Strategic Communication Senior Lecturer, La Trobe University, Melbourne: Australia.
I Married A Monster From Outer Space (1958) was one of the final efforts in the alien subversion cycle. The film had many of the elements of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Aliens had been quietly taking over the bodies of people of a small American town. The central takeover was that of Bill Farell, played by Tom Tryon, who was newly married to Marge, played by Gloria Talbott. Marge suspected something was seriously wrong with Bill. She followed him into the woods to find that he was meeting with his fellow aliens. Marge tried to contact Washington, but the operator told her all the lines were down, and so she then tried to leave town, but was stopped by a police roadblock. The aliens had taken over the police force and even her godfather had been replaced. Eventually she convinced Dr Wayne of her story and he formed a posse to enter the woods. After a brief struggle, they released the real townspeople who had wires attached to their heads to feed the aliens with their memories. The aliens were destroyed and order was returned.
I Married a Monster from Outer Space reflected the themes developed in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster.
The plan of the aliens was to mate with earth women and eventually take over the world. There is a clear amount of sexual tension. The above image shows the power less female in the hands of the ugly alien. Again communism is a form of seduction, close to a form of rape. It was a subtle variation on the themes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The aliens were once again ruthless and emotionless. They killed when under any kind of threat. The alien double for Bill even strangled a puppy. The key scenes in the film were Marge’s attempts to tell people about the aliens. She found the authorities overtaken by the aliens. It was perhaps notable that it was the townspeople who freed themselves without the assistance of Washington. The pattern was repeated less successfully in a number of other science fiction films and it even spawned a short lived television series called The Invaders.
Strategic Communication Senior Lecturer, Melbourne: Australia.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) was the cinematic pinnacle of the paranoia about subversion. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) was the cinematic pinnacle of the paranoia about subversion. It was a popular film at the time of its release and his remained one of the most critically acclaimed of the 1950s science fiction films. Dr Miles Bennell, played by Kevin McCarthy, returned to Santa Mira, a small town in Southern Califiornia. His nurse told him that there appeared to be a serious malady in the town and people were saying that their friends and relatives were lacking full emotion. He saw a few cases with these symptoms and could not find a reason for the malady. After further investigation, he found mysterious plants which began to resemble people and then take over them while they sleep. Miles found that the police force had been taken over by these pods. Eventually he escaped from Santa Mira with pod people following him. He was found hysterically wandering along a highway screaming ‘You’re next. They’re coming. You’re next.’[1] He finally alerted the authorities and the audience assumed that all will be well as Washington had been called. For a low budget film, it received solid publicity form Allied Artists whose executives were shattered by the initial viewing. Producer Walter Wanger insisted on a softer ending which explained the odd first and last scenes. The ending was still strong, but there was a not of reassurance when a doctor decided to call the authorities.[2] The changes probably helped the film’s success. The film originally ended with Kevin McCarthy running dazedly down the freeway, screaming ‘You’re next. You’re next. The original ending in the script had Miles struck by a car. Miles is found muttering ‘burn them. Burn them! There’s no escape … No time to waste. Unless you do, you’ll be next.’ The producers made Siegel tack on an introductory scene and a final scene where Washington is notified. The ending of the novel has Becky and Miles facing the enemy and deciding to make a final stand against the pods despite certain capture. They manage to burn some of the pod people by pouring petrol into a ditch. They are captured but the pods decide that the planet is too inhospitable and fly off into space. Santa Mira is saved.
Interpretations differ wildly about the film, from the anti-McCarthyism to anti-communism to anti-conformism. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster.
The pod people were regimented society and lacked any signs of individuality. The vegetable metaphor had connotations with the growth of communism in fertile American soil, similar to the alien in The Thing. The pod people were cold and emotionless with few personal feelings about life. They do not even wince when a dog was run over in front of them. Their way of life was extremely organised and authoritarian.
