IT' SSSSSS MY 800TH REVIEW! THE ORIGINAL ALIEN! 3 1/2 STARS!
This is a classic 50's sci-fi flick with a great idea for a story.......so great, that the producers of 'Alien' took the original idea and created one of the most memorable monsters in the history of film, 'Alien'! This film is well paced and fun to watch with a good cast. The 69 minute running length won't have you begging for mercy either. Another good Paul Blaisdell monster suit although this one's not as cool as The She-Creature. It's does have some unintentional humor, but don't most of these old films?

The DVD has only a cool trailer as a bonus feature, but the print is in very good shape and the DVD transfer in fine. One note: the statement at the beginning of the feature stating that the film has been modified to fit your TV screen is not true. This is the correct aspect ratio. This has been re-released on a double feature DVD with the superior 'The Monster That Challenged The World'. Not a bad double bill for my money!

"Another name for 'Mars' is 'Death.'"
Something of a trivia question these days - which 50s B-movie inspired Alien? - It! The Terror From Beyond Space probably came too late in the day to get the kind of reputation it deserved in the 50s sci-fi pantheon but it's a lot better than you expect. Right from its atmospheric opening shot of a crashed spaceship on Mars accompanied by Marshall Thompson's fatalistic narration, it sets out its stall - this is going to be played straight and with deadly intent. Aiming more for The Thing From Another World than The Monster That Challenged the World's end of the market, the dialogue and interplay doesn't match Hawks although it has the better critter (and very atmospherically photographed the beast is too), a barbarous Martian who stows away aboard a rescue flight taking Thompson back to Earth to face a firing squad for allegedly killing his own crew. Initial distrust gives way to we've-tried-everything-but-nothing-can-stop-it dramatics, but the film shows some originality at times and offers at least one good shock with the discovery of the first body. It's let down by the characterisation, though. The women may be scientists but they're still expected to make the coffee, while the men show reckless abandon with guns and grenades in a moving spaceship. Yet at a brisk 69 minutes it never outstays its welcome and for my money it's a lot more enjoyable than Ridley Scott's movie.

The only extra is the original trailer.

Great Fun from the 50s
Get the popcorn and turn down the lights! It, the Terror from Beyond Space has relatively high tension, dated electronics and effects (and really dated opinions of the role of women), a decent plot, and a really ugly, heavily-breathing monster. What could be more fun! A rescue mission on its way back from Mars to court marshal its sole survivor, discovers its got more than the survivor on board. Tension abounds as the crew begins to get picked-off one by one. Even Marshall Thompson develops [some] pathos as the tortured survivor having to deal with the loss of his entire crew and no one believing his story. They try everything they can think of to get rid of "It", including small arms, grenades, gas, electricty, a bazooka, a blow-torch, and even an atomic reactor (best line of the film, "Its enough to kill a hundred men!"). Although dated, the film is best [and should be] appreciated in the perspective of its temporal component (i.e., mid-50s paranoia). Once past the comparisons to today's high-fx films (especially 'Alien'), you can really enjoy this short but intense romp into an honest example of a better than average 50s sci-fi B-movie.

Bazookas in space!
Lots of "Cheeeeesy" 50s fun.
Unstoppable rubber monsters, helpless women, chain smoking astronauts and the bit that got me the most, rifles, pistols, grenades and a Bazooka in space... Just what every space ship needs!
A great fun film, not to be taken to seriously.

So very cheesy.
It! The Terror from Beyond Space (Edward L. Kahn, 1958)

In 1973, the first manned mission to Mars ends in abject failure. When a rescue ship goes to pick up the crew, they find only one survivor, Edward Carruthers (Marshall Thompson). Thompson says that the deaths of his crew were caused by a hostile being indigenous to Mars; the space administration, of course, doesn't believe him, and chains him up for court-martial when they get back. The thing that killed his crewmates, however, has gotten aboard the rescue ship, and it wastes little time in starting to lend credence to Carruthers' story. Can the crew of the new ship figure out how to kill the thing before they all die?

While looking back at this movie (made years before manned space flights were a reality) and accounting for some of its cheesiness by the simple fact that no one had any idea what manned space flight would actually be like is a good way to pass off some of the silliness of it, that can hardly account for the sum total of the flick's unintentional humor. "Mars is almost as big as Texas, maybe it has monsters." Hrm. Jerome Bixby (It's a Good Life) was not in top form when he worked on this script. The acting lives up to the script's promise, being lackluster at best and hilarious at worst. The special effects are low-budget-fifties bad, but at least Cahn knows to keep things dark and let the audience's minds do most of the work. But the real treat is a filler scene of a plastic spaceship floating through a fake starfield, which pops up no less than three times as filler. Great stuff, that.

For completists and nostalgists, mostly. **