MovieChat Forums > This Island Earth (1955) Discussion > Something that bothered me

Something that bothered me

posted 18 years ago by jcartwri-1
18 replies | jump to latest

I just watched this movie for the first time a few hours ago and I enjoyed it, but something in it kind of bothers me. It’s how the whole movie feels like it’s building up to something, and when they finally reach the planet they just escape and it turns into a sun and that’s pretty much the end (after the bug thing and getting back to earth but that‘s beside the point). I enjoyed what there was but I was half expecting them to try to fight the Zagons instead of just escaping back to earth and the Zagons having their way. Still a fun movie though. Does anybody know what I’m talking about?

[–] dutchey11 18 years ago

well i've got no idea, but u should watch mystery science theater 3000, they make fun of the movie, but it's friggen hilarious!!! i'm sure u'd like it.

Murph:Were good!
Connor:Yes we are!
-Boondock Saints

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 18 years ago

From what I know of it a good deal had to be left out cuz the producers ran out of money. It ought to be remade now that fx are so superb, but base it on the original book.

What is the meaning of meaning?

[–] erniesparks 18 years ago

Another reply:

The book that the movie was based on (THE ALIEN MACHINE) was all about the beginning part of the story and ended when the hero got on the mysterious self-piloted plane for an unknown destination. The space opera part was added on for the screenplay. They couldn't make up their minds whether to make it a classy-looking film or just a spaceman/monster thriller. They settled for BOTH. That is my guess.

[–] erniesparks 18 years ago

It is interesting that the release year of the movie THIS ISLAND EARTH coincides with the founding of Shockly Semiconductor Laboratory. William Shockly began the first of a chain of companies that led to electronic miniaturization, a big deal in the story THE ALIEN MACHINE on which this movie screenplay is based. It is also interesting that Shockly was a paranoid boss, just like the metalunan employers of the scientists in the movie. This is probably all just coincidence.

The storyline does seem to run out of gas. Exeter, Cal and Ruth arrive at Metaluna too late to do any good. Maybe if the metalunans had been less neurotic about earthlings they could have developed a truly coordinated project to save their world. Why did the metalunans have to destroy the house and people in it? Were they afraid of being pursued into space by earthlings?

The two most vivid cinematic scenes are

(1) the escape of Cal and Ruth in the small plane and its capture by the saucership. It is a progenitor of the STAR TREK tractor beam idea.
(2) the destruction of the Metaluna capital. That is memorable. In another review I have compared it to the destruction of L. A. in WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953).

Other parts of the movie are less satisfactory. If the giant insect slave provides you a frightening monster, then OK. The navigational device on the bridge of the saucership looks like an inverted chandelier with colored bulbs. The clear tubes on the ship for body conditioning are a predecessor to the DC tubes in FORBIDDEN PLANET, and ultimately suggest the transporter stations in STAR TREK.

[–] larryman 17 years ago

"The clear tubes on the ship for body conditioning are a predecessor to the DC tubes in FORBIDDEN PLANET, and ultimately suggest the transporter stations in STAR TREK."

Correction: no 'tubes' in 1956 "Forbidden Planet" movie.

In: 1979 CINEFANTASTIQUE Magazine Double-Issue (Volume 8 - Number 2 & Volume 8 - Number 3), "MAKING FORBIDDEN PLANET" article By Frederick S. Clarke and Steve Rubin - It states:

"The original design for the DC stations called for actual tubes in half sections. The front half-tube was clear, permitting a view of the smoke-chamber effect planned for deceleration. The back half-tube was opaque and slid open for entry. The concept was abandoned, perhaps because it so closely resembled a similar effect and design seen in Universal's THIS ISLAND, EARTH, which was released in early 1955 as these ship designs were being drafted."

Personally, I would have prefered that Forbidden Planet had used tubes they had planned for their 'DC' stations - but without the "smoke chamber effect", and with their 'stasis-beam' effect. I agree the 'tubeless' Forbidden Planet 'DC' stations (with beam effect) was the format for the 1966 "Star Trek" TV series transporter platform. The 'freeze-tubes' of 1965 "Lost In Space" TV series were probably derived from the abandoned Forbidden Planet concept, because they used the "tubes in half sections" and the "slid open for entry" concepts. LIS drew much from Forbidden Planet. An electro-magnetic stasis 'glow' effect was added in the LIS tubes, as substitution for either smoke or beam effects. This is my favorite version of a 'personnel tube'.

The 'regeneration tubes' of the 1967 "The Invaders" TV series seems a likely decendant from those tubes of TIE. They also open & close vertically.

---------
"Welcome to Altair-4, gentlemen."

