This period is sometimes described as the 'classic' era of science fiction theater. Much of the production was in a low-budget form targeted at a teenage audience. Many were formulaic, gimmicky, comic-book style films. They drew upon political themes or public concerns of the day, including depersonalization, infiltration, or fear of nuclear weapons. Invasion was a common theme, as were various threats to humanity.[1]
|
1950 |
Title |
Director |
Cast |
Country |
Sub-Genre/Notes |
Destination Moon |
Irving Pichel |
Warner Anderson, John Archer, Tom Powers |
|
[nb 1] |
Flying Disc Man from Mars |
Fred C. Brannon |
Kent Fowler, Gregory Gaye |
|
Serial film |
The Flying Saucer |
Mikel Conrad |
Mikel Conrad, Pat Garrison, Hanz von Teuffen |
|
|
The Invisible Monster |
Fred C. Brannon |
Stanley Price, Richard Webb, Aline Towne, Lane Bradford |
|
Serial film |
Prehistoric Women |
Gregg G. Tallas |
Laurette Luez, Allan Nixon, Joan Shawlee |
|
|
Rocketship X-M |
Kurt Neumann |
Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery |
|
|
Two Lost Worlds |
Norman Dawn, Norman Kennedy |
James Arness, Laura Elliott |
|
|
1951 |
Title |
Director |
Cast |
Country |
Sub-Genre/Notes |
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man |
Charles Lamont |
Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Nancy Guild |
|
|
Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere |
Spencer Gordon Bennet, Wallace Grissell |
Judd Holdren, Gene Roth |
|
Serial film |
The Day the Earth Stood Still |
Robert Wise |
Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe |
|
[nb 2] |
Five |
Arch Oboler |
William Phipps, Susan Douglas, James Anderson |
|
|
Flight to Mars |
Lesley Selander |
Marguerite Chapman, Cameron Mitchell, Arthur Franz |
|
|
Lost Continent |
Sam Newfield |
Cesar Romero, Hillary Brooke, Chick Chandler |
|
|
Lost Planet Airmen |
Fred C. Brannon |
Tristram Coffin, Mae Clark, I. Stanford Jolley |
|
[nb 3] |
The Man from Planet X |
Edgar G. Ulmer |
Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Raymond Bond |
|
|
The Man in the White Suit |
Alexander Mackendrick |
Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger |
|
|
Mysterious Island |
Spencer Gordon Bennett |
Richard Crane, Marshall Reed, Karen Randle, Ralph Hodges |
|
Serial film |
Superman and the Mole Men |
Lee Sholem |
George Reeves, Phyllis Coates, Jeff Corey |
|
|
The Thing from Another World |
Christian Nyby |
Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite |
|
|
Unknown World |
Terrell O. Morse |
Bruce Kellogg, Marilyn Nash, Jim Bannon, Otto Waldis |
|
|
When Worlds Collide |
Rudolph Mate |
Richard Derr, Barbara Rush, Peter Hansen, John Hoyt |
|
|
1952 |
Title |
Director |
Cast |
Country |
Sub-Genre/Notes |
April 1, 2000 |
Wolfgang Liebeneiner |
Hilde Krahl, Joseph Meinrad, Curd Jürgens |
|
[nb 4] |
Alraune |
Arthur-Maria Rabenalt |
Hildegarde Neff, Erich Von Stroheim |
|
|
Captive Women |
Stuart Gilmore |
Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Gloria Saunders |
|
[nb 5] |
The Jungle |
William A. Berke |
Rod Cameron, Cesar Romero, Marie Windsor |
|
[2] |
Radar Men from the Moon |
Fred C. Brannon |
George Wallace, Aline Towne, Roy Barcroft |
