Stubs – 20 Million Miles to Earth

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) Starring William Hopper, Joan Taylor, Frank Puglia. Directed by Nathan H. Juran. Screenplay by Bob Williams and Christopher Knopf. Story by Charlotte Knight. Produced by Charles H. Schneer. Run Time: 82 minutes. Black and White. U.S. Science Fiction

Last Tuesday, Ray Harryhausen, one of the pioneers of stop action special effects photography, died at the age of 92. In a tribute to Mr. Harryhausen, Trophy Unlocked would like to review one of his films, 20 Million Miles to Earth. Of all the films Mr. Harryhausen worked on, this is the closest to the staff of Trophy Unlocked, since it was during a promotional tour for the 50^th anniversary of the film that we met him at the San Diego Comic-Con. While perhaps not the best known of his work, 20 Million Miles to Earth is a typical Harryhausen film; low budget sci-fi.

Inspired by King Kong (1933) and the work of pioneer animator, Willis O’Brien, Harryhausen began making short films using stop-action or model animation on his own. A mutual friend got O’Brien to take a look at Harryhausen’s work and suggest Harryhausen take classes in graphic arts and sculpture to hone his skills.

The first big film of Harryhausen’s career was Mighty Joe Young (1949) a sequel of sorts to King Kong.  Harryhausen worked closely with O’Brien, who won the Academy Award that year for Best Visual Effects, even though Harryhausen was doing a lot of the model animation work. A re-release of King Kong in 1952 spurred interest in giant monsters and Harryhausen was in a position to use his talents.

His filmography includes Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953); It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955); Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956); The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960); Jason and the Argonauts (1963); One Million Years B.C. (1966); The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974); Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) and the original Clash of the Titans (1981), which Harryhausen also produced. Jason and the Argonauts, which featured the famous sword fighting scene with skeletons, is considered to be Harryhausen’s masterwork.

Our film, 20 Million Miles to Earth, was originally produced in 1956; much of the film was shot in Rome, since Harryhausen wanted to vacation there. Also, while Harryhausen wanted this to be made as a color film, the low budget did not allow for that. In 2007, as part of its 50^th Anniversary repackaging on home video, Harryhausen worked with Legend Films to make a colorized version of the film. However, trying to be true to the original release we will be reviewing the black and white original.

The film stars William Hopper as Col. Robert Calder, the pilot of the first U.S. spaceship to Venus that crashes upon return off the coast of Sicily after it is damaged by meteors. Witnessed by the village fishermen, only two go out to investigate the wreck, Mondello (Don Orlando) and Verrico (George Khoury). With them is Pepe (Bart Bradley, later Bart Braverman), an enterprising boy from the village.  Mondello and Verrico rescue two space travelers, Calder and Dr. Sharman (Arthur Space), from the space ship before it sinks.

Mondello, Pepe and Verrico watch as the spaceship sinks off the coast of Sicily.

The spaceship sinking in the Sea.

While Major General A.D. McIntosh (Thomas B. Henry) is dispatched to Italy to handle recovery, Pepe discovers a metal capsule that washed up on shore. There is a jelly-fish type glob inside which Pepe sells to Dr. Leonardo (Frank Puglia), a visiting zoologist who is in the area studying sea creatures. Dr. Leonardo’s medical student granddaughter, Marisa (Joan Taylor), is called into the village to tend to the injured Calder and Sharman. Despite her efforts, Sharman dies from the same disease that had earlier affected the crew of the spaceship.

Almost a doctor Marisa tries but can't save Dr. Sharman.

After Marisa returns to the camper trailer home she shares with her grandfather, a small creature hatches from the glob. Dr. Leonardo puts it in a cage, but by morning it has tripled in size.  Meantime, McIntosh arrives in the village of Gerra accompanied by 

scientist Dr. Justin Uhl (John Zaremba) to meet with Calder and Italian government representative Signore Contino (Jan Arvan). While Marisa and Dr. Leonardo are taking their discovery to Rome, McIntosh notifies Contino that Calder’s spaceship was carrying a metal container with an unborn species of life from the planet.

Marisa, Dr. Leonardo and the newly hatched creature.

