It Came From Outer Space [VHS]

It Came From Outer Space [VHS]
by Jack Arnold

It Came From Outer Space [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Barbara Rush, Charles Drake, Joe Sawyer, Richard Carlson, Russell Johnson
Director: Jack Arnold
Cinematographer: Clifford Stine
Editor: Paul Weatherwax
Producer: William Alland
Writer: Harry Essex
Writer: Ray Bradbury
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 81 minutes
Release Date: 1996-10-01
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Publisher: Universal Studios
Studio: Universal Studios

VHS Movie Reviews of It Came From Outer Space [VHS]

Movie Review: It Came with an important documentary bonus film
Summary: 4 Stars

It Came From Outer Space is sort of comforting 1950s nostalgia in sci-fi. The story line is unusual for the 1950s Cold War era. The Aliens are extremely ugly, but claim to have souls like us. They did not come to invade and when they do take over our bodies they mean no harm. There reason for being on Earth is almost a human failure and they want only to be left alone. The black and white photography does not date the film so much as give it context and a kind comforting nostalgia, but it is however in stereo.

John Putnam (Richard Carlson) the hero is a romantic dreamer misunderstood by the townsfolk and ridiculed for claiming that the "meteor" that feel to Earth has a lot more going on. Only his girlfriend, the, at times, hauntingly beautiful Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush) stays by his side ~ although she screams a bit too much.

The dialogue is unusually poetic, particularly with the linesman Frank Daylon's description of the mirages in the desert and the sound humming in the wires,
because they kept much of the Bradbury treatment.

The big bonus for me was the Documentary on the history of Universal films and the comments of Bob Burns sitting next the blue one eyed monster used in the film. The documentary points out that the 1950s sci-fi films reflected the paranoia of the Cold War. Monsters taking our neighbours over - the communists' brain washing people we know and never suspect as subversives. Death from the sky - flying saucers.
The commentary over the film suggests that an extra in an army corporal's uniform at the "meteor" crash site is comedy writer-performer Morey Amsterdam, later of the Dick Van Dyke show, but their not sure. It Came from outer Space really belongs in the collection of anybody who lives 50's sci-fi.

Movie Review: One of the Best Sci-Fi films of the 1950s.
Summary: 5 Stars

It Came From Outer Space(1953) is one of the best and most important Sci-Fi/Horror films of the 50s, introducing a different concept to the fold that would play a huge impact on the genre. Where The Thing(1951) was bent on World Domination and Klattau from The Day the Earth Stood Still(1951) was intent on saving our planet, the alien in this film simply wants to get the hell out of here! The alien has crashlanded on our planet and being he's rather gruesome, has to assume human guise to seek aid to repair his ship. So he takes over a couple of humans and gets to work. Unfortunately, us earthlings don't quite understand the invader's intentions and mess up the works. Than the alien leaves. The end.

Okay, the film is actually somewhat better than that. It's very well acted by a good cast including Richard Carlson in the first of his many leading man roles in 50s Creature Features. His girlfriend, Barbera Rush is a real doll, too. The dialouge is great, mostly written by Ray Bradbury, but acredited to Harry Essex, who according to Bradbury simply rewrote his script and gave it to the studio! The direction is able by Jack Arnold, the leader of 50s Sci-Fi directing his first major film in that genre.

The film was originally released in 3-D, but the DVD isn't which is something of a shame. However, unlike most bare bones Universal DVDs, this one actually features some excellent supplemental features to compensate.
There's a great documentary by David J. Skal on the film's production and impact and a excellent commentary by Film historian Tom Weaver. The print is digitally re-mastered and looks pretty good, too.
Even the price is decent enough to make for a good, moderately priced addition to your Sci-Fi library.

Movie Review: Sci-Fi
Summary: 5 Stars

Love these old "B" science fiction movies. They actually bring back a time of innocence of sorts. They don't require "sex" scenes or blood running all over the place to be entertaining.

Movie Review: You may never look at dessert the same way again.
Summary: 4 Stars

This is good fun although at times very silly but often does carry forward an important message about the problems of anthropomorphism and how we would deal with strange looking visitors from other worlds. I think biologists would have a field-day but in "It Came From Outer Space" the aliens are so ugly as to scare humans into a kill frenzy.

A saucer crashes, an astronomer sees the alien, reports it to the town, the alien body snatches, well borrow bodies temporarily and tries to find a way to escape before it is found. The moral of the story is that even Jelly-like beings can be as smart as Einstein and us Earth people can be awfully narrow-minded, however The Day the Earth Stood Still does it better.

Movie Review: Pretty good...
Summary: 4 Stars

This movie actually has a plot along with the message offered by so many sci-fi flicks of it's time. The acting isn't really that bad and the plot holds together all the way through the movie. I actually liked the film but I tend to do that with almost all the old sci-fi stuff of the 50's and 60's. This one definitely isn't as bad as some and the special effects are pretty fair also. The added documentary is pretty interesting and gives some insight to movie making at that time. I liked it.

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