flick

[TheUnknown837-1 · 7/10 · 15 January 2007]

Of course, nothing that was achieved in "20 Million Miles to Earth" was what you could call original. It had a very similar idea and style to many movies that were before and would come after. An incident involving space travel and landing on another planet results in the birth of a creature on Earth that is seemingly immune to our weapons. A rough and tough leading character who has a position of authority stars in the film. Alongside him are the typical secondary characters for a monster flick: an under-developed love interest, a scientist wanting to preserve the monster, politics wanting to eliminate it, and so on and so forth.

The creature in the film was brought to life through the fantastic art of stop-motion animation, done by visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen. As in most films, it is flawless with perfectly smooth movement performed by the creature. There is a battle sequence, again typical for a 50s monster film, and although it's nothing primal like the T-Rex fight from the 1933 "King Kong", is fascinating.

"20 Million Miles to Earth", while not what I'd consider a classic monster movie, is the perfect film to watch on a weekend morning or evening. And it still holds out today, fifty years since its debut screen appearance, as a fun monster movie.

A mixed bag but well worth watching for the good parts

[jamesrupert2014 · 7/10 · 23 May 2017]

"20 Million Miles to Earth" opens with a terrible voice-over leading ominously to the lacklustre title, then cuts to a bunch of painful-to-watch Italian stereotypes fishing near Sicily. An adequately rendered spaceship is seen, which then crashes in the ocean. The following scenes, in which the fisherman approach the wreck are outstanding (for the era). The movie then toggles back and forth between Harryhausen's masterful stop-motion monster (posthumously referred to as an Ymir) and some awful filler (especially Pepe and his hat, and other cringe-worthy Italianoids who, for example, describe a trailer as "a house that follows the car like a goat"). There is also the obligatory 'meet cute' romantic subplot, which is even more clichéd and tedious than usual for the genre. The final scenes of the Ymir, standing on top of the Colosseum, weakening by a barrage of bullets, catching itself before falling, then toppling dead to the ground below is clearly a homage to Harryhausen's mentor, Willis O'Brien's masterpiece, King Kong (1933). Like all of Harryhausen's canon, "20 Million Miles to Earth" is worth watching, but it's unfortunate that the same imagination and effort that went into the special effects were not applied to the rest of the film (but then again, who really cares about the frame when the picture is a masterpiece).

Excellent example of the work of Ray Harryhausen

[spamaramma · 8/10 · 20 August 2004]

This movie is a prime example of the work of one of the masters of stop-motion animation, a form of art that is rapidly being supplanted by CGI. Ray Harryhausen was the ultimate master of this technique, having trained under the likes of Willis O'Brian. His work is still the inspiration for many of the special effects wizards today. Granted, the movies of the 1950's do seem stilted and silly, but quite frankly, the worst of them are probably still superior to most of the direct-to-video drek produced today, and likely better than most of the films produced by major studios. I was raised on films such as 20 Million Miles to Earth and have no problem letting my child watch films like this. I cannot say the same for most of what is released today. 20 Million Miles to Earth is a unique, fun film. It, like others of its kind, comes from a different era, when people were not as jaded and world-savvy as they are today. Save the critical eye for the more cynical, overproduced films of today. Enjoy it for what it is.

Wonderful movie!

[tom_koopa · 7/10 · 22 June 2009]

20 million miles to Earth.

It's one of those must-see movies if you are a fan of black-and-white monster movies.

A spaceship crash lands on Earth after a trip to Venus.

The planet Venus?

Ah-hum, on the ship is a cylinder. Inside it is a creature brought back from the planet. After some time, it hatches from it's egg? and is caught by the local doctor. He finds out that the creature is growing at a remarkable speed. Predictably, it breaks out after awhile and it's up to the army to stop, capture or kill it.

The effects on the creature are really amazing for it's time. One scene in particular, where the creature attacks a man in a barn, looked really believable. Harryhausen did a wonderful job with this monster.

I really enjoyed this movie.

7 out of 10 stars.

Great monster effects. See it for that, and nothing else.

[AnonymousRunner · 5/10 · 13 April 2011]

Ray Harryhausen, the king of stop motion animation, presents a wonderfully realized creature from Venus in this film. That is the one and only reason to see 20 Million Miles to Earth. Everything else in the film is, frankly, a train wreck.

The entire plot consists of nothing more than rocket ship crashes, creature escapes, gotta find the creature; and that's all in the first 10 minutes. The rest of the film is simply a showcase for a very talented animator. Scenes involving the creature and the actors are very nearly seamless, and really allow you to suspend your disbelief and become immersed in the adventure.

