I liked Forbidden Planet. Anne Francis was hot stuff!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049223/

Forbidden Planet...The Day The Earth Stood Still...This Island Earth

Close three way tie for me.

Hard question to answer--so many genres. I was a kid during these times...saw them all first-run. I do remember the most impressive trailer I saw for coming attractions was in 1957 for---"RODAN"...definitely made an impression on my 8-year old mind. Could not wait the two weeks it took to get there. Another biggie was "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with the ubiquitous Kevin McCarthy..."Brain From The Planet Arous" was a scary one as well.

"Forbidden Planet" was THE Cadillac Sci-Fi of that era--without a doubt. It MUST be seen on the big screen...

Forbidden Planet...The Day The Earth Stood Still...This Island Earth

Close three way tie for me.

I agree 100%...I have them all on DVD...

I agree 100%...I have them all on DVD...

I also agree with those three completely. One that I might add is "Creature from the Black Lagoon" although it's not technically sci-fi. I also enjoyed "It Came from Outer Space" starring Richard Carlson, "When Worlds Collide", "The War of the Worlds", "The Thing" which starred James Arness as the monster, and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Another great classic was "The Blob" starring a young Steve McQueen and Arneta Corsaut who later played Andy Griffith's girlfriend on the "Andy Griffith Show".

The 1950's were a unique time...post WW2, early days of nuclear power and bombs (and God knows that made lots of monsters!) and the birth of the Space Race and missiles into the beyond...a great time...all things seemed possible. I remember watching TV news in those early days about nuclear bomb tests in New Mexico and how they would say to look outside overhead the next day and we could see the plutonium cloud passing by...and we went out and saw them...not sure a rain of plutonium particles is good for a person...and Hollywood was cranking out tons of cheapo B&W movies for a slew of baby-boomer kiddos and theaters with horror double-features on Saturdays bought parents a few hours freedom (baby-sitting) to shop or whatever without kids underfoot...

Has to be the 1953 War of the Worlds - scared me - still remember the tension of that scene where the "eye" is searching for them.

Forbidden Planet...The Day The Earth Stood Still...This Island Earth

Close three way tie for me.

Can't do better than these three for the 1950s. The greatest sci-fi movie ever, and IMO one of the greatest movies ever is 1968s 2001: A Space Odyssey from the genius Stanley Kubrick.

Can't do better than these three for the 1950s. The greatest sci-fi movie ever, and IMO one of the greatest movies ever is 1968s 2001: A Space Odyssey from the genius Stanley Kubrick.

I agree--saw it at the Cooper next to the Colcord Bldg. and then again later at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood...a big screen must-see. I love the analogy of the H.A.L. 9000 computer...H (I) A (B) L (M)

Has to be the 1953 War of the Worlds - scared me - still remember the tension of that scene where the "eye" is searching for them.

I agree--and the newer version with Tom Cruise, despite it's dis-jointed storyline and continuity...was really scary...the tripods were pretty awful, especially the fog-horn sound--a special effects triumph in my opinion...

I agree--saw it at the Cooper next to the Colcord Bldg. and then again later at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood...a big screen must-see. I love the analogy of the H.A.L. 9000 computer...H (I) A (B) L (M)

I saw it at the Cooper as well, opening day. It was reserved seating only.

Kubrick and Clarke both said that HAL stood for Heuristic Algorithmic Logic, and that it was only coincidence that each letter would increment up to form IBM. Yeah, I believe that like I believe "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is about a drawing Julian Lennon gave his dad, John.

Forbidden Planet...The Day The Earth Stood Still...This Island Earth

Close three way tie for me.

I like two out of the above three (Forbidden Planet...The Day the Earth Stood still)
plus Robinson Crusoe on Mars.

BTW--Anne Francis is a Fox-Emeritus--and still looks damn good for a woman who just turned 80 September 16. Back in the day...she was very hot, but I was 7 years old at the time and a football was somewhat more attractive. A few years later--she became rather more interesting...

