Movie Listings by Genre

Director: Irving Pichel    More Info
Starring: John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, Dick Wesson, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Ted Warde, Mike Miller

 Potential problems encountered on the first lunar expedition are approached as four scientists head for the Moon. This film won the Academy Award for Special Effects and was one of the first of the sci-fi adventures that became so numerous.

Director: Mikel Conrad    More Info
Starring: Mikel Conrad, Pat Garrison, Hantz von Teuffen, Lester Sharpe, Russell Hicks, Frank Darien, Denver Pyle, Roy Engel, Garry Owens, Virginia Hewitt

 Playboy Mike Trent (Mikel Conrad) and Special Agent Vee Langley (Pat Garrison) search Alaska's pubs for any information from possible eyewitnesses to a UFO sighting. The "UFO" is discovered to be a Russian aircraft, and Soviet spies have their own use for the "UFO."

Director: Kurt Neumann    More Info
Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery Jr., Hugh O'Brian, Morris Ankrum, Patrick Aherne

 Headed for the moon, American scientists on a space mission encounter a meteor storm and veer off course to Mars where they learn that an earlier atomic war has devastated the planet.

Director: Robert Wise    More Info
Starring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray, Frances Bavier, Frank Conroy, Fay Roope, Tyler McVey, Harlan Warde

 Alien Klaatu (Michael Rennie) with his robot Gort (Lock Martin) make a trip to Earth to discover the nature of its people. If they don't like what they find, they, along with members of other alien planets, are prepared to destroy the Earth. When the Earthlings discover the aliens and their purpose, they become very intent on a plan to capture the two spy aliens. This film set the standard for sci-fi movies.

Director: Lesley Selander    More Info
Starring: Marguerite Chapman, Cameron Mitchell, Arthur Franz, Virginia Huston, John Litel, Morris Ankrum, Richard Gaines, Lucille Barkley, Robert Barrat, Edward Earle

 Trying to capitalize on the success of "Destination Moon," this film was the first color sci-fi effort. The first trip to Mars uncovers a civilization split between the bad guys (who want to take over the world) and the good guys. Can our heroes help out, or will they be beaten into submission?

Director: Sam Newfield    More Info
Starring: Cesar Romero, Hillary Brooke, Chick Chandler, John Hoyt, Acquanetta, Hugh Beaumont, Sid Melton, Whit Bissell, Murray Alper, William E. Green

 After a rocket crashes on a Pacific island, Major Joe Nolan (Cesar Romero) heads a team to find it and recover classified information. They come upon prehistoric animals–yes, including dinosaurs. They also encounter a young native woman (Acquanetta) who proves to be of value. Dated and poor special effects, but the film may interest some on a cold winter's day.

Director: Alexander Mackendrick    More Info
Starring: Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Michael Gough, Vida Hope, Ernest Thesiger, Howard Marion-Crawford, Duncan Lamont, Miles Malleson, Harold Goodwin

 When Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness) invents a textile, which will not get dirty or wear out, the world beats a path to his door–to prevent him from producing his new cloth! Textile workers and owners of mills see their livelihoods in jeopardy.

Director: Christian Nyby    More Info
Starring: James Arness, Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer, James R. Young, Dewey Martin, Robert Nichols, Eduard Franz, John Dierkes

 This is the classic film about an enemy, The Thing (James Arness), from outer space whose UFO has crashed at an Arctic radar post. Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) accidentally explodes the UFO ship, but The Thing remains frozen in ice. An electric blanket is used to thaw The Thing, but it escapes and goes on a rampage. Now, the U.S. Army matches wits with its unwelcome "guest" as the suspense mounts, and they try to stop The Thing before it destroys Earth.

Director: Terry O. Morse    More Info
Starring: Victor Kilian, Bruce Kellogg, Otto Waldis, Jim Bannon, Marilyn Nash, Tom Handley, Dick Cogan, George Baxter

 With bomb shelters being "the thing" in the 1950s, this film comes up with a sure winner for a shelter: the center of the Earth. A team led by scientist Jeremiah Morley (Victor Kilian) builds a giant drilling machine to do just that. And the expedition begins, with hazards sure to lie ahead.