|
Serial film |
Red Planet Mars |
Harry Horner |
Peter Graves, Andrea King, Orley Lindgren |
|
|
Untamed Women |
Merle W. Connell, James R. Connell |
Mikel Conrad, Doris Merrick, Richard Monahan |
|
|
Zombies of the Stratosphere |
Fred C. Brannon |
Judd Holdren |
|
Serial film |
1953 |
Title |
Director |
Cast |
Country |
Sub-Genre/Notes |
Abbott and Costello Go to Mars |
Charles Lamont |
Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Mari Blanchard |
|
|
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
Charles Lamont |
Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff |
|
|
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms |
Eugene Lourie |
Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway |
|
|
Cat-Women of the Moon |
Arthur D. Hilton |
Sonny Tufts, Victor Jory, Marie Windsor, Carol Brewster |
|
[nb 6] |
Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe |
Harry Keller, Franklin Adreon, Fred C. Brannon |
Judd Holdren, Aline Towne |
|
Serial film |
Donovan's Brain |
Felix E. Feist |
Lew Ayres, Gene Evans, Nancy Davis |
|
|
Four Sided Triangle |
Terence Fisher |
Barbara Payton, John Van Eyssen, Percy Marmont |
|
|
Invaders from Mars |
William Cameron Menzies |
Jimmy Hunt, Arthur Franz, Helena Carter |
|
|
It Came from Outer Space |
Jack Arnold |
Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, Charles Drake |
|
|
Killers from Space |
W. Lee Wilder |
Peter Graves |
|
|
The Lost Planet |
Spencer Gordon Bennet |
Judd Holdren, Vivian Mason, Michael Fox |
|
Serial film |
The Magnetic Monster |
Curt Siodmak |
Richard Carlson, King Donovan, Harry Ellerbe |
|
|
Mesa of Lost Women |
Herbert Tevos, Ron Ormond |
Jackie Coogan, Richard Travis, Allan Nixon, Mary Hill |
|
|
The Neanderthal Man |
Ewald Andre Dupont |
Robert Shayne, Doris Merrick, Richard Crane |
|
|
Phantom from Space |
W. Lee Wilder |
Ted Cooper, Rudolph Anders, Noreen Nash |
|
|
Port Sinister |
Harold Daniels |
James Warren, Lynne Roberts, Paul Cavanagh |
|
[nb 7] |
Project Moonbase |
Richard Talmadge |
Donna Martell, Hayden Rorke, Ross Ford |
|
|
Robot Monster |
Phil Tucker |
George Nader, Claudia Barrett, Selena Royle |
|
[nb 8] |
Snow Creature |
W. Lee Wilder |
William Phipps |
|
|
Spaceways |
Terence Fisher |
Howard Duff, Eva Bartok, Alan Wheatley |
|
|
The Twonky |
Arch Oboler |
Hans Conried, Billy Lynn, Gloria Blondell, Janet Warren |
|
[3] |
The War of the Worlds |
Byron Haskin |
Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Lewis Martin |
|
[nb 9] |
1954 |
Title |
Director |
Cast |
Country |
Sub-Genre/Notes |
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
Richard Fleischer |
Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas |
|
[nb 10] |
Crash of Moons |
Hollingsworth Morse |
Richard Crane, Sally Mansfield, Robert Lyden, Scotty Beckett, Patsy Parsons |
|
[nb 11] |
Creature from the Black Lagoon |
Jack Arnold |
Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Nestor Paiva |
|
|
Devil Girl from Mars |
David MacDonald |
Patricia Laffan, Hugh McDermott, Adrienne Corri |
|
|
Gojira |
Ishirō Honda |
Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi, Takashi Shimura |
|
|
Gog |
Ivan Tors |
Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall |
|
|
Monster from The Ocean Floor |
Wyott Ordung |
Anne Kimball, Stuart Wade, Dick Pinner |
|
|
Riders to the Stars |
Richard Carlson |
William Lundigan, Herbert Marshall |
|
|
Stranger From Venus |
Burt Balaban |
Patricia Neal, Helmut Dantine, Derek Bond |
|
[4] |
Target Earth |
Sherman A. Rose |
Richard Denning, Kathleen Crowley, Virginia Grey |
|
|
Them! |
Gordon M. Douglas |
James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness |
|
|
Tobor the Great |
Lee Sholem |
Charles Drake, Karin Booth, Billy Chapin |
|
|
1955 |
Title |
Director |
Cast |
Country |
Sub-Genre/Notes |
The Beast with a Million Eyes |
David Kramarsky |
Paul Birch, Lorna Thayer, Dona Cole, Dick Sargent |
|
[5][6][nb 12] |
Bride of the Monster |
Edward D. Wood, Jr. |
Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Tony McCoy, Loretta King |
|
|
Conquest of Space |
Byron Haskin |
Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy |
|
|
Creature with the Atom Brain |
Edward L. Cahn |
Richard Denning, Angela Greene, S. John Launer |
|
[7] |
Godzilla Raids Again |
Motoyoshi Oda |
Hiroshi Koizumi, Minoru Chiaki |
|
|
It Came from Beneath the Sea |
Robert Gordon |
Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis |
|
|
King Dinosaur |
Bert I. Gordon |
Douglas Henderson, Patti Gallagher |
|
[8][9] |
Monster Snowman |
Ishirō Honda |
Akira Takarada, Akemi Negishi |
|
|
The Quatermass Xperiment |
Val Guest |
Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Richard Wordsworth, Margia Dean |
|
[nb 13] |
Revenge of the Creature |
Jack Arnold |
John Agar, Lori Nelson, John Bromfield, Nestor Paiva |
|
|
Tarantula |
Jack Arnold |
John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll, Nestor Paiva |
|
|
This Island Earth |
Jack Arnold, Joseph Newman |
Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason |
|
|
1956 |
Title |
Director |
Cast |
Country |
Sub-Genre/Notes |
1984 |
Michael Anderson |
Edmond O'Brien, Jan Sterling, Michael Redgrave, Donald Pleasence |
|
|
The Black Sleep |
Reginald Le Borg |
Basil Rathbone, Akim Tamiroff, Herbert Rudley, Patricia Blake, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson |
|
|
The Beast of Hollow Mountain |
Edward Nassour, Ismael Rodríguez |
Guy Madison, Patricia Medina, Carlos Rivas |
|
|
The Creature Walks Among Us |
John Sherwood |
Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason, Leigh Snowden |
|
[10] |
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers |
Fred Sears |
Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum |
|
|
Day the World Ended |
Roger Corman |
Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Paul Birch, Touch Connors |
|
|
Fire Maidens from Outer Space |
Cy Roth |
Anthony Dexter, Susan Shaw |
|
[nb 14] |
Forbidden Planet |
Fred Wilcox |
Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen |
|
|
The Gamma People |
John Gilling |
Paul Douglas, Eva Bartok, Leslie Phillips |
|
|
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! |
Terrell O. Morse, Ishirô Honda |
Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Akira Takarada, Kenji Sahara, Momoko Kochi |
|
|
Indestructible Man |
Jack Pollexfen |
