Post by Jibbs on Oct 5, 2014 15:04:19 GMT -5
1950 Nova Awards
Grand Prize:
And the runner-up is...
Rocketship X-M
I thought it was interesting that two movies exist from 1950 that involve trips to the moon. The other one, Destination Moon, was based off of a Robert Heinlein book and was meant to take an as scientific approach as possible to such a trip. This movie? Not so much.
It started off scientific enough and concerned with the details of such a mission. But before long something went wrong on the ship, they passed out for days (yes, days) and woke up to find themselves next to Mars. I don't care how little they knew about space travel back then, there's no excuse for such ridiculousness. After that they land on Mars, fight mutant Martians, learn that nuclear war is bad, and come home. Despite an embarrassing disregard for science, even for the time, it was kind of fun to watch and not a travesty.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
Destination Moon
Not a classic, but a very respectable film. What's really interesting is how much they went "hard sci-fi" with this one. There's no aliens or mutants, just a scientific approach about what space travel might be like when the space race was still very new. And they did a pretty good job.
All the winners:[/size]
1951 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
The Day the Earth Stood Still – “Gort”
Ahhhh, good ol' Gort. One of my favorites.
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
When Worlds Collide
I usually partial forgive science fiction movies that are out of date but there is no excuse for When Worlds Collide, an embarrassing and sometimes hilarious attempt at the end of the world. The whole movie is filled with strong Old Testament references and quotes, and when a “lottery” is established to decided which 40 couples will populate the new world, they are all white. The movie ends with more Bible typeface about the first day on what’s pretty much Eden with all the white people finally happy without all those damn foreigners.
The rocket ship to take them off of Earth is also set up on a curved ramp.
The Thing From Another World
Yes, it would spurn a classic, but I never got much out of the original except being quite impressed by the special effects.
The Man in the White Suit
The Man in the White Suit is a peculiar film. When I heard the premise was about a guy who invents a fabric that never wears out and never has to be cleaned, I thought to myself, this is the most underwhelming science fiction plot of all time. But about half way into the movie the real purpose begins to show itself. Sure, an indestructible suit wouldn't cure world hunger or get us to Mars, but it might just crash the economy. At least, that's what's purposed in the manic, satirical second half of this film. The inventor Sidney Stratton, played by Alec Guinness, just wants to give this gift to the world but gets literally surrounded by the greedy and scared bureaucrats who "can't let this happen."
The social commentary doesn't end there, but at times focuses on issues such as communism vs. capitalism and the effects that new technologies can have on us and the work force. The movie is very interesting in all these ways, but honestly it's quite dull for the first half and at times it tries to be a Benny Hill type comedy and doesn't fair too well. It seems to be a highly regarded film and I might appreciate it more on a second viewing, but I don't think it's really something that's going to grow on me too much.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
The Day the Earth Stood Still
This is the first modern science fiction film. Almost everything before is pulp fiction where American heroes kill monsters with death rays. The Day the Earth Stood Still doesn’t only stand as a landmark for the change to smart science fiction that tackles the big questions (around the same time Clarke and Asimov (i.e. Golden Age of sci-fi) came into light), but humans are painted in an ignorant light and are ultimately the antagonists. Half of the characters are ignorant and prone to fear of alien contact, while the other half are rational and intelligent. Klaatu tells us we have to stop being the former and become the later if we are to make it as a species. This film was made early in the nuclear age, and the peaceful, higher powered aliens won’t let us bring our new-found power among the cosmos.
In my opinion this is the greatest subject science fiction can have – where are we headed as a species? (2001: A Space Odyssey, Foundation, etc.) This is combined with the second greatest, albeit similar, subject – a higher power. The idea of a higher power discovering, judging or scolding us is rampant (The Abyss, Star Trek’s Motion Picture and First Contact, The Adjustment Bureau, etc.), but it all goes back to this movie back when we needed to hear it the most, following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The movie holds up surprisingly well for being 60 years old, both in its writing and pacing, much of this in part because of the 8-foot killer robot.
Gort stands as one of the greatest robots of all time. His style is simple yet menacing and dangerous. Before there was Jason, Gort would slowly stalk before it kills, and before there were Cylons, Gort had the deadly slit of an eye that could destroy anything. He is our overlord, an ultimatum, and a reminder to be good.
All the winners:[/size]
1952 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla – “Brooklyn Gorilla”
I really don’t care.
Grand Prize:
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
Monkey Business
Monkey Business is about Cary Grant as a chemist who comes across a sort of fountain of youth drug. But instead of making people younger, they just act like they did when they were younger, i.e. everyone behaves like silly idiots in this movie. That's not to say the movie was never funny. Even with a sub-average script Cary Grant can usually pull out a few gems and the ending was certainly funny when they thought Cary Grant turned into a baby and pretended it was him. Marilyn Monroe plays the secretary who Cary Grant has a quick fling with when he thinks he's in college again and Ginger Rodgers is his wife, who of course gets to dance again when she's under the potion later on.
All the winners:[/size]
1953 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
The War of the Worlds – “Martian”
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
Invaders from Mars
This film is often labeled as "the definitive cold war science fiction film." What that means is no other movie was made with more of an agenda to spread anti-communist propaganda than this movie.
It started off interestingly enough with a young boy witnessing a flying saucer crash over a well photographed, ominous hill. The first half of the movie follows like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (though this movie is still 3 years away) as people are sucked into the ground where the ship lies underneath, and come out as, well, jerks. This is the start of examples of the movie not caring too much about making a Martian invasion movie that makes sense and instead focusing on the U.S. military taking out these poorly-motivated aliens. There's also an introduction of a scientist about halfway into the film who seems to have figured out everything that's going on in the town...somehow.
The second half of the this seemingly-longer 79 minute movie involves the military kicking butt underground while rows and rows of tanks are shooting at them from above the ground...for some reason. It gets boring really fast. Also, the Martians are in green velvet suits, and makeup, and nothing else.
The ending was somewhat intriguing as it turns out to be all a dream, but when the boy goes back to bed, the flying saucer crashes outside once again. What does it mean?