When a reward is offered for the recovery of the capsule, Pepe comes forward and leads them to the now empty container. Pepe tells McIntosh that he sold what was inside to Dr. Leonardo. McIntosh and Calder pursue the scientist to Rome.

I don't know what it is, but let's take it to Rome.

The creature, known as Ymir but never called that in the film, continues to grow and before Calder and McIntosh can catch up has already broken free from Dr. Leonardo and escaped. The Ymir annoys some animals at a nearby farm, but it is really looking for sulfur. While it’s feeding, the Ymir is attacked by the farmer’s dog, which the creature kills. The farmer, alerted to its presence, is about to attack the behemoth when Calder and crew arrive at the barn.

Calder claims that the beast is only dangerous if provoked, but the farmer tries to stab it with a pitchfork anyway and is killed. The Ymir won’t go quietly either and escapes into the countryside. The Commissario of the Police, Charra (Tito Vuolo) orders that the creature be hunted down and destroyed. Calder pleads to spare the creature and the Italian government allows him to track and capture the creature.

Calder’s plan is to ensnare the Ymir in a large electrified net dropped from a helicopter. But the Italian police, who have continued their own pursuit, shoot the creature with flame throwers. Using sulfur as bait, Calder coaxes it to an open site and incapacitates it with the electric net.  The creature is then taken to the Rome Zoo. When McIntosh debriefs the media at the U.S. Embassy, he allows three reporters to get up close to the Ymir, which has been anaesthetized with electricity so scientists can get a closer look. One of those scientists is Dr. Leonardo, who is being assisted by Marisa. Marisa in turn starts to flirt with Calder. Suddenly, the electric equipment shorts out and the Ymir is once again loose.

The Creature knocked out so scientists can do their thing.

The Ymir gets into it with an elephant. The two wreak havoc in the city before the elephant is killed by the Venusian. Calder tracks the creature to the Tiber River, where it submerges before it is brought back to the surface by bombs dropped into the river. On shore, the creature heads for where else, the Coliseum. It destroys an old temple on the way with soldiers killed by the falling debris.

When in Rome you have to see the Coliseum.

Calder and bazooka firing soldiers drive the Ymir to the top of the Coliseum, where a direct hit topples the creature from its perch. A couple of more rounds from tanks knock him off completely and it is apparently the fall, like King Kong, that kills him.

DIdn't I see this ending in King Kong (1933)?

Our film ends with Marisa running into Calder’s waiting arms, as the couple that had been battling each other most of the film are now totally in love.

You can't have bad sci fi without a love story.

The premise for the film is unbelievable: A mission to Venus that was pretty much a secret from the rest of the world crash lands upon return and is only tracked by a few radar stations on its return. By this point, the U.S. was already a major super power in the world, so the fact that we seem to have only two guys we can fly in from Washington to handle seems paltry at best. Maybe I’m looking at this through eyes that watched the space program go to the moon, but you’d have to think there was more to the space program than Maj. Gen. McIntosh and Dr. Uhl as a response team and hiring local divers as search and rescue.

Who needs Navy Seals Special Forces?

I don’t want to discuss the science in the film too much. But I don’t like films that set a universe and then don’t live in them. We're told the Ymir can’t be killed with bullets and gunpowder, so why keep hunting it down with guns? And a bazooka and tank cannon fire work, but aren’t those really just big bullets? And we’re told the creature doesn’t have a heart or lungs, but while it is unconscious we see its chest rise and fall as if, I don’t know, breathing like a human, with lungs.

The plot seems to be moved along by one stupid act leading to another, starting with the little boy Pepe, who goes far too quickly from cute to annoying and dwells there for as long as he’s on the screen. He makes the first stupid act by taking something that clearly has come from outer space and opening it. He compounds the problem by selling it to Dr. Leonardo who buys it sight unseen. And then Dr. Leonardo doesn’t know what he has, but he’s taking it to a major city, Rome. What harm could there be in that?

Stupid is as stupid does.

