| It! The Terror from Beyond Space | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Edward L. Cahn |
| Written by | Jerome Bixby |
| Produced by | Robert Kent Edward Small (uncredited) |
| Starring | Marshall Thompson Shawn Smith (Shirley Patterson) Kim Spalding |
| Narrated by | Marshall Thompson |
| Cinematography | Kenneth Peach |
| Edited by | Grant Whytock |
| Music by | Paul Sawtell Bert Shefter |
Production companies | Vogue Pictures, Inc. |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 68 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
It! The Terror from Beyond Space is an independently made 1958 American science fiction horror film, produced by Robert Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn, that stars Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith (Shirley Patterson), and Kim Spalding.[1] The film was distributed by United Artists as a double feature with Curse of the Faceless Man.[2]
The story involves Earth's second mission to Mars to discover the fate of the first. They find a sole survivor of that mission and bring him back. The survivor, the expedition's former commander, claims that his crew were killed by a hostile Martian life form. No one believes him until the creature, now a stowaway, begins hunting the rescue ship's crew as they return to Earth.
The film's premise has been cited as an inspiration for screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's screenplay for Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien.[2]
Plot[]
In 1973, a nuclear-powered spaceship blasts off from Mars for Earth, bringing with it the sole survivor of the first mission, Col. Edward Carruthers (Marshall Thompson). He is suspected of having murdered the other nine members of his crew for their food and water rations, on the premise that he had no way of knowing if or when an Earth rescue mission would ever arrive. Carruthers denies this allegation, attributing his crew's deaths to a hostile humanoid life form on the Red Planet.
Commander Col. Van Heusen is unconvinced and makes sure that Carruthers is constantly accompanied by another member of his crew. While the ship was on the Martian surface, a large external exhaust had been left open, allowing the creature easy access. The crew are at first skeptical that something crawled aboard while they were on Mars. However, when Kienholz investigates odd sounds coming from a lower level, he is killed and his body hidden in an air duct. Next is Gino Finelli. He is found, barely alive, but the creature attacks his would-be rescuer. Bullets have no effect, forcing the crewman to leave Gino behind, much to the distress of his brother Bob. An autopsy of Kienholz's body reveals that it has been sucked dry of all fluids.
The crew use hand grenades and gas grenades, but the creature proves immune to both. They next try electrocution, with no effect. When "It" is tricked into going into the spaceship's atomic reactor room, they shut the heavily shielded door and expose the creature directly to the ship's nuclear pile. It easily crashes through the door and escapes. The creature is so strong that it can tear through the metal hatches separating each of the ship's levels. The survivors (except for an injured crewman, who is trapped below in a spot inaccessible to the creature) retreat to the control room on the topmost deck. When Carruthers notices the ship's higher-than-normal oxygen consumption rate, he surmises that this is due to the creature's larger lung capacity, needed for the thin Martian atmosphere. In a last desperate move, everyone puts on their spacesuits, and Carruthers opens the command deck's hull airlock directly to the vacuum of space. A violent decompression follows, and the plan works: "It" suffocates and finally expires, stuck part way through the final hatch.
A press conference is later held on Earth, revealing the details of what happened aboard the rescue ship. The project director emphasizes that Earth may now be forced to bypass the Red Planet "because another word for Mars is death".
Cast[]
Page Template:Div col/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "wikitext").
- Marshall Thompson as Col. Edward Carruthers
- Shirley Patterson as Ann Anderson (as Shawn Smith)
- Kim Spalding as Col. Van Heusen
- Ann Doran as Mary Royce
- Dabbs Greer as Eric Royce
- Paul Langton as Lt. James Calder
- Robert Bice as Maj. John Purdue
- Richard Benedict as Bob Finelli
- Richard Hervey as Gino Finelli
- Thom Carney as Joe Kienholz
- Ray Corrigan as It
Production[]
![[icon]](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ultimatepopculture/images/0/01/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png/revision/latest?cb=20211122062953){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2016) |
It! The Terror from Beyond Space was financed by Edward Small and was originally known as It! The Vampire from Beyond Space.[3] Principal photography took place over a two-week period during mid-January 1958.[4]
It! was the last film of actor Ray "Crash" Corrigan. Corrigan was set to play the creature, but during pre-production, he did not want to travel all the way to Topanga in western Los Angeles County where Paul Blaisdell, the film's makeup artist, lived and operated his studio. Therefore, Blaisdell could not take exact measurements of Corrigan's head. Consequently, there were final fit problems with the creature's head prop: "[Corrigan's]... bulbous chin stuck out through the monster's mouth, so the make-up man painted his chin to look like a tongue."[5]
Reception[]
| This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2016) |
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 69% based on 16 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 5.9/10.[6]
Variety noted that the creature was the star: "‘It’ is a Martian by birth, a Frankenstein by instinct, and a copycat. The monster dies hard, brushing aside grenades, bullets, gas and an atomic pile, before snorting its last snort. It’s old stuff, with only a slight twist".[7] A retrospective film review by Dennis Schwartz favorably compared "It!" with Alien, a 1979 film that borrowed its creature feature plot liberally from its earlier counterpart.[8]
Adaptations[]
In 1992, Millennium Publications adapted It! The Terror from Beyond Space as a short-run comic book series, written by Mark Ellis and Dean Zachary.[citation needed] A further comics adaptation was released by Midnite Movies (IDW Publishing) in 2010, for a three-issue run.[citation needed]
See also[]
- List of films set on Mars
References[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Warren 2000, p. 160.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Maçek III, J.C. "Building the Perfect Star Beast: The Antecedents of 'Alien'." PopMatters, November 21, 2012.
