The SciFi films of the 50's that had the biggest effect on me as a child were Forbidden Planet and This Island Earth - Absolute classics that still stand up today
I hope in future reviews you include : "The Incredible Shrinking Man." Like many of the movies you review, it was ahead of its time, not just in special effects, but in how it looked at a man's ego as he loses his physical statue and lashes out against a hopeless situation. And that profound ending statement of his - gives me goosebumps each time I watch it.
As a kid in the 1950s-60s I was fascinated by all these movies along with The Twilight Zone, the Outer Limits and all the rest. I had to beg my parents to let me watch them because I once made the mistake of telling my mother that I had a bad dream about one of the monsters. When I first saw the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms I was mesmerized, and I checked the TV listings for a whole year before it came back on again. (This was way before VHS or any cable on-demand services.) Now I have all my favorites on a flash drive that I watch when everyone has gone to bed. A simple pleasure for sure, but one that I cherish as a reminder of the time when I didn't have to deal with adult stuff.
When I started dialysis, my mom and I were in the hospital room watching my blood go through the filters, trying to grasp what all of this meant for me. The nurse came in and turned the tv on and Them!! was playing. My mom woke me up to see this wonderful, overacted movie. We laughed and cheered and screamed so much the nurse came racing in! When she saw us watching a movie, she was sure we'd lost our minds. Every time Them! is on TV, I stop and watch it. It helps me remember my mother and starting dialysis 38 years ago. I miss my mom; we lost her 15 years ago. The movie helps bring her back for a while. That's what a movie should do.
"It! The Terror From Beyond Space" certainly deserves a mention. I watched it not long ago and I really enjoyed it. It has the basic story for Ridley Scott's "Alien". Some of the effects of the crew walking outside the ship were impressive for their time.
@@richardgregory3684I think he actually reused the originals. He just cut off the dorsal heat ray projectors and put on ventral beam projector panels instead.
@@billr6983 the only issue, if you think about it, is that the heat ray projector rendered the skeleton rays redundant (or vice versa). The original Martian machines in the novel spewed a 'black smoke', a suffocating gas, to supplement the heat rays (basically the same as a carbon dioxide laser). George Pal didn't want to be saddled with depicting gas attacks, so he replaced the gas with the disintegrator beams; but the net effect of both weapons was still pretty much the same.
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" was directed by Robert Wise. He directed "The Sand Pebbles", "West Side Story" (Oscar win), The Sound of Music" (Oscar win) and many other classic films. The two leads Micheal Rennie and Patricia Neal were both A list actors in their time. Neal won an Oscar for "Hud" which also starred Paul Newman.
I grew up with all of these films. My favorite was (and remains) "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms." "The War of the Worlds" (1953) and "It Came from Outer Space," left me astounded! "THEM!" was stellar! Thanks, Retro Vault!
I saw "The Day the Earth Stood Still" when I was 5yso. I will never forget Gort's visor going up! And that beam starting to move. You better Run! I give this movie an "A" Ratting.
Compelling stories and some of the best actors ever to embody the characters. Patricia Neal, who went on to champion cancer research, remains an amazing actress.
War of the Worlds, Day the Earth Stood Still, When Worlds Collide, The Thing Frm Another World....I would definitely not call them B movies! You also left off This Island Earth, The Time Machine and Forbidden Planet. Far more significant than genuine B movie trash like Robot Monster!
The video was supposed to be about B-movies. This Island Earth, The Time Machine and Forbidden Plane along with most included just don't belong in a list of B-movies.
This was really THE GOLDEN ERA of SF films! NEVER surpassed! Some of these I watched at the cinema in the '50s, some in TV, years later..., but now they all (and many others) are treasured in my DVD collection! Thanks a lot for this video, which may illustrate audiences of this day!
The ultimate B movie has to be.. _Plan Nine from Outer Space_ ! Made in 1959 so it counts...from the inestimable Ed Wood and partly starring Bela Lugosi, who was virtually destitut e by then and died part way through production. Wood replaced him with an acot who had very little resemblance to Lufos, so Wood told him to simply cover his face with his cloak lol.
