This Island Earth (1955)

Directed by Joseph M. Newman. Starring Rex Reason, Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Robert Nichols, Russell Johnson, Lance Fuller, Douglas Spencer.

1950s sci-fi story is more thoughtful than most of the other genre outings from the Atomic Age, ambitious about its moral conundrums, and as concerned with wonder as it is about cheap thrills, but those concepts don’t often translate to compelling cinema here. Morrow ambiguously wavers between menace and benevolence as a mystery man called Exeter, but the secrets he harbors range from none-too-surprising to blatantly-obvious (even with the poetic suggestion of the movie’s title, the ridiculous foreheads he and imposing cohort Fuller sport are a dead giveaway). In the respective roles of hero and love interest, Reason is all square jaws and deep voice, and Domergue spends more time shrieking than theorizing, an atomic scientist who’s quickly reduced to skin-tight wardrobe and damseldom. The dialogue is where it all falls apart, pushing intriguing ideas to heavy-handed extremes, and allowing a slew of cornball phrases to serve as textured contrast to the expository reveals. Effects are dated, of course, though sometimes creative, but the production design is especially a mixed bag of eye-filling landscapes and laughable models/makeup. Considered a minor genre classic in some quarters, but there’s too much alternating silliness and stiffness to really make it stand out as anything better than an amusingly tacky artifact. An edited version was “riffed” over 40 years later in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie. An uncredited Jack Arnold was brought on to direct some reshoots.

48/100