Classic Ross Amico

Tag: 1950s Sci-Fi

When Worlds Collide Sci-Fi Disaster Movie Review

“The day may arrive when money won’t mean anything. Not to you… nor anyone.”

No, I’m not talking about the impending real-life collapse of society, but rather quoting a dour scientist in George Pal’s “When Worlds Collide” (1951), a film which, I must say, offers some remarkably prescient insights into mob mentality and demonstrates that selfish robber barons never change. Indeed, its most remarkable aspect is that everyone works together to prepare for the inevitable as well as they do – until, of course, it all falls apart.

This week on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, with so many planets visible in the sky and the tumblers falling into place for Armageddon on earth, it will be easy for us to put ourselves in the grim mindset of this obvious precursor of the big-budget sci-fi disaster flicks of the 1990s, by Roland Emmerich, Michael Bay, and others.

The character-actor cast is populated by recognizable faces from future small-screen hits “Mr. Ed,” “Green Acres,” and “I Dream of Jeannie,” and any number of daytime soaps. The film itself runs a lean 83 minutes, and you just know that son-of-a-bitch industrialist is going to get his.

We’ve jettisoned all the water to make room for Guinness on the space ark. Bring your beverage of choice to the comments section, as Roy and I discuss George Pal’s “When Worlds Collide” on the next “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.” It won’t be the G-forces that will have us blacking out, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!

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January 30, 2025
It Came From Outer Space 4th Anniversary

It came from outer space? Shouldn’t it be “they?” As in, more than one?

Or perhaps “Them!,” as the film shares a desert setting with that post-atomic-colossal-ants-run-amok milestone.

But who are we to quibble over grammar, when our aim is to party like it’s 1953?

I hope you’ll join us for a special FOURTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION of Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner and a no-doubt-slightly-tipsy discussion of “It Came from Outer Space.”

This is just about the quintessential 1950s sci-fi flick, replete with theremins, bug-eyed monsters, and shrieking heroines, all presented in eyepopping 3-D. The film was released the same year as “The War of the Worlds” and “Invaders from Mars.” Clearly, there were some serious anxieties churning beneath the veneer of post-war prosperity.

Ray Bradbury came up with the story, in which liberal and conservative ideologies strike sparks and everyone is suspect, and Jack Arnold directed. Arnold brought his share of young couples closer with such subsequent drive-in fare as “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954), “Tarantula” (1955), and “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957).

You know you’re watching a 1950s science fiction movie when it opens with the protagonist, an amateur astronomer and confirmed bachelor, enjoying a night in the desert by candlelight, before a crackling fire, in his tweed jacket with patches on the elbows, smoking his pipe, with his impeccably-dressed, devoted girlfriend at his side. Talk about enjoying all your pleasures at once! But for our astronomer-Adam, it just isn’t enough; so he goes in search of the forbidden fruit of a super-meteorite that crashes among spiders and Joshua trees within range of his telescope.

And what do you know, in a movie full of scientists, who should turn up but the Professor from “Gilligan’s Island!”

Technically, I wasn’t brought aboard the sci-fi flagship until June 2020, but Roy broke the champagne bottle across the bow on April 3, launching a virtual life raft for a worldwide community of housebound science fiction lovers. I’m honored to participate in this fourth-anniversary celebration of “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner” – also serving as a memorial of sorts for actress Barbara Rush, who died on March 31st.

You just know the discussion will exceed the 80-minute running time of the actual movie. Bring your clashing values to the comments section and be sure to have a libation on hand, as we reminisce about Covid, camaraderie, and “It Came from Outer Space.” It will be one meaty meteor, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT!

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April 6, 2024
Destination Moon & Sci-Fi Nostalgia

We made it there and back again last night in our discussion of “Destination Moon” (1950). But unlike the astronauts in George Pal’s scrupulously scientific sci-fi classic, we were blithely unconcerned about stripping down our vessel for the return journey. For one thing, with a cup of coffee in me, there was no chance of running out of fuel. Hence, another two-hour conversation about a 90-minute movie.

Highlight of the night: when Roy’s dad joined us by telephone to share his recollections of seeing the film in the theater on its original release as a ten year-old boy – the same age Roy and I were when we first saw “Star Wars.”

Check out the movie, if you’ve never seen it, and marvel at everything they got right, even as you acknowledge everything they didn’t, years before anyone had ever been to space. And note the difference in tone from that of the grim world we live in today. A more hopeful time? Or an optimistic pose to suit the story?