It Came From Outer Space
Not as bad as Invaders from Mars, for what that’s worth, but still a boring feature. There’s some interesting shots involving the excavation of a crashed space ship, but nothing else to write home about.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
The War of the Worlds
The original The War of the Worlds, though a decent movie, gets by mostly on its visual effects and well-directed action scenes. Even by today standards the special effects are amazing to watch. Special effects use to be a multi-tasking tool, like a swiss army knife, and in this movie they were expertly distributed among animation, mattes, miniatures, props, and overlapping, for whatever the job called for. Whereas today, they typically just go to town on a movie with cold CGI.
The movie does it best to give science its glory, but like many older movies it’s riddled with groan inducing lines like “They might be able to smell color.” And although one can argue the ending involving the microbes is a subtle divine intervention, all subtly is removed from this adaptation by ending the movie with prayers saving the day and the final shot being of the church. (One could further argue the ending is terminally flawed anyway, with such an incredible “deus ex machina.”)
Still, it’s an incredibly fun movie to watch, even today.
All the winners:[/size]
1954 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the runners-up are...
The Creature from the Black Lagoon – “The Gill Man”
Looks better under water.
Them! – “Ants”
Too bad, ants. I would have liked you to have won.
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
Gojira – “Godzilla”
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
Gojira
Godzilla's one of those movies you remember as pretty great until you watch it. There's very little Godzilla, there's a lot of uninteresting meandering around, and it looks like it was made in the 30s instead of the 50s. Even the little things I was looking for like the theme music were surprisingly missing. Perhaps it only showed up in later movies.
The most interesting thing about this movie is the scientist who has the Oxygen Destroyer that can kill Godzilla. The problem is, he doesn't want to unleash the most destructive power on the world, which ties back into the theme of nuclear weapons that Godzilla was created from. This delivers a message in a unique way that we have to try to use great scientific powers like this for good.
Them!
“Them!” is another movie about radiation creating horrible, enormous creatures. This one has huge ants the size of trucks and it’s a lot of fun.
Creature from the Black Lagoon
On the surface (no pun intended) this movie looks like a typical 50s monster movie, but it strives to be much more.
First of all, the creature is not a mindless killing machine. Early on, though accompanied by ominous music, the creature is curious about the humans, especially Kate. It kills a few people, but only after being attacked by fire, and it is later clear that he doesn't like fire and bright lights. In the end, it's more of a King Kong story than Godzilla.
This movie also tries hard to be scientific. To open the movie, voiceover gives a brief history of evolution, and throughout the movie there are scientific solutions proposed to solve problems, such as fallen debris and swamp monsters. (Very peculiar though is that the VERY first voiceover mentions God creating the heavens and Earth. This goes immediately before how the Earth is millions of years old and how life was created through evolution. It's my theory that the first line was forced into the script by nervous producers, or what the religious today might call "telling both sides.")
There is also a surprising reference to uranium-lead dating when the subject of dating fossils arises. Even the female character appears to have scientific knowledge and helps with the archeological dig early on...before the creature falls in love with her and takes her fainted body to his lair, of course.
Also impressive in this movie is all the underwater shots, and there's quite a few of them. There's underwater struggles as well as an interesting scene where the creature is following the woman around as she swims and threatens to grab her when she's floating still. There may have even been some Jaws inspiration in there.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Highlighted by great special effects, this sci-fi/adventure is a lot of fun and a pretty decent adaptation of the classic Jules Verne novel. I wish I had seem it more recently so I could give it a better analysis, but it was some time ago.
All the winners:[/size]
1955 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the runner-up is...
Tarantula – “Tarantula”
It’s basically a tarantula filmed as if to seem larger. But it’s still used pretty well.
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
This Island Earth – “Mutant”
Oh yeah.
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
This Island Earth
It's silly 50s sci-fi, but there's just something about the creativity and special effects of this movie that makes it fun to watch. Even MST3K channeled almost all of their jokes towards observational humor instead of making fun of the movie.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
Tarantula
Decent monster movie. I like how the motive to create large animals in a lab was to one day cure hunger, although this never explains why the professor tested it on a few humans. I think the movie just wanted a few scary moments that didn't involve the gigantic spider...which is dumb, because the spider was pretty good.
True to monster movies, the best tarantula scenes were saved for the last half hour, but what really made it work was that it was larger in every scene. It was eventually large enough to destroy a mansion, and then big enough to almost destroy a town before the Air Force destroys it.
Which brings me to the greatest ending I've seen in a long time. The ending itself was pretty cool by having the tarantula so far in the distance as seen from the town's POV. There was a great sense of scale and doom. And instead of boring missiles destroying the spider, it was napalm, so it burned wonderfully in the distance. But oh no, that's not why the ending was brilliant. The fighter pilot who destroyed the spider was Clint Eastwood, acting in only his 3rd movie of his career (which started in 1955), all of his roles still uncredited at this point. You could only see his eyes because of the mask, but you could certainly make out his voice.
All the winners:[/size]
1956 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the runner-up is...
Rodan – “Rodan”
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
Forbidden Planet – “Id monster”
It looks like a Disney creation, but what’s great about this guy is that he’s invisible and we only get a hint of his true form.
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
Earth vs. The Flying Saucers
I think it's pretty clear what this movie is about. More notably, this is the main source of parody that was put into Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!" This includes the design of the spaceships (which were in turn taken from The Day the Earth Stood Still), a universal translator, the line "we are your friends," a counter attack based on sound waves, and the destruction of the Washington Monument and other D.C. buildings. The special effects are decent for the time and done by Ray Harryhausen, but this is far from his best work. Most of the effects are in the last 5 minutes of the film anyway.
The aliens and flying saucers kind of took a back seat in this one, instead, the movie was more about the main scientist (Hugh Marlow) and his attempts to use science to bring down the flying saucers. While I commend their choice, that doesn't automatically make it a particularly good film. The only reason he is able to design and create this large sonic weapon is because the aliens give humanity (the Americans) 56 DAYS to bring their world leaders together to discuss the surrender of their planet. That was very generous of them. No wonder they lose.