The writers make a few attempts at subplots, like the boy who thinks Texas is a cowboy country near America, and a half-hearted romantic interest. However, none of that goes anywhere interesting, and everything always falls back on the monster chase. The entire film ends up seeming like nothing more than a delivery vehicle for the final line of dialog, which is nearly the only thoughtful writing in the script. The actors do an admirable job with the material they're given, but a bad script is still a bad script.

As a one-shot viewing, the film can entertain nicely. The monster looks great and there are at least a couple good action scenes. If that's all you need, that's what 20 Million Miles to Earth has to offer.

Harryhausen delivers --- as always!

[horrorfilmx · 10/10 · 20 May 2005]

The thing that distinguished Ray Harryhausen's movies from other '50s science fiction pictures was truth in advertising. Other producers crammed their posters with all kinds of things you knew you were never going to see on the screen, but with Harryhausen you got what was advertised and then some, whether it was flying saucers decimating Washington or (as in this case) a giant Venusian reptile terrorizing Rome. This movie is fast-paced, well-made, and intelligently crafted. The scene in the barn is a gem. And enough of this crap about the special effects being old fashioned. We're not talking about fashion here, children, we're talking about art. Stop-motion is an art form in itself and it may only appeal to minority tastes but so what. To slam Haryhausen's work for not looking like CGI graphics is like criticizing Rembrandt for creating pictures with a brush and paint instead of using a digital camera. Fashions change, art endures. That's your lesson for today.

I've been cooking over a hot creature all day

[krorie · 7/10 · 10 December 2005]

Not only does this monster flick have amazing special effects by the master Ray Harryhausen, it also has an intelligent script and truly terrifying scenes, even by today's standards. I wouldn't let the kiddies watch the scene between the alien creature and the mob in the barn. It undoubtedly would give many of them nightmares. Later, the fight to the death between the creature and the elephant is a marvel to see. The demise of the creature takes place in the Roman Colosseum. Harryhausen learned from another master of F/X techniques, Willis H. O'Brien of King Kong fame. So he always gives his monsters a degree of humanity to create an element of pathos for the audience.

One interesting facet of the film is how secretive the U.S. government kept the manned space journey to Venus from the general public. Just over a decade later when the first men walked on the moon there was so much media hoopla that nothing was left to the imagination, pinpointing a major difference between fact and fantasy.

The cast headed by "Perry Mason" stalwart William Hopper is adequate for the goings on. After all the alien creature is the real star of the show. Another plus for this sci-fi flick is the on location shooting in Italy, especially the sequences shot in Rome. It was rumored at the time that Harryhausen wanted to film it there because he had always wanted to go to Rome but never had the money. Now the studio would pay for it all. Whatever the reason it worked out well for everyone. The emphasis on the Sicilian boy who discovers the creature in a tube that has been washed ashore and wants money for it so he can buy a cowboy hat points out the fascination Italians had with the American oaters which would lead in a few years to spaghetti westerns.

The script is witty and never takes itself too seriously, which is always a good omen for a monster movie, especially if there are to be several scary scenes involving the creature. At one point in the blooming romance between Col. Robert Calder (William Hopper) and almost doctor Marisa Leonardo (Joan Taylor) when Marisa is helping keep the alien creature under control and sedated, Robert asks her what she's been doing. She replies with a grin, "I've been cooking over a hot creature all day."

Growing up in the 50's the group I ran with loved monster movies involving creatures from outer space. My close friend, Joe, always had one question, "How do they kill the creature?" These indestructible aliens fascinated him and finding out how to kill something that couldn't be killed was certainly a challenge. Find out how the creature from 40 million miles away is killed in the Colesseum when he can't be killed with bullets because he doesn't have a heart or lungs.

Good for Harryhuasen Fans

[FADrury · 5/10 · 11 April 2005]

I rented "20 Million Miles from Earth" because it was one of the few Ray Harryhausen films I'd never seen. Overall, the movie is a pretty average 50's grade B sci-fi film. What makes it worth watching is the character of the Ymir, the creature from Venus. In later years, Ray Harryhausen remarked on the innocence of this creature and its final resort to violence only when it had been tormented to its breaking point. If you watch the performance of the Ymir (the best in the movie!), you can really see that it's essentially a non-violent creature that's highly confused and just looking for it's home (and some food!).

I think a scene that really captures this is when the rapidly-growing Ymir breaks out of its first cage. Although the professor and his daughter are standing 5 feet away from it, and the professor has placed it in the cage in the first place, the Ymir doesn't attack them. It paces back and forth, then turns to them and gives them a quick roar, as if to say "Why did you do that!?" If you watch the creature closely, most of the time it's scared and just trying to get the humans to leave it alone. A very good piece of work.