Director: Rudolph Mate    More Info
Starring: Richard Derr, Barbara Rush, Peter Hanson, John Hoyt, Larry Keating, Sandro Giglio, Alden "Stephen" Chase, Frank Cady, Hayden Rorke, John Ridgely

 This movie is interesting to watch if only to compare special effects and how they have progressed over the years. The story is about a doomed planet and pilgrims moving on to another world. An Oscar was awarded for Best Special Effects.

Director: Fred C. Brannon    More Info
Starring: George Wallace, Aline Towne, Roy Barcroft, William Bakewell, Clayton Moore, Peter Brocco, Bob Stevenson, Don Walters, Tom Steele, Dale Van Sickel

 This very low budget, 12-episode serial pokes a little fun at the sci-fi films of the early 1950s. Defenses on Earth are being destroyed, and super commando Cody (George Wallace), with his flying suit, is assigned the task of finding out why it is happening. It turns out that the power-crazed Retik (Roy Barcroft), the ruler of the Moon, is softening up Earth's defenses in order to wage war. Can Cody and his arsenal of inventions save the Earth?

Director: Harry Horner    More Info
Starring: Peter Graves, Andrea King, Orley Lindgren, Bayard Veiller, Walter Sande, Marvin Miller, Herbert Berghof, Willis Bouchey, Morris Ankrum, Tom Keene

 Radio waves are received from Mars; the message is that if God is worshipped, Earth can be as great as Mars. But, are the messages really from Mars? Could the word "Red" in the movie title have anything to do with Communism?

Director: Eugene Lourie    More Info
Starring: Paul Hubschmid, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey, Donald Woods, Jack Pennick, Lee Van Cleef, Steve Brodie, Ross Elliott, Frank Ferguson

 Nuclear testing in the Arctic results in the release of a frozen, prehistoric monster (a rhedosaurus), but when Tom Nesbitt (Paul Hubschmid), who saw the creature, tries to warn the people, his warnings fall on deaf ears. People start to believe when the monster heads down the East coast of the U.S. and invades New York from the sea. It is finally dealt with on Coney Island. Good early special effects and a glimmer of what would lie ahead in the monster world (e.g. Godzilla).

Director: Arthur Hilton    More Info
Starring: Sonny Tufts, Victor Jory, Marie Windsor, William Phipps, Douglas Fowley, Carol Brewster, Susan Morrow, Suzanne Alexander, Bette Arlen, Roxann Delman

 Commander Laird Grainger (Sonny Tufts) and his space ship co-pilot Kip Reissner (Victor Jory) take off for an expedition to the "back" side of the moon. Others in the crew are navigator Helen Salinger (Marie Windsor), Doug Smith (William Phipps), and Walt Walters (Douglas Fowley). When they land on the moon, they discover an underground empire of women, led by Alpha (Carol Brewster). They are the last members of an old civilization, and, after hypnotizing Helen, they plot to learn how to operate the ship so that they can steal it and head for Earth. Remade as "Missile to the Moon."

Director: Terence Fisher    More Info
Starring: James Hayter, Stephen Murray, Barbara Payton, John Van Eyssen, Percy Marmont, John Stuart, Kynaston Reeves, Sean Barrett

 After losing his girlfriend, a scientist invents a duplicating machine in which he clones his lost love–only to find more of the same old problems in the new woman's personality.

Director: William Cameron Menzies    More Info
Starring: Jimmy Hunt, Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Morris Ankrum, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke, Milburn Stone, Walter Sande, Max Wagner, John Eldredge

 This is a good sci-fi flick, especially considering the age. The special effects are left to the end of the film, as a boy sees strange lights in the sky, followed by the townsfolk acting strangely. It was remade in 1986.

Director: Jack Arnold    More Info
Starring: Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, Charles Drake, Russell Johnson, Kathleen Hughes, Joe Sawyer, Dave Willock, Alan Dexter, George Eldredge, Edgar Dearing

 This is the prototype for movies about creatures from outer space who take over bodies of people on earth.

