This Island Earth (1954)

[Foxbat]

That's a fine picture of the beautiful Faith Domergue, mr kite.

This Island Earth is available in fairly inexpensive SF collection boxed sets now.

[Metryq]

Originally Posted by clovis-man

Suffice to say, a reasonably entertaining film was made from a convoluted and tedious written story.

Say what? The novella made perfect sense. It was the movie that was all over the map. And I had to laugh after reading the blurb on the DVD box about the visual FX taking two years to complete. I think it is more likely that the film got shelved for two years, or ran out of money, being rapidly completed two years later with the cheapest of methods just to get it out the door. It's a good thing I found the disc in a bargain bin. If I had paid some outlandish price to see this vaunted "sci-fi classic with awesome VFX," somebody would have died slowly and painfully for not refunding my money.

The above image is one of the frames showing a car being chased down and shot up by some alien beam weapon. I can guarantee that the beam was made by scratching the film emulsion with the point of a pin—because I did such animation in a film class and know what it looks like. The red tint to the frame may have been done by inking the film directly, after scratching it. Although the "halo" around the scratches looks like the after effects of an optical printer. (Meaning the scratched film was duped with a red gel in the optical printer, and the halo was actually uncontrolled halation that happened to help. But it was certainly not intentionally back-lit animation.)

It's really weird to find such cheaper-than-cheap techniques being used side-by-side with matte paintings and properly animated beams elsewhere in the production. My best guess is that the project was compromised at some point, then finished in a quick and dirty fashion—perhaps missing several scripted scenes. That, at least, would explain the choppy and nonsensical plot.

[mr kite]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

That's a fine picture of the beautiful Faith Domergue, mr kite.

This Island Earth is available in fairly inexpensive SF collection boxed sets now.

Or £3.99 at Amazon
She was a fine looking women .
Kinda a 50`s Scully .
Uncanny or what.






And thats a cracking Avatar you have there Foxbat.

[clovis-man]

Originally Posted by mr kite

Ah, yes. Faith Domergue. Yet another product of the Howard Hughes casting couch. She really couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. But, in the days of my youth, I have to admit to being quite interested in the scene in which she and Rex Reason jump into the pond. Not the jumping in part, but the getting out part.

[Starbeast]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

That's a fine picture of the beautiful Faith Domergue, mr kite.

At times I couldn't keep my eyes off of her in the movie, no matter what was going on.

Originally Posted by mr kite

She was a fine looking women .
Kinda a 50`s Scully .
Uncanny or what.

I disagree old chum, Faith had big dreamy eyes, no freckles and black hair.

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by Metryq

Say what? The novella made perfect sense. It was the movie that was all over the map. And I had to laugh after reading the blurb on the DVD box about the visual FX taking two years to complete. I think it is more likely that the film got shelved for two years, or ran out of money, being rapidly completed two years later with the cheapest of methods just to get it out the door. It's a good thing I found the disc in a bargain bin. If I had paid some outlandish price to see this vaunted "sci-fi classic with awesome VFX," somebody would have died slowly and painfully for not refunding my money.

I know this film has its faults but I think I was only about ten years old the first time I watched it. It utterly blew me away and left me wild eyed and hungry for more Science Fiction. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this movie (plus The Time Travelers and War Of The Worlds) are the ones chiefly responsible for my love of SF (especially 50s and 60s SF).

Even all these years later when I see faults that my younger eyes never noticed, I cannot help but feel a certain tenderness towards this film. Frankly, it made me the fool I am today

[mr kite]

Originally Posted by Starbeast

At times I couldn't keep my eyes off of her in the movie, no matter what was going on.



I disagree old chum, Faith had big dreamy eyes, no freckles and black hair.

You know I can`t resist a redhead Starbeast

[steve12553]

I've always been a big fan of the film. As to the special effects I was very impressed. If it took 2 years to do them and the film was released in 1954, the techniques are 61 years old now. No computers. Nothing digital. Several generations of film ago. You would have a hard time topping them with what was available. Sixty years from now most of the CGI effect films will be recognized as the garbage they are because they don't translate into interactive hologram very well. But there will still be those of us around appreceating the old classics because they were done with the best skills available at the time.


P.S. I fell in love with Faith Domergue the first time I saw her in a film also.

[Foxbat]

Perhaps we should start a Faith Domergue Appreciation Society

[clovis-man]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Perhaps we should start a Faith Domergue Appreciation Society

Well, if you're going to do that, I think you'd have to get in line behind some other beauteous brunettes of the time, e.g., Barbara Rush (When Worlds Collide, It Came From Outer Space), Julia Adams (Creature From The Black Lagoon) and Ann Robinson (War of the Worlds).

[steve12553]

Originally Posted by clovis-man

Well, if you're going to do that, I think you'd have to get in line behind some other beauteous brunettes of the time, e.g., Barbara Rush (When Worlds Collide, It Came From Outer Space), Julia Adams (Creature From The Black Lagoon) and Ann Robinson (War of the Worlds).

Wonderful choices. They were the second most important part of the movies. (Right after the monsters in my elementary school mind)