'50s horror films

[Raptor]

Although many were in black and white, many people enjoyed them back then and even now.
This (http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue10/features/monster/) is a rather "interesting" look at the times; somewhat different from a favorite of mine, MATINEE.

Feel free to list favorites of the time and genre and discuss them in whatever context you would like. "The Giant Gila Monster",  "The Blob". "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" and "Monster On the Campus" are mentioned in the article linked above.

[Jet Jaguar]

Omigosh I LOOOOVE those old Monster Movies
I could go on and on but i won't.
I will however mention a few:
(Some of which were seen on MST3K)
Horror on Party Beach
The Blob
Them!
The Incredible Shrinking Man
I Married a Monster From Outer Space
Queen of Outer Space

[Goji Son]

The Thing from Another World
Horror of Dracula

that's all I can think of anything at the moment...

[Jet Jaguar]

ANY of the old Hammer Horror films rocked!
ESPECIALLY with Christopher Lee!

[Morgoth]

The Hammer's were principally a 1960's and early 1970's franchise, though the earliest were made in the late 1950's. 'Horror of Party Beach' also belongs to the 1960's, made in either 61 or 62 (and featuring a ridiculous fishman who looks like he's eating a bag of hot dogs).

I have long been a fan of old horror films and was flabbergasted by the DVD releases in this genre over the last year. We've seen 'The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms', 'The Black Scorpion', 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', 'The Thing', 'Invaders from Mars' and 'It Came from Beneath the Sea' all released over this past year, as well as lots of lesser known titles like 'Terror is a Man'. Great stuff and I hope the march of movies continues for some time.

[Goji Son]

I would add The Day The Earth Stood Still, one of my favorites, but that ain't horror.

Two others I forgot about that I am getting for x mas, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

[Cosmos]

<font color='#0000FF'>I just recently scored a &quot;Sci Fi classics&quot; DVD ... Low quality but I'm not so picky, it comes with
Teanagers from space.
I really enjoyed quatermass films.....and there's just to many.... &nbsp;I love wzatching these old scifi, I get a real insight to how much our culture has changed, and how much our culture hasn't changed at all.

We're still a bunch of panicky children afraid of the Reds under our beds.

Forbidden Planet's really good....

Hey Raptor, I don't know how into games you are, but you might want to check out war of the monsters, which is on the Playstation2, even just over someones shoulder, there's a some pretty heavy tribute to 50's sci fi in that game.

[Raptor]

I'm not &quot;into&quot; gaming but can appreciate some of the tremendous visuals and action they can provide. Guess I just like to sit back and let the &quot;story&quot; tell itself rather than having to manipulate anything! http://www.rodansroost.com/ikonboard/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif
I'm wondering if the &quot;average&quot; gamer (and film viewers) can still suspend their disbelief when these older stories are shown as we did &quot;back then&quot;? If not, maybe this approach would work: Think of the film as a newsreel or &quot;archival tape&quot;. News footage also used to be shown in theaters, and with a rather &quot;sensationalist&quot; flair and often musical accompaniment!

[Doctor Whu]

Dont forget one of my favorite horror films: CURSE OF THE DEMON
A fantastic film - one of the greatest horror films ever made, the perfect blend of suspense, horror, and oh yes... a giant demon monster.

[Melkor]

Hmm. 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' is technically sci-fi, but I always thought of it as horror as a child. So, does that count? But my favorite 50s Horror film has to be 'Them!'.


Peace,



Melkor



http://www.rodansroost.com/ikonboard/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/darklord.gif

[Cosmos]

<font color='#0000FF'>A personal favorite is day of the triffids.... the strangest thing is about sci-fi from before the seventies is that there are so few bad films... there are a few silly ones but they often victim of low budget, but they all seem so good and sincere.
which is something that can't be said for modern sensationalist flicks... I constantly get my hopes up for a new cool sci fi flick and find it's just 200 million dollars of celluloid explosions with no content... and if there is content it was probably stolen from a 50's or 60's sci fi flick......

sigh....
this thread has depressed me....

....I'm going to go home and curl up with &quot;them&quot;, popcorn, and War of the Worlds.
...
sigh....

[Morgoth]

Cosmos, I think you just hit the nail on the freakin' head with what is wrong with alot of the post-1950's films.

If you like 'Day of the Trifids', however, I highly recommend trying to track down a 1980's BBC adaptation of that story. It is about 3 hours long (ran as a mini-series, apparently), but extremely well-done. I love how the Triffids go from a minor oddity early on to a full-fledged threat in the latter half of the film, with a slow build up throughout.

[Raptor]

I think the earlier films had more suspense and SENSE of danger/terror to them than present ones do for some reason. Maybe more attention was paid to lighting, sets, music and just MOOD you could really get into, even in a theater packed with goofy friends laughing at the wrong time, clowning, etc. Even they would get spooked on occasion! &nbsp;http://www.rodansroost.com/ikonboard/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif &nbsp;Now it seems that more goes into the explosions and &quot;money shots&quot; while the rest of the story doesn't really support them like you'd expect. Not having the technology back then, it's amazing how great these shows went over with relatively SIMPLE things, even in black and white.

[Goku]

i have only seen horror of dracula and it was ok