This Island Earth (1955)

Aliens come to Earth seeking scientists to help them in their war.

Director:

Joseph M. Newman

Writers:

Raymond F. Jones (story), Franklin Coen (screenplay),

Stars:

Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jeff Morrow	...	Exeter
Faith Domergue	...	Dr. Ruth Adams
Rex Reason	...	Dr. Cal Meacham
Lance Fuller	...	Brack
Russell Johnson	...	Steve Carlson
Douglas Spencer	...	The Monitor of Metaluna
Robert Nichols	...	Joe Wilson
Karl Ludwig Lindt	...	Dr. Adolph Engelborg (as Karl L. Lindt)

Storyline

Dr. Meacham is chosen along with others by the inhabitants of the planet Metaluna to do research that will help save their dying planet. However, an evil scheme is uncovered by the suspecting Dr. Meacham when he discovers the Metalunan's plan to take over Earth. Dr. Meacham then escapes an exploding Metalunan built Earth lab along with Dr. Adams only to be kidnapped while flying away in a small plane. A flying saucer wisks both the scientists off to Metaluna where they are held accountable for blowing up the Metalunan Earth lab during their escape. They later escape there with the help of Exeter the friendly Metalunan. Metaluna then self destructs and the Doctors make it safely back to Earth, which is saved from Metalunan invasion.

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Plot Keywords:

scientist | alien | flying saucer | dying planet | doctor | 

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Taglines:

The supreme excitement of our time!

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 June 1955 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bloodlust in Outer Space

Box Office

Budget:

$800,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Universal, dissatisfied with some of Joseph M. Newman's work, brought in Jack Arnold to re-shoot the Metaluna scenes.

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Goofs

When Cal Meacham's jet supposedly "flames out", you can still hear the jet engine.

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Quotes

Dr. Cal Meacham: [to reporters] You boys like to call this the pushbutton age. It isn't, not yet. Not until we can team up atomic energy with electronics. Then we'll have the horses as well as the cart.

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Connections

Referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The She-Creature (1997)

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Soundtracks

"Eine kleine Nachtmusik: 2nd Movement"
(uncredited)
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

User Reviews

A Great Film

I saw this film for the first time when I was about 10 years old and it has always stuck with me and when I saw it was on video I bought it immediately. I think that this is more than a B picture and what people have to remember is the fact that this film was made before all the great advances in special effects. Another thing that made it interesting was the fact that through the first half of the film you really didn't know if Exeter was human or alien. It wasn't until the second half of the film that we did see there was more to this mysterious group. This film is definitely an underrated classic of its era.