Underplayed Gems

This Island Earth (1955)

This Island Earth poster
Directed by
Jack Arnold, Joseph M. Newman
Genre
science fiction film, monster film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 27m
Rated
12
Rating
6.0 of 10 from 238 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A group of scientists are recruited to a remote island to work on a secret project. They soon discover their employers are aliens who need help saving their home planet.

retroearnestslow-burnsuspensefulcolorfulatmosphericseriousotherworldly

What happens

This Island Earth is a 1955 American science fiction film produced by William Alland, directed by Joseph M. Newman and Jack Arnold, and starring Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, and Rex Reason. It is based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Raymond F. Jones. The film, distributed by Universal-International, was released in 1955 on a double feature with Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. Upon initial release, the film was praised by critics, who cited the special effects, well-written script, and the eye-popping Technicolor as being its major assets. In 1996, it was edited down and lampooned in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, a film adaptation of the popular film-riffing television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. The 1952 novel by Jones was originally serialized in the science fiction magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories as three related novelettes: "The Alien Machine" (June 1949), "The Shroud of Secrecy" (December 1949), and "The Greater Conflict" (February 1950). Jones had taken the novel title from a line in Robert Graves' poem "Darien": It is a poet's privilege and fateTo fall enamoured of the one MuseWho variously haunts this island earth (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.