The movie flirted with unique ideas like having time go by much quicker for the aliens leading to problems in communication until a few humans are brought into a space "in between the ticks of a watch" so they can speak. This is interesting, except it has no relation to the rest of the film. This time differential should give them a terrible advantage over us but instead they're taken down by a few stupid jeeps with sonic weapons. Not to mention this makes the idea of the aliens giving humanity 56 days to comply all the more ridiculous.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
I know I should think more of one of the most famous Cold War science fiction films, but I just don’t think it holds up very well. Probably has a lot to do with my distaste for horror. I do like the remake though, as previously stated.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
Forbidden Planet
I'm a fan of science fiction from all years, but somewhere around the 70s there's a line where after that time it's generally movies that are better than the books, and before that the books were better than the movies. Except for "The Day the Earth Stood Still," 1950s science fiction is most useful as pulp entertainment and amusing retrospectives of science fiction. But just beneath "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and still above the water in this 1950s science fiction iceberg is "Forbidden Planet" and "War of the Worlds." Both are very dated in both style and social norms, but both achieve something grand in scope never quite achieved before, using great special effects and epic storytelling.
Forbidden Planet has many ridiculous aspects. There's a subplot involving this ensign who looks like he's missing from scrubing the deck of the Arizona who finds the first true cinematic robot, Robbie the Robot, and has him duplicate a bottle of liquor thousands of times. Far more regrettable is the inclusion of Anne Francis as the innocent space bunny who's grown up alone and knows nothing of the carnality of men and inhibitions. (This woman has the worst father in the universe. He doesn't even blink an eye when told by the captain that his men have been in hyperspace for years without the sight of a woman. He just reminds the captain that she has grown up without the ability to form healthy relationships.)
But looking past this there are many great things to take from this film. Robbie the Robot, though often used as comic relief, stands as the first robot to use Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics and unlike Gort helps the characters as a protagonist. The direction and scope put into this film is also dazzling to watch in such scenes as the invisible alien attack, inside the human spaceship, and especially in the underbelly of the planet. And in the third act, where a skeptic science fiction fan may have already lost all hope for a true sci-fi plot, there comes the Twilight Zone-esque twist involving the planet, the long dead race of the Krells, and the invisible alien.
It's far from my favorite science fiction film, but it's great science fiction, and it's easy to get lost in.
All the winners:[/size]
1957 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
20 Million Miles to Earth – “Ymir”
The only good thing about this awful movie: Ray Harryhausen.
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
20 Million Miles to Earth
This was a rough one. I'd say it's biggest problem was a completely erratic and indecisive narrative. First there's a few Italian stereotypes who find a crashed spaceship and a alien egg, but then it merges over to the "real" storyline about a few military men (and a woman for the most tacked on love interest you've ever seen) who are trying to stop this creature before it does too much damage. This transition may sound pretty typical for a movie like this, prologue and story, but it felt anything but. All this movie was about was the creature.
But at least the creature was pretty awesome. Claymation done by the great Ray Harryhausen and it was a lot of fun to watch. Occasionally there was a scene where the thing the creature was attacking was also Claymation, so it worked out pretty well. (Though frankly, I'm not sure elephant's are so aggressive.) You have to enjoy the creature effects on this, because you're sure as hell not going to appreciate the incompetence of the military to subdue this actually pretty harmless vegetarian creature from Venus.
Also, the title is stupid and completely irrelevant. The whole movie takes place on Earth.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
The Incredible Shrinking Man
I originally watched this movie as recommended by Steven Spielberg as "one of the greatest science fiction movies," but it would appear Spielberg remembered it with some nostalgia. Not only is it not "great," but I would say it's more action/adventure than science fiction. But it is a very good movie.
The movie follows a man who incredibly shrinks. First his dangers are the press and his deteriorating relationship with his wife, but before long he has to worry about his cat, stairs, flooding, a tarantula and a mousetrap. The special effects were surprisingly pretty good for 1957 with many superimposed images done without green screen, as well as some very well done sets with exaggerated props like large furniture and nails and pins used as swords.
What's most interesting is the ending of the movie where the tone completely changes. His wife moves out after he is presumably killed by the cat and suddenly the house is a new world that is his to survive and flourish in. He goes on the offensive to kill the tarantula and becomes king of his universe. As he ponders shrinking into nothing, we are left with a surprisingly deep, philosophical voiceover about the place where the infinite and the infinitesimal meet, and it’s here where the science fiction comes out a bit. It's basically a well thought out version of the thought we've all had about "what if every atom is a universe with more atoms for infinity." It's a dark ending and yet it’s implied he was rejoining the universe at the same time. My only problem with it is it didn't really seem to fit in the context of a movie about a man fighting spiders and cats. I feel like that if this film were made today they would have shown him shrinking into the microscopic and molecular levels, and then perhaps this epic idea about shrinking into nothing would have fit better.
All the winners:[/size]
1958 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
The Blob – “The Blob”
So simple, so stupid, so awesome.
Looks kind of like fruit jello...
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
What can be said about this awful, 66 minute, false advertisement of a movie? The plot's a joke, the characters are awful, the special effects are bad by ANY standard (I guess rear-projection would have been too expensive), and the 50 foot woman doesn't attack until the 5 last minutes, and to call it "underwhelming" is an understatement. The wife sees a space ship land and a 30-foot giant come out of it. A good half hour is spent with her trying to convince the town, sheriff, and her husband that it was real and that she's not drunk or hysterical. She's kind of the town drunk. A lot more of it is about her relationship with her husband which is of course just awful. And before she goes on a rampage, she's in bed where she almost instantly grows after coming into contact with the giant before. The ending is basically her walking to a club to find her husband, ripping off the roof, and running off with him.
If this movie had a shred of a budget or vision, this could have been a fun movie. First of all, going into this, I thought this was going to be a sort of "girl power" revenge flick seeing as the husband is a womanizing jerk. It turned out to be just the opposite. Instead, I can only imagine 3 husbands getting drunk one night and laughing their asses off with the idea of a 50 foot nagging wife looking for her husband. "Haaaaaarry! Haaaaaaarry! Ha ha ha ha, oh my God, we have to make this movie!" And as for the finale, if they had a woman attack a giant model of a town and rip it to shreds, that would have been pretty awesome. Have we learned nothing from Godzilla movies? Instead the props are very minimal and most of the "action" is done with establishing shots of general ruckus with shots of giant puppet hands coming in through windows.
Avoid this movie on every level. This movie was the final nail in the coffin of the 50s "nuclear creature" era.