- ↑ Scheuer, Philip K. "Kristin' seen as challenge: Kaufman phones Terry Moore; 'Diamonds' polished for Laage." Los Angeles Times, November 21, 1957, p. C11.
- ↑ "Original print information: "It! The Terror From Beyond Space." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.
- ↑ Stafford, Jeff. "It! The Terror From Beyond Space." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.
- ↑ "It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Flixer. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
{{cite web}}: - ↑ "Review: ‘It! – The Terror from Beyond Space’." Variety, December 31, 1957. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.
- ↑ "It! The Terror from Beyond Space." Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine Ozus' World Movie Reviews, September 23, 2001. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.
Bibliography[]
- Strick, Philip. Science Fiction Movies. London: Octopus Books Limited. 1976. ISBN 0-7064-0470-X.
- Palmer, Randy. Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker: A Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1997. ISBN 978-0-78644-099-3.
- Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. 2009. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-89950-032-3.
External links[]
- It! The Terror From Beyond Space at the Internet Movie Database
- It! The Terror From Beyond Space at AllRovi
- It! The Terror From Beyond Space at the TCM Movie Database
- It! The Terror From Beyond Space at the American Film Institute Catalog
- It! The Terror From Beyond Space at Rotten Tomatoes
| Films directed by Edward L. Cahn | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1930s/1940s | The Homicide Squad (1931) • Law and Order (1932) • Radio Patrol (1932) • Afraid to Talk (1932) • Emergency Call (1933) • Laughter in Hell (1933) • Death Drives Through (1935) • Confidential (1935) • Bad Guy (1937) • Redhead (1941) • The Omaha Trail (1942, uncredited) • Main Street After Dark (1945) • Dangerous Partners (1945) • Born to Speed (1947) • Gas House Kids in Hollywood (1947) • The Checkered Coat (1948) • I Cheated the Law (1949) • Prejudice (1949) | |
| 1950s | The Great Plane Robbery (1950) • Destination Murder (1950) • Experiment Alcatraz (1950) • Two-Dollar Bettor (1951) • Creature with the Atom Brain (1955) • Betrayed Women (1955) • Silent Fear (1956) • Girls in Prison (1956) • The She Creature (1956) • Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956) • Runaway Daughters (1956) • Flesh and the Spur (1957) • Voodoo Woman (1957) • Zombies of Mora Tau (1957) • Dragstrip Girl (1957) • Motorcycle Gang (1957) • Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) • Jet Attack (1958) • Suicide Battalion (1958) • Curse of the Faceless Man (1958) • It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) • Hong Kong Confidential (1958) • The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959) • Guns Girls and Gangsters (1959) • Inside the Mafia (1959) • Invisible Invaders (1959) • Pier 5, Havana (1959) • Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959) • A Dog's Best Friend (1959) | |
| 1960s | Vice Raid (1960) • Cage of Evil (1960) • Gunfighters of Abilene (1960) • The Music Box Kid (1960) • Noose for a Gunman (1960) • Oklahoma Territory (1960) • Three Came to Kill (1960) • Twelve Hours to Kill (1960) • The Walking Target (1960) • Boy Who Caught a Crook (1961) • Frontier Uprising (1961) • Five Guns to Tombstone (1961) • Police Dog Story (1961) • Operation Bottleneck (1961) • Gun Fight (1961) • The Gambler Wore a Gun (1961) • When the Clock Strikes (1961) • You Have to Run Fast (1961) • Secret of Deep Harbor (1961) • Gun Street (1962) • The Clown and the Kid (1962) • Incident in an Alley (1962) • Beauty and the Beast (1962) | |
| Films produced by Edward Small | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1910-20s | Who's Your Neighbor? (1917) • The Sporting Lover (1926) • The Cohens and Kellys (1926) • The Gorilla (1927) • McFadden's Flats (1927) • Ladies' Night in a Turkish Bath (1928) • The Cohens and the Kellys in Paris (1928) • My Man (1928) • Companionate Marriage (1928) • Song of Love (1929) | |