I really enjoyed this. But if you're going to include a larger budget movie like War of the Worlds, why not include The Time Machine or the masterpiece Forbidden Planet?
One of my fave scenes is when Anne Francis invites Leslie to swim, and he sez he doesn't have a bathing suit. Anne-"What's a bathing suit?" Leslie- "Oh..murder..."
@@Killdumpster And the bit where he takes the IQ test and Morbius says "That;s alright, Captain. A military man doesn;t need a high IQ, just a good loud voice". But of course the Krell Machine and the attack of the Id Monster on the spaceship are classics.
Yeah, forbidden Planet was so far ahead of its time and still holds its own today with the special effects. It was the first movie with an electronic music soundtrack (which many people still sample today), and they had to credit it as "Electronic Tonalities" because the musicians union would not allow them to use the word "music."
@@sidstevens4990 Indeed. The inside of the Krell Machine is a model, and the sequence of the Id monster attacking the C-57D - the monster and the blaster beams etc are all *hand drawn frame by frame* (they borrowed someone from Disney!)
A point about "The War of the Worlds." When the film was first released you couldn't see the wires suspending the Martian war ships, but in later reissues, 16mm TV prints, and video transfers they're quite visible. Original 35mm prints were made by Technicolor, which look softer than the Eastmancolor prints used later. This was made worse by poor color timing and the night scenes having the brightness much too high. This film was released on LaserDisc 7 times. I own two of these releases, including the best one, Paramount Home Video [LV 5302-2] released in 1994. It had a brand new transfer in CAV mode. It even looks better than the DVD release, which used an older transfer.
I saw the film about 30 years ago at a festival and you definitely could not see the wires. Film looked absolutely beautiful on the big screen by the way.
@@glenchapman3899 That was about the time of the remaster. The LaserDisc [LD 5302-2] release to which I referred was released just three years prior to the launch of DVD in North America. I have the issue of Filmfax Magazine that compared the then brand new DVD release to the LaserDisc release [LV 5302-2] that I mentioned which had come out in 1994. The DVD release had used an older transfer, whereas the LaserDisc release used a brand new one prepared especially for that release. Widescreen Review Magazine of that era usually compared the DVD release to the Latest LD release. Frequently, especially in the early days of DVD, the LD release was rated higher. Mainly because LD used uncompressed PCM audio and Video, and DVD used highly compressed audio and video. Later DVD releases had fewer digital artifacts than the earlier ones had, because they learned over time how to use less compression with scenes with a lot of camera movement or action, and increased compression on scenes that were mostly static (i.e. little camera movement or action).
Rocket ship XM is a cautionary tale we must heed. And BTW Retro- the mission WAS to LUNA but by I contrived scene the crew ended up close to MARS instead. They didn't have enough fuel to return from Mars to Terra so they burned up. The ending with the anguish the project manager exuded was palpable enabled the the musical score. NO WAY was this a schlock B movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, but B-movie has a very specific definition, not just that of what some would call a "cheesy movie" (la la la). Theaters used to show double bills, in which there would be two features, interspersed with cartoons, short subjects, newsreels, and (somewhat before even my time) kitchen product giveaways. The A-movie was the top have of the double bill, and the B-movie was the bottom half of the double bill. B-movies tended to be lesser fare, made with smaller budgets and with less artsy goals. But that was not the definition. They were simply the second, presumably lesser, of two features.
Excellent selections. All are personal favorites. Too young to have watched them in theatres. Creature Feature and Fantastic Features with Sivad as Monster of Ceremonies introduced them to me on TV. Always looked forward to seeing them again and again. War of the Worlds showed up on one of the ___day NIght at the Movies. Sent to bed because it "would give me bad dreams", I hid behind a door jamb and watched it anyway without bad dreams. Great memories. Keep the good stuff coming.
Starting in the early 60's to the later 70s our family had only one tv set. My dad usually ran it, so I only saw western, crime, and war movies. One night, while my parents played late-night cards, I saw my very first horror/sci-fi film. THE SNOW CREATURE. At 4 years old I had no idea these kinda movies existed. It made me a "monster kid " for life.