The Blob
Not a good movie, but it has some campy fun. Not to mention a teenage Steve McQueen.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
The Fly
This should have been one of the best Twilight Zone's ever, instead it's a 90 minute movie that's too long and uses a lot of fluff to get to the big third act. I love that it's done in flashback, it just works for this movie for some reason, but it takes about 20-25 minutes to finally do this with a lot of meaningless stuff involving the brother (Vincent Price). And when we finally get into the bulk of it, it's a little bit slow getting on to the "accident." I can forgive this a bit more since this is likely the first time anything like this was in a science fiction movie (the scientist even calls the device a "Disintegrator-Integrator" as opposed to a "teleporter").
The great part of this movie is the last 30 minutes or so when he's finally turned into a fly. What's great is the suspense built from the black cloth over his head with the mind left wondering what horribleness is underneath it. (By the way, I never noticed the main character was the one who played Felix Leiter in "Live and Let Die" and "Licence to Kill.")
But what makes this whole movie worth it is the very ending, which I truely believe to be one of the greatest endings of all time. I'm of course referring to the infamous "Help me!" scene with that blood-curdling cry as the spider eats what is left of Andre Delambre. I hate the entire horror genre, but if movies could be made today with scenes like that, I might have to come aboard.
One more thing, this movie has one of the most unintentionally funny lines in a 50s science fiction movie, and that's saying a lot:
Andre Delambre: [about the cat killed by the transporter] She disintegrated perfectly, but never reappeared.
Helene Delambre: Where's she gone?
Andre Delambre: Into space... a stream of cat atoms...
[sighs]
Andre Delambre: It'd be funny if life weren't so sacred.
Or maybe it was supposed to be funny. Cat atoms…
There's also a moment earlier in the film where the cat doesn't come out the other side, but instead, you can hear a "meow" coming from nowhere...from the ether...
All the winners:[/size]
1959 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
Dimetrodon – “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
Best TV Series:
And the WINNER of the Best TV Series is...
Twilight Zone - Season 1.0
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Typically with bad films, even ones with enjoyable cheese, it's pretty easy to hand them bad ratings. But this movie is one of the elusive "so-bad-it's-good" movies out there and I actually had a good time watching it and laughing.
The plot involves the most incompetent aliens ever (as the title implies) trying to reanimate the dead and have the zombies kill people (despite the aliens' pacifistic message at the end.) Don't concern yourself with the dumb plot. What makes this movie so fun is the DIALOGUE. The hilarious, horrible, run-on, improv-esque REDUNDANT dialogue which give us many gems. It's like every scene had maybe two lines, but they needed the movie to be longer so the actors just reiterated what they already said but with the words in different order. Like so:
Lieutenant John Harper: "But one thing's sure. Inspector Clay is dead. Murdered. And somebody's responsible."
This pointless dialogue even finds its way into voiceover narration like "And then the police arrive" as the police arrive.
And then at the end is the biggest science fiction mumbo jumbo I ever heard. Enjoy.
Colonel Tom Edwards: "You speak of Solaranite. But just what is it?"
Eros: "Take a can of your gasoline. Say this can of gasoline is the sun. Now, you spread a thin line of it to a ball, representing the earth. Now, the gasoline represents the sunlight, the sun particles. Here we saturate the ball with the gasoline, the sunlight. Then we put a flame to the ball. The flame will speedily travel around the earth, back along the line of gasoline to the can, or the sun itself. It will explode this source and spread to every place that gasoline, our sunlight, touches. Explode the sunlight here, gentlemen, you explode the universe. Explode the sunlight here and a chain reaction will occur direct to the sun itself and to all the planets that sunlight touches, to every planet in the universe. This is why you must be stopped. This is why any means must be used to stop you. In a friendly manner or as (it seems) you want it."
And more!
Eros: "You do not need guns."
Jeff Trent: "Maybe we think we do!"
Colonel Tom Edwards: "This is the most fantastic story I've ever heard."
Jeff Trent: "And every word of it's true, too."
Colonel Tom Edwards: "That's the fantastic part of it!"
And my personal favorite:
Colonel Tom Edwards: "For a time we tried to contact them by radio but no response. Then they attacked a town, a small town I'll admit, but never the less a town of people, people who died."
And then the movie ends with the narrator saying "You can't prove it won't happen."
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Again, I have to say the family friendless that invades cinema of the 50s always rubs me the wrong way. This movie was enjoyable for the most part but Jules Verne would surely be rolling in his grave with all the insipid dialogue and sexist bickering in this movie. It also stars singer Pat Boone who plays a dope who actually breaks into song more than once. The special effects and scenery (presented by on-site filming at Carlsbad Caverns) was a highlight and kept the movie fairly interesting.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
On the Beach
After a nuclear war wipes out all of humanity, save for the people on Australia, a group of people cope with the impending nuclear fallout that promises to wipe out the rest of them.
On the Beach is a very early and unique look at a post-apocalypse story. It doesn't spend much time on the horrors of war like the eventual TV release of "The Day After" would, but more about individual characters hanging on to what they can before the world ends, whether it be hope, family, or even just hobbies.
Cmdr. Dwight Lionel Towers (Gregory Peck) has the most active storyline, where he leads a submarine on a quest to San Francisco where a mysterious Morse code signal is emanating. A place where the radiation is so high that no one should be alive. Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner) is hoping to spend her last days with Dwight, but he's still clinging on to his wife who is most surely dead far away somewhere.
Back in Australia there's Lt. Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins) who is dealing with his lethargic young wife and newborn, and then there's Julian Osborne (Fred Astaire) who spends his time racing cars, because who cares about being reckless?
The movie is dark in the right places (though suffers from "bad musical choices of the 50s" syndrome) and takes a good look at the usefulness and pointlessness of hope.
All the winners:[/size]
Grand Prize:
And the runner-up is...
Rocketship X-M
I thought it was interesting that two movies exist from 1950 that involve trips to the moon. The other one, Destination Moon, was based off of a Robert Heinlein book and was meant to take an as scientific approach as possible to such a trip. This movie? Not so much.
It started off scientific enough and concerned with the details of such a mission. But before long something went wrong on the ship, they passed out for days (yes, days) and woke up to find themselves next to Mars. I don't care how little they knew about space travel back then, there's no excuse for such ridiculousness. After that they land on Mars, fight mutant Martians, learn that nuclear war is bad, and come home. Despite an embarrassing disregard for science, even for the time, it was kind of fun to watch and not a travesty.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
Destination Moon
Not a classic, but a very respectable film. What's really interesting is how much they went "hard sci-fi" with this one. There's no aliens or mutants, just a scientific approach about what space travel might be like when the space race was still very new. And they did a pretty good job.
