Retrospective: 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
- From: Jerry Saravia <Faust668@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:47:33 -0500
20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Three stars and a half
I've been a fan of Ray Harryhausen since I was a kid, especially the
sights of stop-motion animation in everything from "Jason and the
Argonauts" and its dueling skeletons, to the rampaging dinosaur in
"Valley of the Gwangi" to all those mythological creatures come to
life in "Clash of the Titans." So I approached and received the same
wild-eyed pop enthusiasm from "20 Million Miles to Earth" as I had
from Harryhausen's previous work. It is a terrific ride of a movie
The opening scenes of this movie have an EC comics feel. A Sicilian
kid named Pepe (Bart Braverman, "Match Game" fans rejoice) helps his
father rescue a couple of astronauts inside a crash-landed spaceship,
which had just made a trip to Venus and was on its return voyage back
to Earth. While on shore and nursing them back to health, Pepe finds a
cylinder that he decides to open and touches some jelly-like substance
in it. It turns out to be an alien creature's fetus (known as the
Ymir, the film's original title) that proportionally grows in size and
strength. Need I say more?
The last surviving member of the Venus trip is Col. Robert Calder, who
is seemingly stoically played by William Hopper. I say seemingly
because the screenplay does occasionally allow him to be animated and
humorous. One particular example is when Calder tries to woo a
scientist's daughter (Joan Taylor) with thoughts of a nice dinner and
wine. How sweet! But who has time for lovemaking when Calder and the
U.S. and Sicilian goverments have to trap this destructive creature.
Sulfur might help! Dogs and elephants might not!
"20 Million Miles to Earth" could've been the cheesiest and silliest
monster movie ever. However, it has a charm and an innocence that
resonates with its peculiar aspect of adding a monster to the most
romantic environment in the Meditteranean Sea. That and peppering the
movie with the scene-stealing tyke Bart Braverman, who only wants a
few hundred lira and a cowboy hat from Texas for his discovery, adds
some excitement for kids who probably wish they would've found a
cylinder like the one he finds (but a warning label should've been
attached to it). The monster is believable enough and causes enough
destruction to almost ape King Kong's own methods (he even battles an
elephant in a scene that could have yielded laughs but its
primitiveness makes it more thrilling).
So with astounding direction by the late Nathan H. Juran (an
accomplished fantasy and science-fiction director known for "Attack of
the 50 ft. Woman") and bravura touches of humanity and humor in equal
doses by William Hopper and Bart Braverman, "20 Million Miles to
Earth" is pretty damn exciting and thrilling enough for anyone who is
a fan of monster movies and Ray Harryhausen.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/Jerry_at_the_Movies.html
BIO on the author of this page at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/index.html
Email me at Faust668@xxxxxxx or at faustus_08520@xxxxxxxxx
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