These movies had a quality that modern movies just don't. Modern movies seem to be all about visual effects and not a story. Also, don't forget "IT! The Terror From Beyond Space." That movie sort of got remade in 1979 as "Alien."
"It" has a much better script by the great Jerome Bixby than it's ripoff Alien, and mostly better acting. If the monster had been as well-created as the Creature From The Black Lagoon" it would have been hailed as a classic. Easily watchable. Pretty good flick.
Love most of the movies you list. Particularly Them!, The Day The Earth Stood Still and The Thing From Another World. One of my favorites that you did not list: The Brain That Wouldn't Die.
My library contains every film you featured, but I gotta tell ya, the soundtrack to MESA OF LOST WOMEN is downright the most annoying, repetitive ear-bleeder of any movie I've ever seen. I'll always remember my first viewing of WAR OF THE WORLDS. When I was 6 yrs old our local TV station in Pittsburgh played a triple bill on Halloween night. CHILLER THEATER was the show, hosted by Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille. My dad watched them with me, and he ate all the Reeses cups, Snickers, and Hershey bars out of my trick-or-treat bag.😊
WHEN I WAS A KID THE FIRST SCI FI MOVIE I'VE WATCHED WAS THE THING I MEAN THE SCENE SETTING THE BEAST ON FIRE LATER I'VE WATCHED THE WAR OF THE WORLDS AND THE EARTH STOOD STILL, I'VE DISCOVERED WHEN THE WORLDS COLLIDE ON THE INTERNET,VERY GOOD FILM!!!!😮
I have several on dvd and also in iTunes. Many I only heard about but haven’t seen. Of course these were made before I was born, but they are fun to watch.
"War Of The Worlds" should have included the plot line of the original story, with the warship "Thunderchild" destroying one alien tripod before succumbing to them. 😮
I saw mist if these movies. After seeing it in the movie theatre, it was the "House of Wax" that made me afraid of the dark when I was a kid of about 6 or 7.
Thanks so very much for your honest respect for these endearing CLASSICS my friend! I too am an ardent admirer of these wonderful films and have been fortunate enough to accumulate a significant collection of most of them, on either Blu-Ray or at least DVD. Though it's quite difficult to put together a hard "top 5", I stand by my personal choice of the 1953 War of the Worlds as my #1. :) Had to subscribe, looking forward to viewing your other vids now as well ! p.s. Colour versions of true Black and White films, should be outlawed by the Geneva Convention!!!
I appreciate and respect your opinion, even if your number 1 is wrong. 😏 but really, the colored versions are here solely because I couldn’t get my hands on any other digital version. Welcome to the party!
@@Howiex-is8gq Not really. Carpenter's relies much more heavily on body horror and gore. The 1951 version is much more psychological. The "Thing" remains an unseen menace for almost the entire movie. And _Alien_ borrows very heavily from it.
ROCKETSHIP X-M was about a flight intended NOT to go to Mars, but to the Moon and wound up on Mars, ie just the opposite of what you state. I think some re-thinking/deeper thinking and better textual material/edition would be worth pursuing. But thanks for the video regardless.
Very interesting video. May I make one suggestion. You use the phrase “I mean” to start off a sentence over and over. It really bugged me. It doesn’t add anything to the otherwise well written script.
Most of these films were originally released in Black and White. So, the clips you show must be from the colorized versions. Not a problem I just wanted to let others know.
Afraid I can't agree about Robot Monster, that film is a crime. Since these are supposedly just SF films, aren't Forbidden Planet and This Island Earth absolutely missing from this list? They are at least as revolutionizing as the films on your list.
The comic relief used in The Thing From Another World was priceless.
Case in point: "You can get a picture now Scotty."
Kurplunk.
Good list, but sorry "War of the Worlds" is not a B-Movie. It was big-budget for its time, and even won an academy award for special effects I believe
When Worlds Collide also won the Oscar for special effects, as did The Time Machine in 1960, all of which were produced by George Pal.
