Summary
- Sci-fi movies of the 1950s reflected Cold War anxieties and explored futuristic themes from popular novels of the era.
- The 1950s saw adaptations of classic sci-fi novels like The War of the Worlds and Journey to the Center of the Earth, revitalizing their themes.
- Films like The Thing From Another World and Invasion of the Body Snatchers played on fears of the time, influenced by the space race and the aftermath of the Second World War.
The 1950s produced plenty of memorable sci-fi book adaptations, as filmmakers sought inspiration from both pulp fiction and well-respected authors. In the aftermath of the Second World War, and with the Cold War in full swing, sci-fi in the 1950s reflected the common anxieties of the era. The atomic age and the space race both represented frightening new frontiers in the world of science, and many sci-fi movies also borrowed from the horror genre.
In one way or another, the best sci-fi movies of the 1950s explored what could happen in the near future. Studios often looked for inspiration from the popular sci-fi novels of the era. In other cases, they saw the timeless themes of older classics by authors from previous centuries. Book adaptations produced some classics of the sci-fi genre in the 1950s, including Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The War of the Worlds.
Related 10 Black And White Sci-Fi Movies That Completely Changed The Genre
Many people dismiss black and white films as outdated, but some sci-fi classics from decades ago helped create the genre as it is today.
10 The Thing From Another World (1951)
Based on Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell
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John W. Campbell’s novella “Who Goes There?” is probably most famous these days as the basis for John Carpenter’s sci-fi/horror classic The Thing, but it was adapted into a movie over 30 years earlier. The Thing From Another World is a very different kind of monster movie. While Carpenter’s version is all about paranoia and mistrust, The Thing From Another World is a more traditional monster movie.
John W. Campbell’s novella “Who Goes There?” is probably most famous these days as the basis for John Carpenter’s sci-fi/horror classic
The Thing,
but it was adapted into a movie over 30 years earlier.
The Thing From Another World is one of many great monster movies from the 1950s, and the Thing is typical of the era’s menacing creature designs. The hulking plant-based brute fed into fears of the unknown as humanity was starting to dip its toe into space exploration. Howard Hawks is listed as the film’s writer and producer, but the shot composition and overlapping, naturalistic dialogue scenes suggest that he may have also had a hand in The Thing From Another World‘s direction.
9 The War Of The Worlds (1953)
Based on The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
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The War of the Worlds (1953)
Director Byron Haskin Release Date August 26, 1953 Cast Gene Barry , Ann Robinson , Les Tremayne , Robert Cornthwaite , Sandro Giglio , Lewis Martin , Houseley Stevenson Jr. , Paul Frees
H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds is one of the most influential sci-fi novels of all time, and it has been adapted into several movies, TV shows and radio dramas. The 1953 film version is a brilliant alien invasion movie which constituted a great leap forward for sci-fi. The movie features a race of technologically advanced aliens waging war on Earth in their tripod-shaped spacecraft.
The War of the Worlds
was first published in 1898, but this film adaptation came after audiences had already witnessed the large-scale horrors of two world wars.
The War of the Worlds was first published in 1898, but this film adaptation came after audiences had already witnessed the large-scale horrors of two world wars. Suddenly, the prospect of humanity’s demise didn’t seem so fanciful. The aliens in The War of the Worlds played on contemporary fears of outside invaders coming to destroy the established status quo, but it’s just as much about humanity’s muddled response to existential threats.
8 This Island Earth (1955)
Based on This Island Earth by Raymond F. Jones
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This Island Earth was an eye-popping sci-fi spectacle when it was first released, with gorgeous technicolor and plenty of creative visual effects. This Island Earth is an expansive space opera about a race of bug-eyed aliens who use the Earth as a pawn in an intergalactic war. Humans fight back to regain their independence and their autonomy, but they are powerless in a game that they can’t comprehend.
