LET’S GET PHYSICAL: IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953) ***

FORMAT:  4K UHD

The year before director Jack Arnold and star Richard Carlson teamed up to make the iconic classic Creature from the Black Lagoon, they worked together on this 3-D Sci-Fi flick for Universal.  It is usually mentioned in the same breath as Creature because of the personnel, studio, and 3-D gimmick, and because of that, it inevitably suffers from comparison.  Yes, it falls short of Creature in just about every way, but it still stands as a fine example of ‘50s science fiction. 

Carlson stars as an astronomer living out in the middle of the desert who witnesses a meteor crash near his home.  Of course, it ain’t no meteor but a UFO.  (It looks like a bouncy ball.)  Naturally, no one believes him.  The one-eyed monster inside the ship needs to take the form of humans so they can help repair the ship and prepare it for its voyage home.  The first person it duplicates is Russell Johnson, the professor from Gilligan’s Island!  Maybe he could use some coconuts to put it back together. 

The movie starts with a bang (literally) and has a great set-up.  The scenes of Carlson exploring the crater are quite good too.  Things do slow down around the second act.  Arnold also kind of overdoes it with the bubble-eyed alien POV shots.  The comely Kathleen Hughes is sadly underutilized too (although she participated in some of the film’s most memorable publicity shots).  While It Came from Outer Space is effective and entertaining, it must be said that the whole “aliens replacing townsfolk” thing was done better in other later films like Invaders from Mars and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 

Okay, now I got that off my chest this is still a strong Sci-Fi flick.  That last paragraph was just me nitpicking.  When the movie works, it really works.  Carlson is excellent and he carries the film over the slower stretches.  The ending is unique too as our hero is trying to stop the humans from destroying the aliens and not the other way around.  All in all, this is a thoughtful and compelling piece of 50s Sci-Fi.

4K UHD NOTES: 

I know I keep comparing this to Creature from the Black Lagoon, but since that and It Came from Outer Space are the only black and white movies in my 4K collection (so far), I honestly have nothing else to compare it to.  Fortunately, this looks and sounds just about as great as Creature did.  The swirling smoke billowing up from the crater of the ship looks hypnotic and the string on the meteor when it crashes is even more noticeable now in 4K.  I will say I wish that Universal had included an anaglyph 3-D version instead of a useless Blu-Ray 3-D disc, but oh well.