Neither was dating or stood still play nine from outer space what's a Bee movie. Well Z movie but I loved it anyway
@@DorisLytwyn me, too. Ed Wood might not have made big-budget films, but he proved you could make something entertaining with no money!
Darn right
There are several films on this list that aren't B-Movies.
The SciFi films of the 50's that had the biggest effect on me as a child were Forbidden Planet and This Island Earth - Absolute classics that still stand up today
Two of my absolute favorites. Which I had TIE on DVD. Love when they’re building the interoceter (pardon the spelling).
@@cindystrachan8566 I'm still waiting for my Interlocetor (spelling?) to arrive.
Not all 50's Sci-Fi movies are B movies. The Day The Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide were big budget movies. 😎👍
The Day The Earth Stood Still The BEST SciFi ever made
@@Magnetron33 And the remake was a piece of 'eco-garbage' with Tom Cruse as the Alien.
@@paulmoffat9306 Keanu Reeves actually. Must admit I like both, but always recommend the original to those who have never seen them.
@@paulmoffat9306 I didn't see it, but I thought it was Keanu Reeves
@@paulmoffat9306excuse me.
Klaatu was Keanu Reeves in the remake.
I hope in future reviews you include : "The Incredible Shrinking Man." Like many of the movies you review, it was ahead of its time, not just in special effects, but in how it looked at a man's ego as he loses his physical statue and lashes out against a hopeless situation. And that profound ending statement of his - gives me goosebumps each time I watch it.
As a kid in the 1950s-60s I was fascinated by all these movies along with The Twilight Zone, the Outer Limits and all the rest. I had to beg my parents to let me watch them because I once made the mistake of telling my mother that I had a bad dream about one of the monsters. When I first saw the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms I was mesmerized, and I checked the TV listings for a whole year before it came back on again. (This was way before VHS or any cable on-demand services.) Now I have all my favorites on a flash drive that I watch when everyone has gone to bed. A simple pleasure for sure, but one that I cherish as a reminder of the time when I didn't have to deal with adult stuff.
When I started dialysis, my mom and I were in the hospital room watching my blood go through the filters, trying to grasp what all of this meant for me. The nurse came in and turned the tv on and Them!! was playing. My mom woke me up to see this wonderful, overacted movie. We laughed and cheered and screamed so much the nurse came racing in! When she saw us watching a movie, she was sure we'd lost our minds.
Every time Them! is on TV, I stop and watch it. It helps me remember my mother and starting dialysis 38 years ago. I miss my mom; we lost her 15 years ago. The movie helps bring her back for a while. That's what a movie should do.
"It! The Terror From Beyond Space" certainly deserves a mention. I watched it not long ago and I really enjoyed it. It has the basic story for Ridley Scott's "Alien". Some of the effects of the crew walking outside the ship were impressive for their time.
Keinholts answer immediately
I get to see House of Wax in 3D at a movie theater. It was really cool.
To this day I think the Martian war machines in WOTW's were the coolest and most elegant alien space craft ever.
The alien ships in _Robinson Crusoe On Mars_ are virtually identical and built by the same artist, Albert Nozaki.
And, it scared me to death. The sounds haunt me to this day. It isn't a B movie though.
@@richardgregory3684I think he actually reused the originals. He just cut off the dorsal heat ray projectors and put on ventral beam projector panels instead.
They're pretty good.
@@billr6983 the only issue, if you think about it, is that the heat ray projector rendered the skeleton rays redundant (or vice versa). The original Martian machines in the novel spewed a 'black smoke', a suffocating gas, to supplement the heat rays (basically the same as a carbon dioxide laser). George Pal didn't want to be saddled with depicting gas attacks, so he replaced the gas with the disintegrator beams; but the net effect of both weapons was still pretty much the same.
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" was directed by Robert Wise. He directed "The Sand Pebbles", "West Side Story" (Oscar win), The Sound of Music" (Oscar win) and many other classic films. The two leads Micheal Rennie and Patricia Neal were both A list actors in their time. Neal won an Oscar for "Hud" which also starred Paul Newman.