Then enjoy our exchange, with contributions from Mr. Bjellquist and viewer commenters, at the link.

Next week, we’re very excited to welcome Patrick Read Johnson, whose own youthful obsession with science fiction propelled him to a career in Hollywood. His pet project, “5-25-77” (2022), reflects his coming-of-age as an aspiring filmmaker in a small Midwestern town around the time of the release of “Star Wars” (on May 25, 1977). A couple of weeks ago, we used the film as a springboard to discuss our own boyhood fascinations with “2001,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Star Wars,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and how they informed our parallel experiments making Super-8 films.

Now we’ll have a chance to hear all about Johnson’s career (including his work on the “Dragonheart” franchise) and hopefully plenty of behind-the-scenes morsels, like the details of his real-life meetings with Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, and Steven Spielberg – and what it was like to be one of the first people to be shown a rough cut of “Star Wars” before it ever reached a theater.

Bring your nostalgic awe to the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, and bring your questions to the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., next Friday evening at 7:30 EST!

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January 21, 2023
Them! Giant Ants Invade Roy’s Sci-Fi Corner

This Memorial Day weekend, I hope you’ll join us at a special time, as the U.S. brings all its might and intelligence to bear against invading giant ants. Now that’s one hell of a picnic!

The Army, FBI, top scientists, and local law enforcement all coordinate to save our bacon without a single rumble of conspiracy. Furthermore, the citizenry accepts lockdown with a degree of maturity and responsibility inconceivable in 2021. Temporarily deferred freedoms are always most easily assimilated when the sewers are flooded with giant ants. For once, it’s all of us against “Them!” (1954).

Easily the best and most intelligent of the nascent Atomic Age giant bug movies, “Them!” manages to get everything right: a solid cast, good pacing, pitch perfect tone, and truly crawly animatronics. Keep a sharp eye out for walk-ons by fresh faces soon to become weekly regulars in living rooms across America, actors like Leonard Nimoy, Dick York, Richard Deacon, and William Schallert. Basically, anyone wearing an Army helmet is on the cusp of fame. Fess Parker makes the most memorable impression in a single scene that supposedly secured his casting as Davy Crockett.

Of the principals, Academy Award nominee James Whitmore bands together with James Arness (the extraterrestrial menace in “The Thing,” soon to embark on the gig of a lifetime as Marshal Matt Dillon on “Gunsmoke”) and everyone’s favorite Kris Kringle, Academy Award winner Edmund Gwenn. Gwenn plays a somewhat absentminded, but wholly authoritative and respected myrmecologist. In the 1950s, apparently, people still believed in science. A film that could very easily have turned into “Santa Claus Conquers the Giant Ants” instead winds up being probably one of the top-five science fiction movies of the decade.

Furthermore, its influence can still be felt in everything from the “Alien” franchise to any number of CGI giant bug fests of the past 25 years. This is one movie that really has legs!

Nevermind those Brood X cicadas – there will be plenty of high-frequency, outsized shrieking, as we chat about “Them!” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Leave your songs and whistles in the comments section, as we livestream on Facebook, this Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT!

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May 30, 2021
Them Giant Ants Invade Roy’s Sci-Fi Corner

What’s a picnic without ants?

This Memorial Day weekend, as the woods resonate with the eerie, UFO-like drone of Brood X cicadas, we direct our thoughts to the quintessential giant insect invasion classic – marked by equally distinctive, otherworldly calls – “Them!” (1954).

In the age of atomic anxiety, gigantic mutated ants emerge from the New Mexico desert to wreak havoc in Los Angeles. James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, and James Arness put in an order for a whole lot of RAID, and Fess Parker secures for himself the role of Davy Crockett with one short but memorable scene. You’ll have to watch fast for Leonard Nimoy, Dick York, Richard Deacon, William Schallert, and many others.

Released four months before “Godzilla,” drive-in thrills didn’t come any bigger than “Them!” The “Wilhelm scream” gets a good workout in this one. If Ridley Scott didn’t watch “Them!” before he made “Alien,” I’ll wander through the storm drains of Los Angeles with a box full of sugar cubes.

I hope you’ll join us as we flap our mandibles about “Them!,” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, this Memorial Day weekend AT A SPECIAL TIME. Leave your sweets and formic acid in the comments section, as we livestream with our flamethrowers, to the full extent that Facebook allows, this SUNDAY EVENING AT 7:00 EDT!

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May 27, 2021

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