20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Nathan Juran

Writers:

Charlotte Knight (story)
Christopher Knopf (writer) ...

Release Date:

June 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Monster from outerspace runs wild!

Plot:

The first U.S. spaceship to Venus crash-lands off the coast of Sicily on its return trip. A dangerous, lizard-like creature comes with it and quickly grows gigantic.

Plot Keywords:

Venus | Military | Sicily | Alien | Young Boy

Cast

William Hopper	...	Col. Robert Calder
Joan Taylor	...	Marisa Leonardo
Frank Puglia	...	Dr. Leonardo
John Zaremba	...	Dr. Judson Uhl
Thomas Browne Henry	...	Maj. Gen. A.D. McIntosh (as Thomas B. Henry)
Tito Vuolo	...	Police Commissioner Charra
Jan Arvan	...	Contino - Government Official
Arthur Space	...	Dr. Sharman
Bart Braverman	...	Pepe (as Bart Bradley)

Also Known As:

The Beast from Space
The Giant Ymir

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Finland:K-15 (2000) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | South Korea:All | South Korea:All (2008) | Australia:PG | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #18428) | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Ponte St. Angelo, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Morningside Productions

Trivia:

Though the creature is referred to as the Ymir in reviews and websites, the name is never mentioned in the movie. Ray Harryhausen was concerned that audiences would mistake it for the Arabic title "Emir".

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The General, fearing that the space ship has sunk, points to a body of water on the map and says that the lost astronauts are now "20,000 Leagues under the Sea." Of course, it's a coy reference to the recent sci-fi flick (and Jules Verne's novel). However, a league is about 3 miles; no ship could sink 60,000 miles under the sea since the earth isn't that large. The Verne title refers to the amount of miles traveled under the sea, not how deep the craft was operating. So the General has made a geographical error while trying to make a hip quip.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mondello: Pepe! Is it your desire that the fishes, they swim away? Come on! Pull up on the net, here.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Monsterama Sci-Fi Late Night Creature Feature Show Vol. 1 (1996) (V)

Better than average

This is a simple enough film. Rocket returning from Venus crashes near Sicily and a foetal thing grows to become a giant lizardy humanoid type thing. The acting is ordinary and the script predictable.

What makes it better than average for a 1950s monster movie is the Ray Harryhausen animated Venusian, called a Ymir here. Photographed in atmospheric black and white, its progress from small caged creature to being loose and dangerous on the streets of Rome and fighting an elephant is engrossing. You can't help rooting for the Ymir, attacked along the way by dogs and soldiers. The Ymir becomes a character like Frankenstein's creation or the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Excellent work by Harryhausen, and far more interesting than the CGI dinosaurs from Spielberg's over praised (and underwhelming) Jurassic Park trilogy.