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.
@@richardgregory3684I think he actually reused the originals. He just cut off the dorsal heat ray projectors and put on ventral beam projector panels instead.
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.
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!
"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.
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 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?
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.
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.
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!
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!)
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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.
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.😊
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.
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.
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!!!!😮
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).
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!
"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. 😮
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
1950s Sci Fi and that entire era was the best, watched many of those movies including other Giant Monster Movies , """TARANTULA""' 1955, BEGINNING OF THE END""" 1957, """IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA""" 1955, GODZILLA""' 1954, """RODAN"""1957, """BLACK SCORPION""" 1957,I also think that """FORBIDDEN PLANETS""' 1956 with Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis and Walter Pidgeon ( Who also was in the Movie """VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA"""before it became a Television Show with Richard Basehart) beats The Day The Earth Stood Still,basically because of one Character that 50s Sci Fi Fans remember and are fond of the most """ROBBIE THE ROBOT""" Robbie out performed all the other actors and actress in that movie.Peter Graves played in a few more Sci Fi movies.Kenneth Toby and John Agar were the 1950s stars of Sci Fi, ironically John Agar was on his way being a big star when he stared with John Wayne She Wore a Yellow Ribbon western and also married to Shirley Temple,however due to his drinking and constant problems with drunk driving and the Law MGM let him go and Shirley divorced him.The Professor from Gilligans Island ( name escapes right now)was also a regular on some 50s Sci Fi movies like the Crab Monsters on that Island, the scientist get killed eaten by the Radioactive Giant Crabs than they become one of them and call to others at night.Mr Ziffel from Green Acres was also in a few like The Beginning of the End those Giant Grasshoppers, Earth vs the Spider as that School Custodian and the Attack of the 50 foot Man about Colonel Manning getting Radiated and grows to 50 feet, they did a sequel where it re-appears in Mexico after falling off a dam getting hit by a Bazooka .Had seen all of these back in the 1970s while watching them on Saturdays, Creature Feature and Sir Grave Ghastly were the Monster Sci Fi shows here in Detroit.
And, let the good natured argument begi. 😂😂. And that’s just fine. 😂😂. It’s a well-done list. On;y positive comments from me. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is still my favorite. They came to teach and to warn. Klatu brushes aside geopolitical disputes as nothing. Our hatred and distrust of each other are to him, nothing, ridiculous. We just needed to understand the consequences. It is CHILLING. Make peace, or we, who see you in terms of battle in so many words words like dead flies to brush off the table. That, ……. Is horror.
So here's my dumb question. When did Hollywood decide they needed to list "production babies" in the end credits? Along with those endless lists of thousands of names (mostly producers and special effects programmers) that nobody cares about?
The Day the Earth Stood Still is not a B movie. And it's black and white, so how about keeping it that way on a channel that is supposed to honor these older movies. And Robot Monster, while insanely fun to watch, is one of the worst movies ever, not something that "revolutionized" the genre.
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
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.
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).
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.
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!
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.
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
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 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!
"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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Fun list. I do not class all of them on the B list.
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.
You forgot Forbidden Planet. Robby the Robot was C-3PO and R2 D2' s grandpa!
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.
"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.
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!
I was very surprised with the ending of Rocketship X-M. Did not expect that.
favorites: War of the Worlds; The Day the Earth stood Still; 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 loved THEM!
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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 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!
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!
How can an unexpected guest show up early?
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.
Your correct. The great story telling is a huge factor. So much room for the imagination to play n explore with.
The Day The earth Stood still is my favorite of all time. I love it.
Sally Field's mother Margaret Field in Man from Planet X.
Growing up, these movies were my Saturday afternoons without fail. And I grew up OK, right?
"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.
Good video. Maybe just, I mean, don't say I mean so many times. I love 50s and 60s scifi movies.
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.
Some of my favorite Sci-Fi moves are on this list. The Thing, Them, excellent fun movies. Thanks,
I had completely forgotten that Charles Bronson was in House of Wax. Great list! 👍
Great selection, and great commentary. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
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.
Nice to see some lesser-known early pioneers: I look forward to exploring them!
Thanks for posting the list in the comments for easy copy/paste/save.
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.
I suspect that the purpose of the bubbles in "Robot Monster" was to exploit the 3D effect in which the movie was filmed.
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! :)
I enjoyed every second of this video good clips and excellent commentary. Well done..
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
"House of Wax." Carolyn Jones and Phillis Kirk both at their height of beauty.
