The Cosmic Man (1959) B&W
Starring John Carradine, Paul Langton, Bruce Bennett, Angela Greene. John Carradine stars in this atomic age classic as the mysterious Cosmic Man, a benevolent alien whose motives for visiting Earth are unclear.
STORY: Setting down on Earth in a spherical UFO, Cosmic Man immediately becomes a military target even though scientists are sure destroying him could have disastrous consequences. A classic of 1950s B science fiction, COSMIC MAN is an entertaining parable about the dangers of nuclear energy that reflects some of America's feelings toward the impending nuclear age.
The Angry Red Planet (1959) Color
Starring Billy Curtis, Gerald Mohr, Jack Kruschen, Les Tremayne, Nora Hayden, Paul Hahn. Martians get mad--then get even! Light years ahead of its time, this slick sci-fi flick is "science-fantasy, monster-movie and romance all rolled into one" (Hollywood Citizen News).
With Martians like the leggy and very hairy "batratspidercrab," plus a rolling jello amoeba with rotating eyes, and flesh-eating plants, you'll think twice about jumping into a space ship--no matter where it's headed.
STORY: When an Earth rocket lands on Mars, the crew finds the planet more pink than red and not entirely dead. As these well-armed scientists begin to explore, they are attacked by unbelievable demented and horrific creatures at every turn.
Battling for their lives, the survivors make it back to their ship only to discover intelligent life--and a warning they'll never forget! In the film, the tiny, three-eyed Martian chartacter is played by actor Billy Curtis.
First Spaceship on Venus (1959) Color
Starring Yoko Tani, Aldrick Lukes. Based on "The Astronauts" by the great Stanislaw Lem (SOLARIS), this SF curio also boasts a multinational cast, as well as beautiful photography and production design. Though Lem disowned the film, it stands on its own rather well and is probably one of the best SF films from the fifties.
STORY: First Spaceship on Venus begins in 1985, when engineers involved in an industrial project to irrigate the Gobi Desert, accidentally unearth a mysterious and apparently artificial "spool". When found to be made of a material unknown on Earth, the spool is circumstantially linked to the Tunguska explosion of 1908.
The "spool" is seized on as evidence that the explosion, originally blamed on a meteor, was actually caused by a spaceship. Internationally renowned Professor Harringway pinpoints the alien craft's origin within Earth's own orbit - with Venus the only reasonably habitable world.
The spool itself is quickly discovered to be a flight recorder, and partially decoded by an international team of scientists led by Professor Sikarna and Dr. Tchen Yu.
The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
The World, the Flesh and the Devil is a science fiction doomsday film written and directed by Ranald MacDougall. The star is Harry Belafonte, who was then at the peak of his film career. Heightening the intensity of writer/director Ranald MacDougall's suspenseful and unsettling movie are stunning vistas of an unpopulated New York: vast, empty and soulless.
STORY & SCREENSHOTS: Ralph Burton (Harry Belafonte), a Pennsylvania coal miner is trapped underground for several days from a small cave-in caused by a nuclear holocaust. He digs his way out to find every living soul on earth has vanished. "Millions Flee from Cities. End of the World!" From a Manhattan skyscraper, Ralph surveys the emptiness announced by that chilling newspaper headline.
Nuclear doomsday has come. Alone, he travels to New York City, only to find it deserted. Ralph is sure he is the last person alive. Then a woman, Sarah Crandall (Inger Stevens), appears and the two form a cautious friendship, but a caring relationship and they make plans to rebuild human civilization. However, that's threatened when a third survivor, Benson Thacker (Mel Ferrer), arrives.
Benson had managed to pilot his small boat into the city's harbor. The prejudice, envy, and strife that destroyed the world, quickly engulf the unlikely trio. Unlike other post-apocalyptic thrillers, there are no external monsters to battle here. Instead, the monsters -- fear, intolerance, jealousy -- lurk inside the all-too-human human beings.
The Giant Gila Monster (1959)
The Giant Gila Monster is a 1959 hot rod monster science fiction film directed by Ray Kellogg, and produced by Ken Curtis. It stars Don Sullivan, a veteran of several low budget monster and zombie films, Lisa Simone, the French contestant for Miss Universe of 1957, as well as Fred Graham, comedy relief Shug Fisher, KLIF disc jockey Ken Knox and Bob Thompson.
