This Island Earth
Directed by Joseph Newman
Written by Franklin Coen and George Callahan; story by Raymond F. Jones
1955/USA
Universal International Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Dr. Ruth Adams: My mind is my own, and nobody’s going to change it! I’m not going into that room![/box]
Some interesting special effects accompany a plodding and puzzling screenplay.
Dr. Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) is a genius nuclear scientist who also pilots his institute’s private jet. He is about to make a major breakthrough in harnessing nuclear energy. When he returns from a conference, his plane goes haywire and is finally landed by unknown forces. Soon enough, he begins getting shipments he hasn’t ordered. He begins to piece together the parts and finally constructs an “interroceter”. Unknowingly, he has passed an intelligence test contrived by the planet Metaluna which is looking for nuclear scientists such as himself. He begins communicating with the alien Exeter (Jeff Morrow) who tells him his plane will be flown to Metaluna at a certain time. Not one to pass up a challenge, Meacham agrees.
When he arrives on Metaluna, Meacham is met at the airport by Dr. Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue), who he had a fling with at a conference previously. She denies she ever met him and generally acts very paranoid. Eventually we find out that Metaluna has gathered many of the earth’s scientists to solve its nuclear energy problems. The planet has been protected up until now from meteor attacks by an enemy planet by a force field powered by atomic energy. Its energy reserves are dwindling rapidly. The rest of the film is occupied with Ruth and Meachum’s adventures and attempts to escape.
For 1955, I thought this had some OK special effects. It’s fairly talky though and it was never satisfactorily explained why a civilization as superior as Metaluna required Earthlings to solve its problems. It passes all tests for cheesy late night viewing, however.
Trailer
