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This Island Earth (1955)
In this Technicolored, cerebral 1950's science-fiction
film by director Joseph
M. Newman, the first interstellar space opera in color, based upon
the 1952 novel by Raymond F. Jones - first serialized in the Thrilling
Wonder Stories magazine
from 1949-1950:
- in the film's opening, electronics and atomic energy
expert and pilot Dr. Cal Meacham (Rex Reason), was rescued from
a jet crash on his return flight from Washington, DC to his laboratory
at the Ryberg Electronics Corporation in Los Angeles, when his
jet plane went out of control; he was saved by a mysterious glowing
green light that enveloped the plane and allowed for a safe landing;
his assistant Joe Wilson (Robert Nichols) was incredulous: "I know
everybody's seeing flying saucers and screwy lights up in the sky.
Well, you can put me in the booby hatch, too, because, so help
me, I saw this ship turn a bright green up there"
- Dr. Meacham assembled a complex, experimental 3D
television screen (or interociter telecommunications device)
from unordered and advanced space-age parts sent from a mysterious
company known as Electronic Services; it was a miraculous machine,
according to the accompanying manual, as Meacham exclaimed: "There's
no limit to what it can do. Laying a four-lane highway at the rate
of a mile a minute would be a cinch"; when he turned on the finished
machine, a big-foreheaded,
white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, benevolent, scientifically-intelligent
man named Exeter (Jeff Morrow) appeared on the view-screen; he
introduced
himself a scientific colleague, and then congratulated Meacham for
passing an aptitude test by successfully constructing the interociter:
("You
have successfully accomplished your task, Dr. Meacham. You've assembled
an Interocitor, a feat of which few men are capable"); he added:
"Although I admit at the moment, I do appear immaterial. But no matter"
- as a top research scientist, the intrigued Meacham
immediately accepted an invitation
to Exeter's
research facility;
although there was a dense fog, he was effortlessly transported
in a remotely computer-controlled, pilotless transport aircraft
(without windows) to the facility; upon arrival in Georgia, he
quipped: "I kind of expected Neptune or Mars"; he became acquainted
with several
other noted scientists from around the world, including
Dr. Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue) with whom he had a 'summer fling'
in Vermont three years earlier with a midnight swim, although she
denied her previous association with him; later she reemphasized:
"I'm still sorry I wasn't the girl in Vermont," but then admitted
they had known each other previously when she began to trust him
- the international group (called a "club") was instructed
to work on a top-secret project as "Peace Engineers" in the laboratory
of Exeter's mansion; Exeter described their mission as a "way to
put an end to war" - they were to discover a way to produce "limitless
amounts of free nuclear energy. More specifically, the conversion
of lead into uranium" - in other words,
to quickly synthesize or produce new sources of nuclear energy and
power
Exeter's Mission: To Put an End To War By Creating Free Nuclear Energy
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Exeter's Communication Device or Interociter
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- in a revelatory scene, it was shown that Exeter
was an emissary from the dying planet of Metaluna,
working under the supervision of the planet's supreme leader the
Monitor (Douglas Spencer); Meacham and Adams (and Dr. Steve Carlson
(Russell Johnson)) were suspicious that some of the other research
experts had already been brainwashed or had their "brain cells rearranged"
- similar to a lobotomy: "Renders useless certain areas of the brain.