All the winners:[/size]
Grand Prize: Destination Moon
1951 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
The Day the Earth Stood Still – “Gort”
Ahhhh, good ol' Gort. One of my favorites.
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
When Worlds Collide
I usually partial forgive science fiction movies that are out of date but there is no excuse for When Worlds Collide, an embarrassing and sometimes hilarious attempt at the end of the world. The whole movie is filled with strong Old Testament references and quotes, and when a “lottery” is established to decided which 40 couples will populate the new world, they are all white. The movie ends with more Bible typeface about the first day on what’s pretty much Eden with all the white people finally happy without all those damn foreigners.
The rocket ship to take them off of Earth is also set up on a curved ramp.
The Thing From Another World
Yes, it would spurn a classic, but I never got much out of the original except being quite impressed by the special effects.
The Man in the White Suit
The Man in the White Suit is a peculiar film. When I heard the premise was about a guy who invents a fabric that never wears out and never has to be cleaned, I thought to myself, this is the most underwhelming science fiction plot of all time. But about half way into the movie the real purpose begins to show itself. Sure, an indestructible suit wouldn't cure world hunger or get us to Mars, but it might just crash the economy. At least, that's what's purposed in the manic, satirical second half of this film. The inventor Sidney Stratton, played by Alec Guinness, just wants to give this gift to the world but gets literally surrounded by the greedy and scared bureaucrats who "can't let this happen."
The social commentary doesn't end there, but at times focuses on issues such as communism vs. capitalism and the effects that new technologies can have on us and the work force. The movie is very interesting in all these ways, but honestly it's quite dull for the first half and at times it tries to be a Benny Hill type comedy and doesn't fair too well. It seems to be a highly regarded film and I might appreciate it more on a second viewing, but I don't think it's really something that's going to grow on me too much.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
The Day the Earth Stood Still
This is the first modern science fiction film. Almost everything before is pulp fiction where American heroes kill monsters with death rays. The Day the Earth Stood Still doesn’t only stand as a landmark for the change to smart science fiction that tackles the big questions (around the same time Clarke and Asimov (i.e. Golden Age of sci-fi) came into light), but humans are painted in an ignorant light and are ultimately the antagonists. Half of the characters are ignorant and prone to fear of alien contact, while the other half are rational and intelligent. Klaatu tells us we have to stop being the former and become the later if we are to make it as a species. This film was made early in the nuclear age, and the peaceful, higher powered aliens won’t let us bring our new-found power among the cosmos.
In my opinion this is the greatest subject science fiction can have – where are we headed as a species? (2001: A Space Odyssey, Foundation, etc.) This is combined with the second greatest, albeit similar, subject – a higher power. The idea of a higher power discovering, judging or scolding us is rampant (The Abyss, Star Trek’s Motion Picture and First Contact, The Adjustment Bureau, etc.), but it all goes back to this movie back when we needed to hear it the most, following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The movie holds up surprisingly well for being 60 years old, both in its writing and pacing, much of this in part because of the 8-foot killer robot.
Gort stands as one of the greatest robots of all time. His style is simple yet menacing and dangerous. Before there was Jason, Gort would slowly stalk before it kills, and before there were Cylons, Gort had the deadly slit of an eye that could destroy anything. He is our overlord, an ultimatum, and a reminder to be good.
All the winners:[/size]
H.R. Giger Award: The Day the Earth Stod Still – “Gort”
Grand Prize: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Grand Prize: The Day the Earth Stood Still
1952 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla – “Brooklyn Gorilla”
I really don’t care.
Grand Prize:
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
Monkey Business
Monkey Business is about Cary Grant as a chemist who comes across a sort of fountain of youth drug. But instead of making people younger, they just act like they did when they were younger, i.e. everyone behaves like silly idiots in this movie. That's not to say the movie was never funny. Even with a sub-average script Cary Grant can usually pull out a few gems and the ending was certainly funny when they thought Cary Grant turned into a baby and pretended it was him. Marilyn Monroe plays the secretary who Cary Grant has a quick fling with when he thinks he's in college again and Ginger Rodgers is his wife, who of course gets to dance again when she's under the potion later on.
All the winners:[/size]
H.R. Giger Award: Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla – “Brooklyn Gorilla”
Grand Prize: Monkey Business
Grand Prize: Monkey Business
1953 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
The War of the Worlds – “Martian”
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
Invaders from Mars
This film is often labeled as "the definitive cold war science fiction film." What that means is no other movie was made with more of an agenda to spread anti-communist propaganda than this movie.
It started off interestingly enough with a young boy witnessing a flying saucer crash over a well photographed, ominous hill. The first half of the movie follows like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (though this movie is still 3 years away) as people are sucked into the ground where the ship lies underneath, and come out as, well, jerks. This is the start of examples of the movie not caring too much about making a Martian invasion movie that makes sense and instead focusing on the U.S. military taking out these poorly-motivated aliens. There's also an introduction of a scientist about halfway into the film who seems to have figured out everything that's going on in the town...somehow.
The second half of the this seemingly-longer 79 minute movie involves the military kicking butt underground while rows and rows of tanks are shooting at them from above the ground...for some reason. It gets boring really fast. Also, the Martians are in green velvet suits, and makeup, and nothing else.
The ending was somewhat intriguing as it turns out to be all a dream, but when the boy goes back to bed, the flying saucer crashes outside once again. What does it mean?
It Came From Outer Space
Not as bad as Invaders from Mars, for what that’s worth, but still a boring feature. There’s some interesting shots involving the excavation of a crashed space ship, but nothing else to write home about.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
The War of the Worlds
The original The War of the Worlds, though a decent movie, gets by mostly on its visual effects and well-directed action scenes. Even by today standards the special effects are amazing to watch. Special effects use to be a multi-tasking tool, like a swiss army knife, and in this movie they were expertly distributed among animation, mattes, miniatures, props, and overlapping, for whatever the job called for. Whereas today, they typically just go to town on a movie with cold CGI.
