Essential features of a Fifties sci-fi movie

[Beware_of_Doug]

@kunilou

No one has mentioned the use of the military (usually the Army, but sometimes the Air Force) in an attempt to defeat the threat.

Soldiers or airmen. Not sailors. Never marines.

A location in the desert southwest.

One Walter Brennan-Gabby Hayes kinda old bird (sheriff, postmaster, hermit, whatever) who is usually the operator of the ineffective six-shooter or thirty-ought-six.

High heels for the imperiled love interest. Maybe keds if she’s really one of the boys.

A radio (or rarely television) which interrupts regular programming for an up-to-the-minute news bulletin - and is then immediately turned off.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Powers & abilities must be attributed to Atomic Radiation that Atomic Radiation has never possessed in real life.

Oblique symbolism referring to the Red Menace must be used.

[WILDJC]

A few others if you please.

1. The giant rubber snake or octopus that the hero wrestles with.
2. Poor lighting. ie: flashlight shined in the face.
3. A mismatched (stock) music score.
4. Poor synchronized dubbing - especially for those Japanese to American audiences
5. No matter who is the character, the man wears a suit, and the women wear a dress.

[BMalion]

When Worlds Collide

1. Helicopter yes
2. Science lecture yes
3. Screaming-and-falling-down woman yes
4. Stock footage yes
5. Voice over narration no, dang

[Icerigger]

5. Voice over narration no, dang

Well you do have the PA system constantly blaring announcements that the collision is imminent, hurry, hurry!

[Gangster_Octopus]

Wait, don’t these sci-fi movies have to have a damsel, most nota bly a damsel in a bullet bra and a tight sweater?

[BMalion]

@Icerigger

5. Voice over narration no, dang

Well you do have the PA system constantly blaring announcements that the collision is imminent, hurry, hurry!

Does that count?

God I hope so.

[Spoke]

The Blob (1958)

1. Helicopter - No
2. Science lecture - No
3. Screaming-and-falling-down woman - Multiple examples
4. Stock footage - Yes
5. Voice-over narration - No

Only 2 points. But bonus unintentional horror with the final lines:

“At least we got it stopped!”

“Yeah, as long as the Arctic stays cold, huh?”

:eek:

[randwill]

Cosmic Monsters (aka The Strange World of Planet X)

1. Helicopter - No, just a flying saucer that looks like a spinning toy
2. Science lecture - Yes, several
3. Screaming-and-falling-down woman - Yes, and one even gets caught in a giant spider’s web
4. Stock footage - Yes, of the British army
5. Voice-over narration - Yes, at the beginning

[panache45]

You left out an important element: teenagers making out in their car, out in the desert. They see the monster (or evidence of it), and hurry back to town . . . but nobody believes them. But one man does go to investigate . . . and doesn’t come back.

[Lumpy]

@Beware_of_Doug

One Walter Brennan-Gabby Hayes kinda old bird (sheriff, postmaster, hermit, whatever) who is usually the operator of the ineffective six-shooter or thirty-ought-six.

I was going to say The Slack-Jawed Yokel, who has no idea what he’s stumbled upon.

[Miller]

@TreacherousCretin

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?

In the climax to the movie mentioned in the OP, the deadly mantis, trapped in a tunnel, flips over a bus. On the bottom of the bus, clearly visible is the embossed word, “Tonka.”

[BrotherCadfael]

@panache45

You left out an important element: teenagers making out in their car, out in the desert. They see the monster (or evidence of it), and hurry back to town . . . but nobody believes them. But one man does go to investigate . . . and doesn’t come back.

Seems to me this is way more universal than helicopters in '50s movies.

[urban1a]

@BMalion

" make me a seargent and charge the booze!"

“Make me a sergeant in charge of the booze.”

Bob

[VOW]

I gotta get technical. The screaming woman ALWAYS, I mean ALWAYS puts her hand to her mouth, but faces the palm outwards.

And EVERYBODY smokes cigarettes like crazy! Little did they know, the REAL monster is gonna be lung cancer in another 40 years!
~VOW

[TreacherousCretin]

@Miller

In the climax to the movie mentioned in the OP, the deadly mantis, trapped in a tunnel, flips over a bus. On the bottom of the bus, clearly visible is the embossed word, “Tonka.”

Excellent! I never noticed that one.

.

[TreacherousCretin]

A somewhat less universal feature:

the 8-year old kid. Billy, Pepito, you name him. ALWAYS an irritating shrill-voiced little dipshit whose disobedience ALWAYS gets him trapped by the monster, and you ALWAYS root for the monster.

Well, except for The Blob. That kid was just dumb.

.

[Evil_Captor]

@Sam_A.Robrin

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.

This was not a particular feature of fifties SF films, but a requirement of the Hays Code that governed all films in the 50s. From the Wiki on pre-Code Hollywood:

@Hays Code

Authority figures had to be treated respectfully, and the clergy could not be portrayed as comic characters or villains.[13] Under some circumstances, politicians, police officers and judges could be villains, as long as it was clear they were the exception to the rule.

[cmyk]

Man-In-Suit. Be it foam-rubber or boxy robot with corrugated arms… Man-In-Suit. And very slow moving at that.

[TreacherousCretin]

@TreacherousCretin

A somewhat less universal feature:

the 8-year old kid. Billy, Pepito, you name him. ALWAYS an irritating shrill-voiced little dipshit whose disobedience ALWAYS gets him trapped by the monster, and you ALWAYS root for the monster.

Well, except for The Blob. That kid was just dumb.

It took me no time at all to think of more exceptions to the “eight-year old kid” rule. I wish to amend my statement to:

Usually an irritating shrill-voiced little dipshit, whose disobedience usually gets him trapped by the monster, and you ALWAYS root for the monster.
Thank you for your understanding.
EDIT: I did just think of another often essential feature: Bronson Caves.

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