This Island Earth
was an eye-popping sci-fi spectacle when it was first released, with gorgeous technicolor and plenty of creative visual effects.
This Island Earth deviates a lot from Raymond F. Jones’ novel, which was published just two years earlier. The movie cuts some of the complicated political intrigue and a few supporting characters, and it inserts a romantic subplot, as many Hollywood adaptations do. Decades later, it’s the movie which has survived, not the novel. This has a lot do with the splashy visual grandeur of the production.
7 The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Based on The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
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The Incredible Shrinking Man Where to Watch
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Director Jack Arnold Release Date February 22, 1957 Cast Grant Williams , Randy Stuart , April Kent , Paul Langton , Raymond Bailey , William Schallert
The Incredible Shrinking Man follows a man afflicted with a strange disease that causes him to gradually shrink. By the time he is the size of a child, he becomes caught in a media storm, but he is soon forgotten about as he shrinks smaller and smaller. By the end, he is abandoned in the basement of his home as he starts to be dwarfed by mice and insects eyeing him up like a potential meal.
The Incredible Shrinking Man
has a clever approach to its visual effects, but it’s also a powerful allegory for terminal disease.
The Incredible Shrinking Man has a clever approach to its visual effects, but it’s also a powerful allegory for terminal disease. The story is about how Scott deals with his circumstances, but it’s also concerned with how other people treat him as he and his needs change. Unlike most sci-fi movies of the era, The Incredible Shrinking Man never provides any explanation for its central mystery. Scott only assumes that his shrinking is linked to a mysterious cloud that surrounds him, but the cloud’s origins remain unknown.
6 Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956)
Based on The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Where to Watch
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Director Don Siegel Release Date February 5, 1956 Cast kevin mccarthy , Dana Wynter , Larry Gates , King Donovan , Carolyn Jones , Jean Willes , Ralphe Dumke , Virginia Christine
Invasion of the Body Snatchers has endured for far longer than most other 1950s sci-fi movies, and it has influenced countless alien invasion movies. Jack Finney’s novel was adapted a second time in 1978. Both adaptations are worth watching, but it’s hard to beat the intense, eerie atmosphere of the 1956 original. The story features an insidious alien plot to slowly replace people with bland automatons.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
has endured for far longer than most other 1950s sci-fi movies, and it has influenced countless alien invasion movies.
Each version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers puts its own spin on Finney’s novel. The 1956 iteration was released just two years after the book was published, so it exists within the same social context. Invasion of the Body Snatchers reflects the American Red Scare of the 1950s. The story hints at the creeping paranoia and malice bubbling beneath the surface of white-picket-fence middle America.
5 When Worlds Collide (1951)
Based on When Worlds Collide by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie
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When Worlds Collide (1951)
Director Rudolph Maté Release Date November 15, 1951 Cast Richard Derr , Barbara Rush , Peter Hansen , John Hoyt , Larry Keating , Rachel Ames , Stephen Chase , Frank Cady
When Worlds Collide is a space-age Noah’s Ark tale, but the spaceships and sci-fi costumes do very little to pull focus from the biblical overtones. The movie opens with a quote from Genesis about how God decided to wipe out humanity, and the plot focuses on the mad scramble as people try to protect themselves from oblivion. The chaos shows precisely why civilization has been doomed to perish, either by divine intervention or random cosmic indifference.
When Worlds Collide
is all fire and brimstone, but it has plenty to offer beyond its religious themes.
When Worlds Collide is all fire and brimstone, but it has plenty to offer beyond its religious themes. Prophetic visions of an apocalyptic future are especially prevalent in sci-fi movies during times of great social upheaval, so the 1950s produced many similar stories. When Worlds Collide has plenty of miniatures and painted backdrops which look quaint by today’s standards, but it’s an ambitious cautionary tale about the perils of nuclear armament.