Overall, the movie is very silly and pretty stupid. People are constantly screaming about the monster's great danger,then they go after it, poke it with a big stick, and wonder why the thing's ticked off! Nobody ever get's the "V-8" moment and says, "Hey, why don't we just feed this thing, it's probably starving!" The reason, of course, is that you don't get to blow up the Coliseum if you're just having a nice picnic!

More excellent work from Ray Harryhausen

[chris_gaskin123 · 16 June 2004]

Ray Harryhausen always wanted to film a monster movie in Europe and he got his chance with 20 Million Miles to Earth.

A spacecraft returning from a trip to Venus crashes into the sea just off the coast of Italy. Local fishermen rescue two of the occupants who are still alive just before it sinks. One of them dies just after and the other is taken to a local hospital. Then, a small boy finds a canister containing a strange jelly substance and takes it to a visiting circus to see what it is. The owner of the circus takes charge of the jelly and a strange creature, the Ymir emerges from it. The following day, the Ymir has grown into a giant and it escapes and goes on the rampage, eventually ending up in Rome. The Military are called to try and capture it, but fail. While in Rome, the Ymir is put in the zoo as a tourist attraction, but it escapes from there, fights and kills an elephant and climbs the Colosseum, where he gets shot down and killed.

This is Harryhausen's personal favourite movie and he has a cameo appearance in the zoo sequence. As well as the Ymir, the elephant is also done in stop-motion.

The movie stars 50's sci fi regulars William Hopper (The Deadly Mantis) and Joan Taylor (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers).

This movie is one the better monster movies of the 50's and one of my favourites.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

Grade B movie with Grade A Harryhausen effects

[bwaynef · 6/10 · 29 March 1999]

A purely grade B level science-fiction thriller with C level acting from William Hopper (Paul Drake on "Perry Mason") and grade A special-effects courtesy of Ray Harryhausen. A secret space flight to Venus leads, of course, to disaster when the specimen Hopper brings back to Earth grows into an impressive and surprisingly sympathetic creature. He only asserts himself when threatened, and, naturally, he IS threatened, first by a dog, then by a farmer. Like "Frankenstein" and "King Kong," the creature seems likeable, while the humans who pursue him are the true villains. Watching this Charles H. Schneer production on video, I was reminded of the Cleveland Cinemateque's 1993 "Evening with Ray Harryhausen," at which a member of the audience asked the Oscar winning "dynamation" wizard how he managed to make his effects seem much more lifelike than the actors in his films. "It wasn't too hard," he joked, later saying he believed the performers were "competent." True, but the fact remains that the creature in this film is far more lifelike and believable than the human cast, and it's Harryhausen's creature that makes this film worthwhile.

Average 50s Sci-Fi with Superior Effects

[TheExpatriate700 · 6/10 · 3 March 2011]

20 Million Miles to Earth has a plot similar to all too many fifties creature features, following an alien creature that is brought to Earth and unwittingly set loose. It borrows from movies ranging from The Thing to King Kong, and the characters are figures you have met in a dozen other movies like this. Why should you watch it?

The answer is some excellent special effects by Ray Harryhausen. The Ymir is depicted with surprising realism, with many shots holding up even today.Although stop motion animation may not compare with the best CGI works,such as Jurassic Park, at its best it is more than a match for the lame computer graphics that characterize most modern creature features.(e.g. Anything produced by the SyFy Channel)

As the first paragraph makes clear, this film has a lot of flaws. Aside from its unoriginality, the film's first half moves slowly, and gives too much attention to an annoying young Italian boy who vanishes during the second half. Nevertheless, 20 Million Miles to Earth should be on the watch list of any special effects enthusiast.

Ray Harryhausen's best movie, featuring his most aggressive creation

[S_Craig_Zahler · 7/10 · 6 November 2011]

I adore stop motion animation, monsters especially, and Ray Harryhausen is the unparalleled master of the armature realm and has a very rich legacy. (O'Brien --his mentor-- and Phil Tippet and the Brothers Quay are other masterful luminaries in this field.) Sadly, none of the movies in which Harryhausen's lovingly crafted effects appear are anywhere near as good as the stop motion creations contained within them...but 20 Million Miles to Earth is a piece that meets the monster more than halfway and is my favorite by far.

The story is not overcomplicated, as is the case with the muddled mythologies cut and pasted throughout Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans and (his second best feature) The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. This is a simple creature on the loose sci-fi-tinged monster movie-- one with a better than average script and superb stop motion beast.