[–] scotbpens 16 years ago

Personally, I would have prefered that Forbidden Planet had used tubes they had planned for their 'DC' stations - but without the "smoke chamber effect", and with their 'stasis-beam' effect.

I think the optical effect by itself worked very effectively. It looked more technologically advanced to surround the crewmen with a simple inertial damping field that protects against the forces of decelerating from hyperspace (faster-than-light) to sublight speed, rather than to enclose them in acrylic tubes.

LIS drew much from Forbidden Planet. An electro-magnetic stasis 'glow' effect was added in the LIS tubes, as substitution for either smoke or beam effects. This is my favorite version of a 'personnel tube'.

Another idea Lost in Space borrowed from Forbidden Planet was the bubble-topped astrogation device showing the ship's position and attitude in space and functioning as a kind of 3-dimensional chart table. Although similar in concept, the Jupiter 2's astrogator was extremely simplified compared to the elaborate nav-helm station on the C-57-D. Naturally, considering it was designed and built on about one-tenth the budget.

All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?

[–] rcdf 17 years ago

In addition to what you mentioned another major gripe is just how stupid the aliens seemed to be. They're apparently smart enough to develop interstellar transport, ray guns, fancy gravity machines, driverless cars, energy shields, secret bases and yet, as Meachem says, they're too stupid to find a way to synthesize uranium, in addition to not considering attacking Zagon, setting up they're own uranium mine on earth, colonizing another planet until they were blasted to bits, and what was the deal with Exeter not wanting to come with them in the end? I've never read the book. Does it answer how the aliens could be so incredibly dumb?

[–] sargon19552003 10 years ago

In particular, I agree with you about not going on the attack. How did they manage to get into a purely defensive posture?

[–] andrsbckly 17 years ago

the lesson here is about SLAVERY...think about it; they go to a PLANTATION, Exeter says we wont start 'cracking the whip' on Meacham till tomorrow, there are a lot of references.....the aliens were going to do to earth what euros did to indians.

[–] Hancock_the_Superb 17 years ago

Interesting idea. I also think there's an analogy with Operation Paper Clip, the CIA effort to recruit Nazi scientists after World War II, in the Metalunans recruiting scientists from Earth to help them out.

There may be honor among thieves, but there's NONE in politicians!

[–] Iridescent_Phantom 16 years ago

While all of the above comments (pro and con) are interesting, it is well to remember that you are looking at a movie that is over 50 years old. I saw the movie as an 8 year old in 1955 and the picture blew everyone away.

Too many science fiction fans today have become jaded by the last 30 years of Lucas and CGI effects. In many ways This Island Earth is a landmark of science fiction in that it paved the way for Forbidden Planet and 2001. If you look at science fiction movies made prior to 1955, you can find nothing to compare to it.

Part of the problem with "couch critics," who are not professionals and have no training in film criticism, is that they view many movies without placing them in the context of their eras. You can't judge a movie like This Island Earth by contemporary standards and expect it to measure up.

I own the dvd and watch the movie at least once each year (nostalgic to a fault), and even though I see it's flaws more clearly now than when I was a wide-eyed youngster in the darkened cavern of a movie theatre, I can't help but appreciate what a remarkable achievement it was for its time period.

[–] will-694 16 years ago

You are so right. This movie must be viewed as a product of the period in which it was made. My favorite part of the movie is the first half-hour. They completely capture the "gee-whiz" factor in science during the fifties. I love the jets, the equipment in the laboratory, the costumes of the scientist and his assistant...the whole thing is an encapsulation of the "atomic age."

One of my all time favorite movies.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jonabbott56 11 years ago

Will and Phantom are spot on. I'm rewatching the film right now, as I do periodically, and without meaning to be condescending, I'm guessing the last two posters are quite young. The film is what it is, corny as hell by today's standards I realise, but modern cinema is so paint by numbers now that contemporary audiences seem pre-conditioned to expect certain developments. I don't mean to offend. The film was never about the war, it was about the Earth people's journey to another world and safe return. Battles in space are a dime a dozen, this film is still one of a kind (despite influencing all of the above)...

[–] sonofagun 11 years ago

Worse for me is the horribly wooden, colorless acting of Jeff Morrow - more or less was his trademark? Sheeesh!

Mr. Excitement - NOT!

[–] lousvr 13 years ago

I remember as a 10yr kid watching this in the movie house and ... YES getting to the planet and boom.. a quick return to earth and the films. over.. !
I felt like 'What the ... '?????... But understandably did not know anything about movie budgeting, writing, studio heads, etc.. so.. But was looking so forward to the big climate at the end that it... hurt. when there was none.