Interpretations differ wildly about the film, from the anti-McCarthyism to anti-communism to anti-conformism. The anti-McCarthyist interpretation argues that it is American authorities which are being controlled by the pods. The pods control the government, law enforcement agencies and communications and enforce the political line of the country. The pods represented the McCarthyite forces in America attempting to strip away all political opposition. And the film certainly does mirror the hysteria, the sense of paranoia, the authoritarian police and the witch-hunt atmosphere, but there are too many holes in the argument. One critical scene was a speech by one of the pod people who talked to Miles about the world under the pod people. The philosophy was that there will ne no feeling, no free will, no moral choice, no anger, no tears, no pain, no passion and no emotion. It will mean being ‘reborn into an untroubled world, where everybody’s exactly the same.’[3] In this world, there is no need for love or emotion. ‘Love, ambition, desire, faith – without them, life is so simple.’ the alien explained.[4] The alien of The Thing had resurfaced in human form. In response, Miles said ‘only when we have to fight to stay human, do we realise how precious our humanity is.’[5] From this speech it was difficult to see how the film could be read as anything other than fear of communism. In the pod society, there were no emotions, and while that meant no love, it also ruled out hate, war, and crimes of passion. It would be a world without discord. To Americans in the late 1950s, a society which denied freedom of thought – or emotions – was a communist society. The arguments about Invasion of the Body Snatchers being anti-McCarthyite are clever but not convincing.
Film historian Stuart Samuels’ view was that the pods represented the spectre of conformity in American life. The popular books of the 1950s were Reisman’s The Lonely Crowd, Whyte’s The Organisational Man and Packard’s The Status Seekers which depicted a society that was moving away form rugged individualism to the security of the group. The group demanded conformity in exchange for economic security.[6] The film was against social conformity, but it was the conformity forced on a community by an invader. Samuels’ argument that it was an attack on social conformity ignores one important scene which was almost a carbon copy from the anti-communist film Red Nightmare. In the scene, the townspeople gathered in the central square to receive their orders for the day. A jeep drove up and military official handed out orders and pods were distributed. Noel Carroll in the Soho News described the scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers as the ‘quintessential Fifties image of socialism.’[7] People were not only stripped of personality, but regimented to take over the rest of the United States. It was a vision of communism first subverting and then overthrowing the United States.
[1] Al LaValley, (ed.) Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Rutgers University Press, London, 1989.
[6] Stuart Samuels, The Age of Conspiracy and Conformity: Invasion of the Body Snatchers in John E. O’Connor, and Martin A. Jackson (ed.). American History/ American Film: Interpreting the Hollywood Image, Continuum, New York, 1988, pp. 203 – 219.
[7] Danny Peary, Cult Movies, Vermillion, UK, 1982, p. 157.
The themes of fears of nuclear weapons, communist subversion and invasion were continued in Them! (1954). Image courtesy of eMoviePoster.com.
Kevin Brianton
Strategic Communication Senior Lecturer, Melbourne: Australia.
Subversion, literally having the political ground taken away from you is a constant theme in American political culture. “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” is an essay by American historian Richard J. Hofstadter, first published in Harper’s Magazine in November 1964; and it served as the title essay of a book by the author in the same year. The book dealt with these ideas, which he related back through American history.
The Communist threat shown in the film starts right away with the film’s title card in Them! (1954), the only thing in colour for the entire run of the film, the word Them! which is in brilliant red. Then of course, there is the hive mind, of the ants, and the fact that they now threaten the American way of life! The fears of nuclear weapons, communist subversion and invasion were continued. It is one film that deals with an amalgam of fears. The film began with a girl in shock, wandering through the desert. The only thing she would said was ‘Them!’[1] Police searched the desert and discovered that several people had been killed or were missing and that great damage had been done to houses, cars and caravans. The local cop on the case, Sergeant Ben Peterson, played by James Whitmore, was soon joined by FBI agent Robert Graham, played by James Arness, and scientists Dr Harold Medford, played by Edward Gwenn, and his daughter Robyn, played by Joan Weldon. Giant mutant ants, products of nuclear bomb testing were ravaging the area. Peterson, Graham and Medford found and burned out a nest of ants in the desert. But the queen ants had already escaped and they were traced to the sewers of Los Angeles. In the finale, the Peterson and Graham searched the sewer for two boys who were trapped inside. The boys were rescued and the ants were burnt to death.
