I'm a sucker for the space-monster movies which landed in Hollywood in the early 50's and this one, helmed by specialist director Jack Arnold with a story devised by renowned sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, doesn't disappoint. The sub-genre was born out of two contemporary furores in America, one the reporting in the media of flying saucers and men from Mars and the other, more indirectly, the Red Scare which descended on Hollywood itself as Joe McCarthy and the HUAC grabbed the headlines with ever-more sensational claims of Communist infiltration into the entertainment industry.
This movie, sure enough, begins in time-honoured fashion with a UFO falling to earth out in the desert, close to the town of Sand Rock. First on the scene are the local astronomer Richard Carlson and his girlfriend Barbara Rush. A true believer, he gets up close to the craft but after it's submerged by a landfall, struggles to convince the local authorities that this may indeed be a close encounter of the third kind and that it doesn't deserve to be blown to kingdom come.
In due course, alien creatures do emerge where we learn that they have the ability to shape-shift as they assume the form of innocent individuals who get in their way, although it's conveniently easy to spot the possessed humans from their resultant robotic movements and speech. It turns out that the newcomers from the stars don't actually mean us any harm, they only want to repair their ship and get back home, but can they do so before the baying mob of fearful and ignorant townfolk get to them first or will Carlson's pleas for tolerance and goodwill save the day for them?
I really enjoyed this rollicking adventure. The B-list cast play it for all it's worth with plenty of tension and excitement along the way. The special effects are fine especially showing the spaceship's initial crash-landing, even if the depiction of the aliens themselves as something resembling a big, soft TV screen, which of course may also have been deliberately symbolic of the times, was more amusing than amazing.
With a soundtrack featuring an early use of the theremin which soon become the trademark sound of anything other-worldly and some mildly risible attempts at 3D effects, the whole film is a real hoot, ending on a memorable closing line just for good measure.
This movie, sure enough, begins in time-honoured fashion with a UFO falling to earth out in the desert, close to the town of Sand Rock. First on the scene are the local astronomer Richard Carlson and his girlfriend Barbara Rush. A true believer, he gets up close to the craft but after it's submerged by a landfall, struggles to convince the local authorities that this may indeed be a close encounter of the third kind and that it doesn't deserve to be blown to kingdom come.
In due course, alien creatures do emerge where we learn that they have the ability to shape-shift as they assume the form of innocent individuals who get in their way, although it's conveniently easy to spot the possessed humans from their resultant robotic movements and speech. It turns out that the newcomers from the stars don't actually mean us any harm, they only want to repair their ship and get back home, but can they do so before the baying mob of fearful and ignorant townfolk get to them first or will Carlson's pleas for tolerance and goodwill save the day for them?
I really enjoyed this rollicking adventure. The B-list cast play it for all it's worth with plenty of tension and excitement along the way. The special effects are fine especially showing the spaceship's initial crash-landing, even if the depiction of the aliens themselves as something resembling a big, soft TV screen, which of course may also have been deliberately symbolic of the times, was more amusing than amazing.
With a soundtrack featuring an early use of the theremin which soon become the trademark sound of anything other-worldly and some mildly risible attempts at 3D effects, the whole film is a real hoot, ending on a memorable closing line just for good measure.