| 1930s | Clancy in Wall Street (1930) • Igloo (1932) • [[I Cover
the Waterfront]] (1933) • Palooka (1933) • The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) • Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934) • Let 'Em Have It (1935) • Red Salute (1935) • The Melody Lingers On (1935) • The Last of the Mohicans (1936) • The Bride Walks Out (1936) • We Who Are About to Die (1937) • Sea Devils (1937) • New Faces of 1937 (1937) • Super-Sleuth (1937) • The Toast of New York (1937) • The Duke of West Point (1938) • King of the Turf (1939) • The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) | |
| 1940s | My Son, My Son! (1940) • The Son of Monte Cristo (1940) • South of Pago Pago (1940) • Kit Carson (1940) • International Lady (1941) • The Corsican Brothers (1941) • A Gentleman After Dark (1942) • Twin Beds (1942) • Miss Annie Rooney (1942) • Friendly Enemies (1942) • Up in Mabel's Room (1944) • Abroad with Two Yanks (1944) • Brewster's Millions (1945) • Getting Gertie's Garter (1945) • Temptation (1946) • The Return of Monte Cristo (1946) • T-Men (1947) • The Black Arrow (1948) • The Fuller Brush Man (1948) • Raw Deal (1948) • Walk a Crooked Mile (1948) • Black Magic (1949) | |
| 1950s | Davy Crockett, Indian Scout (1950) • The Iroquois Trail (1950) • Valentino (1951) • Lorna Doone (1951) • The Texas Rangers (1951) • Indian Uprising (1952) • Scandal Sheet (1952) • The Brigand (1952) • Cripple Creek (1952) • Kansas City Confidential (1952) • The Bandits of Corsica (1953) • Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953) • Dragon's Gold (1953) • Gun Belt (1953) • The Neanderthal Man (1953) • 99 River Street (1953) • Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953) • Sabre Jet (1953) • The Steel Lady (1953) • Wicked Woman (1953) • Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl (1954) • Khyber Patrol (1954) • The Lone Gun (1954) • Overland Pacific (1954) • Return to Treasure Island (1954) • Southwest Passage (1954) • Down Three Dark Streets (1954) • New York Confidential (1955) • The Naked Street (1955) • Top Gun (1955) • Comanche (1955) • Gun Brothers (1956) • UFO (1956) • Chicago Confidential (1957) • 5 Steps to Danger (1957) • Gun Duel in Durango (1957) • The Iron Sheriff (1957) • Monkey on My Back (1957) • Curse of the Faceless Man (1958) • Hong Kong Confidential (1958) • It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) • Toughest Gun in Tombstone (1958) • Witness for the Prosecution (1958) • The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959) • Guns Girls and Gangsters (1959) • Inside the Mafia (1959) • Invisible Invaders (1959) • Pier 5, Havana (1959) • Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959) • Solomon and Sheba (1959) • Timbuktu (1959) (had name removed from credits) • Vice Raid (1959) | |
| 1960s | Cage of Evil (1960) • Dog's Best Friend (1960) • Gunfighters of Abilene (1960) • The Music Box Kid (1960) • Noose for a Gunman (1960) • Oklahoma Territory (1960) • Three Came to Kill (1960) • The Walking Target (1960) • Boy Who Caught a Crook (1961) • The Cat Burglar (1961) • Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961) • Frontier Uprising (1961) • Five Guns to Tombstone (1961) • The Flight That Disappeared (1961) • The Gambler Wore a Gun (1961) • Gun Fight (1961) • Mary Had a Little... (1961) • Operation Bottleneck (1961) • Police Dog Story (1961) • Secret of Deep Harbor (1961) • The Snake Woman (1961) • Three on a Spree (1961) • When the Clock Strikes (1961) • You Have to Run Fast (1961) • The Greengage Summer (1961) • Beauty and the Beast (1962) • The Clown and the Kid (1962) • Deadly Duo (1962) • Gun Street (1962) • Incident in an Alley (1962) • Jack the Giant Killer (1962) • Saintly Sinners (1962) • Tower of London (1962) • Diary of a Madman (1963) • Twice Told Tales (1963) • I'll Take Sweden (1965) • Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966) • Frankie and Johnny (1966) • The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968) • The File of the Golden Goose (1969) • The Christine Jorgensen Story (1970) | |