It Came From Outer Space (1953)

In director Jack Arnold's and Universal-International's 3-D widescreen sci-fi horror thriller with stereo sound - it was director Arnold's first sci-fi work, adapted by Harry J. Essex from an original Ray Bradbury fantasy and film treatment known as The Meteors. The deliberately slow-paced film, a variant of film noir within the sci-fi genre, featured suspenseful and atmospheric cinematography and a memorable, massive, one-eyed Cyclopian monster. It was Universal's first 3-D film (during the short, crazed era of 3-D films from 1952-1954), and one of the director's three 3-D sci-fi features, followed by Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) - the story of a Gill-Man set in the Amazon, and Revenge of the Creature (1955) - a Black Lagoon creature sequel. Other films Arnold directed in the 1950s included This Island Earth (1955) (uncredited), Tarantula (1955), and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957).

This unique early 1950s tale of benign, non-harmful aliens that crash-landed on Earth in the Arizona desert near a typical small American town remained a Cold War-era cautionary tale, with an anti-conformist, anti-McCarthy message. By the technique of shape-shifting, morphing or cloning, the 'invading' aliens absorbed and duplicated the outward appearances (but not the personalities) of some of the nearby townspeople in order to help disguise their efforts to repair their damaged, buried spaceship within a crater. The peace-loving aliens' only crimes were theft (of items in a local hardware store!!) and kidnapping.

The film starred Richard Carlson (one of the most popular sci-fi actors of the era) as a night amateur astronomer who - with his fiancee Ellen - witnessed the crash-landing of a 'meteor' - actually, a circular saucer or spacecraft, and then began to see how people were behaving oddly and changing. The only reference to the aliens being "xenomorphs" (a generic term that was later heavily adopted for the Alien film franchise in the late 1970s) was found in teaser movie theatre advertisements, such as:

From the dark swirling reaches of outer space come the XENOMORPHS to meet a mankind unprepared!...invading our world...with their power to look like humans...or change to objects of awesome terror!

The classic, vintage sci-fi film was the precursor to other films that allegedly expressing paranoia and distrust about alien, outer-space creatures that took human form, and that served as allegorical stand-ins for the Communists of the Red Menace or Scare, such as in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Quatermass II (1957). The thought-provoking moral of the story expressed how mankind often distrusted or destroyed what it interpreted as different and difficult to understand: ("What we don't understand, we want to destroy"), close to the metaphoric themes of the earlier The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).

• in the film's title credits opening, prefaced by the eerie, wavering and quivering sounds of a theremin, a giant, flaming and glowing round space-structure with lattice-work or a honeycomb pattern on its surface sailed across the night-star-lit desert sky before crashing and exploding into the screen; the flames provided the background for the film's block-lettered title
• the film's lyrical introduction was voiced by a Narrator (revealed later as one of the main characters, John Putnam), as the camera peered down from an outcropping above a small Arizona town, and then provided a brief aerial tour of the quiet desert landscape: "This is Sand Rock, Arizona, on a late evening in early spring. It's a nice town, knowing its past and sure of its future, as it makes ready for the night and the predictable morning. The desert blankets the earth, cooling, resting for the fight with tomorrow's sun. And in my house near the town, we're also sure of the future, so very sure"
• at exactly 12 midnight in the almost-completed, single-level home of recent town arrival, free-lance writer and pipe-smoking amateur astronomer John Putnam (Richard Carlson), he was concluding a candle-lit dinner with his supportive and sweet-natured fiancee Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush), a local schoolteacher; he revealed he preferred the rural area after moving back to Sand Rock from the city
• when they went outside to his backyard to star-gaze with his high-powered telescope into the night sky (John: "Let's go see what the stars have to say"), they spoke about their complementary horoscope signs (Ellen a Scorpio, and John a Sagittarius); as she was wishing upon a star about getting married, and they were about to kiss, they were interrupted by a load roaring noise, and the bright light of a fireball in the sky; their faces reflected the intense and fiery light of the passing huge object (the same one in the film's opening) that hurtled toward Earth and exploded upon impact; the crash sent rocks and debris flying; using his telescope, John identified the location of its deep crater atop an old abandoned Excelsior Mine shaft

