The Phantom from Outer Space Experiment

May of 1953 offered up two Sci-Fi movies of interest; Phantom from Space and It Came from Outer Space. The latter is known for being Universals first film shot in 3-D. This makes three "infiltration" movies to come out in a two month period. As opposed to an alien invasion film, all these movies are about alien(s) coming to Earth; their goal to wreak havoc and/or hide. Prior to this we would have seen both The Thing from another World and The Day the Earth Stood Still, which are also single entities coming to Earth for one reason or another. This Sci-Fi plot isn't used as much anymore. Hollywood has gone for the more elaborate and visually awe-inspiring alien invasion stories of Independence Day and Battle: Los Angeles, but I do like the smaller-scale unsettling elements of the "infiltration" plot. There's enough exposition out there about Cold War fears influencing the movie going experience that I'm not going to get into it.

Phantom from Space- During an overly narrated sequence of military stock footage it is explained a glowing, potato chip-looking UFO entered Earth atmosphere and disappeared over Los Angeles. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is then dispatched to locate the source of radio wave disturbances in the area. A couple murders occur during this time (and a fire at an oil refinery) that puts a police detective into the middle of this. The FCC and the police go to Griffith Institute (filmed at Griffith Observatory) to talk to a scientist. The military is present and they finally compare notes and realize there's a connection between the UFO and the murderer/saboteur. Using science they trap it in a construction site but lose the trail when it takes off its space suit revealing it is invisible (hence the name Phantom in the title). The movie really slows down from here, but the main characters take the space suit back to the Griffith Institute and study it to determine what kind of alien could wear it. The Phantom follows them by riding in one of their cars. It repeated tries to communicate, abduct, run away, and take its suit back. Eventually they learn how to expose it using an unnamed light source and trap it on the observatory telescope, where it runs out of air (it has been holding its breath for hours) and falls to his death. Earth is safe again.

There are problems with this story, mainly dealing with the pacing and the science. I give great bonus points to sitting around about 20% of the movie to figure out what's going on. By looking at footprints, an exposed hand, the air in the helmet tanks, radiation from the suit, attempts at communication, and motives for the murders, the main characters were able to figure a lot out about the creature. It breathes an unknown gas mixed with methane, has a slow metabolism, can hold its breath for long periods of time, technologically more advanced (that's a gimme), can withstand large amounts of radiation, and uses silicate instead of carbon in its cell structure. That latter point leads it to be invisible, but the science is pretty bad. Since silicates are found in glass, when its skin mixes with Earth air and light it is rendered invisible. When it is finally exposed it looks a lot like Abin Sur from the new Green Lantern.

One of my pet peeves in story-telling is letting the audience know the mystery well before the characters. It makes them look incompetent. Of course everything is related, but it took halfway through the movie for anyone to figure this out. But to counter that, there's a lady chemist who was instrumental in communicating with it and few other key observations. She told her husband to go do the grocery shopping while she worked to save the world. That's good use of a female character in the '50s. She also had a dog, named Venus, who could track the invisible Phantom but every character failed to notice this. On a side note I like the old Woodies from the FCC with a giant antenna on the top. It's a little less than a mediocre movie.

It Came from Outer Space- I have always liked how early Sci-Fi movie titles have to explain things you're going to find out anyway. (i.e. The Thing from another World, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Conquest of Space). This is a highly recommended movie and one that takes the alien infiltration idea in another direction. Ray Bradbury wrote the treatment and he wanted to do something special with it. Russell Johnson (The Professor in Gilligan's Island) shows up in Sci-Fi again as a telephone lineman.

Aliens on their way to another planet crash on Earth instead, outside of Sand Rock, Arizona near the Excelsior Mine. John and Ellen, watching the stars, witness this and head out to the newly formed crater. John checks it out alone and sees an alien craft just as the loose ground collapses, burying it. Nobody believes John, but on the way back home he nearly runs over an alien who darts out in front of him like a deer. He then finds two lineman, George and Frank, tracing a weird sound through the telephone lines. Slowly it is shown people are being attacked out in the desert; three old coots at the Excelsior Mine, a scientist at the crater, the two linemen, and finally Ellen. John realizes this and, seeing Frank and George in town, corners them. They reveal themselves to be aliens in disguise and they need time to repair their ship so they can leave in peace. The rest of the movie has John working with Sheriff Warren to show him that strange happenings are going on and to just leave be. Let the aliens do their thing. Eventually Warren can't take anymore and forms a posse to hunt aliens at the old mine. John gets to the aliens first, who have decided to commit suicide rather than fight. But the aliens are open to negotiation and free all the captive humans if John can delay the angry mob just a while longer. Sheriff Warren and his posse are stopped and the aliens leave Earth, with a final message that they'll be back when we're ready to meet them.

This movie chooses a different path. The aliens just want to leave, and they have to minimize first contact. If I were in 1953 I could see being spooked. However, after having seen Alien, nothing prior to it is that scary. I think it's a good choice to have John, an astronomer that no one believes, takes a pacifistic role, trying to talk to both sides. His main motivation being to get his girlfriend back, but he starts to see a bigger picture. I like the leader of the aliens (who happens to take John's form) as he explains after a 1,000 years they build an engine for traveling to the stars and it helped them conquer space. If that were true, they wouldn't have crashed on Earth. Our planet must have been in the way and they just smacked into it. The other movie also had a ship crash, too. They said it had something to do with our magnetic fields.

There was nothing like these aliens, design-wise, prior to this, so I'm betting they were much more shocking 58 years ago. One eye around a generally fleshy and vein filled body, covered in a mop of hair (I think). Most of the time we see out of their perspective, which is used to great effect (and it must have looked great in red/blue 3D). I'm not sure why they needed people, unless they wanted hostages in case of an angry human mob. Near the end of the movie the one who took Ellen's form outright attacks John, who has done nothing but help them. He ends up having to kill her/it. Maybe that alien was just an a-hole. When he finally confronts the aliens repairing their ship, they have all taken the different forms of the hostages. Why do the aliens use technology they have to be humanoid to repair? Maybe humans make a better form? I also like the glitter path all of them leave as they wander the desert.

The special effects leave a little to be desired, but if you buy into the movie's premise than the giant round spaceship on a wire at the beginning (shown twice) can be safely ignored. It's a little late now but about 10 minutes of this movie could have been trimmed. This is a far sight better than Phantom from Space, the highlights being the dialog between John and Sheriff Warren as they both come to terms with current events, the creepy alien attack moments, and Frank the lineman talking about the signal in the wires. Two aliens do manage to die, but luckily they don't hold it against us. I'd like to see a the reverse of this movie, when humans crash on an alien world and we're the monsters. Was that Planet 51?