In one scene, Dr Medford lectured members of the senior armed forces on the danger of the ants:
Apart form man, … ants are the only creatures on earth that make war. They campaign. They are chronic aggressors and they make slave labourers of captors, they don’t kill. None of the ants previously seen by men were little more than an inch in length. Most are considerably under that size. But even the most minute of them have an instinct for talent and industry and social organisation and savagery that makes man look feeble by comparison.[2]
He then continued on about the problems of failing to eradicate the ants:
… Unless these queens are located and destroyed before they establish more colonies and heaven knows how many more queens, out man goes as he dominant species within a year.[3]
It is tempting to simply replace the word ‘ant’ or ‘queens with ‘communist’ and the word ‘man’ with ‘United States’, and the word ‘species’ with ‘nation’. Near the conclusion of he film, the people of Los Angeles were told of their peril:
By direction of the President of the United States, the Governor of the State of California and the Mayor of Los Angeles in the interests of public safety is hereby declared martial law … Curfew is at 1800 hours. Any persons on the street or outside their quarters by 6 pm will be subject to arrest by military police. Now for the reasons for this most drastic decision. A couple of months ago in the desert of New Mexico, a colony of giant ants were discovered. They are similar in appearance and character to the household ant you are familiar with. Except they are mutated, ranging in size from more than 12 feet in length. The New Mexico colony was destroyed but two queen ants escaped. One has been accounted for and destroyed, but the other has not yet been found. It is now known to have established a nest in the storm drains beneath the streets of Los Angeles. It is not known how long or how many of these lethal monsters have hatched. Maybe a few, maybe thousands. If new queen ants have hatched and escaped this nest other American cities may be in danger. These creatures are extremely dangerous. They have already killed a number of persons. Stay in your homes. I repeat stay in your homes. Your personal safety, the safety of the entire city, is dependent on your full co-operation with the military authorities.[4]
The links between communism and the ants were quite clear. If they were not destroyed, they would crush the United States. There was no room for compromise or doubt. As a scientist, Dr Medford was now firmly in step with the military and there was a need for the suppression of civil rights to fight the monsters. Before the news became public, one man was a witness to the ants in flight and was locked up in an insane asylum by the Government before he could tell his story to the public. A doctor asked when could the man be released and was told: ‘The Government will tell you when he is well.’[5] Individual liberties were quickly forfeited involuntarily when faced with the threat form the ants. To survive, you must fully co-operate with the military authorities. That implied co-operation with HUAC or any other government organisation. A constitutional or human right could not be weighed against survival.
The image of nests of ants festering beneath American cities waiting to lash out and destroy the American way of life was unsettling. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster.com.
The image of nests of ants festering beneath American cities waiting to lash out and destroy the American way of life was unsettling. All was the same on the surface, but a threat existed which grew steadily beneath normal life. These threats were spreading from city to city. The only way to thwart these dangers was to fully co-operate with the all –knowing authorities. These authorities may diminish civil liberties, constitutional rights, even human rights, but that is because the threat was so near and so dangerous. Them! Was one of the most explicit statements by the American Right about communist menace within the science fiction genre. It stated that the way to fight the communist menace within the United States was to curtail personal freedoms in order to safeguard the nation.
Despite it extreme views, Them! Had a strong anti-nuclear theme. At its conclusion, Dr Medford, his daughter Robyn and FBI agent Robert Graham watched the burning embers of the giant ants.
ROBERT GRAHAM:
If these monsters got started as a result of the first atomic bomb, what about all those others that have been exploded since.
ROBYN MEDFORD:
I don’t know.
DR MEDFORD:
Nobody knows, Robyn. When man invented the atomic age, he opened a door to new world. Who knows what we will eventually find in that new world.[6]
The camera panned over the heads of the crowd towards the burning flames coming from the ant bodies. It was a chilling ending and touched the other central concern of the time – the fear of nuclear weapons. It was the scientists who had unleashed this new force in the world and it was the scientists and the military who worked in concert to smash it. To finish the film with a shot of flames underlined where the director Douglas thought nuclear weapons would take the world; into the fire.
It was the scientists who had unleashed this new force in the world and it was the scientists and the military who worked in concert to smash it. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster.
[1]Them! Warner, (d) Gordon Douglas, Ted Sherdeman.
George Pal’s War of the Worlds (1952) was an adaption of the H.G. Wells novel about Martian invasion of Earth updated to the 1950s. The issue of appeasement was raised in a different manner. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster
Kevin Brianton
Strategic Communication Senior Lecturer, Melbourne: Australia.
