I haven't even finished watching my recording of this off of TCM today, and I'm going to stick with it to the end, but I'd like to nominate this movie as the cheesiest sci-fi picture ever made -- and that's despite the presence of Rod Taylor and despite the score being quite good!
shareThis used to be on WOR-TV 9 in NYC all the time in the 1960s. I haven't seen it in decades. It's pretty bad. The effects are cheap for a color cinemascope film. Glad Taylor was able to graduate to better films.
shareWhile I agree that the special effects were bad, I also think that the plot cast and script were good. It is one of my favorite sci-fi movies from this time period.
shareI disagree. This is a pretty good and imaginative sci-fi movie. Some of the effects aren't all that good but remember this was 1956, a medium-budget film from a small studio. It's the first sci-fi film shot in widescreen and that, its color, cast and engaging script make it a winner, in my opinion. It's one of my favorite science fiction films of all time. Rod Taylor was also one of my favorite actors, an added bonus.
But I'm glad you liked Leith Stevens's score -- he was a very talented composer and also did the score for some of George Pal's ground-breaking sci-fi films of the era: Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide and The War of the Worlds.
Where did this awful expression "cheesy" come from? It doesn't even make sense. People use it to mean cheap or phony but it's really a silly, meaningless expression.