Also...the new version of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" with Keanu Reeves was simply an acid-flashback dream by some writer--just God-awful...

You guys have yet to name THE Movie of the 50's and 60's yet.......THE BLOB.............

Boy, I sure remember "The Blob"...saw it first day at the Sooner Theater in Norman in 1960...

"When Worlds Collide", "The War of the Worlds"

Thanks for the reminder. I forgot about those.

One of the MOST FRIGHTENING movies I ever saw at the University Theater in Norman back in about 1957...and I have the DVD now--but it seems comical today-- but scary when I was very young was..."The Killer Shrews"...

You guys have yet to name THE Movie of the 50's and 60's yet.......THE BLOB.............

I guess you missed my suggestions in post number 6 general.

I guess you missed my suggestions in post number 6 general.

Don't take it personal. He was born brain dead and has recently suffered a fall while adjusting his moose head

Another good one--actually a clever idea and was pretty spectacular on the big screen in those days was..."The Monolith Monsters"

Off the time frame of the topic--but--"Skyline" looks like a good new movie coming out in November...I always enjoy seeing places in Los Angeles devastated...I picked up some extra cans of RAID just in case...

I guess you missed my suggestions in post number 6 general.

Hey, I DID miss that one and yes I have fallen and couldn't get up.....Don't forget the REAL 3-D classic "HOUSE OF WAX".......Hey PapaOU when I fell (the second time) I started laughing (as I lay in the floor unable to move) and thought about YOU....when I got the 911 operator she asked.."911 what is your emergency?"...I responded (completely serious).."I need some help"..."In what way Sir?" she asked....I've fallen and can't get up.....She said "is this a prank?"...then I thought only PapaOu would have thought of that.........she sent the Fire Department....Knew most of them and when they found I was almost O.K., they just sat down and got a good laugh....Me?....I still hurt like you can't believe....

The House On Haunted Hill and the Village Of The Damned.

They made an updated version and of course not near as good. 13 Ghosts/3d

The Godzilla and King Kong movies.

The Gozilla invasion of Japanese legend-monsters initiated a whole new era...I always liked Gamera--he always had a boy with him and he would protect him (every kid's dream) but--I think I liked the little Mothra Twins who sang to the ever-slumbering Mothra to wake it up whenever it was needed...the song--still haunts me today..."Mo-ta-ra-ah"

I guess I'm too much older than you guys.....But, the birds was pretty nerve-wracking.....Then, I guess the Japanese specials were about the time I realized there were girls on earth and I didn't really care bout the scary shows.....Never mind.....

"The Birds"...a classic by any measurement--and scary! I saw it one night and I will always remember noticing on the way out of the theater EVERYONE glanced up into the sky--and I am sure they were not really aware of it...ha! All those eyes getting poked out! Cataract surgery gone haywire!

^^^^ BTW--it was also in that movie that I fell madly in love with Miss Tippi Hedren...what a foxy lady...

Yes, The Birds was very scary and I definitely had a crush for Tippi Hedren - although I think about that age getting crushes was pretty easily accomplished. I liked her daughter a lot, too.

what about teenage werewolf:....Micheal Landon....kinda cheesey but, so is Godzilla vs. King Kong.....Man, King Kong died a long time ago...

"The Birds"...a classic by any measurement--and scary! I saw it one night and I will always remember noticing on the way out of the theater EVERYONE glanced up into the sky--and I am sure they were not really aware of it...ha! All those eyes getting poked out! Cataract surgery gone haywire!

I still think about that movie today every time I see a large concentration of birds flocking in one area.

I'm no good at this sort of trivia - what was the one that had that big swampy plant go around killing people? I also was scared to death by the House of Wax one. As a little kid, I used to worry that I would see a giant spider coming along the horizon (all the movies about radiation inspired).

I'm no good at this sort of trivia - what was the one that had that big swampy plant go around killing people? I also was scared to death by the House of Wax one. As a little kid, I used to worry that I would see a giant spider coming along the horizon (all the movies about radiation inspired).Plants attacking - Day of the Triffids. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055894/

Giant spiders attacking - So many, but probably; Earth vs. The Spider http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051570/ or Tarantula http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048696/

I still think about that movie today every time I see a large concentration of birds flocking in one area.Me too, and I think about "Jaws" every time I go to the ocean.

