If you’re like me (and I know I am), you spent many a weekend in your youth watching your local Chiller Theater, Creature Features, or whatever it was called in your neck of the woods. I’d like to know what some of your favorite cheapie horror films were (or still are). I’d like to limit it to 50’s B&W, but if a different one stands out for you, by all means, go for it!Some of mine: 1) Curse of the Faceless Man–interesting variation on the mummy theme. 2)Not of This Earth–“Look at me, look at me…” 3)Zombies of Mora Tau–“JEREMY PEEETERRRS!” 4)Monster of Piedras Blancas–my first cinematic severed head, a fond memory for horror fans! 5)The Giant Behemoth–of Eugene Lourie’s dinosaur trilogy, this was the first and the best!
I grew up on this stuff. If you want favorite good black and white, then you’ve got:
1.) Day the Earth Stood Still – one of the three best SF films of all time! Still looks great today.
2.) It! The Terror from Beyond Space – Jerome Bixby’s classic, from which Alien stole its plot. I’ll take ITTFBS over Alien any day
3.) The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms --Sure, it was the Giant Monster released by the Atomic Bomb to destroy New York and they only had One Chance to Kill It. But it was the first! It wasn’t a cliche when this one was made, and this was by far the best. Ray Harryhausen invented his Dynarama/Dynamation/“Reality Sandwich” technique for this because he couldn’t afford the more labor-intensive miniature sets that King Kong had used, and it revolutionized special effects.
4.) The Thing (from Another World) – Sure, it changed Campbell’s story hugely, but it was a rare case of a very adult treatment of a science fiction story.
5.) Kronos – made by the same guys who made Forbidden Planet (which doesn’t make it in here because it’s color), this has some breathtakingly gorgeous scenes. Who would’ve thought that a big rectangular robot could be made so visually appealing? The plot is mindless idiocy, but this is a joy to watch.
6.) The Atomic Missile – with “It! The Terror ftom Beyond Space” and the aforementioned “Curse of the Faceless Man”, this forms the troika of Jerome Bixby’s 1950s SF movies. One of his most neglected, and worth the watching. (Bixby would go on to Fantastic Voyage and a Star Trek episode in the 1960s)
7.) Panic in the Year Zero – I think this is early 1960s, but I’ll still include it. Low budget masterpiece about Ray Milland protecting his family after the Enemy (Rooskies, apparently) nuke L.A.
8.) ** The Quatermass Xperiment** (AKAThe Creeping Unknown) – the first of Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass stories, orighinally serialized on BBC and later filmed, with considerable changes.
9.) Quatermass 2 (AKA ]Enemy from Space) The second Quatermass movie, also adapted from a TV serial. Very good and unfortunately not nearly well enough known.
10.) Quatermass and the Pit – I can’t really include the 1960s movie, but the BBC serial came out in the 1950s, and is available on tape and DVD. Superb science fiction on a low budget.
I’d have an entirely different list of cheesy 1950s blackl and white SF/fantasy/horror flicks. Maybe I’ll writer it in later.
The Incredible Shrinking Man (my vote for the best SF film from the 50s) isn’t usually thought of as a monster movie, but the scene that most people remember is the truly terrifying run-ins with the “gigantic” tarantula.
In addition to *CalMeacham’s excellent list, I would add Them!
Giant-mutated-by-radiation ants attack Los Angeles, culminating in a battle in the sewers that is riveting!
Cal, you don’t put this movie on your cheesy list, do you?
20 Million Miles to Earth. The Ymir (the cute little lizardy guy who keeps growing and growing…) is my favorite Ray Harryhausen creation. He is also, as far as I know, the only monster to rampage in Rome.
Curse of the Faceless Man–interesting variation on the mummy theme.
One of the few movies that I keep missing. The last time because of Daylight Saving Time.
I would add:
Caltiki-The Immortal – Still can’t believe that a towel got me so scared.
The Brain From Planet Arous – Laughable to think about, but late at night…
Them – Along with The Day the Earth Stood Still - Classics
Kronos – made by the same guys who made Forbidden Planet (which doesn’t make it in here because it’s color), this has some breathtakingly gorgeous scenes. Who would’ve thought that a big rectangular robot could be made so visually appealing? The plot is mindless idiocy, but this is a joy to watch.
This movie fascinated me. It took a while to realize it was because my favorite cartoon was The Jetsons-The villian in this movie was the voice of George Jetson. :smack:
Nahhh! I’m just not as enamored of it as a lot of other people are.