I grew up with all of these films. My favorite was (and remains) "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms." "The War of the Worlds" (1953) and "It Came from Outer Space," left me astounded! "THEM!" was stellar! Thanks, Retro Vault!
Them is my absolute favorite, I watch it all the time. The Thing from Another World is a gem too. For weeks I went to sleep watching it.
I have most of these on DVD. I think most of these listed here are not B-movies. Very hard to pick a favorite from such a great batch of movies!
I saw "The Day the Earth Stood Still" when I was 5yso. I will never forget Gort's visor going up! And that beam starting to move. You better Run! I give this movie an "A" Ratting.
You forgot Forbidden Planet. Robby the Robot was C-3PO and R2 D2' s grandpa!
Compelling stories and some of the best actors ever to embody the characters. Patricia Neal, who went on to champion cancer research, remains an amazing actress.
I got to meet her once near the end of her life, when I was working airport security when she flew into my airport. Classy lady! 😊
This was the Best of the Best.
Fun list. I do not class all of them on the B list.
You might need to rethink your definition of a B movie
War of the Worlds, Day the Earth Stood Still, When Worlds Collide, The Thing Frm Another World....I would definitely not call them B movies! You also left off This Island Earth, The Time Machine and Forbidden Planet. Far more significant than genuine B movie trash like Robot Monster!
The video was supposed to be about B-movies. This Island Earth, The Time Machine and Forbidden Plane along with most included just don't belong in a list of B-movies.
I first saw “The Day the Earth Stood Still” in the mid-fifties in the French village of Clion, Indre, in a small civic auditorium.
Good list, but my favorites weren't there: Earth vs the Flying Saucers and 20,000,000 Miles to Earth.
I suspect they will be in the follow-up videos(s).
This was really THE GOLDEN ERA of SF films! NEVER surpassed! Some of these I watched at the cinema in the '50s, some in TV, years later..., but now they all (and many others) are treasured in my DVD collection! Thanks a lot for this video, which may illustrate audiences of this day!
Nerdy correction: I think Rocketship X-M was headed for the moon, and accidentally landed on Mars.
Yeah, I got that one twisted around for some reason
Somehow they made a wrong turn at Albuquerque.
The ultimate B movie has to be.. _Plan Nine from Outer Space_ ! Made in 1959 so it counts...from the inestimable Ed Wood and partly starring Bela Lugosi, who was virtually destitut
e by then and died part way through production. Wood replaced him with an acot who had very little resemblance to Lufos, so Wood told him to simply cover his face with his cloak lol.
" little resemblance to Lugosi"? More like NO resemblance!
I really enjoyed this. But if you're going to include a larger budget movie like War of the Worlds, why not include The Time Machine or the masterpiece Forbidden Planet?
Thought the same.
I was very surprised with the ending of Rocketship X-M. Did not expect that.
The Day The earth Stood still is my favorite of all time. I love it.
"Them" also shows a goverment response that is clever, how a low key, and secret response can prevent panic. A story within a story IMHO.
I just watched " Them !" again today !! 😍
And " House of Wax " has always been a favorite of mine !
I grew up on these awesome movies !
So good!
favorites: War of the Worlds; The Day the Earth stood Still; THEM!
I loved THEM!
Forbidden planet with Leslie Nielsen
One of my fave scenes is when Anne Francis invites Leslie to swim, and he sez he doesn't have a bathing suit.
Anne-"What's a bathing suit?"
Leslie- "Oh..murder..."
@@Killdumpster And the bit where he takes the IQ test and Morbius says "That;s alright, Captain. A military man doesn;t need a high IQ, just a good loud voice". But of course the Krell Machine and the attack of the Id Monster on the spaceship are classics.
Yeah, forbidden Planet was so far ahead of its time and still holds its own today with the special effects. It was the first movie with an electronic music soundtrack (which many people still sample today), and they had to credit it as "Electronic Tonalities" because the musicians union would not allow them to use the word "music."
I agree! Forbidden Planet!!!
Even today the special effects still hold up!
@@sidstevens4990 Indeed. The inside of the Krell Machine is a model, and the sequence of the Id monster attacking the C-57D - the monster and the blaster beams etc are all *hand drawn frame by frame* (they borrowed someone from Disney!)
