IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958)

IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958)

Tagline: $50,000 by a world-renowned insurance company to the first person who can prove that "It" is not on Mars now!

(Sci-Fi, Horror, Thrill Me!) [G]

Note – This movie did not originally have an MPAA rating, but I am pretty sure it would have been a G. 

There's only one kind of a monster that uses bullets.

In this one, the first time anyone gets to Mars, and all but 1 of the members of the mission are brutally murdered. A rescue rocket is sent to get the lone survivor who is actually suspected of pretty much all the murders. However, according to him, a beast killed his crew during a storm. That same beast is now about the vessel of the rescue mission. How about them apples? 

First off, Marshall Thompson who plays Col. Edward Carruthers is awesome in this role getting a lot of screen time. He is probably best known for 1955’s CULT OF THE COBRA. In fact, all of the acting was pretty incredible overall. The lead actress is Shirley Patterson who is best known for LAND UNKNOWN and WORLD WITHOUT END plays Ann Anderson. She is solid in this but actually got out of acting the following year after a brief role in the TV series called Frontier Doctor. Ann Doran plays Mary Royce in this and is pretty much the only other female in the movie (the wife of Eric Royce played by Dabbs Greer). Spalding also has the distinction of being in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, but was uncredited. I think that is what happens when you get to be on camera, but get asked to just not screw anything up. Dabbs Greer by the way is freakin awesome. He racked up a whopping 320 roles and was in everything from CON AIR to INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. 

Oddity. In Carruthers's story about the first doomed mission to Mars, he states that he was driving a jeep in the Mars sandstorm. So for all you Jeep owners out there…how is the handling on Mars?   

Second Oddity – Lt. James Calder mentions that Mars is almost as big as Texas and wonders if it’s got monsters. This is the second 1950’s space sci-fi movie that I know of that mentions both Texas and Mars. This also happens in ROCKETSHIP X-M only in that movie they are looking at earth from space when Texas is mentioned. They end up on Mars by mistake. 

The strong points of this movie are the score and acting. Probably the score because they did borrow most of it from KRONOS, but changed a few bars. I also liked the alien suit, but after the design alterations that actually made it on film, it ended up looking a LOT like the suit in THE MONSTER FROM PIEDRAS BLANCAS only better made and with more defined features in the brow and forehead area. The effects overall a pretty cool for the time. Another plus that doesn’t benefit us now, is that it was released in a double feature with CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN, that would have been an amazing back-to-back. 

Where this movie goes poorly I think is in the execution. It does unfortunately seem to drag in a few parts and I wasn’t crazy about the lighting overall. Having said that, it does still keep you on your toes wondering how the heck they are going to stop this thing. It seems like nothing can kill it. By the way, that also means that if IT! got in a fight with CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON or THE MONSTER FROM PIEDRAS BLANCAS it would totally decimate both. 

For me, this is a pretty solid sci-fi movie and the action is pretty cool when we get it. I would definitely watch this again, but it’s hard to find it streaming for free anywhere. I give this one a solid 5 out of 7. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF VOGUE PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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