George Pal’s War of the Worlds (1952) was an adaption of the H.G. Wells novel about Martian invasion of Earth updated to the 1950s. The issue of appeasement was raised in a different manner. In one scene, three men approached a Martian ship, while one waved a white flag. The group was blasted to bits by the invaders. In The Thing, there was conflict between scientists and the military, in War of the Worlds the scientists and the military, in War of the Worlds the scientists were shown to be in concert with the military. Their attempts to use nuclear weapons failed badly, but it was their failure which showed the power of God.
The religious faith of the people was the ultimate defence against invaders. In the final scene, people prayed in churches for divine intervention as the Martian war machines that moved inexorably towards them blasting everything to rubble. The priest led the prayers saying:
… Deliver us from the fear which has become upon us, form the evil that grows even nearer, from the terror that soon will knock upon the door of this our house … Oh Lord, we pray, grant us the miracle of thy intervention.[1]
The words in this speech are interesting. The Martians are ‘the evil’, ‘the terror’, and ‘the fear’, they are not seen as an invading army. When the Martians finally fired at the church, they were struck down as the earth’s bacteria and viruses began to take hold. The voice over says:
After all that men could do had failed, the Martians were defeated by the littlest thing that God in his wisdom had put upon this earth.[2]
God would intervene where everything else had failed, just as it was hoped that God would intervene to save America if needed. It was a message of reassurance. The world was in ruins, but they had survived. Even the strength and technology of the Martians was no match for the power of God.
Scenes of destruction were quite common in alien invasion films. In Earth Vs The Flying Saucers (1956), the attack on Washington reminded the audience of the destructive potential of an all-out Russian nuclear attack. The film was released at the time of the Sputnik launch and it had a resonance far greater than its makers and probably realised. Stephen King remembered the impact it had on him as a child. Just before seeing the film, it was announced to the audience that the USSR had launched Sputnik.
Scenes of destruction were quite common in alien invasion films. In Earth Vs The Flying Saucers (1956), the attack on Washington reminded the audience of the destructive potential of an all-out Russian nuclear attack. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster.
Those greedy, twisted monsters piloting the saucers are really the Russians; the destruction of the Washington Monument, the Capitol dome, and the Supreme Court – all rendered with graphic eerie believability by Harryhausen stop-motion effects – becoming nothing less than the destruction one would expect when the A bombs finally fly.
And then the end of the movie comes. The last saucer has been shot down by Hugh Marlowe’s secret weapon, an ultrasonic gun that interrupts the electromagnetic magnetic drive of the flying saucers, or some sort of similar agreeable foolishness. Loudspeakers blare from every Washington street corner, seemingly: “The present danger … is over.” The camera shows us clear skies. He evil old monsters with their frozen snarls and their twisted-root faces have been vanquished.[3]
For King, the paradoxical trick of cinema had worked. The horror had been taken in hand, and used to destroy itself. The deeper fear of the threat of the Russian Sputnik had been excised.[4]
In a time of fear, audiences were drawn to films with monsters with incredible powers. The defeat of these monsters in the film was an important psychological victory for the audience. In horror films, it was vital that the monsters were gruesome, powerful and dangerous. The more gruesome and the more dangerous, the better. For if these monsters could be destroyed, then the United States could face the worst horrors created by the Russians. The horror element of science fiction films was crucial to their success as it provided the momentary release from people’s fears. As the 1950s progressed, the aliens tended to be more and more belligerent. This may have been due to the influence of studios wary of any taint of liberalism in their films. But that would be unlikely, as science fiction, like westerns and musicals, were seen as simple entertainment, and provided there was no overt political message, the writers and directors could do pretty much as they pleased. It was more likely that audiences of the 1950s wanted scary aliens and they got them.
[1]War of the Worlds, (d) Byron Haskin, Barre Lynon.
[2]War of the Worlds op cit. The line was from the original H.G. Wells novel War of The Worlds.
The Day The Earth Stood Still did not depict communists or communism directly, but the fears of nuclear annihilation and communism were linked. Image courtesy of EmoviePoster
Kevin Brianton
Strategic Communication Senior Lecturer, Melbourne: Australia.