A Loving Kiss While Wishing Upon a Star

Interrupted by Blinding Light and Roaring Noise

View Through Telescope: A Deep Crater Created Atop an Old Abandoned Mine

• the camera peered inside the smoking crater, and witnessed one of the hexagonal-shaped windows of the other-worldly, spherical spacecraft (or spaceship, resembling a huge soccer ball with a honeycomb surface) slowly opening; behind the window, a glittering, helmeted or domed object appeared, accompanied by the sound of heavy breathing; a closer look revealed a one-eyed cyclops or gelatinous creature-monster inside the vehicular structure, and a shimmering and glowing trail left on the ground; a giant, single-eyed creature had ventured out from the spaceship and looked over the surrounding desert land, spooking wild animals (a bunny rabbit, a wolf, and an owl)
• after waking up his helicopter pilot-friend Pete Davis (Dave Willock), John, Ellen, and Pete arrived via his open-air chopper to investigate the deep, still-smoking circular crater pit from its rim; John - by himself - climbed down a steep incline into the crater's rocky pit, and as the smoke cleared, he could see an open hexagonal window, hatch or porthole in the side of a partially-buried gigantic space object or vehicle; he noticed a shimmering trail on the ground (evidence that marked the creature's slithering path, such as snails that leave behind shiny mucus), and then realized something inside the window was staring at him

John Climbing Down Into the Pit by Himself	An Hexagonal-Shaped Opening, Hatchway or Porthole	The Open Hexagonal Window in the Side of a Partially-Buried, Gigantic Space Vehicle
John Seeing and Being Observed by a One-Eyed Creature (An Eerie Fish-Eye View From Its POV)	The Abrupt Closing of the Hexagonal Window or Port Way	A Rock Slide Avalanche Buries the Massive Structure Inside the Crater