I still think about that movie today every time I see a large concentration of birds flocking in one area.

ESPECIALLY on a telephone line--OMG!!!!

Plants attacking - Day of the Triffids. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055894/

Giant spiders attacking - So many, but probably; Earth vs. The Spider http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051570/ or Tarantula http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048696/

LOVED the Triffids--have that on DVD. "Eight-Legged Freaks" is a good newer spider movie--spiders never disappoint...the brief spate of "Shrinking People" and "50-foot People" movies were also a oddity of the 1950's. I swear--the movie "I Was A Teenage Frankenstein" made me ease off the foot-feed many times in my youth...when my very soul said put the hammer right through the floor on the old lady's Chrysler New Yorker 413-Hemi-Firedome...

attack of the 50ft woman

Not a 50's or 60's movie...but..."Near Dark" was a great movie..."it's finger-lickin' good!"

^^^That reminds me...
Although it was from the early '70s, "A Boy and His Dog" is one of my favorites because of the last scene.

^^^That reminds me...
Although it was from the early '70s, "A Boy and His Dog" is one of my favorites because of the last scene.

that was ole yeller Frisky....

Old Yeller...still makes me tear up...

The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Lost in Space.
Sometimes I feel that way.

The Tingler!! At the theater. saw it at the Yale. Seems like of the 3 theaters on the Hill, Redskin would make 4, Yale is the one that showed all the sci-fi and horror movies. This was during the 1960's, although The Redskin ran the 3-D 13 Ghosts.

The Tingler!! At the theater. saw it at the Yale. Seems like of the 3 theaters on the Hill, Redskin would make 4, Yale is the one that showed all the sci-fi and horror movies. This was during the 1960's, although The Redskin ran the 3-D 13 Ghosts.

At the Boomer Theater in Norman--it was actually wired with those "vibrators" that jiggled your seat during the "Tingler" appearances (in an odd pattern of seating--maybe 20 or so in the theater)...made a lot of racket and people laughed...as bad a special effect as the "Emerge-O" effect during "House on Haunted Hill" when it was first run in 1959--where a plastic skeleton cranked out over the audience on the right and left side of the screen during the acid-bath scene where the spook came out of the vat...

Just happened to be watching "Strait-Jacket" with Joan Crawford tonight--pretty good--but--it has the lovely and beautiful foxy lady Miss Diane Baker in it....I have always loved her. "Marnie" was another hit with her--a double-treat with Tippi Hedren too...and then as an older woman--she was marvelous in "Silence of the Lambs" as the politician...she is class all the way...with that mane of hair...

I liked Forbidden Planet. Anne Francis was hot stuff!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049223/

She passed today at the age of 80.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110104/ap_en_ot/us_obit_francis

I also have to go with Forbidden Planet. A great idea that someone could redo.

Was on TCM this past weekend

All you guys have listed most of my favs already, and there were many. I'll comment on a few, as I loved sci-fi growing up in the 50s-60s, and do now.

The Thing. This is 1st that I recall seeing while spending the summer at my grandmother's in Clinton. That was in the days that little kids could walk downtown, spend the day, and return home unattended and no one had a care.

My grandmother's house was a small little house about 3 blocks from downtown with lots of big trees and no (or useless ... water cooler) air conditioning. Anyway, I walked downtown on a Saturday for a 1 pm (or so) showing of The Thing. The movie house was packed with little kids ... this was in 1951 so I would have just finished the first grade ... here's a trailer ...

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Talk about kids hitting the floor and screaming their heads off while peeking through where the seats came together anytime that the monster was anticipated to come on the screen! Or was it just me? Woah. Scared the pee out of me. After seeing the movie, seeing the shadows of the big old trees through the windows at grandmother's at night at bedtime did no good at all. I had nightmares for quite a long time. I was hooked on sci-fi!