The movie does it best to give science its glory, but like many older movies it’s riddled with groan inducing lines like “They might be able to smell color.” And although one can argue the ending involving the microbes is a subtle divine intervention, all subtly is removed from this adaptation by ending the movie with prayers saving the day and the final shot being of the church. (One could further argue the ending is terminally flawed anyway, with such an incredible “deus ex machina.”)
Still, it’s an incredibly fun movie to watch, even today.
All the winners:[/size]
H.R. Giger Award: The War of the Worlds – “Martian”
Grand Prize: The War of the Worlds
Grand Prize: The War of the Worlds
1954 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the runners-up are...
The Creature from the Black Lagoon – “The Gill Man”
Looks better under water.
Them! – “Ants”
Too bad, ants. I would have liked you to have won.
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
Gojira – “Godzilla”
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
Gojira
Godzilla's one of those movies you remember as pretty great until you watch it. There's very little Godzilla, there's a lot of uninteresting meandering around, and it looks like it was made in the 30s instead of the 50s. Even the little things I was looking for like the theme music were surprisingly missing. Perhaps it only showed up in later movies.
The most interesting thing about this movie is the scientist who has the Oxygen Destroyer that can kill Godzilla. The problem is, he doesn't want to unleash the most destructive power on the world, which ties back into the theme of nuclear weapons that Godzilla was created from. This delivers a message in a unique way that we have to try to use great scientific powers like this for good.
Them!
“Them!” is another movie about radiation creating horrible, enormous creatures. This one has huge ants the size of trucks and it’s a lot of fun.
Creature from the Black Lagoon
On the surface (no pun intended) this movie looks like a typical 50s monster movie, but it strives to be much more.
First of all, the creature is not a mindless killing machine. Early on, though accompanied by ominous music, the creature is curious about the humans, especially Kate. It kills a few people, but only after being attacked by fire, and it is later clear that he doesn't like fire and bright lights. In the end, it's more of a King Kong story than Godzilla.
This movie also tries hard to be scientific. To open the movie, voiceover gives a brief history of evolution, and throughout the movie there are scientific solutions proposed to solve problems, such as fallen debris and swamp monsters. (Very peculiar though is that the VERY first voiceover mentions God creating the heavens and Earth. This goes immediately before how the Earth is millions of years old and how life was created through evolution. It's my theory that the first line was forced into the script by nervous producers, or what the religious today might call "telling both sides.")
There is also a surprising reference to uranium-lead dating when the subject of dating fossils arises. Even the female character appears to have scientific knowledge and helps with the archeological dig early on...before the creature falls in love with her and takes her fainted body to his lair, of course.
Also impressive in this movie is all the underwater shots, and there's quite a few of them. There's underwater struggles as well as an interesting scene where the creature is following the woman around as she swims and threatens to grab her when she's floating still. There may have even been some Jaws inspiration in there.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Highlighted by great special effects, this sci-fi/adventure is a lot of fun and a pretty decent adaptation of the classic Jules Verne novel. I wish I had seem it more recently so I could give it a better analysis, but it was some time ago.
All the winners:[/size]
H.R. Giger Award: Godzilla – “Gojira”
Grand Prize: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Grand Prize: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1955 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the runner-up is...
Tarantula – “Tarantula”
It’s basically a tarantula filmed as if to seem larger. But it’s still used pretty well.
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
This Island Earth – “Mutant”
Oh yeah.
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
This Island Earth
It's silly 50s sci-fi, but there's just something about the creativity and special effects of this movie that makes it fun to watch. Even MST3K channeled almost all of their jokes towards observational humor instead of making fun of the movie.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
Tarantula
Decent monster movie. I like how the motive to create large animals in a lab was to one day cure hunger, although this never explains why the professor tested it on a few humans. I think the movie just wanted a few scary moments that didn't involve the gigantic spider...which is dumb, because the spider was pretty good.
True to monster movies, the best tarantula scenes were saved for the last half hour, but what really made it work was that it was larger in every scene. It was eventually large enough to destroy a mansion, and then big enough to almost destroy a town before the Air Force destroys it.
Which brings me to the greatest ending I've seen in a long time. The ending itself was pretty cool by having the tarantula so far in the distance as seen from the town's POV. There was a great sense of scale and doom. And instead of boring missiles destroying the spider, it was napalm, so it burned wonderfully in the distance. But oh no, that's not why the ending was brilliant. The fighter pilot who destroyed the spider was Clint Eastwood, acting in only his 3rd movie of his career (which started in 1955), all of his roles still uncredited at this point. You could only see his eyes because of the mask, but you could certainly make out his voice.
All the winners:[/size]
H.R. Giger Award: This Island Earth – “Mutant”
Grand Prize: Tarantula
Grand Prize: Tarantula
1956 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the runner-up is...
Rodan – “Rodan”
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
Forbidden Planet – “Id monster”
It looks like a Disney creation, but what’s great about this guy is that he’s invisible and we only get a hint of his true form.
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
Earth vs. The Flying Saucers
I think it's pretty clear what this movie is about. More notably, this is the main source of parody that was put into Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!" This includes the design of the spaceships (which were in turn taken from The Day the Earth Stood Still), a universal translator, the line "we are your friends," a counter attack based on sound waves, and the destruction of the Washington Monument and other D.C. buildings. The special effects are decent for the time and done by Ray Harryhausen, but this is far from his best work. Most of the effects are in the last 5 minutes of the film anyway.
The aliens and flying saucers kind of took a back seat in this one, instead, the movie was more about the main scientist (Hugh Marlow) and his attempts to use science to bring down the flying saucers. While I commend their choice, that doesn't automatically make it a particularly good film. The only reason he is able to design and create this large sonic weapon is because the aliens give humanity (the Americans) 56 DAYS to bring their world leaders together to discuss the surrender of their planet. That was very generous of them. No wonder they lose.
The movie flirted with unique ideas like having time go by much quicker for the aliens leading to problems in communication until a few humans are brought into a space "in between the ticks of a watch" so they can speak. This is interesting, except it has no relation to the rest of the film. This time differential should give them a terrible advantage over us but instead they're taken down by a few stupid jeeps with sonic weapons. Not to mention this makes the idea of the aliens giving humanity 56 days to comply all the more ridiculous.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
I know I should think more of one of the most famous Cold War science fiction films, but I just don’t think it holds up very well. Probably has a lot to do with my distaste for horror. I do like the remake though, as previously stated.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
Forbidden Planet
I'm a fan of science fiction from all years, but somewhere around the 70s there's a line where after that time it's generally movies that are better than the books, and before that the books were better than the movies. Except for "The Day the Earth Stood Still," 1950s science fiction is most useful as pulp entertainment and amusing retrospectives of science fiction. But just beneath "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and still above the water in this 1950s science fiction iceberg is "Forbidden Planet" and "War of the Worlds." Both are very dated in both style and social norms, but both achieve something grand in scope never quite achieved before, using great special effects and epic storytelling.
