Lima

A film so brilliant and so masterfully orchestrated and built up in the second half that it brings me to tears. One of the distinctive cornerstones of the mosaic called "The Golden Era of Czechoslovak cinema of the 1960s", and clear proof (one of many) that it was at that time when the greatest works of cinema in this country were made. The performances of Kroner and Kaminska are superb, the film was a well-deserved worldwide success at the time of its release (as evidenced by the Oscar and the unique Oscar nomination for Kaminska, which was a year too late in the history of this award); it's a pity that it’s almost unknown to today's young generation.

Poster tagline: ONLY HELL COULD BREED SUCH AN ENORMOUS BEAST! ONLY GOD COULD DESTROY IT! Slightly more acceptable than Kellogg's The Killer Shrews (both films were screened in one evening for one ticket, a fairly common occurrence for short B-movies in the 1950s). Maybe, what prevents it to be a total dud is the likeable lead actor, or maybe it's the three quite nice songs or the more varied visuals. In any case, the special effects are also terrible, and there aren’t any, basically. The shots of the "real monster" (a lizard scurrying among miniatures) are spliced with the real shots in the film. Sometimes they fit together quite well, sometimes not at all, and overall it looks unintentionally comical, and the interactions with live characters, even with rear projections, are simply inexistent. They saved money were they could, it seems.

“I'm living in America, and in America, you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business. Now fucking pay me.” I don't know how this sounds to neo-liberals, but I would chisel these quote in stone.

Poster tagline: RAW PANIC! THE SCREEN NEVER DARED REVEAL! This film must be judged by the lens of the time and respect the filmmaking practices of the time, such as borrowing live footage of military equipment from other films (so feel free to ignore the stupid reviews here). The brilliant opening 20 minutes are like a worse Hitchcock – suspicion, fear, trying to understand "what the hell is going on?". Then when the cards are laid on the table, the first robot appears (which you’ll enjoy for about 5 minutes of the total runtime) and the army gets involved, the film gradually stops being that interesting and you just wait for the big finale, which somehow doesn't live up to expectations (unless we mean the ridiculous battle with one robot on the hotel balcony). I find the concept of a global catastrophe through the eyes of 6 people who avoided evacuation and are surviving a hotel interesting and, given the genre, refreshing. And so it doesn't matter that the robot invaders are not terrifying and look like Robot Emil from a popular Czech TV series from the 1960s. The twist, on the other hand, clearly indicates where Tim Burton found his inspiration in the way he disposed of the aliens in Mars Attacks.

Poster tagline: LIVING SKYSCRAPERS OF STONE THUNDERING ACROSS THE EARTH! Directorial legend Jack Arnold (author of the story) worked it out nicely. I've seen a lot of pieces from the Golden Age of 1950s Hollywood sci-fi and this is one of the most original in terms of the premise. There are no living extraterrestrial entities, no lost civilizations or mutated large (or small) creatures, just a fallen rock from space, which after contact with water becomes enormously large, and when touching it human skin loses its elasticity, turning the body into a kind of immobile shape. I'm surprised at the below-average rating here, because with a bit of tolerance (necessary for watching this kind of films) we can say that the filmmakers played their cards right. Quality actors, decently paced plot and very good special effects, lifelike and believable, even if there are not many of them. The sight of the countryside with its houses, behind whose walls menacing black massive crystals grow and crumble to the ominous sound of thunder, is a sight worth all the money. Within the sci-fi B-movie genre, the few FX sequences are unusually good, including the one at the end, which escalates the whole story, so I don't hesitate for a moment with an above-average rating this time.