Flash Gordon. I don't think that anyone has mentioned the old Buster Crabbe serials made in the 1930s but still playing in the early 50s. While they were done on the cheap, it was nonetheless fun to go downtown and see the next installment of Flash, Ming, etc., at the Ritz Theater in Clinton (I spent a lot of time at my grandmother's when I was very young). Next door to the Ritz was Johnies' Indian Trading Store, always a fun visit. A stop at a drug store fountain to get a vanilla ice cream cone was always a must, too.

Here are a couple of You Tube clips ...

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The 1980 remake with its soundtrack music by Queen, remains one of my favorites. Ming, played by Max von Sydow, could not have been better ... are the buildings being destroyed in this clip from Oklahoma City in the 1960s-70s during Urban Renewal?

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When Worlds Collide. This 1951 classic caught me big time, too ...

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The Day The Earth Stood Still. 1951 was a good year for science fiction. This version was ever so much better than the more recent remake...

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Invaders from Mars. This 1953 flick was one of my favs ... beware those who had thingies implanted on the back of their heads ... who could be your dad, anyone ...

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War of the Worlds. This 1953 flick based on H.G. Wells book and and Orson Welle's classic radio broadcast on Mercury Radio Theater in 1938 was one of the best ... during Welles' radio broadcast, thousands across the country thought that it was a REAL news broadcast that Welles was doing ...

v/P9T9f3UbGuo?fs=1&hl=en_US

Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I saw this 1956 classic at the Hankins Drive In Theater in Lawton ... great flick, so much better than the remake ... even today, if you find a great big pea pod in your garden, watch out ... it might not be what you think ...

v/L-jzblCbsuA?fs=1&hl=en_US

The Blob. I saw this 1958 movie at a midnight preview in Lawton's Dome Theater. The rush to get inside caught my body/head in an impossible sandwich ... claustrophobia set it for a moment ... which was a good mood maker ...

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As time went on, the B movies of the 1950s began to be replaced by betters, such as ...

Villiage of the Damned. Pretty spooky ...

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Then, of course, the truly classy sci-fi pictures emerged, perhaps beginning with 2001: A Space Odyssey which I saw on the Cinerama screen of the downtown Cooper, so long ago. Love my sci-fi!

I don't like bug movies, so I didn't like the sci-fi bug movies ... or vegetable movies ... of the era.

They just weren't realistic enough to suit me.

Mine was "Duck and Cover". The "training" film put out by the U.S. Government as what to do in case of a nuclear attack.

I don't remember that one. Are you serious?

Mine was "Duck and Cover". The "training" film put out by the U.S. Government as what to do in case of a nuclear attack.


I don't remember that one. Are you serious?Yes he is, I have a copy of it on DVD.

Yes he is, I have a copy of it on DVD.
Can (if you want to) you convert it to a video format? I can help, if you want.

Can (if you want to) you convert it to a video format? I can help, if you want.Which format would you prefer?

Ultimately, regardless of what you convert to, I will convert it to FLV if it is not already. That's because (as far as I'm aware, at least) FLV is the format used in You Tube. Something like that needs to be made available to everyone, I'm thinking, if that's OK with you.

Ultimately, regardless of what you convert to, I will convert it to FLV if it is not already. That's because (as far as I'm aware, at least) FLV is the format used in You Tube. Something like that needs to be made available to everyone, I'm thinking, if that's OK with you.Sounds good to me. Here it is in flv:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60

IKqXu-5jw60

Ha! You've already done it! I think that I'll do a little research in the Oklahoman about bomb shelters, etc., during the 50s and use this video as well. Should be interesting.

I wasn't shown this or a similar flick in school but it must have completely terrified the kids that did see it. Was it or a similar video shown in the Oklahoma City schools? I wonder how far away from a bomb blast one would have to be before "duck and cover" would have helped in any way? Like, they could have just told the kids, "Now, children, if you're near the blast, do something quick that you've always wanted to do, because, after just a bit, you'll be toast."