Forbidden Planet has many ridiculous aspects. There's a subplot involving this ensign who looks like he's missing from scrubing the deck of the Arizona who finds the first true cinematic robot, Robbie the Robot, and has him duplicate a bottle of liquor thousands of times. Far more regrettable is the inclusion of Anne Francis as the innocent space bunny who's grown up alone and knows nothing of the carnality of men and inhibitions. (This woman has the worst father in the universe. He doesn't even blink an eye when told by the captain that his men have been in hyperspace for years without the sight of a woman. He just reminds the captain that she has grown up without the ability to form healthy relationships.)
But looking past this there are many great things to take from this film. Robbie the Robot, though often used as comic relief, stands as the first robot to use Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics and unlike Gort helps the characters as a protagonist. The direction and scope put into this film is also dazzling to watch in such scenes as the invisible alien attack, inside the human spaceship, and especially in the underbelly of the planet. And in the third act, where a skeptic science fiction fan may have already lost all hope for a true sci-fi plot, there comes the Twilight Zone-esque twist involving the planet, the long dead race of the Krells, and the invisible alien.
It's far from my favorite science fiction film, but it's great science fiction, and it's easy to get lost in.
All the winners:[/size]
H.R. Giger Award: Forbidden Planet – “Id monster”
Grand Prize: Forbidden Planet
Grand Prize: Forbidden Planet
1957 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
20 Million Miles to Earth – “Ymir”
The only good thing about this awful movie: Ray Harryhausen.
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
20 Million Miles to Earth
This was a rough one. I'd say it's biggest problem was a completely erratic and indecisive narrative. First there's a few Italian stereotypes who find a crashed spaceship and a alien egg, but then it merges over to the "real" storyline about a few military men (and a woman for the most tacked on love interest you've ever seen) who are trying to stop this creature before it does too much damage. This transition may sound pretty typical for a movie like this, prologue and story, but it felt anything but. All this movie was about was the creature.
But at least the creature was pretty awesome. Claymation done by the great Ray Harryhausen and it was a lot of fun to watch. Occasionally there was a scene where the thing the creature was attacking was also Claymation, so it worked out pretty well. (Though frankly, I'm not sure elephant's are so aggressive.) You have to enjoy the creature effects on this, because you're sure as hell not going to appreciate the incompetence of the military to subdue this actually pretty harmless vegetarian creature from Venus.
Also, the title is stupid and completely irrelevant. The whole movie takes place on Earth.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
The Incredible Shrinking Man
I originally watched this movie as recommended by Steven Spielberg as "one of the greatest science fiction movies," but it would appear Spielberg remembered it with some nostalgia. Not only is it not "great," but I would say it's more action/adventure than science fiction. But it is a very good movie.
The movie follows a man who incredibly shrinks. First his dangers are the press and his deteriorating relationship with his wife, but before long he has to worry about his cat, stairs, flooding, a tarantula and a mousetrap. The special effects were surprisingly pretty good for 1957 with many superimposed images done without green screen, as well as some very well done sets with exaggerated props like large furniture and nails and pins used as swords.
What's most interesting is the ending of the movie where the tone completely changes. His wife moves out after he is presumably killed by the cat and suddenly the house is a new world that is his to survive and flourish in. He goes on the offensive to kill the tarantula and becomes king of his universe. As he ponders shrinking into nothing, we are left with a surprisingly deep, philosophical voiceover about the place where the infinite and the infinitesimal meet, and it’s here where the science fiction comes out a bit. It's basically a well thought out version of the thought we've all had about "what if every atom is a universe with more atoms for infinity." It's a dark ending and yet it’s implied he was rejoining the universe at the same time. My only problem with it is it didn't really seem to fit in the context of a movie about a man fighting spiders and cats. I feel like that if this film were made today they would have shown him shrinking into the microscopic and molecular levels, and then perhaps this epic idea about shrinking into nothing would have fit better.
All the winners:[/size]
H.R. Giger Award: 20 Million Miles to Earth – “Ymir”
Grand Prize: The Incredible Shrinking Man
Grand Prize: The Incredible Shrinking Man
1958 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
The Blob – “The Blob”
So simple, so stupid, so awesome.
Looks kind of like fruit jello...
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
What can be said about this awful, 66 minute, false advertisement of a movie? The plot's a joke, the characters are awful, the special effects are bad by ANY standard (I guess rear-projection would have been too expensive), and the 50 foot woman doesn't attack until the 5 last minutes, and to call it "underwhelming" is an understatement. The wife sees a space ship land and a 30-foot giant come out of it. A good half hour is spent with her trying to convince the town, sheriff, and her husband that it was real and that she's not drunk or hysterical. She's kind of the town drunk. A lot more of it is about her relationship with her husband which is of course just awful. And before she goes on a rampage, she's in bed where she almost instantly grows after coming into contact with the giant before. The ending is basically her walking to a club to find her husband, ripping off the roof, and running off with him.
If this movie had a shred of a budget or vision, this could have been a fun movie. First of all, going into this, I thought this was going to be a sort of "girl power" revenge flick seeing as the husband is a womanizing jerk. It turned out to be just the opposite. Instead, I can only imagine 3 husbands getting drunk one night and laughing their asses off with the idea of a 50 foot nagging wife looking for her husband. "Haaaaaarry! Haaaaaaarry! Ha ha ha ha, oh my God, we have to make this movie!" And as for the finale, if they had a woman attack a giant model of a town and rip it to shreds, that would have been pretty awesome. Have we learned nothing from Godzilla movies? Instead the props are very minimal and most of the "action" is done with establishing shots of general ruckus with shots of giant puppet hands coming in through windows.
Avoid this movie on every level. This movie was the final nail in the coffin of the 50s "nuclear creature" era.