Although this contains a little less stop motion than do the sword and sandal epics, the quality control in 20 Million Miles to Earth seems better, and the black and white image also helps blend the armature and living image more convincingly. Several sequences featuring the Ymir are harrowing, especially considering the date of this movie. This beast is aggressive and wonderfully designed.

Every time this rolls around in a revival house, I see and enjoy it.

(I saw a 35mm print of the movie at Film Forum, N.Y. and a 35mm print at the Museum of Modern Art)

20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (Nathan Juran, 1957) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 10 July 2007]

This is yet another Charles H. Schneer/Ray Harryhausen sci-fi title which, however, emerges to be a lesser effort than their two previous black-and-white outings – IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955) and EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (1956).

Two factors which let the film down is the second-rate cast (the silly love-hate relationship between the protagonists feels entirely misplaced) and the Italian setting. The latter may have been an interesting concept – to take the horror and mayhem away from overly-familiar surroundings (though we still get to see numerous U.S. brass at the helm of the requisite army mobilization tactics!). Yet, the whole rustic ambiance – with the locals themselves a combination of simple-minded fisher-folk and flustered officials, to say nothing of a kid with a grating cowboy obsession (none of whom can muster a decent accent!) – somehow doesn’t suit the ‘intelligent’ proceedings; even the zoologist who proposes to study the alien creature comes across as a benign presence, certainly more dotty than deranged!

While the scaly Venusian creature itself (cleverly made to escalate in size as a side-effect of Earth’s atmosphere) – subsequently called Ymir but never actually referred to by this name! – is a wonderful creation (surely Harryhausen’s first great ‘monster’), it’s also somewhat over-exposed during the course of the film. Its prototype was clearly King Kong – and, accordingly, the Ymir is largely treated as a misunderstood beast – but it doesn’t develop in any significant way, since it’s not made to interact with humans at all other than on a strict pursuer-and-pursued basis!

The initial effect of the crash-landing spaceship is rather variably achieved but, as I said, the monster’s movements are impeccable: most effective, perhaps, is the scene where it’s cornered inside a barn (aided by moody lighting and the inherent suspense of the situation). However, the fight between the Ymir and an elephant on the streets of Rome is also very well done – and the climax set inside the Colisseum (where the creature valiantly stands up to the relentless military onslaught) is justly celebrated, if slightly overstretched for its purpose.

In the end, to be perfectly blunt, the film isn’t particularly worthy of a “Special Edition” (in view of the superior work Schneer and Harryhausen have done – that is, unless Columbia intends to revisit all of their fantasy titles) and, even if I only own a DivX copy of it, I doubt I’ll be springing for the upcoming 2-Disc edition (which will also include a newly-colorized version supervised by Harryhausen himself!)...

Hurrah for Harryhausen!

[BaronBl00d · 8/10 · 16 September 1999]

The moment the film begins it draws the viewer into its story about a US mission to Venus that brings back a specimen of a creature that grows at an incredibly rapid rate in Earth's atmosphere. The creature is like nothing else ever before on screen with its lizard-like human head and human torso, and dinosaur like legs and tail. The story naturally concentrates on capturing this creature before it destroys Italy. Like other monster films where the monsters are the sympathetic ones and the real monsters are the people, 20 Million Miles to Earth depicts a creature that is inquiring, basically harmless unless provoked, and heroic despite its eventual fate. Ray Harryhausen did a terrific job with his stop-motion animation, especially when we see the beast battle an elephant in the streets of Rome. The acting is decent, not as bad as some critics would argue. The film is pure entertainment and yet another commentary on mankind and the whole concept of the stranger within our society.

A lot of fun...

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 14 July 2011]

An American spacecraft returning from Venus crashes in the sea off the coast of Sicily. One of the pilots is rescued by fishermen, but what they don't know is that a cylinder containing 'something' is picked up by a stupid little kid. Naturally considering that this is a monster movie, something bad is going to come of this. And, from a very small size grows a gigantic Ray Harryhausen creature that threatens the city of Rome. Bummer.

I've seen about all of Harryhausen's films, so it's nice I can evaluate this in light of other similar films he made. I actually think this is one of his very best films as instead of emphasizing LOTS of crazy stop-motion creatures like his ancient Greek stories, here the emphasis is on the lizard creature. Sure, there's also a stop-motion elephant late in the film, but I think because so much of the film depended on one creature, the creature simply looked better. Plus, unlike the 6-legged octopus from his earlier film ("It Came from Beneath the Sea"), this one had a bigger budget and better production values. Part of this could have been because it was filmed in Rome--a definite cost-cutting decision (plus a nice place for a vacation) as many Hollywood productions were being made there in the 50s and 60s. So, there was more money left for the important effects--and it shows. And frankly, there's really nothing I didn't like about this film--exciting, well made and effective. See this one.

