PARALLAX REVIEWS:
1950's Sci-Fi Films
Directed by Robert Wise in 1951, The Day the Earth Stood Still is a cautionary tale about unregulated advancements in science in an era of nuclear power. Klaatu (Michael Rennie), an interplanetary emissary of peace, lands in D.C. and offers a perfunctory "I come in peace" before proffering a mechanical device to the military. The army quickly shoots him
...
In 1956, the final flickering hope for the eventual colonization of Venus died when the planetary surface temperature was measured, via emitted microwaves, to far exceed the boiling point of water. That same year, the film industry created a replacement colony with Forbidden Planet
...
1953 was a strange year. Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing successfully climbed Everest, the highest mountain in the world, and the House Committee for Un-American Activities tried and executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for selling atomic secrets to the Russians.
...
Beware ill-tempered vegetable creatures and close-knit gatherings of scientists and military in Arctic regions. Based on a short story by John W. Campbell, Jr., The Thing opens with a distress call placed to Captain Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) and his merry band of Air Force men.
...
In 1954, the first controlled fission reactor promised a seemingly endless supply of electricity to the U.S., and Raymond Jones' novel, This Island Earth, was adapted to the screen.
...
'Tis the time of the season when thoughts turn towards apocalyptic world destruction. When Worlds Collide retells a familiar biblical disaster, with scientists and a spaceship replacing Noah and his Ark
...
In 1877, astronomer Giovanni Sciaparelli observed what he considered to be "canali" (or channels), criss-crossing the surface of Mars. Due to their transient nature and some language confusion, humans started serious speculation about life on Mars.
...
'Tis the time of the season when thoughts run towards the peril of cosmic radiation and its effect on reanimating corpses here on planet Earth. Perhaps you think the chances are slim that these zombies will form Sunday night.
...
|
|
|