Scream Stream 2023: It Came from Outer Space

John Putnam (Richard Carlson) is an author and amateur astronomer, who has moved to the Arizona desert.  While spending time with his fiancé, Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush), they see a large meteorite speed through the sky and crash out in the wasteland. They wake a nearby helicopter pilot and fly out to the landing site.  While investigating, John comes across a spaceship, which is soon covered by a rockslide.  Telling his stories to the locals he is met with disbelief, all except for Ellen.  The aliens, who have the ability to imitate human appearances, begin to kidnap towns people and replace them, but always with the warning that they will not be harmed.  John finally meets the aliens, and they seem benign having crashed landed on Earth accidentally and will only be on the planet long enough to repair their ship. The townspeople become suspicious when some of their own start to act erratically and this leads to a mob mentality.  Can John stop the mob from attacking the aliens and preventing them from continuing their journey?  Watch and find out!

Directed by Jack Arnold and originally shown in 3-D, he made great use of the setting and its eerie surroundings. There are some amazing visuals and well framed scenes and imagery.  The special effects were very well done for the period and the unique spaceship design is not your classic “Flying Saucer” seen in so many of the films of this period.  The music composition was supervised by Joseph Gershenson with Irving Gertz, Henry Mancini and Herman Stein all contributing.  The use of the theremin lends that iconic science fiction feel to the film and enhances the tone of each scene. In true 1950s science fiction fashion, the acting is a bit over the top, using extreme reactions to the situation as a vehicle to connect with the audience and create a reaction.  Richard Carlson is great as John, a free-thinking author and astronomer who is already thought of as strange and frustrated at the fact that no one, not even the scientists will believe him at first. Barbara Rush as Ellen supports John, but is a bit conflicted at times, not sure what to believe. Charles Drake is Sheriff Matt Warren, a friend of Ellen’s father and a bit overprotective of her, has an overtly macho personality which clashes directly with John’s intellectual thinking and this conflict provides much of the drama within the film.

This 70-year-old film is considered one of the classics of the 1950’s science fiction genre and for good reason.  With a story by Ray Bradbury and a script by Harry Essex, the dialogue in the film has some very poignant moments, especially considering this is a decade pre-moon landing.  There is a certain type of poetry in many of these movies that act as advice and sometimes warnings to future generations and this movie uses that poetry. The lines flow with a kind of elegance, not necessarily realistically, but beautiful and meaningful, hinting at themes that are still relevant today. The story is a great reversal from the norm, with the aliens not being evil or violent, but just needing time to repair their ship and get out of this world.  As a lover of old 1950s science fiction, this is one of the better films, hinting at themes that are still relevant 70 years after it first premiered.