The actors are okay. Some of the leads would better be known for their work on the small screen. William Hopper, who had previously appeared in the James Dean starrer, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) as Natalie Wood’s cold father, would perhaps best be remembered as Paul Drake, private investigator on the long running Perry Mason TV series, starring Raymond Burr (1957-66). John Zaremba would make 139 appearances in films and on various TV series, but is perhaps best remembered as Dr. Raymond Swain on the one season series Time Tunnel (1966-67).

Imagine the cross-over episode between The Time Tunnel and Perry Maston.

But frankly, you don’t watch 20 Million Miles to Earth for the acting or the plot. The only reason to watch is the work of Ray Harryhausen. He is truly the bright spot of the film. His model animation, specifically of the Ymir, is terrific. The creature moves with such fluidity throughout the film, you really forget it’s made of clay.  Many special effects artist will refer back to the birth of the creature from the goop with awe at how well it is conceived and presented. While the film is not so great, Harryhausen’s talent still shines through.

Ray Harryhausen at work.

Stubs – The Bridge on the River Kwai

THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957) Starring: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa, James Donald, Ann Sears and introducing Geoffrey Horne. Directed by David Lean. Screenplay by Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson. Based on the book by Pierre Boulle. Produced by Sam Spiegel. Run Time 162 minutes, Color. U.S. and U.K. World War II, Drama, Action

Did David Lean ever make a movie that clocked in short of an epic run time? Clocking in at just under three hours, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is long, but it is never dull. While I’m also a big fan of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962), there are definitely places where that film seems to be filling time. And the structure of BRIDGE provides a more defined beginning, middle and end that LAWRENCE doesn’t seem to have. This is a much more straight forward film in that respect.

There are two plots running simultaneously. The first involves Shears (William Holden), a Navy seaman who has copped the identity of a Commander hoping for better treatment as a P.O.W. He has been in Camp 16, run by Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) long enough to know how to game the system. Reminiscent of his character in STALOG 17, Holden trades with the guards, dead soldiers’ lighters for being on sick call or cigarette butts. Shears has one thing on his mind, escape and getting back to America. When the opportunity arises, Shears and two accomplices make a run for it. But only Shears survives. First, he stumbles to a native village which patches him up and gives him a boat. Second, when he can no longer paddle and the boat drifts out to sea, he is rescued by the British Navy.

Recuperating at a hospital in Ceylon as a U.S. commander and the privileges that provides him, Ann Sears playing the role Nurse, all Shears can think about is going home. He even has figured out what he will do when they discover his true rank, he’ll claim what we know as a section 8. Things seem to be going as plan and he is a couple of days away from going home when he is visited by Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) who wants to talk to him about joining Force 316.

Camp 16 is using P.O.W. labor to build a railroad bridge that will help link the Japanese railroad from Singapore to Rangoon. Saito has been having enough trouble getting the railroad completed when a new group of British prisoners arrive, thanks to the surrender of Singapore. Led by Lt. Colonel Nicholson (Alex Guinness), the new troops are to be treated as prisoners not as soldiers. Saito has contempt for the British who have surrendered rather than fight to the death.

And that is where the second plot takes place and it is a battle of wills between Saito and Nicholson. Saito, who is under a tight deadline to get the bridge completed. He demands that British officers be treated like the rest of the prisoners and do manual labor. But Nicholson refuses, citing the Geneva conventions. Saito doesn’t want anything to do with the code, so he punishes Nicholson and the other officers. But progress on the bridge is slow. The British soldiers do as bad of a job as they can and even manage to set production back. Saito at first blames the engineer in command and takes over the project personally. But progress is still slow and with the deadline approaching, Saito capitulates to Nicholson’s demands.

Nicholson, being a man of principal, champions the project as being a good morale booster for the men. He wants to show his captors what good work the English can do. He takes pride to a whole new level and becomes obsessed with the bridges’ construction. While still the titular head of the project and the commander of the camp, it is clear that Saito loses and cedes control of the project to Nicholson. His crew not only moves the location of the bridge but increases the workload on the men. He even goes so far as to have the officers help with the manual labor and recruits the sick and wounded prisoners to lend a hand. The result is that the bridge is completed on time and is a marvel to behold. While Nicholson celebrates the accomplishment, even putting a plaque on the bridge with his name on it, Saito goes about the steps to prepare for hari kari when the bridge is completed.

