That old adage of "we kill what we don't understand" can be applied to It Came from Outer Space, another solid classic bit of sci-fi B-movie from director Jack Arnold, with a screenplay inspired by Bradbury's The Meteor. Supposedly a meteor lands in the Arizona desert near a small town, but in fact it is a space ship carrying an alien race quite repulsive to humans. With a smart script that questions our inability to wait before pulling out our guns and firing, and telling us that the aliens aren't always a threat to humankind, It Came from Outer Space tried to provoke our thoughts away from believing that those from outside our world land here to hurt us. Richard Carlson is kind of a B-movie icon for many of us, mainly due to his association with Creature from the Black Lagoon and this film. He is the lone scientist (a "star gazer" in this film, considered by the papers who mock his claim that it was a space ship that landed in the desert, not a meteor as suspected) who tries to speak for the aliens, hoping to convince the sheriff (Charles Drake) that using guns won't solve anything except perhaps hurt those "taken captive" by them in order to use their likenesses in town to secure hardware needed to fix their vessel (and produce a weapon to protect themselves).
With Barbara Rush as Carlson's love interest (and eventually kidnapped herself, naturally), and Russell Johnson (of Gilligan's Island fame) as the employee of an electrician (Joe Sawyer) in the cast, this is actually a respected sci-fi film, not relegated to the cheesy conversation of many of its ilk. There are some imaginative first-person perspective shots "seen through the eye" of the alien as it descends upon and spy on humans. The special effects aren't the bright spot of this one: its budget is obviously low as the alien is a rubbery monstrosity that could have been made by Paul Blaisdell, and the ship is basically a ball (probably inflatable). I always find myself engaged in the presentation, though, as it has that Invasion of Body Snatchers meets Day the Earth Stood Still feel to it.
Carlson was always reliable and interesting, and he conveys the frustrations/dismay of being dismissed for his claims of the spaceship/alien presence, conflicted, agonizing anxiety at if he should believe in what the race of aliens are telling him regarding peaceful non-threatening motives on earth (just repairs and accidental crash on the planet, not willing to confront the earthlings due to our "shoot first, ask later" response to beings unlike us), and struggle to maintain a posse led by the sheriff when it appears the townsfolk are being kidnapped and possibly in harm's way.
The setting in Arizona (actually shot in California) is quite refreshing (THEM also has that, as does Arnold's own Tarantula), and it is used expansively. One good scene I like has Joe's electrician listening to "strange noise" through the power lines with Carlson getting an ear of it, commenting on how the desert has its own voice. The Joshua tree even gets a good bit of ooga-booga use as Rush screams when it is shadowed in darkness, as she believes it is the alien. The zombie-like movements of alien clones of the human locals is quite pod-like, and the simple small town rural sense of place within the enveloping desert landscape does create a bit of "perfect cover" for aliens needing to get their ship in order or else. The reliable scores of these kinds of 50s sci-fi shows itself effectively here in this film as well.
With Barbara Rush as Carlson's love interest (and eventually kidnapped herself, naturally), and Russell Johnson (of Gilligan's Island fame) as the employee of an electrician (Joe Sawyer) in the cast, this is actually a respected sci-fi film, not relegated to the cheesy conversation of many of its ilk. There are some imaginative first-person perspective shots "seen through the eye" of the alien as it descends upon and spy on humans. The special effects aren't the bright spot of this one: its budget is obviously low as the alien is a rubbery monstrosity that could have been made by Paul Blaisdell, and the ship is basically a ball (probably inflatable). I always find myself engaged in the presentation, though, as it has that Invasion of Body Snatchers meets Day the Earth Stood Still feel to it.
Carlson was always reliable and interesting, and he conveys the frustrations/dismay of being dismissed for his claims of the spaceship/alien presence, conflicted, agonizing anxiety at if he should believe in what the race of aliens are telling him regarding peaceful non-threatening motives on earth (just repairs and accidental crash on the planet, not willing to confront the earthlings due to our "shoot first, ask later" response to beings unlike us), and struggle to maintain a posse led by the sheriff when it appears the townsfolk are being kidnapped and possibly in harm's way.
The setting in Arizona (actually shot in California) is quite refreshing (THEM also has that, as does Arnold's own Tarantula), and it is used expansively. One good scene I like has Joe's electrician listening to "strange noise" through the power lines with Carlson getting an ear of it, commenting on how the desert has its own voice. The Joshua tree even gets a good bit of ooga-booga use as Rush screams when it is shadowed in darkness, as she believes it is the alien. The zombie-like movements of alien clones of the human locals is quite pod-like, and the simple small town rural sense of place within the enveloping desert landscape does create a bit of "perfect cover" for aliens needing to get their ship in order or else. The reliable scores of these kinds of 50s sci-fi shows itself effectively here in this film as well.