This low-budget B-Movie featured a cast of unknown actors, and the effects included a live gila monster filmed on a scaled-down model landscape. The movie has been released on DVD and is considered a cult classic. Filmed near Dallas, the film was budgeted at $175,000 and was produced by Dallas drive in theater chain owner Gordon McLendon who wished co-features for his main attractions.
McLendon shot the film back to back with The Killer Shrews. Both films were feted as the first feature films shot in and produced in Dallas and the first movies to premiere as double features. In exchange for doing the special effects, Ray Kellogg was allowed to direct the film. Ken Curtis allowed Sullivan to pick his songs that gave the film popularity with the teenage market.
STORY: A gigantic, mutated Gila monster begins stalking a rural Texas community. Young couple, Pat (Grady Vaughn) and Liz (Yolanda Salas), are attacked by the creature while parked in their vehicle overlooking a ravine, sending the car crashing into the ravine below.
Local sheriff (Fred Graham) launches a search for the missing couple, assisted by their friends, including Chase Winstead (Sullivan), a young mechanic and hot rod racer. Chase locates the crashed car in the ravine, the inside smeared with blood and the couple nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile, the creature continues its attacks, eating livestock and crashing an oil tanker, before eventually destroying a bridge, causing a major train accident. Only after this do the authorities realize that they are dealing with a giant venomous lizard.
By this time, hungry for prey, the creature attacks the town. It heads for the local dance hall, where the town's teenagers are gathered for a sock hop. In an effort to stop the monster, Chase packs his prized hot rod with nitroglycerin and rigs it to speed straight into the Gila monster, killing it in a fiery explosion and heroically saving the town.
On the Beach - 1959
Starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins
On the Beach is a post-apocalyptic drama film directed by Stanley Kramer and written by John Paxton, based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel of the same name. Like the novel, much of the film takes place in Melbourne, close to the southernmost part of the Australian mainland. Beach scenes were filmed at the foreshore of Cowes on Phillip Island.
STORY & SCREENSHOTS: In 1964, the nuclear submarine USS Sawfish arrives in Australia after the worldwide nuclear holocaust. Commander Dwight Lionel Towers confirms that the world has been destroyed and the nuclear dust is coming to Australia.
The widower Cmdr. Towers, who grieves the death of his wife and children, is befriended by Royal Australian Navy Lieutenant Peter Holmes, who is a family man with wife and the newborn baby Jennifer.
He has a lover affair with the local Moira Davidson, a still beautiful alcoholic woman with a past, and she falls in love with him.
Cmdr. Towers and his crew invite the drunkard scientist Julian Osborne to join them in their reconnaissance voyage to the further North and to the United States, and they return hopeless and aware that Australia and the rest of the mankind has very few days until the doomsday.
Stanley Kramer won the 1960 BAFTA for best director and Ernest Gold won the 1960 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Score. The film was remade as an Australian television film by Southern Star Productions in 2000.
The racing sequences were filmed at Riverside Raceway in California and at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, home to the present day Australian motorcycle Grand Prix, conveniently near Cowes at Phillip Island.
These scenes include an array of late 1950s sports cars, including examples of the Jaguar XK150 and Jaguar D-type, Porsche 356, Mercedes-Benz 300 SL "Gullwing", AC Ace, Chevrolet Corvette and prominent in sequences was the "Chuck Porter Special", a customized Mercedes 300SL.
Built by Hollywood bodyshop owner Chuck Porter and driven by a list of notable 1950s to 1960s west coast racers, including Ken Miles and Chuck Stevenson, who purchased and successfully raced it in the early 1960s.
The U.S. Department of Defense as well as the United States Navy refused to cooperate in the production of this film, not allowing access to their nuclear-powered submarines. The film production crew was forced to use a non-nuclear, diesel-electric Royal Navy submarine, HMS Andrew.
On the Beach premiered simultaneously in several major cities around the world, including Moscow in the Soviet Union. The film recorded a loss of $700,000. Despite this, the movie received positive praise in its day and in later years. It also got a fan base that agreed on many of the issues presented.
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