There was a bit of Freudian symbolism in
The Creature from the Black Lagoon perhaps. I hope you did not take the comment of that boy personally. It would have been hard not to as a child Lois.
I sat and pondered, if I was not bound to just the 1950's, what would my list of films been?
I never liked the creature films either. Many of the films mentioned in the above list are low budget films that were more into brisk but modest profits for the studio.
Some films I have I enjoy are:
Destination Moon. (1950). It really started the whole 1950's genre. Imagine how original it was, and in Technicolor too. I would say as a child, it greatly influenced me about space travel and the promise of what was to come. The excitement of the 'Space Race'.
Producer George Pal, an immigrant from Holland made animated and live action animated short films. Later became good friends with Walt Disney too.
Destination Moon cast was fine, but the real stars of Destination Moon were behind the camera. Science Fiction writer Robert Heinlein, and space and Matt artist Chesley Bonestell. I have a deep affection for
Destination Moon from long past. It sometimes gets panned about it's effects, but at the time, they were dazzling and the best attempt from what was known then about making such a trip. There are so many parallels too in the film's story with today. The lines first spoken on the moon claiming it by the United States for the benefit of all mankind are very poignant words that I am sure influenced Neil Armstrong's choice of words when he first stepped off the LEM onto the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. How can we ever forget that special day.
A film that I think should get more attention that I think has influenced many too - masquerades under a somewhat hokey title. Also associated to some extent with George Pal, but more so with his Association with Director Byron Haskin who directed
'Robinson Crusoe on Mars'. (1964). In a strange way, this film captures more the spirit of the Defoe book than the many attempts by Hollywood filming the original novel.
I think more, it captures the wonderful optimism of the early 1960's space program as inspired by Kennedy in our then new goal to go to the moon before the end of the 1960's.
Captain Christopher Draper USN in marooned on Mars. The cast is very small, scenes very Bonestell like - much of the live action also filmed in Death Valley and the Paramount lot. How the astronaut faces the struggle of survival hour to hour, then day to day, soon month in and out has been a allegory in some ways of my own life. Living with diabetes for 37 years - I understand a little what the astronaut faces in my own mind anyway - marking the days in the film with chalk on a stone slate. Conserving his supplies, making new discoveries about Mars adapting them on the spot for his survival. Oxygen, water, heat, shelter, even later a food source.
It gets very lonely on Mars, the psychological challenge becomes the greatest, except for a small spider monkey crew member which survives too. he seems totally alone.
But focused on survival and exploration, soon Draper finds he is not alone on Mars as the film's story plays out. Draper thinking he may have been rescued - instead finds an alien mining expedition instead, their society still using slaves cruelly for labor of Mar's minerals. Draper withdraws, concealing all evidence of his presence. Befriending an escaped slave, they soon move across Mar's pursued by the aliens, the aliens give up, and eventually Draper and 'Friday' are rescued.
Years ago, someone asked the brilliant tempermental Sci-Fi writer Harlan Ellison, (his
'City on the edge of Forever' episode he wrote for the original Star trek series among them) what was his favorite sci-fi movie? - he replied (then)
''Robinson Crusoe on Mars'. Paramount having produced
'Robinson Crusoe on Mars', along with MGM's
'Forbidden Planet' (1956) stands as a bridge with a look, feel, and a sound between those brighter memorable sci-fi films of the 50's with the
Star Trek's of the 1960's.
I miss sci-fi films today. Most are less future science and more fantasy and pseudo science mysticism. They woefully lack the optimism and light of those younger times. Many films today seem so dark and depressing now. Every science fiction film lately are so pessimistic, we have been warned about every impeding doom we can imagine.
Yet, hypocritically, science has given us so much, why must it always be seen in return in such a dark light? In the Great Recession, films with hope in the future need to be rediscovered. A new Destination Moon era is desperately needed. A new hope.
Steve