I saw so many of these when I was a mere 6, 7, 8, etc., years old. Now parents object to the offscreen shooting of Bambi's mother.
I would object too. I really want to see that venison get pounded.
I have always loved sci-fi and monster movies from the 50s and 60s. 😊
A point about "The War of the Worlds." When the film was first released you couldn't see the wires suspending the Martian war ships, but in later reissues, 16mm TV prints, and video transfers they're quite visible. Original 35mm prints were made by Technicolor, which look softer than the Eastmancolor prints used later. This was made worse by poor color timing and the night scenes having the brightness much too high. This film was released on LaserDisc 7 times. I own two of these releases, including the best one, Paramount Home Video [LV 5302-2] released in 1994. It had a brand new transfer in CAV mode. It even looks better than the DVD release, which used an older transfer.
I saw the film about 30 years ago at a festival and you definitely could not see the wires. Film looked absolutely beautiful on the big screen by the way.
@@glenchapman3899 That was about the time of the remaster. The LaserDisc [LD 5302-2] release to which I referred was released just three years prior to the launch of DVD in North America. I have the issue of Filmfax Magazine that compared the then brand new DVD release to the LaserDisc release [LV 5302-2] that I mentioned which had come out in 1994. The DVD release had used an older transfer, whereas the LaserDisc release used a brand new one prepared especially for that release.
Widescreen Review Magazine of that era usually compared the DVD release to the Latest LD release. Frequently, especially in the early days of DVD, the LD release was rated higher. Mainly because LD used uncompressed PCM audio and Video, and DVD used highly compressed audio and video. Later DVD releases had fewer digital artifacts than the earlier ones had, because they learned over time how to use less compression with scenes with a lot of camera movement or action, and increased compression on scenes that were mostly static (i.e. little camera movement or action).
Rocket ship XM is a cautionary tale we must heed. And BTW Retro- the mission WAS to LUNA but by I contrived scene the crew ended up close to MARS instead. They didn't have enough fuel to return from Mars to Terra so they burned up. The ending with the anguish the project manager exuded was palpable enabled the the musical score. NO WAY was this a schlock B movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How can an unexpected guest show up early?
Sorry, but B-movie has a very specific definition, not just that of what some would call a "cheesy movie" (la la la). Theaters used to show double bills, in which there would be two features, interspersed with cartoons, short subjects, newsreels, and (somewhat before even my time) kitchen product giveaways. The A-movie was the top have of the double bill, and the B-movie was the bottom half of the double bill. B-movies tended to be lesser fare, made with smaller budgets and with less artsy goals. But that was not the definition. They were simply the second, presumably lesser, of two features.
Good video. Maybe just, I mean, don't say I mean so many times. I love 50s and 60s scifi movies.
Your correct. The great story telling is a huge factor. So much room for the imagination to play n explore with.
Excellent selections. All are personal favorites. Too young to have watched them in theatres. Creature Feature and Fantastic Features with Sivad as Monster of Ceremonies introduced them to me on TV. Always looked forward to seeing them again and again. War of the Worlds showed up on one of the ___day NIght at the Movies. Sent to bed because it "would give me bad dreams", I hid behind a door jamb and watched it anyway without bad dreams. Great memories. Keep the good stuff coming.
Appreciate the comments on your experience
Starting in the early 60's to the later 70s our family had only one tv set. My dad usually ran it, so I only saw western, crime, and war movies.
One night, while my parents played late-night cards, I saw my very first horror/sci-fi film. THE SNOW CREATURE. At 4 years old I had no idea these kinda movies existed.
It made me a "monster kid " for life.
"Them" terrified me when I was a little kid! I saw most of these in the 60s on the TV. Saturday afternoon sci-fi and monster movies.
Growing up, these movies were my Saturday afternoons without fail. And I grew up OK, right?
Sally Field's mother Margaret Field in Man from Planet X.
I had completely forgotten that Charles Bronson was in House of Wax. Great list! 👍
You had to list Mesa of Lost woman. Them was great to see in the theatre when you were a kid. Unforgettable. Thanks well done.
