Warner Archive Collection: 50s Sci-Fi Collection

Warner Archive Collection: 50s Sci-Fi Collection
Warner Archive – Blu ray
1953-1958 – 1.33:1, 2:35.1
Starring Paul Christian, James Whitmore, Hugh Marlowe, Allison Hayes 
Written by Lou Morheim, Ted Sherdeman, Edward Bernds, Mark Hanna
Directed by Eugène Lourié, Gordon Douglas, Edward Bernds, Nathan Hertz

While television in the 50s promoted a comforting vision of the American experience, the movies told a different story; we were a nation consumed by the cold war and atomic bombs. Throughout the decade a seemingly endless supply of horror and science fiction films invaded Saturday matinees where the emphasis was on radioactive body horror, whether it was a mutant arthropod or a sky-scraping pin-up girl. Warner Archive has bundled up four of those films in one set, three of which deserve the term “iconic,” the fourth, not so much.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms – 1953

The story of a hibernating beast roused by a nuclear test, Eugène Lourié and Ray Harryhausen’s film is a series of brilliantly contrived animations interrupted by the monotonous adventures of Paul Christian, a determined physicist hot on the trail of both the monster and a more appealing prey, Paula Raymond, a voguish paleontologist. Photographed by Psycho’s John Russell, the movie is nevertheless a visual treat even when the dino is off-screen.

When the Beast is on, the film catches fire; Harryhausen purposely kept the monster swathed in shadows to mute the occasional imperfection but the chiaroscuro completes the nightmare scenario; a sea attack in inky waters, the creature cuddling up to a lighthouse in silhouette (a primal set-piece which was the centerpiece of Ray Bradbury’s inspirational short story “The Fog Horn”), and, most memorably, the Dino’s last stand in a fiery amusement park.

Kenneth Tobey—who had just conquered The Thing with the effortless command of a born movie star—is wasted on the sidelines and Cecil Kellaway’s cute act is the definition of “diminishing returns,” but David Buttolph’s portentous score is a worthy second cousin to Steiner’s elegies for Kong. 28 year-old Lee Van Cleef, still waiting for Leone to save him, plays a pivotal role in the Beast’s short but eventful life.

Them – 1954

If Gordon Douglas didn’t contain multitudes, his resume certainly did. The director of I Was a Communist for the FBI, Liberace’s Sincerely Yours, and Elvis’s Follow that Dream, he performed a neat balancing act with 1954’s Them!, infusing the story of a giant ant attack with real-world pathos. As a cop haunted by the mysterious death of his partner, James Whitmore is at the center of the action and he centers the film too; his concern for a traumatized child found wandering the Mojave Desert soon seeps into the pain of his own loss and that melancholy mood touches even the outlandish sight of a monster-sized ant colony.

Edmond Gwen plays an absent-minded professor, the latest iteration in a long-standing Hollywood tradition, and Joan Weldon is his take-charge daughter, a breath of fresh feminist air in the Hawksian mode. Playing a stolid FBI agent, a stolid James Arness leads a supporting cast with memorable appearances by Fess Parker as an excitable ranch hand and Olin Howland as a dipsomaniac with something more than just DTs… both men swear they’ve come face to face with giant ants (designed by Ralph Ayres). Also, don’t blink or you’ll miss ‘em are Richard Deacon, Leonard Nimoy, and Dick York in fleeting appearances.

World Without End – 1956

Remarkably, this is not the silliest film in the set, especially considering World Without End was directed by the maestro of The Three Stooges, Edward Bernds. Though the film has an outer space vibe, everything takes place on planet Earth hundreds of years in the future. Hugh Marlowe leads a crew of sturdy but forgettable space explorers but the once and future star is Rod Taylor, just four years before inventing his own time machine.

Noted more for pies in the face than mise-en-scène, Bernds’s direction is as flat-footed as ever and the film never reaches the absurdist heights of Bernd’s masterwork, Queen of Outer Space—the apogee of a peculiar 50s sub-genre; Sci-Fi cheesecake. The saving grace of World Without End can be found in its advertising, a centerfold-worthy poster by pin-up artiste extraordinaire, Alberto Vargas.

Attack of the 50Ft. Woman – 1958

A tall tale in more ways than one, Nathan Juran’s bargain basement monster mash from 1958 featured its own monumental piece of pin-up art; Reynold Brown’s portrait of a queen-sized Allison Hayes straddling a busy SoCal freeway. Brown was lucky, the art director knew better than to deface his eye-popping broadside with unnecessary verbiage; the sight of a leggy redhead in form-fitting tunic manhandling a Buick hypnotized a generation of middle-schoolers.

Hayes plays Nancy Archer, a dissipated heiress with a cheating husband and a fondness for booze. But it’s not the vodka talking when she comes face to face with a gigantic extraterrestrial on a lonely high desert road. Pretty soon Nancy is the size of a duplex and ready to deal with her husband and his paramour, the diminutive but gigantically sexy Yvette Vickers.

Juran used his alias Nathan Hertz for the production, a moniker that came in handy when the director was particularly embarrassed by an assignment—but Attack of the 50Ft. Woman is a ton of fun and we say, “Job well done, Mr. Hertz/Juran.”

All the films in Warner Archive Collection/ 50s Sci-Fi Collection have been released previously in standalone editions but for discerning Sci-fi fans, this set is a comprehensive collection. Though supplementary material is sparse, the image quality is the real story here with only World Without End, though colorful enough, looking a bit soft. Amusingly the undisputed winner is the most impoverished of the lot; Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman is as gorgeous as its leading lady.