By far the most popular type of science fiction film in the 1950s were the alien invasion films. The peak of their popularity was in the early to mid 1950s which also matched the most unsettling time of the cold war. The cycle of alien invasion films began in earnest in America with two films in 1951, The Thing and The Day the Earth Stood Still. These films were remarkably similar in structure but contain almost diametrically opposed ideas. The tension in the films clustered around the relationship between the scientists, military and alien invaders. The scientist was depicted in both films as being allied with humanitarian or liberal groups and being allied with humanitarian or liberal groups and being in conflict with the military in how to deal with the aliens. In The Day the Earth Stood Still, an alien flying saucer landed in Washington with an important message to the people of the world. The politicians didn’t want to talk to the alien as a group because of mutual suspicions and hatreds, while the military just wanted to blast him. The alien Klaatu, played by Michael Rennie, seemed to be a sober non-threatening being with exceptional intelligence. He had great power at his command and with a few twirls of the dial of the saucer could bring the world to a momentary halt. The military reacted to this demonstration by wanting him destroyed, while the scientists wanted to hear his message. Klaatu’s message was that the world must stop the spread of nuclear of weapons or face destruction.
Screenwriter Edmund H. North and director Robert Wise played on the sympathies of the American audience by showing Klaatu admiring the Lincoln monument. He told a child that Lincoln looked like a great man, the type of man who would listen to his important message to the world. The child replied that there was a man like that working in Washington called Dr Barnhardt. By using the icon of Lincoln in the film, the screenwriter and director were indicating to the audience that Klaatu’s message was important and correct. North and Wise then linked the wisdom of Lincoln to the scientists. The scientist Dr Barnhardt was obviously based on the brilliant physicist Albert Einstein, who was another icon of scientific and philosophical wisdom in the 1950s.[1] By combing the icon on Einstein, who represented scientific wisdom with Lincoln, who represented political wisdom, the filmmakers were packaging their message for an American audience. Even further, Klaatu was brought back to life when killed by the military, perhaps indicating a spiritual dimension to his message as well.
The Day The Earth Stood Still did not depict communists or communism directly, but the fears of nuclear annihilation and communism were linked. Communism was not only a political threat to the United States, but since the development of nuclear weapons, it carried the threat of physical extinction. The liberal vision of a planetary United Nations protecting common interests was one of the few positive images of the science fiction films of the 1950s. The Day The Earth StoodStill belonged with the brief flowering of liberal films of the early 1950s. It argued that nations should meet to thrash out their differences before it was too late. Time and time again, it referred to the world’s ‘petty squabbles’ with a tone to suggest that they were adolescent temper tantrums. The world should grow up and put aside nuclear weapons as ways of resolving disputes. This would mean negotiation and discussions with the Russians which was brave suggestion in 1951. Despite its popularity, The Day the Earth Stood Still did not begin a cycle of science fiction films with liberal leanings. Although It Came From Outer Space (1953) was a notable exception, the vast majority of aliens in popular science fiction films of the 1950s were hostile towards the aliens.
Made at the same time as The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Thing had a quite different view of the world. The alien was a pure and simple menace which would not be negotiated with and had to be destroyed. A saucer landed in the Arctic near the North Pole and the military outpost stationed there was sent out to investigate. They discovered flying saucer under the ice and a frozen alien. The saucer was accidently destroyed, but the alien was taken back to camp encased in ice.
The crucial conflict in the film was not with the alien but between the military and the scientists over how to deal with the alien. The scientists wanted to communicate with the alien in order to benefit mankind, while the military wanted to destroy it in order to save mankind. The scientists headed by Dr Carrington believed that ‘There are no enemies in science, just phenomenon to study.’[2] He didn’t realise the enormous threat from the alien, although he described it in chilling terms. IT was a creature without ‘pain or pleasure’ which Dr Carrington envied for having ‘no emotions and no heart’.[3] The communist system in Russia was also viewed as ‘scientific’, a system which worked along rational principles but ignored the role of the individual. Carrington represented all these fears.[4]
Near the conclusion of the film, the tensions between the scientists and the military came to a head as Dr Carrington approached the rampaging alien to talk of peace. Carrington was killed by the alien which then meets its doom at the hands of the military. Screenwriter Ledered and Director Nyby – with the assistance of veteran Howard Hawks – were saying that in times of threat such as during the Cold War, scientists must defer to the military. Scientists had to be geared to national interests. When the scientist joined forces with the military, then the alien forces could be destroyed.
