Comments on: GODZILLA!!!

Question: GODZILLA!!!

god particle — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:08:06 -0800

What are some classic, old sci-fi movies?

By classic & old I mean films from the 1950s or 1960s. Particularly, I'm looking for films that feature things like monsters (such as Godzilla), robots, aliens, science experiments gone wrong. One that I can think of is "The Day the Earth Stood Still". I'd prefer them to be good films rather than MST3K fodder.

And if such a place exists (these films might be old enough to be in the public domain), where can I watch these online?

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:12:01 -0800

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:13:02 -0800

War of The Worlds

By: gmm

gmm — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:21:11 -0800

Forbidden Planet

Not PD, AFAIK.

By: piedmont

piedmont — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:25:31 -0800

1968 was a good year:
Planet of the Apes (not public domain, but worth the 4 bucks to rent)
Night of the Living Dead (can watch in many, many places online)

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:30:03 -0800

The Quatermass Xperiment. Quatermass 2. Quatermass And The Pit.

By: mr.grum

mr.grum — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:41:27 -0800

20 Million Miles to Earth, Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers are all good. Ray Harryhausen did some excellent special effects for them all.

The Quatermass Experiment, Enemy From Space, and Five Million Miles to Earth are a swell series of films with a conceited scientist as the main character. (Five Million Miles, or Quatermass and the Pit is easily the best of the bunch.)

I Married a Monster from Outer Space is much better than its title would indicate.

Invaders from Mars is top notch visual entertainment.

The original version of The Fly is pretty compelling.

As is The Incredible Shrinking Man

And there's always The Blob, which also posses one of the finest theme songs ever.

Those are the first ones that would pop into my head anyway...

By: Carol Anne

Carol Anne — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:45:43 -0800

I loved "It Came from Beneath the Sea," as a native San Franciscan. Watching the monster tear apart the Golden Gate Bridge and climb the Ferry Building was cool!

By: mr.grum

mr.grum — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:48:05 -0800

Damn! Beaten to the punch on the Quatermass films.

Well I'll throw in X the Unknown, Day the Earth Caught Fire, and It Came From Outer Space to make up for the losses.

By: Jode

Jode — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:48:08 -0800

Island of the Lost Souls 1932 -- not the remake -- is a mad scientist classic based on an anti-vivasectionist H G Wells story.

The Blob 1958 with Steve McQueen is pretty campy but it's got a great theme song, a great monster and Steve McQueen!
(okay, on preview, I'll second Mr Gum.)

By: O9scar

O9scar — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:55:21 -0800

2nd vote for Forbidden Planet.

By: mr.grum

mr.grum — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:59:47 -0800

I should add Curse of the Demon (aka Night of the Demon) although it often get lumped in with horror films, it is about a scientific investigation of the supernatural, and it is truly excellent.

And since this is MeFi, I must add Matango the Fungus of Terror! Mushrooms have an illustrious heritage here.

Okay, I'll stop now...

By: elendil71

elendil71 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:13:04 -0800

There's always one of the classics of giant monsters:

Tarantula (actually a really good flick).

Forbidden Planet of course, nthing that. Featuring a very young Leslie Neilsen and Richard Anderson (of Six Million Dollar Man fame) no less.

By: martinrebas

martinrebas — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:15:57 -0800

Kingu Kongu no gyakushû / King Kong Escapes is silly, but I like the synopsis:

"When a mechanical replica of King Kong is unable to dig for the highly radioactive Element X at the North Pole, the evil Doctor Who and his sponsor Madame Piranha (Madame X in the American release) decide to kidnap the real Kong."

By: damn dirty ape

damn dirty ape — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:16:14 -0800

Don't forget Jules Verne:

20000 Leagues Under the Sea

Mysterious Island

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Also: wikipedia

By: Midnight Rambler

Midnight Rambler — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:17:05 -0800

Day of The Triffids

By: martinrebas

martinrebas — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:17:16 -0800

And a real classic: Them!

By: damn dirty ape

damn dirty ape — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:19:14 -0800

Fantastic Voyage

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:30:26 -0800

Anything with Peter Graves saving the earth. Beginning of the End. It Conquered The Earth. Killers from Space.

They're all terrible in just the way these films should be.

