I really would like to see this one on DVD sometime. I was able to pick up a lot of Arnold's classics in the mid 80's on German television (got them now on DVD) but somehow I never had the chance to see this one. Sadly it was not to be found on the Ultimate SciFi Collection set, which even featured THE MOLE PEOPLE and MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS.
Come on, you folks at Universal! Release it!
Space Children was made after Arnold left Universal. I think it was made for Paramount. I have it on DVD. The source print is pretty good, but the image is somewhat soft and it is probably a third or forth generation copy. Paramount should release it properly .
shareWhat's the title of the DVD. I'd love to have a copy od this movie. Was my FIRST Sci-fi movie at age 12, scared the bejesus out of me at the time. It also got me hooked on the Sci-Fi genre, books, movies, tv shows, the works.
shareOh, I didn't know that this was made after Arnold's Universal years. I'm not familiar with the current copyright situation but a lot of Paramount titles like Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW, VERTIGO, PSYCHO have been put out on home video by Universal.
Last year for example saw the release of DR. CYCLOPS as part of the 2nd Volume of the Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection by Universal Home Entertainment. This film was directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack in 1940 and was released theatrically by Paramount.
The least what we can hope for is a 3rd Volume with THE SPACE CHILDREN in it. Hence Universal has got the rights for it. A few scenes of THE SPACE CHILDREN were featured in WATCH THE SKIES!: SCIENCE FICTION, THE 1950s AND US as part of the supplement material of the 2-disc-set of Warner's FORBIDDEN PLANET.
>>tornhill-1 wrote: The least what we can hope for is a 3rd Volume with THE SPACE CHILDREN in it. Hence Universal has got the rights for it.<<
Paramount still owns THE SPACE CHILDREN (and it's original co-feature THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK).
Universal owns DR. CYCLOPS because it aquired most of the Paramount features catalog of '30s and '40s films.
The rights to the Hitchcock Paramount features you mentioned (along with "The Trouble with Harry" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much") reverted to Hitch and were sold to Universal after his death.
Life would be so much simpler if all the studios still owned all the films they ever produced!
That's right, Universal owns all Paramount Pictures produced up to and including 1949, except for DeMille's SAMSON AND DELILAH. Like the Hitchcock films, this one was co-owned, in this case by the DeMille estate, but not his earlier Paramount films.
Paramount still owns the two sci-fi B-movies made by William Alland and Jack Arnold at that studio in 1958: THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK and THE SPACE CHILDREN.
Curiously, both Alland and Arnold returned to Universal one last time in 1959 to produce the classic sci-fi TV series "WORLD OF GIANTS", which has not been seen on TV in over 40 years, starring Marshall Thompson and Arthur Franz. It was a formula later adapted for the Irwin Allen TV series "LAND OF GIANTS" made in the late 1960s.
Dejael
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The Blu-Ray and DVD versions of Space Children are being released on June 19, 2012. You can order it through Amazon (and elsewhere.)
I saw this film when it first came out, over 50 years ago, at a drive-in with my parents. I remember it really creeped me out at the time. I have no idea how it holds up.