Made at the same time as The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Thing had a quite different view of the world. The alien was a pure and simple menace which would not be negotiated with and had to be destroyed. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster
The image of Dr Carrington being knocked aside was one which constantly recurred in films of the 1950s. Horror writer Stephen King believed The Thing was the first movie of the 1950s to show the scientist in the role of the misguided appeaser.[5] He wrote that for the average America, the scientists were deservedly vilified in American cinema in the 1950s as it was this group which had developed the atomic bomb and ushered in the nuclear age. According to King, when Dr Carrington faced the alien, the image that would have come into the minds of the American audience was Hitler and Chamberlain.[6] Appeasement by the United Kingdom had led to a dreadful war with Nazi Germany which had almost been lost. It was better to fight than to appease. When the alien pushed Carrington aside, an American audience could only see it in political terms. Enemies had to be dealt with using a firm hand from the military.
The alien in The Thing was a popular depiction of communism. It was a mobile vegetable and its seeds were planted in soil at the laboratory and they quickly grew. If the alien escaped to more fertile ground, such as the Untied States – it could threaten the world. This alien must be contained and stopped from going any further. In other words, if the alien was not stopped at any early stage, then the threat would simply grow until it became impossible to resist. This was the logic of Cold War containment which drive the United States into the Korean War and later to the Vietnam War. To reinforce the point, after the alien had been destroyed, newspaperman Scotty warned people to remain vigilant: ‘Keep watching the skies. Keep watching the skies.’[7]
It was the message and the images contained in The Thing that really dominated American science fiction cinema for the next six or seven years. Appeasement meant destruction and appeasers were either traitors or fools who ended getting killed. Despite its low budget, The Thing was one of the most successful science fiction films of the year, narrowly edging out The Day the Earth Stood Still.[8] The success of these two films reflected an uncertainty by Americans on how to deal with the Russians. One film argued that the nuclear threat needed to be addressed and the world should stop its petty squabbles, while the other said the appeasement caused destruction. The popularity of both films indicated both the importance and the uncertainty of the issue in the American mind.
[1] Ronald W Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, Avon, New York, 1984, pp. 659 – 710 discusses Einstein’s political role in post-war United States.
[2]The Thing RKO/Winchester (Howard Hawks), (d) Christian Nyby, Charles Lederer.
[4] Other films latched onto the fear of a society based on scientific principles. In The Street With No Name (1948), gangster Alec Stiles, played by Richard Widmark, wanted to ‘build an organisation along scientific lines.’
[5] Stephen King, Danse Macabre: The Anatomy of Horror, MacDonald, London, 1981, p.173.
When Worlds Collide (1951) which dealt with the destruction of the planet Earth. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster
Kevin Brianton
Strategic Communication Senior Lecturer, Melbourne: Australia.
Nuclear fears of annihilation haunted the 1950s. This depressing view of world destruction continued in George Pal’s next film: When Worlds Collide. Many science fiction films had dealt with the destruction or breakdown of society, but the physical end of the planet was virtually a new area.[1] Cecil B. DeMille had originally been slated for the film in a much earlier period. The rights to the story by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer were originally bought in 1933 by Paramount, when director DeMille was planning a related project called “The End of the World.” DeMille had hoped to rush the project into production after filming wrapped on This Day and Age (1933), but the script was never even written and the studio scrapped the project.
In When Worlds Collide scientists discovered that a new sun and its planet were spinning across the galaxy toward earth. The planet would move close to the earth, causing tidal waves and mass destruction, and then the new sun would engulf the earth. The only hope for civilisation was a small spacecraft which could hop planets just before the fatal collision. The film opened with biblical saying:
And God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth … And God said unto Noah, ‘The end of flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and , behold I will destroy them with the earth…[2]
This was remarkably close to the vision of evangelist Billy Graham who, after President Truman had announced a nuclear weapon had been exploded in the Soviet Union, had preached in 1949 that the choice for America was now between religious revival and nuclear judgement. The choice was between western culture founded on religion, and communism which was against all religion. The country had abandoned the ten commandments and faced judgement for its misdeeds.[3] In 1949, he delivered a sermon on the fate of the United States which rang with biblical doom.