A Partial cheesy list:
1.) Plan 9 from Outer Space – you knew this was gonna be on this list! But it’s not the worst movie of all time. It is well and truly bad, but it doesn’t bore, and some moments (Tor Johnson rising from the grave, Vampira in her crooked “scary” pose next to a dead tree) are genuinely moving.
2.) Robot Monster – like P9FOS, it’s not boring and occasionally original. With a score by Emer Bernstein!!!(The Magnificent Seven, among very many others). But still laughably bad.
3.) The Cape Canabveral Mnsters – aliens take over dead bodies to sabotage misile launches! Teenagers stop them by (I kid you not) building a hydrogen bomb from plastic belts.
4.) The Invisible Boy – The sequel to Forbidden Planet !! (Didn’t know there was one, did you?) Done in black and white, starring Robby the Robot and Richard Eyer (who would go on to be the Genie in 7th Voyage of Sinbad)
5.) The Monster that Challenged the World – giant killer snails invade Southern California! Walk for your lives!! Pretty good production values and some wonderful moments when they don’t take themselves too seriously. Starring Humphrey Bogart’s sidekick from The Treasure of Sierra Madre.
6.) Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman – Bert I. Gordon made The Amazing Colossal Man in response to The Incredible Shrinking Man, and later this cheapie came out with a giant woman. Unbelievably cheap special effects (you can frequently see through the giant people)
7.) The Crawling Eye (AKA the Trollenberg Terror). Long before F-Troop, Forrest Tucker played in a series of British science fiction films. Besides this, there was The Cosmic Monsters and The Abominable Snowman of the Himalays. But this one is the cheesiest, with octopoid one-eyed invaders from Outer Space in the Alps. Like so many monsters in British SF movies of the time, these Took Over People’s Minds. In their octopus form, they were gross, and tore off people’s heads. I sometimes get the feekling that the British saw them as threatening not because they were ooky monsters from Outer Space, but because they weren’t British.
8.) The Killer Shrews – giant shrews, played by dogs dressed up in fake shrew heads and pieces of carpeting. They almost kill off a group of people living on an island.
9.)The Black Sleep – when everyone talks about the awful films Bela Lugosi made in the 1950s they invariably talk about the Ed Wood films, but they ignore the fact that, between those Ed Wood films, Bela made this clunker with John Carradine and Tor Johnson and a collection of freaky-looking people. Boring but weird.
10.) The Manster – Japanese/American co-production about a Japanese scientist who experiments on members of his family, turning them into monsters (there must have been some very strange SBIR grants in those days). running out of familial subjects, he injects a visiting American with a serum that causesw his tyo grow another head and go on a killing spree. Probably the inspiration for How to Get Ahead in Advertising.
The Tingler. Vincent Price was a god.
Not as artful but just as scary.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Forbidden Planet.
The Day the Earth Stood Still.
The Blob.
Them!
Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers. Canonical alien invasion movie. Special effects by Ray Harryhausen. Some of the scenes in it have been referenced so many times in pop culture that even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve probably seen it. 
nitpick – FP and The Blob were in color, and therefore disqualified by the OP.
My favorites aren’t cheesy at all, but are all fine films:
Them!
It Came From Outer Space
The Creature from the Black Lagoon
Tarantula (these last three directeed by the great Jack Arnold).
As far as concept is concerned (I haven’t seen it), I give credit to The Monolith Monsters.
I had a black & white TV when I was growing up, so nyah.
I can’t belive that I’m the first to mention it:
Godzilla: King Of The Monsters!
Nyah yerself. Then I’m gonna add This Island Earth as a half good half cheesy.
The Land Unknown – the title is a translastion of Terra Incognita. Expedition finds a Lost World i Antarctica where dinosaurs live, including a ludicrously huge and snaggle-toothed plesiosaur and a fake-looking T. Rex that gets beaten by a helicopter. Years later the T.Rex head, fitted with gas flames, became “Spot” on The Munsters.
Danny Peary, in one of his cult movies books, has a nice chapter on The Monster that Challenged the World. I find it an oddly appealing movie, from its overweight hero to its odd-looking female lead to its really scary denouement in the lab.
The Monolith Monsters has an unusual menace and good production values and is more fun than you’d think.
When Worlds Collide 1951. -Disqualified beacuse it’s in color, but still a great flick. The flood scene got used in B films for years afterwards.
Invasion USA 1952. The commies start nuking airports in Alaska, work their way down the coast and across the lower 48. Many liberals are killed!
“Ay haide her. Ay hay dot Quvinn!”