The Mid 1950s
1954: “The Secret Storm”, “Woman With a Past” and “Portia Faces Life”
1955: “Date With Life” and “Way of the World”
1956: “As the World Turns” and “The Edge of Night”
You are now entering the Golden Age of Sci-Fi Movies, the Golden Age of Television, the first Golden Age of Rock & Roll, the Golden Age of Baseball, Toys, Comics, etc. And, yet, there was trouble in paradise.
The movie industry targeted the glut market of young Boomer boys with a new look to an old genre. Only a handful of Sci-Fi films (mostly of the “mad scientist” variety) had been made during the 40’s, but in the mid-50’s Hollywood couldn’t crank them out fast enough. The kids loved the weird stories as filmmakers explored new territory, using symbols and metaphor rather than direct confrontation, and examining subjects that serious writers wouldn’t dare touch… the bomb and after-effects, atomic radiation, world destruction, alien invasion and possession.
Our appetite for this type of movie grew, in part, out of the intense rivalry between the United States and Russia. Cameras in missiles fired from White Sands gave us TV and newsreel footage of our Earth rapidly receding. Americans watched in awe. A short time later, we observed white rats and monkeys floating in space, and these images sparked the imagination of the public. The number of UFO sightings multiplied several fold.
The Cold War heated up between the two superpowers and a feeling of anxiety and paranoia began to peel up the corners of our optimism. Communist subversion… an invasion from within by people who looked like ordinary Americans, but were actually pawns of an alien power became a popular topic of conversation. Kids in the Fifties watched that plot repeatedly in films like The Thing (with James Arness as the giant carrotman), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Again with the theme that Communism can turn one into a veggie), Earth Vrs. the Flying Saucers (mind control, rather than possession), Invaders From Mars, and It Came From Outer Space. Ray Bradbury wrote the last story, in which the aliens take human form only as a means of obtaining earthly parts to repair their spaceship to get the hell out of here, instead of the usual goal of world (or universal) domination.
The most interesting film of this genre in the 50’s was a lesser-known flick called The Twonky (1952). The twist in this one was that the alien took possession of a television set rather than a human being in its attempt to take over the earth. In retrospect, this may have been the best plan for world domination. For Boomer kids, the TV had already become the favorite family member. We were constantly at odds with our siblings and parents, but never had a problem with television during our formative childhood years.
Perhaps it was the first nuclear tests in Nevada (1951) or a delayed pang of guilt, as America considered the consequences of the two bombs dropped on Japan (1945) that led to a flood of “world destruction because of runaway technology” Sci-Fi films: When Worlds Collide and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), War of the Worlds, The Day the World Ended, Five (the last five survivors after WW III), and On the Beach (1954). Believe it or not, Boomers chose a foreign film from this category as their favorite… Godzilla, a gigantic monster who casually leveled cities while killing tens of thousands of innocent people. Many who didn’t get squashed fell victim to his radioactive breath. The tremendous damage caused by the monster was very similar to the real-life catastrophe (just nine years prior) when we dropped two big ones on Japan. It is interesting to note that in the many sequels, the Japanese people tame Godzilla and he becomes their friend to defend them from other monsters.
America was also under attack by monsters about that same time, and they were usually of our own making. Atomic radiation from bomb testing was responsible for giant mutated ants (Them), tarantulas, Gila monsters, crabs, etc. A bomb even woke up The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. We Boomers just couldn’t get enough of these giants. As a group we could relate. By the second half of the decade, Hollywood had pretty well exhausted the entire animal kingdom, and thus, had to resort to human giant mutants in The Amazing Colossal Man and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. They even tried a new direction with The Incredible Shrinking Man.
But, what was the classic film from the Golden Age of Monsters? Don’t ever claim to be a Baby Boomer if you don’t know the answer. Time is up. The answer is Forbidden Planet (1956). The story was loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, with Walter Pidegon as Morbius/ Prospero, who discovers the ancient records of the advanced Krell civilization on this brave new world. Morbius uses their technology to multiply his brainpower many times over, but in doing so, he also increases and releases the suppressed evils from his subconscious. His Id Monster takes on a huge, hideous physical form and then begins a rampage of death and destruction. Morbius fights desperately to control his id. He is a good scientist with a noble quest. The human race can benefited greatly from this method of increasing intelligence, but only if they can first come to grips with, and then conquer the basic animal instincts deep within each subconscious. The message seemed clear… to ignore and/or suppress the id can only make it grow to such gigantic proportions that it will finally explode with an uncontrolled fury.