Starring Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason, Lance Fuller, Russell Johnson
Directed by Joseph Newman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A scientist is recruited to create atomic energy for a strange looking man with mysterious advanced technology whom he discovers is an alien being trying to save his planet.
The showpiece in Universal-International's series of science fiction films in the 1950s, a colorful journey into outer space with an intelligent story and some fantastic visuals, being one of the first films to depict outer space travel and an alien world in the kind of scope we expect in today's blockbusters. Based on a story by science fiction writer Raymond F. Jones, there's a good deal of futuristic but solid concepts in the screenplay based on scientific theory, including video communications, de-pressurizing tubes, and meteors harnessed by spacecraft for warmongering. Morrow is excellent as Exeter, the lone kindly and progressive thinker among his more ruthless people, with good support from Reason and Domergue as Cal Meacham and Ruth Adams, the human scientists he comes to depend on on Earth. The screenplay unfolds like a mystery at first, capturing the audience with Meacham's befuddlement but fascination at the technology he's granted by the mysterious Exeter, and then morphing into an odyssey into the fantastic. The music score, debuting some iconic themes from Herman Stein, along with selections from Henry Mancini and Hans J. Salter, helps transport us, alongside the special effects that still hold up remarkably well. The excellent art direction makes the technology seem believable and looks fantastic, and before the film is over, we'll be exposed to one of the studio's memorable creature makeups. It's not a perfect film, but it flows impressively and has the feel of a science fiction magazine story of the era brought to life.
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