By: Nelsormensch

Nelsormensch — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:33:28 -0800

H.G. Wells' First Men in the Moon from 1964 is pretty fantastic.

By: johngoren

johngoren — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:35:49 -0800

Colossus: The Forbin Project is an amazing 1970 "computer takes over the world" movie that is unjustly forgotten.

By: wfrgms

wfrgms — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:36:25 -0800

The Angry Red Planet doesn't get enough attention. It's a cool film.

By: Redhush

Redhush — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:45:32 -0800

creature from the black lagoon and the brain that wouldn't die

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:31:00 -0800

Great question, a few of my favorites:

The Time Machine (1960)

Journey to the far side of the sun

Fahrenheit 451

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:39:39 -0800

Some more:

Destination Moon

Rocketship XM

The Power

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

By: raygan

raygan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:40:32 -0800

the Last Man On Earth with Vincent Price.
GREAT movie and public domain. Based on the same material as I Am Legend. The first 20 min. alone are worth the download. Available all over the Internet.

By: Slothrop

Slothrop — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:21:43 -0800

My favorite Godzilla (and granted I haven't seen them all) is Godzilla Vs. Hedorah. Very trippy 60s effects and soundtrack. Plus an environmental message!

The interesting thing about the Godzilla series is that the newer movies still use rubber suits and old school combat with better supporting special effects. So, you could get a 50s-60s monster movie feel with a newer feel in movies like Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah : Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. I've also heard it called "Godzilla GMK."

Good luck!

By: Chairboy

Chairboy — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:53:42 -0800

A little bit later (1972) but still a forgotten classic IMHO: Silent Running

By: Chairboy

Chairboy — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:55:42 -0800

And not forgetting Dark Star ...

By: nanojath

nanojath — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:22:14 -0800

A lot of these covered previously, but here's a list with links for additional info on them - 1950's films - there's a link to Godzilla films and Serials on the home page as well. Also, a bunch of links to lists going as far back as 1910, including horror as well as sci-fi.

By: captainsohler

captainsohler — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:56:24 -0800

An early dystopian classic: Logan's Run

By: tula

tula — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:06:52 -0800

The Thing from Another World. Also, some of the best sci-fi from the 60s were stories on The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:33:43 -0800

2001. No monsters, unless you count HAL, but aliens, albeit nice ones.

By: angiep

angiep — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:18:39 -0800

A Boy and His Dog
Soylent Green

By: Sitegeist

Sitegeist — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:31:01 -0800

Going somewhat outside your scope (earlier than the 50's) —

Aelita. Soviet science fiction, silent, 1924.

A review on Amazon of the film by Bruce Sterling:

It's a work of totally visionary science fiction from an utterly vanished revolutionary Soviet Constructivist world. Which is weirder: royal life on Mars, or the fact that this film somehow got produced and distributed?

The sets and costumes are utterly mindboggling. This is my favorite work of science fiction cinema.

By: brujita

brujita — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:33:26 -0800

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

By: Neiltupper

Neiltupper — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:50:43 -0800

2001. No monsters, unless you count HAL, but aliens, albeit nice ones.

Hard to believe that this movie is forty years old, and still holds up well. It should be at the top of your list.

By: Gordion Knott

Gordion Knott — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:01:51 -0800

I'm flabbergasted, simply flabbergasted, that nobody's given a shout-out to This Island Earth (1955). A tad hokey, but the special effects were top-notch, and hold up well to this day. The three-strip technicolor print truly pops off the screen.

All the necessary items are on the menu: flying saucers, a ray-gun-slash-telescreen, eerie planetary landscapes, spooky space monster. "Island" is a must-have addition to your Netflix queue.

By: Gordion Knott

Gordion Knott — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:07:08 -0800

Cat lovers note: "This Island Earth" features a (brief) appearance by Orangey, the Hollywood feline whose work can be enjoyed in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and other movies.

Your useless factoid of the day.

By: mr.grum

mr.grum — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:56:24 -0800

This Island Earth also stars Russell Johnson, The Professor from Gilligan's Island; always fun to see people from iconic television shows in other roles...

By: leigh1

leigh1 — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:34:34 -0800

You might want to take a look at Internet Archive: Moving Image Archive. You can download these movies in high quality or watch them online in low quality.