• as John stared back at the diaphanous, shivering iris of a cosmic creature (seen from its eerie fish-eye POV), the window abruptly shut in front of him, and then behind him, he heard the rumblings of a massive rock slide avalanche that soon completely buried the mysterious object in the pit
• he climbed up the crater's edge to report his experience of an alien presence to Pete and Ellen: ("There was something down there.... Some kind of a ship... It's like nothing we've ever seen before....Part of it was still showing....It was like a huge ball rammed there in the side of the crater"); they had trouble believing him and thought he was crazy or might be imagining something as outrageous as the arrival of an extra-terrestrial Martian spacecraft
• other townsfolk arrived, including Sand Rock's local Sheriff Matt Warren (Charles Drake) and local newspaper editor Dave Loring (Alan Dexter), who were also incredulous about John's dubious claims that it was a spaceship and not a meteor; John urged them to seal off the area of the buried spacecraft: "This may be the biggest thing that's ever happened. If you're smart, you'll get this whole area sealed off until we know what we're up against"; he then described to the entire disbelieving group: "I tell you, from its size and appearance, this thing came from outer space. I even have reason to believe that there's some form of life in it"
• after returning to the airstrip in Pete's helicopter, Ellen told John as they drove off that she would continue to be supportive as he pursued his discovery to find out more, but was still very skeptical, like the others: "Oh, you can't really blame them"; he answered: "I can't be just imagining it!"; she was worried about how gossipy people in the small town would doubt him and talk behind his back about his wild claims, and seeing him as an opportunist; she admitted that her former boyfriend Sheriff Warren had always been over-protective of her, and might continue to criticize him
• during their drive back to town, they had to pull over when they were astounded by the sudden head-on sight of the one-eyed, squid-like alien monster appearing directly in front of their car, and then apparently shimmering as it spied on them through its iris from its fish-eyed iris POV; they mistakenly thought that they had hit something, but then suspected that the object must have been an ominously-shaped Joshua Tree in the darkness
• by the next morning, the Sheriff had cordoned off the crater at the main road to prevent unauthorized access; the event had already been publicized and ridiculed by Sand Rock Star's morning newspaper headlines: "STAR GAZER SEES MARTIANS"; the subtitle of the article was: "Putnam Claims Meteor Was Ship Manned by Strangers From Out of Space"; a group of military officials arrived to explore the area, while a KLTV-press van and other reporters, including Dugan (Robert Carson) from American Press, and Lober (Dick Pinner) from Press Dispatch, clamored for an interview with "stargazer" John, although he was reluctant to speak to anyone
• John had arrived to talk with his long-time university scientist-friend Dr. Snell (George Eldredge) from the Wayne Observatory, while Snell's assistant Bob (Bradford Jackson) was searching the area, but found no evidence of radioactivity inside the crater; Dr. Snell also expressed his doubts about the credibility of John's account about a space-ship, and refused to offer university assistance to dig the alleged spacecraft out of the crater; Snell admitted that as a "man of science," he was "less inclined to witchcraft," although John urged him to use his "imagination" and have a "willingness to believe that there are lots of things that we don't know anything about"
• as John returned to his car, due to Matt's jealousy over Ellen's romantic interest in John, John was confrontationally told by Matt (who was earlier the deputy of Ellen's father) that he would continue to protectively watch over Ellen's safety, and prevent her from losing her teaching job due to her absence; John was also warned that the townfolk were apprehensive about his return: "Putnam, you frighten 'em. And what frightens 'em they're against, one way or another"; he cautioned Putnam to "leave Ellen alone" and not hurt, influence or harm her; while driving back to town, the frustrated Putnam told Ellen the general consensus of almost everyone: "I'm crazy"
• on the way back, they stopped at the spot where the alien had appeared to them; Putnam emphasized the hidden dangers of the desert: "It's alive and waiting for you. Ready to kill you if you go too far. The sun will get ya, or the cold at night. A thousand ways the desert can kill. Where are you?"; he taunted the unseen alien: "I know you're out there, hiding in the desert"; the camera panned to the right to the alien's glittering trail left behind
• they also stopped to speak by the side of the road to two young county telephone linemen friends: the younger George (Russell Johnson) and his boss Frank Daylon (Joe Sawyer) who were at work. Frank reported to them that he was listening to an eerie-sounding whistle ("darnedest noise ever") on the phone lines, in a lengthy monologue: "After you've been working out on the desert fifteen years like I have, you hear a lot of things, see a lot of things, too. Sun in the sky, and the heat. All that sand out there with the rivers and lakes that aren't real at all. And sometimes you think that the wind gets in the wires and hums and listens and talks. Just like what we're hearing now"; Putnam confirmed hearing the noise on the lines, but then the noise stopped; apparently, the aliens could 'transmit' themselves along the roadways
• shortly later, the two engineers encountered the one-eyed creature in front of their truck; George was absorbed (or "globbed" up by a bubble created by the one-eyed cyclops alien monster)

Alien Appearing In Front of George's and Frank's Truck	A Close-up of the Cyclops Alien Monster
George Attacked (from Alien's Fish-Eye POV)	George's Body Covered Over and Absorbed