Let us look for a moment at the political realm. Let’s see what is happening – not only in the city of Los Angeles, but in the western world. The world is divided into two sides. ON the one side we see so-called Western culture. Western culture and its fruit had its foundation in the bible, the Word of God, and in the revivals of he Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Communism on the other hand, had decided against God, against Christ, against the bible, against all religion. Communism is not only an economic interpretation of life – Communism is a religion that is directed and motivated by the Devil himself who has declared war against almighty God. Do you know that the Fifth Columnists, called Communists, are more rampant in Los Angeles than any other city in America? We need a revival.[4]
Just as God had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Pompeii, and the Roman empire, he would destroy the United States, and Los Angeles in particular, if it strayed any longer or further from the moral path. The nuclear threat was a biblical judgement for moral failings. These speeches were the catalyst which launched Graham to become a nationwide media celebrity.
Graham’s apocalyptic vision of nuclear judgement resonated throughout When Worlds Collide. The conclusion of the film showed the earth burning as it approached the surface of he new sun. Nuclear-like explosions ripped from its surface as it was absorbed. This image must have terrified the American public of the 1950s with its connotations of nuclear destruction. The most chilling part of When Worlds Collide was the inevitable nature of the destruction of the earth, just as the cold war promised an inevitable nuclear conflagration. The film may have reassured an American public at one level by showing that life would continue in some form after nuclear destruction. However, with its biblical judgement of corruption and the inevitable nature of the world’s destruction, it was an uncomfortable film to watch.
[1][1] The theme had been used before in a film called The Comet (1910) and two German films Himmelskibet (1917) and Verdens Undergang (1916). The two German films probably reflected some of the gloom as the First World War dragged on. A few science fiction films saw the collapse of society such as the British film Things to Come (1936). See the introduction to Phil Hardy, (ed.). Science Fiction: The Complete Film Sourcebook, William Morrow, New York, 1984 for a discussion of the trend.
[3] Mark Silk, Spiritual Politics: Religion and America since World War II, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1988, p. 65.
[4] William Graham, Revival in Our Time: The Story of Billy Graham Evangelistic Campaign Evangelistic Campaigns, Including Six Of His Sermons, 2nd edn enl. Van Kampen Press, Wheaton, Illinois, 1950, pp. 72-73.
Strategic Communication Senior Lecturer, Melbourne: Australia.
Invaders filled the screens of cinemas and drive-ins across the United States in the 1950s. Aliens blasted ray guns, rose from the depths of the sea, took over human bodies, mutated in atomic testing sites, flew flying saucers, lurked in swamps and wasted cities in their wrath. Many films critics have seen the alien invasion films as representing American fears of communist invasion and subversion.[1] The themes of these films clustered around fears of communist military strength. The United States had both the biggest economy and enormous military powers, yet it found itself threatened by the USSR armed with nuclear weapons. Communists were seen as an evil, beyond even religious redemption, and they now possessed weapons which could destroy the United States. It was a crushing fear that haunted the 1950s. A fear that science fiction helped ease.
The sheer number of films produced means they cannot be overlooked in any survey of films dealing with communism. It has been estimated that 154 alien films were released in the United States during the 1950s.[2] These films were not overwhelming box office success, but the fact that they enjoyed continued popularity indicates that they were striking a chord.
The most popular science fiction films of the decade in descending order (taking inflation into account) were 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which finished fourth in 1954 making $8 million in rentals, Journey to the Centre of the Earth which finished 11th in the 1959 making $4.7 million, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms made $2 million in 1953, The Thing finished 47th in 1951 making $1.95 million, The Day the Earth Stood Still finished 52nd in 1951 making $1.8 million, War of the Worlds made $2 million in 1953, Them! Finished 50th in 1954 making $2.2 million, When World’s Collide finished 72nd in 1951, It Came from Outer Space made $1.65 million in 1953, This Island Earth was ranked 75th in 1955 making $1.7 million, It Came from Beneath the Sea was ranked 76th in 1955, Forbidden Planet was ranked 62nd in 1956 making $1.6 million, Destination Moon was ranked 88th in 1950 making $1.3 million. Other films which made the Variety lists included The Fly (1958), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), Rocketship X-M (1950) and Earth Versus the Flying Saucers (1956) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).[3] The films were not an overwhelming success yet there was, nonetheless, a steady market for them.