Lon Chaney, Jr., Max Showalter, Marian Carr |
|
|
It Conquered the World |
Roger Corman |
Peter Graves, Beverly Garland, Lee Van Cleef |
|
|
Invasion of the Body Snatchers |
Don Siegel |
Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, King Donovan |
|
|
The Man Who Turned to Stone |
László Kardos |
Victor Jory, William Hudson |
|
[11][12] |
The Mole People |
Virgil Vogel |
John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, Hugh Beaumont, Nestor Paiva |
|
|
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues |
Dan Milner |
Kent Taylor, Cathy Downs, Michael Whalen |
|
|
Sora no Daikaijū Radon |
Ishirō Honda |
Kenji Sahara. Yumi Shirakawa, Yoshifumi Tajima |
|
[nb 15] |
Uchūjin Tokyo ni Arawaru |
Koji Shima |
Keizo Kawasaki, Toyomi Karita, Bin Yagasawa |
|
[nb 16] |
World Without End |
Edward Bernds |
Hugh Marlowe, Nancy Gates, Rod Taylor |
|
|
X the Unknown |
Leslie Norman |
Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern |
|
|
1957 |
Title |
Director |
Cast |
Country |
Sub-Genre/Notes |
The Amazing Colossal Man |
Bert I. Gordon |
Glenn Langan, Cathy Downs, William Hudson |
|
|
The Astounding She-Monster |
Ronnie Ashcroft |
Jeanne Tatum, Ewing Brown, Robert Clarke |
|
|
Attack of the Crab Monsters |
Roger Corman |
Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, Russell Johnson |
|
|
Beginning of the End |
Bert I. Gordon |
Peter Graves, Peggie Castle, Morris Ankrum |
|
|
The Black Scorpion |
Edward Ludwig |
Richard Denning, Mara Corday, Carlos Rivas |
|
|
The Brain from Planet Arous |
Nathan H. Juran |
John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Robert Fuller |
|
[10] |
The Cyclops |
Bert I. Gordon |
James Craig, Gloria Talbott, Lon Chaney, Jr. |
|
|
The Deadly Mantis |
Nathan H. Juran |
Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton |
|
|
From Hell It Came |
Dan Milner |
Tod Andrews, Tina Carver, Linda Watkins |
|
|
The Giant Claw |
Fred Sears |
Jeff Morrow, Mara Corday, Morris Ankrum |
|
|
Half Human |
Ishirō Honda, Kenneth G. Crane |
John Carradine, Morris Ankrum |
|
|
The Incredible Shrinking Man |
Jack Arnold |
Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent |
|
[nb 17] |
Invasion of the Saucer Men |
Edward L. Cahn |
Steve Terrell, Gloria Castillo, Frank Gorshin, Lyn Osborne |
|
|
The Invisible Boy |
Herman Hoffman |
Richard Eyer, Philip Abbott, Diane Brewster |
|
|
Kronos |
Kurt Neumann |
Jeff Morrow, Barbara Lawrence, John Emery, George O'Hanlon |
|
|
The Land Unknown |
Virgil Vogel |
Jock Mahoney, Shawn Smith, William Reynolds |
|
|
The Monolith Monsters |
John Sherwood |
Grant Williams, Lola Albright, Les Tremayne |
|
|
Monster from Green Hell |
Kenneth G. Crane |
Jim Davis |
|
|
The Monster That Challenged the World |
Arnold Laven |
Tim Holt, Audrey Dalton, Hans Conried |
|
|
The Mysterians |
Ishirō Honda |
Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Momoko Kochi |
|
|
The Night the World Exploded |
Fred Sears |
Kathryn Grant, William Leslie, Tristram Coffin |
|
|
Not of This Earth |
Roger Corman |
Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, Morgan Jones |
|
|
Quatermass 2 |
Val Guest |
Brian Donlevy, John Longden, Sid James |
|
[nb 18] |
She Devil |