The Blob
Not a good movie, but it has some campy fun. Not to mention a teenage Steve McQueen.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
The Fly
This should have been one of the best Twilight Zone's ever, instead it's a 90 minute movie that's too long and uses a lot of fluff to get to the big third act. I love that it's done in flashback, it just works for this movie for some reason, but it takes about 20-25 minutes to finally do this with a lot of meaningless stuff involving the brother (Vincent Price). And when we finally get into the bulk of it, it's a little bit slow getting on to the "accident." I can forgive this a bit more since this is likely the first time anything like this was in a science fiction movie (the scientist even calls the device a "Disintegrator-Integrator" as opposed to a "teleporter").
The great part of this movie is the last 30 minutes or so when he's finally turned into a fly. What's great is the suspense built from the black cloth over his head with the mind left wondering what horribleness is underneath it. (By the way, I never noticed the main character was the one who played Felix Leiter in "Live and Let Die" and "Licence to Kill.")
But what makes this whole movie worth it is the very ending, which I truely believe to be one of the greatest endings of all time. I'm of course referring to the infamous "Help me!" scene with that blood-curdling cry as the spider eats what is left of Andre Delambre. I hate the entire horror genre, but if movies could be made today with scenes like that, I might have to come aboard.
One more thing, this movie has one of the most unintentionally funny lines in a 50s science fiction movie, and that's saying a lot:
Andre Delambre: [about the cat killed by the transporter] She disintegrated perfectly, but never reappeared.
Helene Delambre: Where's she gone?
Andre Delambre: Into space... a stream of cat atoms...
[sighs]
Andre Delambre: It'd be funny if life weren't so sacred.
Or maybe it was supposed to be funny. Cat atoms…
There's also a moment earlier in the film where the cat doesn't come out the other side, but instead, you can hear a "meow" coming from nowhere...from the ether...
All the winners:[/size]
H.R. Giger Award: The Blob – “The Blob”
Grand Prize: The Fly
Grand Prize: The Fly
1959 Nova Awards
H.R. Giger Award:
And the WINNER of the H.R. Giger Award is...
Dimetrodon – “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
Best TV Series:
And the WINNER of the Best TV Series is...
Twilight Zone - Season 1.0
Grand Prize:
Starting from the bottom...
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Typically with bad films, even ones with enjoyable cheese, it's pretty easy to hand them bad ratings. But this movie is one of the elusive "so-bad-it's-good" movies out there and I actually had a good time watching it and laughing.
The plot involves the most incompetent aliens ever (as the title implies) trying to reanimate the dead and have the zombies kill people (despite the aliens' pacifistic message at the end.) Don't concern yourself with the dumb plot. What makes this movie so fun is the DIALOGUE. The hilarious, horrible, run-on, improv-esque REDUNDANT dialogue which give us many gems. It's like every scene had maybe two lines, but they needed the movie to be longer so the actors just reiterated what they already said but with the words in different order. Like so:
Lieutenant John Harper: "But one thing's sure. Inspector Clay is dead. Murdered. And somebody's responsible."
This pointless dialogue even finds its way into voiceover narration like "And then the police arrive" as the police arrive.
And then at the end is the biggest science fiction mumbo jumbo I ever heard. Enjoy.
Colonel Tom Edwards: "You speak of Solaranite. But just what is it?"
Eros: "Take a can of your gasoline. Say this can of gasoline is the sun. Now, you spread a thin line of it to a ball, representing the earth. Now, the gasoline represents the sunlight, the sun particles. Here we saturate the ball with the gasoline, the sunlight. Then we put a flame to the ball. The flame will speedily travel around the earth, back along the line of gasoline to the can, or the sun itself. It will explode this source and spread to every place that gasoline, our sunlight, touches. Explode the sunlight here, gentlemen, you explode the universe. Explode the sunlight here and a chain reaction will occur direct to the sun itself and to all the planets that sunlight touches, to every planet in the universe. This is why you must be stopped. This is why any means must be used to stop you. In a friendly manner or as (it seems) you want it."
And more!
Eros: "You do not need guns."
Jeff Trent: "Maybe we think we do!"
Colonel Tom Edwards: "This is the most fantastic story I've ever heard."
Jeff Trent: "And every word of it's true, too."
Colonel Tom Edwards: "That's the fantastic part of it!"
And my personal favorite:
Colonel Tom Edwards: "For a time we tried to contact them by radio but no response. Then they attacked a town, a small town I'll admit, but never the less a town of people, people who died."
And then the movie ends with the narrator saying "You can't prove it won't happen."
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Again, I have to say the family friendless that invades cinema of the 50s always rubs me the wrong way. This movie was enjoyable for the most part but Jules Verne would surely be rolling in his grave with all the insipid dialogue and sexist bickering in this movie. It also stars singer Pat Boone who plays a dope who actually breaks into song more than once. The special effects and scenery (presented by on-site filming at Carlsbad Caverns) was a highlight and kept the movie fairly interesting.
And the WINNER of the Nova Award is...
On the Beach
After a nuclear war wipes out all of humanity, save for the people on Australia, a group of people cope with the impending nuclear fallout that promises to wipe out the rest of them.
On the Beach is a very early and unique look at a post-apocalypse story. It doesn't spend much time on the horrors of war like the eventual TV release of "The Day After" would, but more about individual characters hanging on to what they can before the world ends, whether it be hope, family, or even just hobbies.
Cmdr. Dwight Lionel Towers (Gregory Peck) has the most active storyline, where he leads a submarine on a quest to San Francisco where a mysterious Morse code signal is emanating. A place where the radiation is so high that no one should be alive. Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner) is hoping to spend her last days with Dwight, but he's still clinging on to his wife who is most surely dead far away somewhere.
Back in Australia there's Lt. Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins) who is dealing with his lethargic young wife and newborn, and then there's Julian Osborne (Fred Astaire) who spends his time racing cars, because who cares about being reckless?
The movie is dark in the right places (though suffers from "bad musical choices of the 50s" syndrome) and takes a good look at the usefulness and pointlessness of hope.
All the winners:[/size]
H.R. Giger Award: Dimetrodon – “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
Best TV series: Twilight Zone - Season 1.0
Grand Prize: On the Beach
Best TV series: Twilight Zone - Season 1.0
Grand Prize: On the Beach