4 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)
Based on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas by Jules Verne
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20000 Leagues Under the Sea Where to Watch
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Director Richard Fleischer Release Date December 23, 1954 Cast Kirk Douglas , James Mason , Paul Lukas , Peter Lorre , Robert J. Wilke , Ted de Corsia
There were many sci-fi movies in the 1950s which adapted contemporary novels, but 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is based on a Jules Verne novel from 1870. The Disney adventure movie assembles a stellar cast headed by Kirk Douglas and James Mason, finally bringing Verne’s popular novel to the big screen with all the splendor and richness that it deserves. Previous adaptations simply didn’t have the scope or the technology to do so.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
was revered for its visual effects, and its design helped to birth the steampunk aesthetic.
In an era when sci-fi movies were looking up to the stars, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea acted as a reminder that there were still undiscovered creatures hidden on Earth. There is just as much horror and adventure in the oceans explored by Captain Nemo and his crew as there is on the fictional planets of other movies. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was revered for its visual effects, and its design helped to birth the steampunk aesthetic.
3 Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1959)
Based on Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea wasn’t the only popular Jules Verne novel to receive a big-budget movie adaptation in the 1950s. Five years after the box office success of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 20th Century Fox released Journey to the Center of the Earth, another dazzling adventure that proved to be a hit with fans. Journey to the Center of the Earth follows a race between two competing teams to find the secrets hidden in the planet’s core.
Unlike the Cold War,
Journey to the Center of the Earth
features dinosaurs, the city of Atlantis and a cannibal.
The exploration in Journey to the Center of the Earth is reminiscent of Scott and Amundsen’s scramble to plant a flag at the South Pole, but in the 1950s the story took on a new meaning. The competing teams, one American and one European, represented the two interested parties in the space race. Unlike the Cold War, Journey to the Center of the Earth features dinosaurs, the city of Atlantis and a cannibal.
2 On The Beach (1959)
Based on On the Beach by Nevil Shute
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On the Beach is set in the 1960s, after the fallout from World War III has wiped out all life in the Northern Hemisphere. People in Melbourne, Australia wait for the clouds of radiation to eventually drift south and kill them, and they handle the news of their impending doom differently. Some engage in acts of drunken debauchery, while others sit in shock, refusing to believe that their loved ones in the U.S. are dead. Perhaps most disturbing of all are the racing drivers in the Australian grand prix who give their all to either win the race or die trying.
On the Beach
set the tone for many other post-apocalyptic sci-fi movies.
On the Beach makes plenty of changes to Nevil Shute’s 1957 novel. The most significant is that the book details the story of the war, while little is known about what really happened in the movie. This is even more powerful, as there is nobody to blame for humanity’s demise, and the reasons behind the conflict fade into insignificance. On the Beach set the tone for many other post-apocalyptic sci-fi movies.
1 The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957)
Based on Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
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The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) Where to Watch
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Director Terence Fisher Release Date June 25, 1957 Cast Peter Cushing , Hazel Court , Robert Urquhart , Christopher Lee , Melvyn Hayes , Valerie Gaunt , Paul Hardtmuth , Fred Johnson
Mary Shelley first wrote Frankenstein in 1812, when the advent of electricity and the industrial revolution were changing the world irreversibly. The horror story plays on humanity’s anxieties about rapidly advancing technologies, and whether they can be placed into human hands, and this theme has ensured the story has remained just as popular centuries later. Guillermo del Toro is making his own Frankenstein adaptation, proving that the characters and the story are still relevant.
The Curse of Frankenstein
takes some liberties with Shelley’s story, but the building blocks are unmistakable.
Boris Karloff’s version of the monster may still be the gold standard, but horror icon Christopher Lee does a superb job in 1957’s The Curse of Frankenstein. Peter Cushing, another veteran villain actor, plays the egomaniacal Dr. Frankenstein, and he highlights the character’s own monstrous qualities. The Curse of Frankenstein takes some liberties with Shelley’s story, but the building blocks are unmistakable.