Kurt Neumann |
Albert Dekker, Jack Kelly, Mari Blanchard |
|
|
The Strange World of Planet X |
Gilbert Gunn |
Forrest Tucker, Gaby Andre, Martin Benson |
|
[nb 19] |
20 Million Miles to Earth |
Nathan H. Juran |
William Hopper, Joan Taylor, Frank Puglia, John Zaremba |
|
|
The 27th Day |
William Asher |
Gene Barry, Valerie French, George Voskovec |
|
|
The Unearthly |
Brooke Peters |
John Carradine, Myron Healey, Allison Hayes |
|
|
The Unknown Terror |
Charles Marquis Warren |
John Howard, Mala Powers, Paul E. Richards, May Wynn |
|
|
1958 |
Title |
Director |
Cast |
Country |
Sub-Genre/Notes |
Attack of the Puppet People |
Bert I. Gordon |
John Agar, Michael Mark, Jack Kosslyn |
|
|
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman |
Nathan H. Juran |
Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers |
|
|
The Blob |
Irvin Shortess Yeaworth, Jr. |
Steve McQueen, Aneta Corsaut, Earl Rowe |
|
|
The Brain Eaters |
Bruno Ve Sota |
Ed Nelson, Alan Frost, Jack Hill |
|
|
The Crawling Eye |
Quentin Lawrence |
Forrest Tucker, Janet Munro, Laurence Payne |
|
|
The Colossus of New York |
Eugène Lourié |
Ross Martin, Mala Powers, Charles Herbert |
|
|
Daikaiju Baran |
Ishirō Honda |
Tsuruko Kobayashi, Kôzô Nomura, Ayumi Sonoda |
|
[nb 20] |
The Day the Sky Exploded |
Paolo Heusch |
Paul Hubschmid, Fiorella Mari, Gerard Landry, Dario Michaelis |
|
[nb 21] |
Doroga K Zvezdam |
Pavel Klushantsev |
Georgi Solovyov |
|
[13][14] |
Earth vs. the Spider |
Bert I. Gordon |
Ed Kemmer, Gene Persson, Gene Roth |
|
|
The Electronic Monster |
Montgomery Tully |
Rod Cameron, Mary Murphy, Meredith Edwards |
|
[15] |
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne |
Karel Zeman |
Lubor Tokos, Jana Zatloukalová |
|
|
Fiend Without a Face |
Arthur Crabtree |
Kynaston Reeves, Marshall Thompson, Terry Kilburn |
|
|
The Fly |
Kurt Neumann |
Vincent Price, Patricia Owens, Herbert Marshall |
|
|
Frankenstein 1970 |
Howard W. Koch |
Boris Karloff, Tom Duggan, Jana Lund |
|
|
From the Earth to the Moon |
Byron Haskin |
Joseph Cotten, George Sanders, Debra Paget |
|
|
The H-Man |
Ishirō Honda |
Yumi Shirakawa, Kenji Sahara, Akihiko Hirata |
|
|
I Married a Monster from Outer Space |
Gene Fowler |
Tom Tryon, Gloria Talbott, Ken Lynch |
|
|
It! The Terror from Beyond Space |
Edward L. Cahn |
Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith, Kim Spalding |
|
|
The Lost Missile |
Lester William Berke |
Robert Loggia, Ellen Parker, Philip Pine |
|
[16] |
Missile to the Moon |
Richard E. Cunha |
K. T. Stevens, Richard Travis, Lisa Simone |
|
|
Missile Monsters |
Fred C. Brannon |
Walter Reed, Lois Hall, James Craven, Gregory Gay |
|
[nb 22][17] |
Monster from Green Hell |
Kenneth G. Crane |
Jim Davis, Barbara Turner, Robert E. Griffin |
|
[18] |
The New Invisible Man |
Alfredo B. Crevenna |
Arturo de Córdova, Ana Luisa Peluffo, Raúl Meraz |
|
[19] |
Night of the Blood Beast |
Bernard Kowalski |
Michael Emmet, Angela Greene, John Baer |
|
|
Queen of Outer Space |
Edward Bernds |
Zsa Zsa Gabor, Laurie Mitchell, Eric Fleming |
|
|
Satan's Satellites |
Fred C. Brannon |
Judd Holdren, Aline Towne, Lane Bradford, Stanley Waxman |
|
[nb 23] |