Poster tagline: INDESCRIBABLE! INDESTRUCTIBLE! NOTHING CAN STOP IT! An entertaining sci-fi horror flick whose greatest strength is the fact that it was filmed in such a light-hearted way that balances out the wannabe scary moments when the alien slime sticks to the skin of the poor human victims and gradually consumes them. Further playing to the film is the fact that the dialogue is quite witty and snappy, the actors, led by budding charismatic Steve McQueen (playing a juvenile delinquent at 29), are also not to be dismissed, and colour wasn't exactly standard at the time either. The attack of the red slime on the cinema, or the pub, surpasses the special effects standards of the time (for low-budget productions, that is); in short, this piece, even nowadays replayed on overseas TV stations, remains quite fresh.

Poster tagline: THE NIGHTMARE TERROR OF THE SLITHERING EYE THAT UNLEASHED AGONIZING HORROR ON A SCREAMING WORLD! A cinematic summary of a popular TV series at the time, at first terribly chatty, but the last 15 minutes are literally an action-packed feast, with alien giant eyes frolicking on the roof of an observatory and fighter jets bombarding them from the air. The production design is modest but cute. They alternate only three interiors, basically: a mountain cabin, the interior of a hotel and an observatory. The outdoor shots are very sparse and even sometimes simulated by painted backdrops of mountain settings with and models of houses on the slopes. The alien eyes are fine, they catch people (puppets in real life) with their tentacles, but it must be said that the effects – the interaction of the puppets with the living environment – are not the film’s strongest point. The animated attacking corpses, four murders and the figure of a psychic enliven the rudimentary plot with a bit of mystery and horror. Add to that dialogues like: “You idiot! We nearly had him. Why did you let him go?” - “Didn't you see?” - “What are you talking about?” - “His head! It was torn off!” Yes, it is naive and silly, but in such a cute inoffensive way.

The most remarkable thing about this ultra-low-budget film is the fact that the producers were able to talk a then-popular country star, Miss Universe 1957, and the father of directing legend Sidney Lumet into it. The film's production design was really poor – the filmmakers made do with a single house surrounded by a high wooden fence somewhere in a not-so-lovely looking landscape and that's basically it. The visuals are lousy and unattractive, and the monsters themselves are the icing on the cake – killer "mutant rats", i.e. small greyhounds with long hair and sabre-like fangs. Every now and then they eat someone or break through a wall, and the only way to escape from them is in garbage cans. The way the attacks of the "monsters" are filmed (we put a stuffed animal's head in front of the camera, it somehow works) is really unintentionally funny and probably the only thing worth mentioning.

A cornerstone of the sci-fi boom of the 1950s; very serious and earnest, with groundbreaking special effects for the time. It has depictions of weightlessness (which the astronauts overcome with magnetic boots) and related scenes such as a tablet floating freely in the air, which one of the protagonists tries to swallow, lots of camera tricks, optical illusions and unconventional shots to achieve the visual impression of weightlessness. Then there's the ascent of the astronauts onto the rocket's casing in flight, when one of them falls into open space, unsecured, and his comrades try to capture him with the help of a rope and an air bomb. There are also shots from the surface of the moon (the entire final act, actually), where the movement of the astronauts under lower gravity is simulated with the clever use of invisible cables. At the beginning of the film, we are even graced with none other than Walt Disney, or rather his five-minute film, which humorously explains the physical principles and pitfalls of interplanetary flight. The only disappointment is the way the plot develops in the last act: too naive, like a cheap B-movie. Otherwise a great satisfaction and basically a "required reading" for sci-fi fans.

What I liked about this sci-fi movie was the honesty with which it was approached. Nice visuals with a moonscape with rocks and a lovely starry sky, solid rear projections that didn't hurt the eyes, and a tastefully used rocket model. Of course, in 1953 there wasn't much awareness of what the technical facilities of space exploration should look like, so given the times, today's viewer must not be surprised to see astronauts inside a spacecraft launching from Earth in shorts, overcoming gravity at launch in suspended loungers with a belt around their hips, wearing bathing caps on their heads, let alone weightlessness on the Moon. Heinlein's (who co-wrote the screenplay) vision of a future where the world is divided into several rival power blocs and women rule everything is just a bonus.