Essential features of a Fifties sci-fi movie

Cafe Society
1

I belong to a little teeny hobbyist group that gets together every now and then on Sunday afternoons to work on models while watching movies. Lots of fun. We were having a little discussion at the last build session, and as we watched The Deadly Mantis I pointed out that it seems that every Fifties sci-fi movie has a helicopter in it. :smiley: There was general agreement, and after much thought (well, okay, a little thought) I’ve compiled this list of Five Essential Features of a Fifties Sci-Fi Movie:

  1. Helicopter
  2. Science lecture
  3. Screaming-and-falling-down woman
  4. Stock footage
  5. Voice-over narration

As an example, I quote The Deadly Mantis, which gets a score of 5/5.

Helicopter, check. Science lecture on the predatory habits of the mantis, with a mini-lecture on Antarctic ice thrown in. S-and-FD woman, you bet! Stock footage of military hardware, especially F-80 Shooting Stars. And a bit of voice-over narration right at the start.
By contrast, let’s rate the so-called “classic” Them!

Helicopter, yep.
Science lecture on Those Amazing Ants.
S-and-FD, yep; the lady scientist, no less.
Stock footage. Hmm, don’t remember any. Zero on this one.
Voice-over. I don’t remember any of this either.

So, a lousy 3/5. So much for that over-rated piece of hokum. :wink:
Your thoughts invited.

(I ought to point out that Star Wars rates a zero,which tells you just how revolutionary it was at the time… :smiley: )

2

Technically, Them! had stock footage of ants in action – about five minutes of Edmund Gwynn talking about their habits. OTOH, Joan Weldon only screams once – when startled – and does not fall down and have to be rescued. In addition, she is gung ho on going down one of the ants nests to check for the queens. So it’s a wash.

Let’s look at It Came from Outer Space.

Helicopter – nope.
Science lecture – Nope…
Scream and fall down: Nope. There are no actual chases.
Stock footage – Nope
Voice-over – Yes

1/5

3

The stock footage used in Them! was the city scapes and the crowded streets?

Or the film of the ant colony?

4

The Day the Earth Stood Still

  1. Helicopter - check
  2. Science lecture - there’s a morality lecture, so half a point
  3. Screaming-and-falling-down woman - don’t remember any
  4. Stock footage - check
  5. Voice-over narration - check

3.5/5

Shouldn’t there be bonus points for extraneous Theremins?

5

Dull exposition by dull middle-aged men droning on to other d.m.a.m. - usually wearing uniforms or white lab coats.

6

Yes, when Patricia Neal is backing away from Gort in fear.

7

A reverent reference to God, and (same coin, opposite side) a gung-ho nod to the sanctity, benevolence, and omnicompetence of the prevailing authority, be it federal, state, or local.

A series of initial encounters in which the heroes just miss finding the monster.

And of course:
A drunk who sees the monster, then looks at his bottle and tosses it away.

8

" make me a seargent and charge the booze!"

9

Jacob’s Ladders; there’s got to be a Jacob’s Ladder sparking away somewhere.

10

some reference to atomic radiation that created these…MONSTERS!
And women must put their hands to their faces whilst screaming.

11

That’s more the 1940’s.

12

TCM is showing (or has already shown) today The Thing From Another World, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Them!, Forbidden Planet, The Black Scorpion, Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman, and The Blob. Theremin music coming up shortly!

13

Counts double if prefaced with “as you know”.

14

This wide eyed 50’s kid loved The Black Scorpion. I rented it a few months ago to enjoy the stop-motion effects (still impressive, IMO), but laughed out loud at the scene where the critters wreck the train. As the train is crashing, there is a brief close-up shot where the word LIONEL is plainly visible. Any one else ever notice that?

========

Has the “ineffective low-caliber revolver” cliché been mentioned?

.

15

The Bronson caves

ETA: Wiki page with list of movies from 1919 to 2010 (Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus FTW!)

16

Do you get extra points if the Screaming-and-falling-down woman is also a lady scientist who looks “plain” because she wears glasses and has her hair up, but “fabulous” when she takes the glasses off and lets her hair down?

17
  1. Helicopter - don’t recall one, but there’s a light plane and, of course, the awesome YB-49 Flying Wing
  2. Science lecture - two or three, actually
  3. Screaming-and-falling-down woman - abundant examples
  4. Stock footage - yep, of the aforementioned Flying Wing
  5. Voice-over narration - check

4/5

18

Hahahahahahahahaha!!! Also hilarious and unknown to me till now: scorpions make a deafening, roaring monster noise as they thrash about trying to sting you with their tails! … The ineffective revolver runs out of bullets; hero keeps trying to shoot empty gun, throws it at monster in frustration.

19

Atomic radiation definitely should be a sixth criteria.

On a related note, are we limiting this to American movies or can we include Japanese ones? If so, how would the original Godzilla score?

20

Low-caliber revolver? What about the ineffective field artillery???

No one has mentioned the use of the military (usually the Army, but sometimes the Air Force) in an attempt to defeat the threat. If nothing else, this allows abundant use of stock footage and the “our weapons are powerless against it” cliche.