20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

Directed by Nathan H. Juran. Starring William Hopper, Joan Taylor, Frank Puglia, Thomas Browne Henry, John Zaremba, George Khoury, Tito Vuolo, Jan Arvan, Don Orlando, Bart Bradley, Arthur Space.

Poor Ymir—after astronauts visit its home planet of Venus, they scoop it up and bring it back with them to Earth against its will; once there, all it wants to do is eat sulfur and be left alone, but instead doctors want to capture and study it, the military wants to kill it, etc. Solid monster rampage movie inspires more sympathy for the beast than usual; the cardboard characterizations and uninspired writing don’t intrude on the fun too often, but it’s odd that Hopper’s mission commander and Taylor’s Italian doctor-in-training sometimes seem more interested in planning a candlelit dinner with each other than taming the alien creature. Aside from the cheesy spaceship crash that opens the picture, special effects still look terrific today. Stop-motion animation maestro Ray Harryhausen (who can be spotted in a cameo feeding peanuts to an elephant) wanted the film shot in color, but budget restrictions resulted in black & white photography; he worked on a colorized restoration fifty years after the movie’s release, but the original B&W looks better. Despite the title, the closest that Earth and Venus ever get to each other on their respective orbits is about 24 million miles, a rare instance of Hollywood underselling.

69/100