20 Million Miles to Earth
Directed by Nathan Juran
Written by Robert Creighton Williams, Christopher Knopf, and Charlotte Knight
1957/USA
Morningside Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Contino: Fascinating. Horrible, but fascinating.[/box]
Ray Harryhausen does it again.
Some Sicilian fishermen witness a huge rocket splash down off the shores of their village. They investigate and find dead and injured men inside. They are able to rescue two before the rocket sinks. Precocious little Pepe finds a capsule with a strange object inside and takes it to sell to the local zoologist for money to buy a cowboy hat. In the meantime, the zoologist’s medical student daughter is treating Col. Robert Calder (William Hopper), who was injured in the crash. They have the antagonist relationship that we all know will blossom into romance.
The object turns out to be an egg, which hatches into a baby beast known as a Ymir. The creature grows quickly and exponentially to giant size. We then learn that the spaceship was returning from a mission to Venus. They brought the creature back to discover how it survived in an atmosphere toxic to humans. Now the Americans are desperate to recover the Ymir alive. That is much easier said than done.
This is not strong on plot but is packed with awesome, intricate stop-motion animation courtesy of Harryhousen. A second unit filmed many of the settings in Italy and it is fun to watch the monster lay waste to the Temple of Saturn and Coliseum in Rome.
The Blu-Ray I rented contains a worthwhile commentary by Harryhousen and a couple of visual effects artists and both the B&W and colorized versions of the film. I stuck with the B&W but Harryhousen seemed to be very fond of the color, which he said he would have used if he had the budget.
Trailer
