# Newbie! 50s Sci-fi Films



## Ontheshouldersofgian (Dec 19, 2010)

Hey guys! I'm new on here so bear with me please! I was just wondering what everybody's favourite 50s sci-fi film was? Mine's Forbidden Planet. I just think that film's legendary and every more iconic as it had Leslie Nielsen in it. In my spare time, I'm a film maker and I really want to combine this with my passion for sci-fi. I'm thinking of making a 50s style sci fi movie. I was just wondering what every thought made this type of movie what it is and why we watch such classics! Thanks again guys 

Adam


----------



## alchemist (Dec 19, 2010)

Some of my favourites (remembered through a haze of nostalgia)...
FP, of course
When Worlds Collide
War of the Worlds
This Island Earth

There was some utter rubbish too. I don't really know what makes the above so good. There was a sense of wonder with all of them, like it was new ground. The FX were very good for their day, and, at least with FP, it's stood the test of time.


----------



## J Riff (Dec 20, 2010)

If you haven't analytically watched _'Beast of Yucca Flats'_....
No cheating and watching the Mystery Science Theater version!


----------



## Rodders (Dec 20, 2010)

Forbidden Planet and the Day the Earth stood still obviously. I also felt that the Day the Earth Caught Fire was an underrated classic.


----------



## Foxbat (Dec 20, 2010)

Personally, I love all the above mentioned movies (except perhaps _The Beast of Yucca Flats_)

I'm also a big fan of _Invasion Of The Body Snatchers_, _The Incredible_ _Shrinking Man_ and _The Fly_. 

I think alchemist makes a good point - there was a sense of wonder - perhaps even a touch of the pioneering spirit about them. Perhaps we can sense this when we watch them and, therefore, are more tolerant of their shortfalls than we are with today's crop of whizz-bang, CGI megabudget blockbusters.

Sure the fifties had its fair share of rubbish but it's still my favourite SciFi decade


----------



## iansales (Dec 20, 2010)

Perhaps this might help. Not all of the films covered are from the 1950s, but many of the are. There are links to parts 1, 2 and 3 at the bottom of the post.


----------



## JunkMonkey (Dec 21, 2010)

How can anyone not like _The Beast of Yucca Flats_!?

"Boys from the city, not yet caught in the whirlwind of progress feed  soda-pop to the thirsty pigs."

  It is an amazing film.  It manages to  pack, defecting Soviet scientists, Russian  assassins, an atomic explosion, at least five on screen murders (one of  which develops into an implied necrophiliac rape and may well have come  from an entirely different movie it made so little sense), cops shooting  at innocent fugitives from a light aeroplane, a car chase ending in a  shoot out, daring feats of mountain climbing... etcetera all stuffed into a brief 54  minute running time - and it is so _boring_!?  It takes a  tremendous talent to do that.  Francis Coleman was that talent.  The outsider film maker's film maker.

"Push a button; something happens".


----------