• John and Ellen came upon their empty and abandoned telephone truck on the roadside with its doors ajar, and discovered evidence of an attack -- blood on the driver's side window frame, and a shimmering or glistening alien trail of tracks leading into the desert; a strange-acting, glassy-eyed, pale-faced George abruptly appeared to them, acting robotically and unlike his usual jovial self; Ellen and Putnam knew something was unusual (when he gazed directly into the bright sun without blinking); they hastily left, assuming that George had murdered his co-worker Frank, whose body was seen but mostly hidden behind a giant boulder except for his extended arm; they raced back to town to notify the Sheriff of the crime
• at the 'murder' site, the real Frank and George awakened from being knocked out, and George was astonished to see his robotic replacement; the awakening body behind the boulder was revealed to be the "real" George, while standing above him was the "duplicated" or "shape-shifted" George (impersonated, reproduced or replaced by the alien creature); the "real" George and Frank were told by George's alien duplicate or replacement about having taken on George's likeness, but meant no permanent harm: "Don't be afraid. It is within our power to transform ourselves to look like you or anyone. For a time, it will be necessary. We cannot, we would not, take your souls or minds or bodies. (To Frank) Don't be afraid. Your friend is all right" [Note: Off-screen, Frank's "duplicate" was also created.]
• Ellen and John rushed into the disagreeable Sheriff's Sand Rock County Office reporting "proof" and findings, but he was disdainful and disapproving of Ellen's claims: "He's not gonna make a fool out of me the way he has out of you!"; when the threesome returned to the scene to investigate, the Sheriff felt justified in his doubts when there was no evidence of the truck, nor the two phone employees, or the glittering trail; Putnam was exasperated: "No marks, no signs, no nothing"
• shortly later, John spotted both George and Frank alive and well walking down the street in town; John followed the two into an alleyway and confronted them in a dark hallway, and was told to not interfere for the time being, and that their real human counterparts were unharmed and would remain that way if left alone: "Keep away, John Putnam. We don't want to hurt you. You least of all. We don't want to hurt anyone...(John aimed his gun at them and asked: "What have you done with them?") Your friends are alive. They will not be harmed if you do as we say....Give us time. Time, or terrible things will happen. Things so terrible you have yet to dream of them"
• at the site of the mostly-abandoned open mine shaft of the Excelsior Mine (close to the newly-created crater), two crusty old miners Sam (Edgar Dearing) and Toby (Warren MacGregor) were awaiting the return of a third miner Tom (George Selk) with food; Tom's slow-moving mule was spooked when they were confronted by the one-eyed alien, and just as George had been taken earlier, Tom was absorbed or duplicated; as Sam and Toby went to investigate, they were also replaced by the one-eyed alien, that created a bubble around them and "duplicated" or "cloned" them

Miner Tom (George Selk) Absorbed or Duplicated in a One-Eyed "Bubble" (Seen Through the Alien's Fish-Eyed Iris)

Miners Sam (Edgar Dearing) and Toby (Warren MacGregor) Abducted or Taken (also from the Alien's POV)