While Shears doesn’t want to go back to Camp 16, he is left with little choice. The British and the Americans have figured out what his true rank is, and the U.S. Navy has reassigned him to Warden’s Force 316. When he sees no way to avoid it, he volunteers to go. Rounding out their group are two more men, the supposed experienced Chapman, who dies when they parachute in behind Japanese lines, and the inexperienced Lt. Joyce (Geoffrey Horne). As they make their way to blow up the bridge, Warden gets shot when Joyce freezes before a Japanese soldier. Warden kills the soldier, but not before he gets shot in the foot. This of course, slows down their expedition and changes the roles each will assume. Warden for a time gives the leadership up to Shears, but he really doesn’t want it. Warden is not left behind as he wished, but is carried on stretcher when he can no longer walk.

The trio reach the bridge on the eve of it’s opening, when the first train will cross its trestle. Planting plastic explosives three feet below the water line seems sufficient, as does hiding the detonator across the river. However, overnight, the river recedes and some of the wiring is left exposed.

And it is this wiring that Nicholson sees on his last check of the bridge as the train is approaching. Bringing Saito with him, Nicholson goes down under the bridge and follows one of the wires straight to Lt. Joyce who is manning the detonator. There doesn’t seem to be a plan B in mind, as Warden and Shears want Joyce to explode the bridge, but he seems intent on waiting for the train. Joyce, who has always been slow to act, kills Saito, but can’t get through to Nicholson. While the two men struggle, Joyce is killed by Japanese fire. Warden shoots mortar at the bridge as a diversion and Shears swims across the river to kill Nicholson. Shears has come too far not to complete the mission. But he too is shot and killed, but not before Nicholson sees him. It is then and only then that Nicholson realizes the error of his ways and has the “What have I done?” moment, the film is famous for.

One of Warden’s mortar lands next to Nicholson, mortally wounding him. But Nicholson tries for a moment to shake off its effects. Stooping to pick up his cap, he is a proper British officer after all; he instead collapses, falling on the detonator, blowing up the bridge, just as the train starts across.

The acting in the film is great. Guinness won the Academy Award for Best Actor and Hayakawa was nominated for Best Supporting. Alec Guinness had, up until then, been considered a comedic actor, having worked in a series of comedies produced by the British Ealing Studios. These films include: THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951), THE LADYKILLERS (1955) and THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951). He would work again with David Lean in such films as LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (playing Prince Faisal) and DR. ZHIVAGO (1965) (playing Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago). Guinness is probably best known to the under forty crowd as Obi-Wan Kenobi, in the original STAR WARS (1980).

William Holden, who had been a star since GOLDEN BOY (1939), was at the top of his game when he appeared in BRIDGE, having won the Oscar the year before for STALAG 17 (1954). In addition to these films, he had also starred in SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950), for which he was nominated for an Oscar; BORN YESTERDAY (1950); SABRINA (1954) and THE COUNTRY GIRL (1954), LOVE IS A MANY-SLEPENDORED THING (1955) and PICNIC (1955), by the time he made BRIDGE. He would go on to star in such films as THE HORSE SOLDIERS (1959); THE WILD BUNCH (1969); THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) and NETWORK (1976), for which he would be nominated again for an Academy Award. His last film was 1981’s S.O.B., a forgettable Blake Edwards comedy.

THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. But it also won for Best Adapted Screenplay, an award originally given to the “screenwriter” Pierre Boulle, the author of the book it was based on. This is because the two men, who wrote the script, though not together, were on the Hollywood Blacklist. It wasn’t until 1984 that the Academy rectified the situation and gave the awards posthumously to Foreman and Wilson. And since then the credits have been updated to show these two men, not Boulle, as the screenwriters.

This film also made the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1997.

THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is an interesting psychological study and is a fun film to watch. Somewhat slow by today’s standard it makes up for it by having good writing, directing and acting, things few big budget films have these days. And unlike most current big budget films, the big explosion isn’t the only thing worth watching.