Director: W. Lee Wilder    More Info
Starring: Ted Cooper, Rudolph Anders, Noreen Nash, Harry Landers, James Seay, Jack Daly, Lela Nelson, Dick Sands, Michael Mark, Steve Clark

 An alien crash-lands in California and kills two people who are spooked by him. While being chased by the police, he takes off the spacesuit and guess what: the alien is invisible. But the creature has one fatal flaw that should prove useful to the authorities. Slow.

Director: Phil Tucker    More Info
Starring: George Nader, Claudia Barrett, Selena Royle, John Mylong, Gregory Moffett, Pamela Paulson, George Barrows, John Brown

 "The Great One" sends Ro-Man, a gorilla-like monster in a diver's helmet, to Earth with the task of killing humans. All goes well, and we're down to one last family when Ro-Man begins to display human-like emotions. Ultra-low budget, and yes, it is worthy of being a candidate for the "10 worst movies" list. In fact, Director Tucker attempted suicide after reading the reviews following the film's release.

Director: Terence Fisher    More Info
Starring: Howard Duff, Eva Bartok, Alan Wheatley, Philip Leaver, Andrew Osborn, Michael Medwin, Anthony Ireland, David Horne, Marianne Stone, Cecile Chevreau

 Espionage confronts an American wife whose extramarital affair hinges on her delivery of U.S. government secrets. Her rocket scientist husband (Duff) is helping the British with their first satellite, and when his wife and her lover, a Russian spy, disappear it is assumed that he killed them and sent them into space. How will he prove himself innocent?

Director: Arch Oboler    More Info
Starring: Hans Conried, Billy Lynn, Gloria Blondell, Janet Warren, Edwin Max, Evelyn Beresford, Norman Field, Al Jarvis, Alice Backes, Connie Marshall

 Comedy is the name of the game when a robot takes over the life of a college professor.

Director: Byron Haskin    More Info
Starring: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Lewis Martin, Cedric Hardwicke, Robert Cornthwaite, Jack Kruschen, Henry Brandon, Sandro Giglio, William Phipps

 This imaginative film earned the Academy Award for Best Special Effects. It relates H. B. Wells' story about a Martian invasion that is stopped short when a bacteria invades the aliens' bloodstream.

Director: Richard Fleischer    More Info
Starring: Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, Robert J. Wilke, Carleton Young, Ted de Corsia, Eddie Marr, Percy Helton, Fred Graham

 Captain Nemo (James Mason) and his submarine, Nautilus, fill the screen with the adventures imagined by Jules Verne in his classic novel. Many whaling ships have been lost at sea when Professor Pierre Aronnax (Paul Lukas), his aide Conseil (Peter Lorre), and harpoon master Ned Land (Kirk Douglas) voyage out in search of the sea monster that is supposedly sinking the ships. Their ship sinks, but they survive and are taken aboard Nautilus. They discover that the sea monster is actually the Nautilus, and they are amazed by the undersea world that greets them. Highlight: Kirk Douglas singing "A Whale of a Tale." The film won Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Special Effects and was nominated for Best Film Editing.

Director: Jack Arnold    More Info
Starring: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva, Whit Bissell, Ben Chapman, Rodd Redwing, Bernie Gozier, Ricou Browning

 Originally a 3-D thriller, this is the story of a scientific expedition that discovers a half-man/half-fish creature (underwater scenes played by Ricou Browning and those on land played by Ben Chapman) in a lagoon along the Amazon River. Those on the expedition include David Reed (Richard Carlson), Mark Williams (Richard Denning) and Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams). They catch the creature, tranquilize it, and bring it aboard. But, the creature manages to escape, kidnaps Kay, and the terror continues.

Director: David MacDonald    More Info
Starring: Hugh McDermott, Hazel Court, Patricia Laffan, Peter Reynolds, Adrienne Corri, Joseph Tomelty, John Laurie, Sophie Stewart, Anthony Richmond, James Edmund

 Assorted people at a Scottish inn receive a visit from black leather-jacketed Martian Nyah (Patricia Laffan) and her robot. She's beautiful, but ruthless, and tells them that a revolution on Mars resulted in a takeover by women, and she is after healthy males for use as breeding stock. Bizarre but sort of fun.