• Putnam was disturbed by the media's false reporting, name-calling and sensationalism about 'bug-eyed monsters' on the radio: "No one has yet turned up any bug-eyed monsters threatening Earth, and so it must be set down as another one of those fantastic hoaxes, this one by a young publicity-seeking astronomer. Of course, if he should turn up a spaceman or two, this network cordially invites them to address us one and all"; Putnam realized he would now have to peacefully "wait" until they were given clearer signals, although he hated to be inactive, sitting by: "Are we right in just, just sitting by?"; Ellen reassured him that that they weren't crazy: "And if we've been seeing things, it's because we did see them!"
• at John's front door, Ellen was frightened - and screamed - at the sight of young town boy Perry (Whitey Haupt) (wearing a cadet space helmet, and claiming he was "a spaceman out of the crater"); he summoned them back to the Sheriff's office; in town, Frank's and George's female partners, Mrs. Daylon (Virginia Mullen) and George's provocative girlfriend Jane Dean (Kathleen Hughes) (wearing an obvious conical bra) confirmed Putnam's suspicions about them - the two men were pale-faced, strange-looking, lacking an appetite and both had vanished; both had claimed they were assigned to a 'special job' overnight and abruptly left with all their clothes; however, the telephone company had denied any out-of-town jobs, and their truck was missing
• while Ellen drove both women home in Putnam's car, he remained in the office to speak to the Sheriff; in private, the Sheriff admitted he was beginning to believe Putnam's original story, that was again described: ("You've got to believe that there's a ship buried out there in the desert, and that at least some of our visitors from outer space got out of that ship before it was covered over!"); Putnam reminded the Sheriff how they had both seen two of the alien "visitors" in town - George and Frank, but that they were only clones - duplicated by the alien creature in the spacecraft: ("What you saw today was only what looked like Frank and George!"); Putnam explained how the alien duplicates claimed to him that they were benign, and that the humans must not intervene: ("They want us to trust them, to believe that Frank and George are in no danger as long as we don't interfere with them, to give them time, time!"); the Sheriff remained skeptical: "How could they take over anyone else's form, and where is the real Frank and George?"
• the Sheriff provided further signs that the alien visitors might be engaged in a technical mission -- the stolen phone truck was loaded with electrical equipment, and further similar items (copper wire and some metal parts) had been stolen from the local hardware store; they were alerted to the possibility that Dr. Snell and his assistant were also missing; at the crash site, they found Dr. Snell's empty car and no sign of Dr. Snell or his assistant Bob; the Sheriff mused with Putnam: "I'd give anything if things were the way they were this mornin' with me callin' you a fool"; Putnam also fantasized: "Wouldn't it be a fine trick if I weren't really John Putnam at all? Something from another world come here to give you a lot of false leads" - echoing fears of the manipulative take-over of human bodies devoid of personalities and humanity by devious alien intruders
• meanwhile, driving alone in Putnam's car, Ellen was intercepted by the aliens; she was stopped by the cloned Frank standing on the highway, who instructed her to drive him to the abandoned mine shaft ("Take me to the mine"), and then "globbed" or duplicated her (visualized again in a shimmering, one-eyed bubble) as she screamed
• shortly later, the Sheriff was phoned with a report that Ellen had also been abducted by the aliens; Putnam exclaimed: "They've got Ellen!"; the Sheriff and John drove back into the middle of the desert, where Putnam left on his own to find her as the Sheriff waited behind at the car; he spotted the duplicate Ellen (an alien taking her lifeform) standing on a sloping ridgeline in a black gown (with a flowing scarf) - and chased after her
• she lured him to the dark entrance of a mine-shaft, where she disappeared - he heard a loud, booming and echoing announcement by an unseen alien from the void of darkness; the alien explained how they wanted to work undisturbed (with the help of cloned humans) to repair their spacecraft with complete privacy before leaving soon and continuing on their long voyage home: ("We are repairing our ship to leave your world. We need your help"); the alien continued: "We have a long way to go. By nightfall we will have left your Earth. You will not see us until it is time"; there was an attempt by the alien to reassure Putnam of their good intentions: "We have souls and minds, and we are good"
• the alien voice feared that the human race was not yet sophisticated enough to embrace the aliens; it would be premature for the Earthlings to see their frightening, repulsive and scary appearance: "We are not yet ready to meet in friendship.... Because you would be horrified at the sight of us"; Putnam was unsure and was worried that many human beings had been taken as captive hostages; the pacifist alien reiterated that they meant no harm after selectively taking some of the humans and duplicating their human likenesses, and added they wouldn't be harmed unless provoked: "Keep your people away or we will destroy them"; the alien continued, explaining how their advanced race had mistakenly and accidentally crashed into Earth during a mission to another world: "Our mission was to another world. You must believe me. Only an error dragged us towards Earth"
• the alien refused to reveal itself, and cautioned against any further contact: "Let us stay apart, the people of your world and ours. For if we come together, there will only be destruction"
• after continual begging and negotiation, Putnam was finally granted his request to see the alien creature: ("I've got to see you as you really are! Come out, or I can't take the responsibility of protecting you"); he was horrified when he saw a massive, unwieldy, one-eyed Cyclops-like bulbous, gelatinous, non-human creature (resembling a large soft-surfaced crustacean) with scraggly hair on its huge head and accompanied by smoke