Space Master X-7 |
Edward Bernds |
Robert Ellis, Bill Williams, Lyn Thomas |
|
|
Teenage Cave Man |
Roger Corman |
Robert Vaughn, Leslie E. Bradley, Frank de Kova |
|
|
Teenage Monster |
Jacques R. Marquette |
Anne Gwynne, Stuart Wade |
|
[nb 24][20] |
The Trollenberg Terror |
Quentin Lawrence |
Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, Janet Munro |
|
[nb 25] |
War of the Colossal Beast |
Bert I. Gordon |
Sally Fraser, Dean Parkin, Roger Pace |
|
|
War of the Satellites |
Roger Corman |
Susan Cabot, Richard Devon, Eric Sinclair |
|
[21] |
1959 |
Title |
Director |
Cast |
Country |
Sub-Genre/Notes |
The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock |
Sidney Miller |
Lou Costello, Dorothy Provine, Gale Gordon |
|
|
4D Man |
Irvin Shortess Yeaworth, Jr. |
Robert Lansing, Lee Meriwether, James Congdon |
|
|
The Angry Red Planet |
Ib Melchior |
Gerald Mohr, Les Tremayne, Nora Hayden |
|
|
The Atomic Submarine |
Spencer Gordon Bennet |
Arthur Franz, Dick Foran, Brett Halsey |
|
|
Attack of the Giant Leeches |
Bernard Kowalski |
Jan Shepard, Gene Roth, Yvette Vickers |
|
|
Battle in Outer Space |
Ishirō Honda |
Ryo Ikebe, Koreya Senda |
|
|
The Cosmic Man |
Herbert Greene |
Bruce Bennett, John Carradine, Angela Greene |
|
[22] |
First Man into Space |
Robert Day |
Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards |
|
[23] |
First Spaceship on Venus |
Kurt Maetzig |
Yoko Tani, Oldrich Lukes, Ignacy Machowski |
|
|
Giant Gila Monster |
Ray Kellogg |
Don Sullivan, Lisa Simone, Fred Graham |
|
|
Gigantis the Fire Monster |
Paul Schreibman |
Hiroshi Koizumi |
|
|
Have Rocket, Will Travel |
David Lowell Rich |
Jerome Cowan, Anna-Lisa, Curly Joe DeRita |
|
|
The Head |
Victor Trivas |
Michel Simon, Horst Frank, Christiane Maybach |
|
[24][25] |
Herrin der Welt |
William Dieterle |
Martha Hyer, Lino Ventura, Wolfgang Preiss, Gino Cervi |
|
[nb 26][26][27] |
The Hideous Sun Demon |
Robert Clarke |
Robert Clarke, Patricia Manning, Nan Peterson |
|
|
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
Henry Levin |
Pat Boone, James Mason, Arlene Dahl, Diane Baker |
|
|
The Killer Shrews |
Ray Kellogg |
James Best, Ken Curtis, Ingrid Goude |
|
|
The Manster |
George Breakston, Kenneth G. Crane |
Peter Dyneley, Jane Hylton, Satoshi Nakamura, Terri Zimmern |
|
[28][29] |
The Man Who Could Cheat Death |
Terence Fisher |
Anton Diffring, Christopher Lee |
|
[nb 27] |
Missile to the Moon |
Richard E. Cunha |
Richard Travis, Cathy Downs, K.T. Stevens |
|
[nb 28] |
The Monster of Piedras Blancas |
Irvin Berwick |
Les Tremayne, Forrest Lewis, John Harmon |
|
|
Monster on the Campus |
Jack Arnold |
Arthur Franz, Joanna Cook Moore |
|
[30] |
On the Beach |
Stanley Kramer |
Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire |
|
|
Plan 9 from Outer Space |
Edward D. Wood, Jr. |
Bela Lugosi, Mona McKinnon, Gregory Walcott, Vampira |
|
|
Return of the Fly |
Edward Bernds |
Vincent Price, Brett Halsey, John Sutton |
|
|
Teenagers from Outer Space |
Tom Graeff |
David Love, Dawn Anderson, Harvey B. Dunn |
|
|
The World, the Flesh and the Devil |
Ranald MacDougall |
Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens, Mel Ferrer |
|
|