Venus If You Will, Please Send A Big Reptile For Us To Kill

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 17 October 2009]

20 Million Miles To Earth finds William Hopper, very shortly to be Paul Drake in Perry Mason, the one lone human survivor from a trip to Venus. Arthur Space dies shortly after the return and a little creature from Venus hatches from an egg they brought back. Everybody else on the expedition died there and before we go again, we want to see just what makes Venusian life survive.

William Hopper says the creature is docile, but its actions are anything but docile. In fact it's never really given a name, but he's mean and ugly reptilian type animal, one of the best that the fertile mind of Ray Harryhausen ever designed.

Unfortunately the story that came with the creature from 20 Million Miles To Earth didn't survive the voyage as well as the monster did. The science here wasn't the least plausible, it all being explained that the normal laws don't apply to Venusian creatures. Especially when they grow real fast in our atmosphere. Maybe he's got some built in steroids.

The ship crash lands in Sicily and the final confrontation with the lizard from Venus takes place at Rome's Colosseum. What Emperor Nero and the gang back then would have paid to see a few of his best gladiators take on this guy.

Fast-Moving & Fun Flick From The Fifties

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 12 August 2008]

I think the best thing about this movie is that it's fast-moving. The filmmakers don't waste a lot of time with unnecessary dialog or a sappy romance. They get right to it and stay on track for almost all of the 82 minutes.

Thus, if you like somewhat-hokey 1950s science-fiction movies dealing with space or monsters, or in this case both of them, you should enjoy this little film. Most of it involves trying to cope with a specimen from Venus which quickly grows into a Godzilla-like monster (but smaller).

It seems a space ship had gone to Venus, but crashed on the way home. Only good-guy William Hopper, who used to help Perry Mason win courtroom cases on TV about this same time, survives the crash. The ship lands in a big body of water off Italy. The specimen, about the size of a trout, washes onshore where a little boy finds it and then shows it to his scientist-uncle. Within hours, it seems, the "thing" begins to break out of its ice encasing and - presto! - we have a small little Godzilla. Hours later, it's about the size of a small man. Very soon it's several times the size of a man.

Here's the good and bad news on the special-effects, which are crucial to a film like this. With Hall of Fame FX man Ray Harryhausen, you know you're going to get the best of what you can expect from a film 50 years ago. Compared to most films of its ilk during the '50s, this is good stuff and the creature looks and moves in a pretty realistic manner. The only "goof" is that in some scenes, such as the one in the barn, the monster looks about three feet high in some shots, and 20 feet in others. The scale gets thrown out of whack a few times and then several times later in the film. Thus, you never really know how big this lizard-creature is. Overall, however, it's still done extremely well for its time period.

There is a scene, too, where the alien creature fights an elephant! Once again, for something 50 years old, they did an excellent job re-creating what that fight might look like. It was well done....and how often do you see a monster fighting an elephant?? Pretty cool stuff. By the way, I watched the colorized version and the monster was green.

The acting is passable, too. Hopper, as "Col. Robert Calder," knows what's he doing, as do most others in here. Some of the actors are familiar faces from '50s and '60s television. The female interest - which is played down - has Joan Taylor as "Marisa Leonardo." She's a bit bland but not bad-looking. She reminded me of Phyllis Coates, from the first season of "The Adventures Of Superman."

All in all, if you're looking for a campy and fun, along with fast-moving classic-era sci-fi flick, this is highly recommended. You won't be bored.

Dim movie saved by a shining Ray (Harryhausen)

[LCShackley · 6/10 · 25 March 2008]

There's not much to say about the plot of this film. It's the old story of a space ship coming back to earth with dangerous (living) cargo, which of course runs wild among the human population. And it ends in true KING KONG fashion, but without the blonde.

What makes this sci-fi movie stand out are the locations and the Ray Harryhausen animation. While many "B" space movies were shot on back lots or chintzy sets, this one takes advantage of real Italian scenery, including the Roman Colosseum and zoo. And for fans of Ray Harryhausen, there's nothing like one of his reptilian monsters to stir the blood. This is a good one: a wailing Kraken-like Venusian that grows uncontrollably when in contact with Earth's atmosphere. The monster/elephant battle is a classic.

William (PERRY MASON) Hopper and John (TIME TUNNEL) Zaremba are the two protagonists, trying to capture the rampaging monster. The love interest falls flat (the girl's annoying), but there are enough other interesting supporting characters (and of course, the monster) to make this a bearable 50s sci-fi thriller.