Putnam's View of the Horrifyingly Ugly, Non-Human Alien Creature

Putnam's Shocked Reaction and Expression of Repulsion

• the stunned Putnam left the mine shaft and returned to the impatient Sheriff waiting in his car, and told him: "I saw them as they really are. Horrible!"; the Sheriff was unwilling to trust or believe that the aliens wouldn't harm Ellen: ("I want Ellen and the rest of them out of there now!"), and threatened to intervene and possibly threaten everyone's lives; he also believed it would be impossible for the aliens to fly off in their completely-buried spacecraft under tons of earth
• in one of the film's key scenes, Putnam tried to cool the Sheriff down by explaining the aliens' justified fears: "They don't trust us. Because what we don't understand, we want to destroy"; when the Sheriff firmly asserted: "I kill only what tries to kill me," they both noticed a defenseless spider (symbolic of the mysterious race of aliens) crawling on the ground; Putnam noted its differences - eight legs and a mouth that moved from side to side, and then asked: "If it came toward you, what would you do?"; the Sheriff mindlessly stomped on the creature with his boot ("THIS!"); Putnam had proved the untruth of the Sheriff's declaration: "Exactly, as you'd destroy anything you didn't understand. Don't you see, Matt? That's why they've been hiding behind other men's faces until they can clear out"; Putnam was incensed at the close-minded Sheriff: "When are you gonna stop being a badge and become a human being?"
• after the two returned to town, Putnam realized that the aliens had also visited his house, leaving his front door unlocked, and depositing their tell-tale shimmering trail back to his empty front hall closet; the Sheriff had begrudgingly followed Putnam's advice and made plans to be patient by clearing the area around the crater; he was tempted by his gung-ho Deputy Reed (William Pullen) to ignore Putnam and gather an armed posse and rescue the hostages held in the old Excelsior mine shaft
• upon learning of John's house break-in and clothing theft, and noticing the "duplicate" alien phone lineman Frank crossing the street in town before driving off in his truck, the Sheriff decided to go against Putnam's wishes (who continued to urge: "We've got to see it through"); in the office, the two engaged in a major fist-fight over possession of the Sheriff's gun - Putnam was able to prevent the Sheriff from ruining things by confronting Frank out on the street
• as retribution, the Sheriff ran off to assemble an impromptu, Frankenstein-like, rifle-toting posse on the street corner to join him in their vehicles at the crater; without permission, John drove off in the Sheriff's car to race to the mine to warn the aliens to quickly finish their repairs and get out; meanwhile, the Sheriff and his posse barricaded the highway to the crater, in order to open fire on Frank's truck and prevent him from reaching the crater; the posse was able to derail the truck and send it crashing in flames against a large boulder
• in the mine shaft's dark opening, John was approached by the cloned Ellen and he called her out: ("You're dressed in her clothes, but you're not Ellen"); she blamed him for the threatening posse that was approaching ("You brought them"), and attacked him with the beam of a deadly laser weapon; he ducked and shot the alien-clone with his gun - and as she died, she cloned or 'duplicated' him before tumbling into a lake within a deep crevasse where she dissolved [Note: Her demise made her the second 'false'-human to die, following the death of the 'false'-Frank]

Cloned Ellen Alien in Dark Entrance to Mine Shaft

Alien Ellen Firing Laser Beam at Putnam

As the Cloned Ellen Alien Died, She 'Duplicated' Putnam

• further inside the mine where the aliens (in human-cloned form) were making repairs to their equipment, the head alien leader (the clone of John) demonstrated the power of their technology: ("Power to drive a ship through space. Power to tear your earth apart!"); he bragged to John that over 1,000 years of the spacecraft's technical development had led to the alien's final conquering of space
• the cloned John already knew that the angry mob of townsfolk was approaching to intervene, not giving them enough time: ("All we needed was time"); no longer trusting in the humans and their mob-posse, the head alien threatened that they would now use their deadly and powerful equipment and technological weapons to destroy the "strange planet" before the mob arrived: ("We'd rather have it end here than fall into their hands")
• the "real" John was able to rationally bargain for a peaceful resolution with two strategies: (1) the aliens would be allowed to complete their repairs if all the unharmed hostage-humans were released from the mine shaft, and (2) to protect the aliens working inside the mine, dynamite was detonated at the mouth of the mine to seal and block it off so that the repairs could proceed without interruption; the Sheriff arrived and wrongly interrupted the blast as the final extermination of the aliens ("I guess that takes care of 'em")

The Approach of the Sheriff and His Mob-Posse From Town

Ellen, John, and the Sheriff Commenting on the Detonation of Dynamite at the Mine

• after Putnam's live-and-let-live proposals had prevailed, all those who were gathered around the mine's opening watched as the alien space travelers blasted off in their glowing, repaired spacecraft from the interior of the crater; Ellen asked if the aliens were gone "for good"; Putnam responded with his prediction that hopefully one day, the alien visitors would return on more cordial terms when Earthlings were ready: "No, just for now. It wasn't the right time for us to meet. But there will be other nights, other stars for us to watch. They'll be back"