Friday, February 26, 2010

The Friday Night Late Movie: It! The Terror from Beyond Space

This low-budget, monster-in-a-spaceship film languished in obscurity for 21 years until sci fi buffs hailed it as the inspiration for Alien in 1979. There are similarities between the two movies, but it's still a stretch to claim that Alien borrowed its premise from this earlier film. As Bill Warren points out in his excellent sci fi film encyclopedia Keep Watching the Skies!, both movies owe an immense debt to 1951's The Thing (from Another World). From a film perspective, The Thing pioneered the plotline whereby people battle a hungry alien creature in a confined, isolated setting.

Set in 1973, It! opens with Colonel Edward Carruthers (Marshall Thompson) facing court-martial changes for murdering the members of his Mars expedition. A second spaceship, commanded by Colonel James Van Heusen (Kim Spalding), journeys to the red planet to take Carruthers into custody. Carruthers staunchly maintains his innocence, claiming that his fellow team members were "killed by something--not me."

That something creeps aboard Van Heusen's craft as it blasts off from Mars. After two crew members disappear mysteriously, Carruthers and the others discover the alien stowaway (which even resembles The Thing--with an uglier face courtesy of a fakey rubber mask). The rest of the film concerns the crew's efforts to destroy the creature (played by Ray "Crash" Corrigan). They shoot it with bullets, set booby traps with explosive grenades, hurl gas grenades at it, burn it with a blow torch, and (again recalling The Thing) electrocute it.

Other than the basic premise, the strongest resemblance to Alien is a scene in which the crew confronts the creature in an air vent. The alien uses an injured crew member as bait to lure the other humans into the deadly confines of the vent system. It's one of the few times in the film that the creature exhibits intelligence, a trait which would have made it much more menacing than a lumbering hulk.

It's also unfortunate that director Edward L. Cahn shows glimpses of the creature so early in the film. Screenwriter Jerome Bixby's story opens as a whodunit with no indication of an alien creature's involvement. Therefore, a more intriguing approach would have been for the crew to suspect Carruthers initially when their co-workers began turning up dead. As it is, the film copies The Thing's structure, in which the emphasis is on destroying the monster while suffering as few fatalities as possible.

Despite these limitations, It! The Terror From Beyond Space rates as an above-average, low budget sci fi film. It was Cahn's best effort in the genre, although his follow-up film, 1959's Invisible Invaders, foreshadowed 1968's Night of the Living Dead with its eeries scenes of the dead walking again.

Screenwriter Jerome Bixby's greatest contribution to sci-fi and fantasy was his short story "It's a Good Life." This creepy tale of a young boy who controls an entire town served as the basis for one of The Twilight Zone's most famous episodes (with Billy Mumy as the boy). It was also remade, and significantly altered, as part of Twilight Zone--The Movie.

10 comments:

  1. Rick, The MGM channel runs this film often in 1080i High Def. I remember seeing this for the first time at a drive in

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  2. A drive-in theatre on a summer evening sounds like the perfect setting for this kind of movie! It's not a brilliant film, but I'm always surprised by the number of people that remember it.

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  3. Rick, I just love this movie!! Well, of course I would because one of my all time favorite sci-fi movies is The Thing From Another World. These two movies are awesome. I love the creepy setting in this movie confined in the space ship waiting your turn to die. I recently got it from Netflix to watch because I hadn't seen it in years. My husband is a big fan of this movie also. Great post and enjoyed reading it.

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  4. Aki, I know you're well-versed in sci fi films. Do you remember INVISIBLE INVADERS with John Agar? It's not as good as IT!, but has a spooky opening and, as I wrote, seemed to visually foreshadow Romero's original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

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  5. I actually think the monster looks very cool, but you're absolutely right that it's shown too soon in the narrative. I've heard some people claim that Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett lifted the plot of ALIEN from Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, and I think that makes more sense than being "inspired" by this gem.

    And I think you wrote an exceptionally terrific write-up. It's so good. Everything you do is good. Please don't turn me into a jack-in-the-box.

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  6. Sark, that's hilarious! In THE TWILIGHT ZONE COMPANION, producer Buck Houghtfon recalls the filming of "It's a Good Life": "It seemed to have caught on in a lot of ways. Around the set when somebody would goof, people would say, 'Well, that's a good thing you did.'" I always found that amusing. The episode itself probably ranks in my Top Ten for THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

    As for PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, I agree there's a definite similarity with ALIEN.

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  7. Rick, I have indeed seen Invisible Invaders with John Agar. It is a good movie. I also love Planet of the Vampires and saw it recently. It is one of my favorites. I am a Robert Fuller fan from the old show Laramie. I remember watching Brain From Planet Arous with my brother just to see Robert. He wasn't in it very long though. Another good sci-fi movie is Them. I finally bought it on DVD.

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  8. Rick, I have not seen this fun '50's movie. Your movie review, takes me back in time, to what we considered to be space travel as kids.

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  9. Aki, I love Them. James Arness , and James Whitmore, BTW , Look for a young Fess Parker in the Psych ward.

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  10. That was a very good thing you did, Rick. Writing this was a good thing. No toto-in-a-box in the cornfield for me, either. Thanks for writing such good things.

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