Nice to see some lesser-known early pioneers: I look forward to exploring them!
These movies had a quality that modern movies just don't. Modern movies seem to be all about visual effects and not a story. Also, don't forget "IT! The Terror From Beyond Space." That movie sort of got remade in 1979 as "Alien."
"It" has a much better script by the great Jerome Bixby than it's ripoff Alien, and mostly better acting. If the monster had been as well-created as the Creature From The Black Lagoon" it would have been hailed as a classic. Easily watchable. Pretty good flick.
They don't make too many films for older fans anymore.
@Killdumpster we are.
"House of Wax." Carolyn Jones and Phillis Kirk both at their height of beauty.
Love most of the movies you list. Particularly Them!, The Day The Earth Stood Still and The Thing From Another World.
One of my favorites that you did not list: The Brain That Wouldn't Die.
The fifty s was a great times ,miss them ❤❤❤
Some of my favorite Sci-Fi moves are on this list. The Thing, Them, excellent fun movies. Thanks,
Teenagers from Outer Space!
I love you, Derek... sob...
My library contains every film you featured, but I gotta tell ya, the soundtrack to MESA OF LOST WOMEN is downright the most annoying, repetitive ear-bleeder of any movie I've ever seen.
I'll always remember my first viewing of WAR OF THE WORLDS. When I was 6 yrs old our local TV station in Pittsburgh played a triple bill on Halloween night. CHILLER THEATER was the show, hosted by Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille.
My dad watched them with me, and he ate all the Reeses cups, Snickers, and Hershey bars out of my trick-or-treat bag.😊
Now that's a dad I can respect.
Them was not a B-movie! It was an ant movie
That is a great comment!!!
I suspect that the purpose of the bubbles in "Robot Monster" was to exploit the 3D effect in which the movie was filmed.
My all time favorite is War of the worlds. Then Forbidden Planet, and The Day the earth stood still.
Thanks for posting the list in the comments for easy copy/paste/save.
Seen them all
Creature from the black lagoon one of the best 50s sci fi movies ever made
WHEN I WAS A KID THE FIRST SCI FI MOVIE I'VE WATCHED WAS THE THING I MEAN THE SCENE SETTING THE BEAST ON FIRE LATER I'VE WATCHED THE WAR OF THE WORLDS AND THE EARTH STOOD STILL, I'VE DISCOVERED WHEN THE WORLDS COLLIDE ON THE INTERNET,VERY GOOD FILM!!!!😮
Robot Monster's alien bubble machine is a hoot. He's the outer space Lawrence Welk. Caroline Jones (Morticia) and Charles Bronson are in House of Wax.
That colonization of classic B & W films is horrid. Recomend watching in their original format, where possible.
You can adjust your TV set to show color films in B & W.
I get it, but getting access to digital b&w is not always available. Sometimes the color version is all that I can get
@@VaultRetro Ah, thanks for the explanation. So colour may have its uses! :)
Great selection, and great commentary. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow, I've got to revisit House of Wax. Maybe some other Price classics like Dr Phibes or Theater of Blood. Wonderful fun those movies!
I have several on dvd and also in iTunes. Many I only heard about but haven’t seen. Of course these were made before I was born, but they are fun to watch.
"War Of The Worlds" should have included the plot line of the original story, with the warship "Thunderchild" destroying one alien tripod before succumbing to them. 😮
The film was set in a town in Riverside - bit hard to get a warship there - Also the town Linda Rosa, is now a ghost town.
Caltiki, the Immortal Monster really scared me as a kid. I feared it was somehow underneath my bed.
You forgot to mention that _It Came From Outer Space_ was filmed in 3-D. That explains the nature of the unique camera angles.
Would have been decent to watch except for showing the colorized versions of some of the movies. Didn't need to be colorized to be unforgettable...
I get it, but getting access to digital b&w is not always available. Sometimes the color version is all that I can get
I saw mist if these movies. After seeing it in the movie theatre, it was the "House of Wax" that made me afraid of the dark when I was a kid of about 6 or 7.
