The 50s sci-fi movie poll

Gotta be one of the first three really, hasn't it?

The Time Machine.

You *have* missed off my favourite, but I can't remember what it was called anyway. Similar to Body Snatchers but without the pods and greenhouse stuff. A little kid witnessed people disappearing near a bridge, it kept showing this sand open up and swallow folk.

I've gone for War of teh Worlds here, a fine martian invading tale.

For me it is between the Time Machine and Forbidden Planet, but there are a number of great films there, including a couple I haven't seen.

Shit, missed out Village of the Damned.

This Island Earth the only one I've never seen...this is my kinda poll! I'm going for Forbidden Planet for truly frightening me as a child.

This Island Earth isn't all that.

> A little kid witnessed people disappearing near a bridge

invaders from mars. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045917/

(not a bridge - that's a fench going over a little hillock towards the dunes. but yes, know what you mean)

I love Forbidden Planet and its crypto Lovecraftianism.

and crypto (well not so crypto) shakespearianism!

I think I've narrowed it down to FP and Bodysnatchers myself. I'll probably go with the latter as FP seems to be getting more votes so far.

Time Machine.

"Teenagers From Outer Space" (1959) is pretty special in a "Plan 9" kinda way. The guy who made it literally went nuts and proclaimed himself the second coming of Jesus Christ, and later committed suicide. You can download it free from the iTunes store.

Time Machine is '60, dingalings.

War of the Worlds gets points for having genuinely creative, creepy-looking aliens

http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/war-worlds/martian-1211.jpg

bodysnatchers scared the bejesus out of me as a kid. (then i saw the donald sutherland version, which really scared the bejesus out of me.) still seems totally contemporary; then an allegory for communism or conformist paranoia, take your pick, now an allegory for bioengineering.

another one i'd put on the list is the creepy, snatchers-ish i married a monster from outer space.

also, the fly!

i voted for time machine, fuck the system

i did not know that keanu is playing klaatu in an earth stood still remake.

60s didn't really start until '63 anyway, Beatles, Kennedy assn etc.

Body Snatchers for sure

gosh I wonder which one Morbz will vote for lolz

Keanu barata nikto

Maybe he'll go for a "can't vote for myself" policy, Shakey.

"Invaders from Mars" has stock footage of the northrop flying wing bomber in it, which was awesome. It was pretty good IIRC.

I voted for "Them!" it scared the shit out of me when I was a kid, when I watched it a few years ago, it was still pretty intense in places.

It's funny that the rabid Keanu haters (has there ever been a movie star more loathed by straight men? jealous, much?) aren't as upset that the Day remake is from the writer of The Last Castle and the director of The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

An intelligent remake of FP could work (can the cook-Robbie scenes, expand the id stuff). I think it should be titled Morbius.

Body Snatchers for the win

NO GODZILLA! NO CRED!

^a monster movie^

On the Beach isn't really sci-fi either.

god i am so jealous of keanu

I'll admit that Keanu has made one great movie and that movie was the River's Edge.

^a monster movie^

So is Them!

xp

Also missing from this list... Kronos, It Came From Outer Space, Invisible Invaders, and hell... Destination Moon too

The Beast from 20000 Fathoms?

There's a half-dozen Russian films that are missing too

Forbidden Planet, best movie of the '50s.

chap, you really should have just let Elvis Telecom start this thread. For example, I wouldn't think of starting an Eden Ahbez thread without his say-so.

I went with "bodysnatchers." There is a fine little film called "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" from this era that I recommend to fans of the others. It's suspenseful and brisk, but fun, too. Not hammy.

There was an episode of Perfect Strangers that ripped off the pod people idea. It was scary! It dealth with xenophobia because all the pod people had Myposian characteristics.

There is a fine little film called "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" from this era that I recommend to fans of the others.

Good film - and not just because Ray Harryhausen was involved with it. Much of Independence Day ripped it off.

^inspired brilliant Washington Monument gag in Mars Attacks!^

god i am so jealous of keanu

photographic evidence?

On the Beach isn't really sci-fi either.

I suppose not but you could argue that for the time it was released (1959) it was pretty sci-fi despite being, well, sappy in it's self-professed nobility. The other post-nuclear war movie from that year, The World, The Flesh, And The Devil, is a great piece of 50s American sociology that not just takes on nuclear war, but racism, imperialism, and a handful of Deadly Sins. Worth the effort to track down (TCM shows it occasionally)

Also worth tracking down is Five which I believe is the first post-nuclear war movie ever (it's from 1951). It plays out like an extended Twilight Zone episode but it gets kinda ponderous and DO YOU SEE at times. It's cool for the Frank Lloyd Wright house setting though.

Ha. Mrs. Redd was just doing a crossword and asked "What's food for Morlocks?"

On the Beach is definately the least 'genre' film I've included, and it will be interesting to see if it gets votes (I suspect not).

god i love all these films so much

The makers of Indpendence Day owe the makers of Earth Vs The Flying Saucers and War of the Worlds some kind of compensation (and possibly an apology).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

TDESS got fucking ROBBED

for real

I'd say you people barely dodged a bullet ... but I voted for Body Snathchers. (FP has too much tin can, not enough me.)

TDESS fans: are you claiming that Klaatu's hilariously hypocritical "Be peaceful, or we'll blow you to smithereens" shit is conscious on the film's part? or just natural for Cold War Americans?