Those areas controlling the power of the will"; however, Exeter was
clearly against the Monitor's devious and evil plan to brainwash
and eliminate the free will of some of the expert researchers/scientists
- and eventually all of the Earthlings - by subjecting them to a
non-invasive 'thought transformer' or sun-lamp - he feared it would
destroy all of their initiative by making them robotic
- as the house was ordered to be evacuated
for an emergency return to the home planet, three of the scientists
(Meacham, Adams, and Carlson) decided to flee from the facility
in a vehicle; they were detected and Carlson was killed by a neutrino
beam, and the mansion was destroyed; as Meacham and Adams flew
off in a single-engine plane, Exeter ensnared their plane in his
greenish tractor beam and took them in his flying saucer to his
surrealistic doomed planet of Metaluna
- on the journey, dressed in a silver
suit and accompanied by other Metalunians, Exeter explained his
real goal was to save his ailing planet with a failing ionization
force field layer - the two scientists were to help create a protective
defense shield (by converting the dwindling supplies of lead to
uranium to provide more power for their weakened 'ionization' force
shield) to aid the war-ravaged Metaluna fight against their barbaric
enemy planet Zahgon with whom they were engaged in an intergalactic
or interstellar war
- during the trip, Cal and Ruth were required
to enter narrow tubes where they were electronically disintegrated
and reconstructed - to survive the changing atmospheric pressures
of the flight
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Placed in Tubes To Be Transformed In Order to Survive
Changes in Atmospheric Pressure During the Journey
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- as the flying saucer approached Metaluna, the planet
was under constant attack by Zahgon's dart-shaped siege starships
that controlled and guided meteors as weapons, that were already
beginning to penetrate through Metaluna's defenses; the rocky and
barren surface of Metaluna was covered with gaping holes and deep
caverns created by exploding meteors; the group was beamed down
in a tall green pylon-tower to the planet's interior surface
- afterwards, it was revealed that the sinister Monitor
had evil plans to immediately evacuate Metaluna and relocate to Earth
- an invasion to take over
the planet; in addition, Earthlings would be brainwashed
and 'mind-controlled' to eliminate any free-thinking; Cal confronted
the Monitor with the statement: "Our true size is the size of our
God!"
- as Cal and Ruth resisted and tried to escape from
being taken to the "Thought Transference Chamber" to be brain-controlled, they
were confronted by a hideous, bug-eyed, selectively-bred slave known
as a "Mut-Ant" (Regis
Parton) (a giant insect with an enlarged, exposed brain) that enforced
the Monitor's orders
- Exeter, who opposed the Monitor's
plan and regarded it as immoral, offered to help Cal
and Ruth rush back to the flying saucer, as Metaluna lost its ionization
layer completely and became entirely vulnerable; an explosion
rocked the Monitor's headquarters and killed him; the threesome
came across another Mut-Ant guarding the ship; Cal battered the
Mut-Ant's head with a fire extinguisher to save Exeter from death
- as Exeter joined them in the journey back to Earth,
he regarded Metaluna's extinction, as it was battered by Zahgon
meteors, as curiously beneficial: "Intense heat is turning Metaluna
into a radioactive sun. Temperature must be thousands of degrees
by now. A lifeless planet. And yet, yet still serving a useful
purpose, I hope. Yes, a sun. Warming the surface of some other
world. Giving light to those who may need it"
- unobserved, the Mut-Ant stowed-away in the flying
saucer and attacked Ruth as she emerged from her converter tube,
but then Cal came to her defense as the Mut-Ant disintegrated due
to conversion and pressure variables between Metaluna and Earth
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Mut-Ant Attacking Dr. Adams Before Disintegrating
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- after entry into Earth's
atmosphere and during their approach to the Pacific coast, the wounded
and weakened Exeter let Dr. Meacham and Dr. Adams transfer to their
single-engine plane (in the cargo hold) to fly off; he lied to
them by claiming: "I'll explore, perhaps find another Metaluna,"
before he sacrifically committed suicide by
ditching his saucer into the ocean
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Dr. Meacham's (Rex Reason) Green-Glowing Jet When Landing in Los Angeles
Interociter - Exeter (Jeff Morrow) Appeared on Viewscreen
Dr. Meacham in the Interior of Pilot-Less Airplane to Georgia
Dr. Adams (Faith Domergue)
The Supreme Leader, the Monitor (Douglas Spencer)
Meacham and Adams in Single-Engine Plane Ensnared in Green Beam and Brought
Onboard Exeter's Flying Saucer
Captured, Leaving Earth - On Journey in Saucer to Metaluna
Viewing the Approach to Metaluna
Landing On the Planet Metaluna
Final Moments of the Monitor's Life
Mut-Ant Guarding "Thought Transference Chamber"
Exeter's Saucer Ditched Into Pacific
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