Destination Moon (1950), which focused on the first man- made trip to the moon. It was a simple story and its anti-communist message was obvious. American industry had to back a space launch to thwart any similar moves by foreign powers. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster.
The first successful science fiction films of the decade owed their popularity to special effects rather than tight script writing, yet there were still strong anti-communist themes. Producer George Pal’s trademark was his exceptional special effects and his first effort was an uncomplicated film called Destination Moon (1950), which focused on the first man- made trip to the moon. It was a simple story and its anti-communist message was obvious. American industry had to back a space launch to thwart any similar moves by foreign powers. General Thayer explained these ideas to a meeting of businessman called to raise money for he project.
The reason is quite simple. We are not the only ones who know that the moon can be reached. We are not the only ones who are planning to get there. The race is on. And we will win, because there is absolutely no way to stop an attack force form outer space. The first country to use the moon for the launching of missiles will control the earth. That, gentlemen, is the most important military fact of this century.[4]
An elderly businessman stood up at the end of the Thayer’s speech and said it was the duty of business to support the venture.[5] Control of space would mean world domination. The impact of this idea was later seen in the panic that gripped America in the wake of the Sputnik launch in 1957 as people feared nuclear weapons could be launched from space on a defenceless United States.
Destination Moon also suggested that communists were at work subverting the American space program – and by implication other industries. The moon launch project was hampered by bureaucratic obstacles and the threat of something more sinister. The scientific group received a telegram from a commission which prohibited a launch, as a protest meeting had been called to stop the launch. Jim answered that it was ‘propaganda’ and that someone with money and brains was ‘out to get us’.[6] The underlying tone of the film was that dissent, even democratic dissent, was identical to treason when trying to stop progress. Jim’s remarkable statement about public opinion equaling propaganda reflected the blinkered approach that the authorities had in dealing with dissent. Even a protest against an atomic missile launch was organised by malevolent forces out to undermine American security. The film fitted in neatly with the studios’ anti-communist rhetoric of the early 1950s.
Rocketship X-M (1950) was made after, but was released slightly before, Destination Moon (1950). It had essentially the same idea about space travel but with a different twist. Image courtesy of eMoviePoster.
Rocketship X-M (1950) was made after, but was released slightly before, Destination Moon (1950). It had essentially the same idea about space travel but with a different twist. The space crew left earth, were sent off course and landed on Mars. The crew found that Mars an advanced civilization had been wiped out by nuclear warfare was now inhabited by hostile mutant aliens. The crew returned to earth to deliver a warning about nuclear warfare. Unknown World (1950) had a similar bleak message about the world’s future. Scientist Kilian believed that the world was headed for nuclear devastation and perhaps some hope lay in burrowing beneath the earth’s surface. The film began with a montage of nuclear explosions and devastation and the voice of Kilian calling for help in finding a safe and secure world. Headed by Kilian, a small party set off to dig beneath the surface, but the world they found was sterile and they were forced to return to the surface. If Kilian was correct, then there was no escape from nuclear destruction.
[1] Among others are Peter Biskind, Seeing is believing: How Hollywood Taught Us To Stop Worrying and Love the Fifties, Pantheon, New York, 1983 and Nora Sayre, Running Time: Films of the Cold War, Dial, New York, 1982. Not all critics share this viewpoint see Patrick Luciano, Them or Us: Archetypal Interpretations of Fifties Alien Invasion Films, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1987 for Jungian interpretation of the alien invasion cycle.
[2] The filmography in Luciano, Them or Us, lists 154 films, but it must be treated with caution as Luciano tends to throw in any type of related film to build up his case. The number can only be used as a guide.
[3] The lists were printed in Variety 4 January 1950, 3 January 1951, 2 January 1952, 7 January 1953, 6 January 1954, 5 January 1955, 25 January 1956, 2 January 1957 and 8 January 1958. The lists derive from John Fleming, ‘Science Fiction, printed in David Pirie (ed.) Anatomy of the Movies, Macmillian, New York, pp. 272 – 281, which are also based on the Variety lists.
[4]Destination Moon, (d) George Pal, Rip Van Ronkel, Robert Heinlein, James O’Hanlon
Ted Sherdeman.
Cinema history 