They Came from the 50s and Had Horrible, Horrible Titles

Warning: Mild spoilers abound so beware!

Tuesday TCM had an evening of 1950's sci-fi movies so for the first time this year I decided to watch a film on television. I ended up watching three of the five and would have continued on without trepidation except I had to go to work Wednesday morning.

The first film was Gene Fowler Jr.'s I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) which has a great tag line: "The bride wore terror." Despite the atrocious DVD cover art and disparaging remarks made by Steven Spielberg, the film was very sleek and well done.

The characters were developed as fully as they could be in the contrived situation. Far from the screaming woman on the posters, Marge Farrell (Gloria Talbott) was an intelligent, resourceful heroine (which are hard to come by in sci-fi). I expected her to descend into hysterics and rush about the film looking terrified and slightly confused. Instead, she did all the things that you're suppose to do after finding out that your husband and several other townspeople are aliens.

One of my favorite aspects of the film was the opening. It begins with two businessmen pulling into a restaurant and discovering a couple making out in a convertible. After trying to antagonize the young lovers, the businessmen continue into the restaurant to find two jaded women at the bar who are checking out a quintet of cynical men, four of whom are wisecracking about marriage and women. Now, any of these stock characters would be prefect fodder for a sci-fi film introduction. They are immediately engaging and personable enough to get a elicit a bit of sympathy when vaporized by alien invaders. However, the first victim is the dashing, quiet man who's nuptials are the next day.

Next, I watched the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers which was by far the best of the bunch. It's a surprisingly chilling film. The fundamental question behind the predicament it portrays is how well do we know the people around us. Do they have our best interests in mind? One aspect of a person or their beliefs can change and alter the way we feel about them.

At the beginning of the movie, Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is telling a psychiatrist his bizarre story. He recalls all the oddities he observed upon returning home after a medical conference but says that he simply dismissed them at the time. It made me think of all the things I come across that seem odd or slightly off and that I simply dismiss. The feelings and emotions of people are covered up large problems with general, disparaging terms such as mass hysteria. I realized how easy it really is to allow others to talk you out of things.

The last film I watched, The 27th Day (1957) was definitely the weakest. Five seemingly random people are abducted by an alien who entrusts each of them with a set of capsules in a box only they can open. The capsules have the capacity to kill all human life in a 3000 mile radius. The alien explains that his planet is dying, and while their moral code doesn't permit them to kill intelligent life, they are hoping that humanity will wipe itself out. The five people reflect the factions of the times so the main conflict is between Russia and the United States though the film was surprisingly compassionate toward both the Russian guard and the Chinese woman who received capsules.

All three films share a wariness about authority. In all three, normal people's lives are disrupted in such a way that appealing to the authorities or following the best course of action is ineffectual and even damaging. In both Married and Invasion the authority figures (policemen, psychiatrists, doctors, etc.) have already been overtaken. In 27th the governments of the individuals entrusted with the weapons are concerned with their own survival over the survival of the planet. Both sides feel that a world without them would be worse than the end of humanity. Turning the weapons and their secrets over to the government has dire consequences.

For me the appeal of classic sci-fi is different from the appeal of other film genres. I watch disaster films to imagine myself in those situation and modern sci-fi to be thrilled by spectacle. However, these classic movies touch on some of my innate fears about losing touch with those around me or finding myself in a situation where I don't know the people that I love. Conversely, there's the fear that I will become someone that family and friend don't know. Also the fear that everything you know and all the rational actions and thoughts won't work in a situation. These movies force one to confront these fears without the availability of an alien entity on which to place the blame.