This Island Earth 1955

Universal-International's 1955 science fiction extravaganza This Island Earth was produced by William Alland and directed by Joseph M. Newman. Lavishly produced by the standards of the day, it had the added advantage of vivid Technicolor, when most genre films were shot in black & white.

Reynold Brown clearly rose to the occasion with his stunning design for the 27" x 41" One-sheet poster. His palette is appropriately varied in an effort to represent the array of wonders contained in the film: the alien spacecraft, the mysterious tubes that change one's metabolism, the violent explosions of inter-planetary war, the Metaluna mutant wrestling with shapely Faith Domergue. All these elements somehow come together in Brown's audacious design.

What makes it all work is the couple at the lower left. Their response -- the upturned faces and rigid posture (expressing both wonder and fear) -- becomes ours. Reynold Brown has used this approach elsewhere, but never more successfully than here. This Island Earth is one for the ages.

A personal note... The One-sheet pictured here does not belong to me. Collectors seeking an original poster like this one should be forewarned, it will be difficult to find. An Insert or a Half-sheet might be a more reasonable objective.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

Allied Artists' Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) represents another blatant case of false advertising. There is no scene in this low-budget 66-minute quickie even remotely resembling the spectacular poster art by Reynold Brown. Instead, the film relies on double-exposures most of the time and an oversized rubber hand to create the illusion of a giant Allison Hayes. The story (by Mark Hanna) gives us a traditional and timeworn romantic triangle. Ms. Hayes portrays Nancy Archer, the wealthy neglected wife. William Hudson is her unfaithful husband, caught in the arms of his mistress, Honey Parker, memorably played by Yvette Vickers.

This strange little movie has a certain aura that is difficult to explain. Hayes, Hudson, and Parker acquit themselves with absolute conviction, despite the absurdity of the film's premise. When seen on TV in the mid-'60s, the film seemed even stranger: many scenes were "stretch printed" with extra frames to pad the running time, giving the action a dreamlike air of unreality.

The poster displayed above is the 22" x 28" Half-sheet, printed on card stock, but a more suitable format for this graphic is the 14" x 36" Insert or (for collectors with unlimited wall space) the 41" x 81" Three-sheet.

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Universal-International's 1957 release, The Incredible Shrinking Man, directed by Jack Arnold is widely recognized as one of the best science fiction films of the fifties. Working from an intelligent script by Richard Matheson (author of the original story) and Richard Alan Simmons, Arnold tells this utterly fantastic tale with remarkable economy and restraint. Grant Williams does an admirable job in the title role; his underplaying convinces us that Robert Scott Carey is an ordinary man caught in a bizarre, nightmarish experience beyond his control.

Unlike many other stories of this type, in which a reckless scientist brings about his own destruction, Carey's dilemma is a simple accident of fate: while relaxing on a small yacht, he is exposed to a mysterious radioactive mist. Soon after this exposure, he gradually begins to shrink.

The peerless Reynold Brown designed most of the advertising for The Incredible Shrinking Man. The One-sheet uses only the menacing face of the cat, seen through a mesh screen (with the shrinking man and scissors in the foreground). My preference is for the completely different design [at the left] featured on both the 41" x 81" Three-sheet and the 14" x 36" Insert.

The Amazing Colossal Man

Here is another fabulous image from the 1950s, advertising Bert Gordon's The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), a low-budget b&w quickie written by Gordon and Mark Hanna. The film told the story of Col. Glenn Manning, whose heroic attempt to rescue a downed pilot exposes him to the deadly force of a plutonium bomb. Miraculously, Col. Manning survives the blast only to find himself growing at the astonishing rate of eight to ten feet a day.

As with many AIP films of the period, the graphic art on this One-sheet is far more spectacular than anything the audience would see on screen.

Still, The Amazing Colossal Man does have a strong opening sequence, an intriguing story, and three solid performances from Glenn Langan, Cathy Downs, and William Hudson.

*I've enjoyed displaying this poster alongside Attack of the 50ft. Woman (1958) and often wondered why no one at AIP ever thought to bring these two characters together. What a meeting that might have been!

Teenage Caveman

In the realm of imaginative, low-budget science fiction, the films of Roger Corman always seemed a cut above the rest. I remember seeing Teenage Caveman at one of my neighborhood theaters in 1959 or '60. Although the movie fell far short of the thrills promised by the graphic art on this well-designed poster, the story by R. Wright Campbell certainly held my attention and the ending came as a genuine surprise.
Obviously this poster was created even before Corman had chosen his cast, as the characters depicted bear little or no resemblance to Robert Vaughn and Darrah Marshall. I've also heard that the cavegirl's flesh-colored garment was a late addition to the original art, in order to avoid complaints from local censors.
Can anyone verify this?