This Island Earth **** (1955, Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason) – Classic Movie Review 2,444

Director Joseph Newman’s 1955 movie This Island Earth is a memorable, huge fun Fifties sci-fi thriller with a sprightly yarn about benevolent aliens kidnapping earthling scientists to save their planet. The film is fondly remembered for its special effects, well-written screenplay and eye-popping colour in Technicolor prints.

Rex Reason plays noted nuclear scientist Dr Cal Meacham, saved from a jet crash by a green glow. Instead of the electronic condensers he ordered, he receives a weird electronics catalogue offering the instructions and parts needed to build a complex communication device called an ‘interocitor’.

Meacham and his assistant Joe Wilson (Robert Nichols) immediately build the device, a 3D TV showing the image of mysterious white-haired, dome-head Exeter (Jeff Morrow). He tells Meacham to join a group of top-flight scientists that he has assembled from all over the world to work on his mysterious project.

Picked up the airport by an unmanned aircraft with no windows, Meacham lands in a remote area of Georgia, where he finds the group of scientists already present, including his old flame Dr Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue).

Despite the abundance of clichés, clumsy narrative and uninspired acting, This Island Earth is still very involving and entertaining, with a lavish production, fine effects by Clifford Stine and David S Horsley, clever makeup and striking Technicolor cinematography by Clifford Stine. It is easy to make allowances for the film’s deficiencies and enjoy the beautiful images and exotic events and characters.

It is based on Raymond F Jones’s novel, originally published in the magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories as three related novelettes: The Alien Machine in the June 1949 issue, The Shroud of Secrecy in December 1949, and The Greater Conflict in February 1950.

The Mutant (Reg Parton), which does not appear in Jones’s source novel, was based on a rejected design for the Xenomorph in 1953’s It Came from Outer Space. The Mutant costume originally had legs matching the upper body but the work making the legs look and work properly took so long the Mutant had to wear a pair of trousers, though posters show how it was supposed to be.

The sound effects are recordings of radio teletype transmissions picked up on a short wave radio played at various speeds.

This Island Earth cost an estimated fairly high $800,000 (about ten times the budget of a Roger Corman film of this era) but did well to take $1,700,000 at the North America box office, making it the year’s 74th biggest earner.

Also in the cast are Lance Fuller, Russell Johnson, Douglas Spencer, Karl Lindt, Eddie Parker, Richard Deacon, Olan Soulé, Robert B Williams, Mark Hamilton, Edward Hearn, Les Spears, Edward Ingram, Jack Byron, Coleman Francis, Spencer Chan and Lizalotta Valesca, plus Orangey as Neutron the cat.

It was shot from 30 January 1954 to 22 March 1954, with location filming at Mt Wilson, California. Universal-International was dissatisfied with the footage Newman shot of the Metaluna sequence and had it redone by Jack Arnold.

The cast are Jeff Morrow as Exeter, Faith Domergue as Ruth Adams, Rex Reason as Cal Meacham, Lance Fuller as Brack, Russell Johnson as Steve Carlson, Douglas Spencer as The Monitor, Robert Nichols as Joe Wilson, Karl Lindt, Eddie Parker, Richard Deacon, Olan Soulé, Robert B Williams, Mark Hamilton, Edward Hearn, Les Spears, Edward Ingram, Jack Byron, Coleman Francis, Spencer Chan, Lizalotta Valesca, and Orangey as Neutron the cat.

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