I enjoyed every second of this video good clips and excellent commentary. Well done..
I like B movies so I subbed.
Always thought the alien ships on War of the Worlds were cool!
Half of these weren’t B movies
Cheap low budget movies ? Yeah they are 😂
@@peggyfillmore1971 War of the Worlds? A B-movie?
The term "B movie" came from it being the second half of a double feature. This was opposed to the "A movie" which was the higher quality first half.
Thanks so very much for your honest respect for these endearing CLASSICS my friend!
I too am an ardent admirer of these wonderful films and have been fortunate enough to accumulate a significant collection of most of them, on either Blu-Ray or at least DVD.
Though it's quite difficult to put together a hard "top 5", I stand by my personal choice of the 1953 War of the Worlds as my #1. :)
Had to subscribe, looking forward to viewing your other vids now as well !
p.s. Colour versions of true Black and White films, should be outlawed by the Geneva Convention!!!
I appreciate and respect your opinion, even if your number 1 is wrong. 😏 but really, the colored versions are here solely because I couldn’t get my hands on any other digital version. Welcome to the party!
Robot Monster was awesome. We still talk about it.
When Star Wars was made, it was A "B-movie" Keep that in mind.
I stopped watching the skies when the pigeons noticed me.
The bamboo saucer
The 1951 version of "The Thing From Another World" was far superior to Carpenter's later remake, but that's just my humble 76-year-old opinion.
The scene where they line up around the "object" in the ice and see it;s a saucer shape is a classic moment.
Funny...
@@Howiex-is8gq Not really. Carpenter's relies much more heavily on body horror and gore. The 1951 version is much more psychological. The "Thing" remains an unseen menace for almost the entire movie. And _Alien_ borrows very heavily from it.
Them is my favorite
The crews of the ships made no sense a long trip 10 men and only 1women you could see nothing but trouble ahead
Ah, yes, but more often than not there were more women on the new planet.
Speaking of Ray Bradbury' i Have Every Last Episode of the Ray Bradbury Theater' do you 😁
I do.
@@BruceCarroll - i got MORE on my TH-cam Page...
Yep
I was hooked with Forbidden Planet…….Surprised you didn’t cover it……….
Isn't Rocketship X-M the exact opposite? It was a moonshot gone wrong with them landing on Mars.
Absolutely correct
Yeah, I seem to always get something backwards
Pretty standard list. Those colorized scenes from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" are an abomination.
"Earth vs the Flying Saucers" (1956) & "20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957) belong up there somewhere.
I remember a game on the Amiga about giant ants. It came from the desert, I think.
Fallout 3 has a giant Ant quest called "Those"
That one shot in the opening - Was that Tom Baker in "The Freakmaker" ?
I liked the incredible shrinking man
ROCKETSHIP X-M was about a flight intended NOT to go to Mars, but to the Moon and wound up on Mars, ie just the opposite of what you state.
I think some re-thinking/deeper thinking and better textual material/edition would be worth pursuing. But thanks for the video regardless.
Very interesting video. May I make one suggestion. You use the phrase “I mean” to start off a sentence over and over. It really bugged me. It doesn’t add anything to the otherwise well written script.
Thanks for the suggestion ! Also, I will not be under any influence next time I record…
Most of these films were originally released in Black and White. So, the clips you show must be from the colorized versions. Not a problem I just wanted to let others know.
Yeah, most of the versions I own are in B&W. Harryhausen claimed his early films should've been in color
Drop the colorization, much better in black and white. Some absolute classics , all must see's.
Afraid I can't agree about Robot Monster, that film is a crime. Since these are supposedly just SF films, aren't Forbidden Planet and This Island Earth absolutely missing from this list? They are at least as revolutionizing as the films on your list.
Did anyone else notice that the ship from Rocketship XM looks like Elon Musk's ship?
The movie ‘Robot Monster’ remembers me the noir film (1941) The Monster and the Girl’. Can you tell us also about it? Thank!
On Robot Monsters the Archaeologists are trying to chip cave art off the wall instead of taking pictures of it. Dugh?