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!
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.
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.
My all time favorite is War of the worlds. Then Forbidden Planet, and The Day the earth stood still.
Teenagers from Outer Space!
I love you, Derek... sob...
Seen them all
You forgot to mention that _It Came From Outer Space_ was filmed in 3-D. That explains the nature of the unique camera angles.
Caltiki, the Immortal Monster really scared me as a kid. I feared it was somehow underneath my bed.
Them was not a B-movie! It was an ant movie
That is a great comment!!!
The fifty s was a great times ,miss them ❤❤❤
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
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!!!!😮
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).
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!
"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.
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.
I like B movies so I subbed.
Always thought the alien ships on War of the Worlds were cool!
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.
I was hooked with Forbidden Planet…….Surprised you didn’t cover it……….
When Star Wars was made, it was A "B-movie" Keep that in mind.
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…
I stopped watching the skies when the pigeons noticed me.
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.
Them is my favorite
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
The bamboo saucer
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"
1950s Sci Fi and that entire era was the best, watched many of those movies including other Giant Monster Movies , """TARANTULA""' 1955, BEGINNING OF THE END""" 1957, """IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA""" 1955, GODZILLA""' 1954, """RODAN"""1957, """BLACK SCORPION""" 1957,I also think that """FORBIDDEN PLANETS""' 1956 with Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis and Walter Pidgeon ( Who also was in the Movie """VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA"""before it became a Television Show with Richard Basehart) beats The Day The Earth Stood Still,basically because of one Character that 50s Sci Fi Fans remember and are fond of the most """ROBBIE THE ROBOT""" Robbie out performed all the other actors and actress in that movie.Peter Graves played in a few more Sci Fi movies.Kenneth Toby and John Agar were the 1950s stars of Sci Fi, ironically John Agar was on his way being a big star when he stared with John Wayne She Wore a Yellow Ribbon western and also married to Shirley Temple,however due to his drinking and constant problems with drunk driving and the Law MGM let him go and Shirley divorced him.The Professor from Gilligans Island ( name escapes right now)was also a regular on some 50s Sci Fi movies like the Crab Monsters on that Island, the scientist get killed eaten by the Radioactive Giant Crabs than they become one of them and call to others at night.Mr Ziffel from Green Acres was also in a few like The Beginning of the End those Giant Grasshoppers, Earth vs the Spider as that School Custodian and the Attack of the 50 foot Man about Colonel Manning getting Radiated and grows to 50 feet, they did a sequel where it re-appears in Mexico after falling off a dam getting hit by a Bazooka .Had seen all of these back in the 1970s while watching them on Saturdays, Creature Feature and Sir Grave Ghastly were the Monster Sci Fi shows here in Detroit.
Pretty standard list. Those colorized scenes from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" are an abomination.
Drop the colorization, much better in black and white. Some absolute classics , all must see's.
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
And, let the good natured argument begi. 😂😂. And that’s just fine. 😂😂. It’s a well-done list. On;y positive comments from me. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is still my favorite. They came to teach and to warn. Klatu brushes aside geopolitical disputes as nothing. Our hatred and distrust of each other are to him, nothing, ridiculous. We just needed to understand the consequences. It is CHILLING. Make peace, or we, who see you in terms of battle in so many words words like dead flies to brush off the table. That, ……. Is horror.
I liked the incredible shrinking man
So here's my dumb question. When did Hollywood decide they needed to list "production babies" in the end credits? Along with those endless lists of thousands of names (mostly producers and special effects programmers) that nobody cares about?
What about The Crawling Eye, Gog, and Invaders from Mars?
Great list, but please stop using the colorized clips
I get it, it really depends on where I can get access to the movie digitally. Sometimes the B&w version isn’t that easy for me to find.
@ that’s understandable.
Did anyone else notice that the ship from Rocketship XM looks like Elon Musk's ship?
The Day the Earth Stood Still is not a B movie. And it's black and white, so how about keeping it that way on a channel that is supposed to honor these older movies. And Robot Monster, while insanely fun to watch, is one of the worst movies ever, not something that "revolutionized" the genre.
On Robot Monsters the Archaeologists are trying to chip cave art off the wall instead of taking pictures of it. Dugh?
It is pronounced... Red a sourus... Not read a saurus
Thanks
Looking for a movie where Earthlings are kidnapped used to defend a planet by using their minds to Launch weapons made in the 50s
This Island Earth
James Arness was the thing