Tag: Ann Doran
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It! The Terror from Beyond Space
A mission to Mars returns to Earth with a monstrous stowaway aboard the space rocket. United Artists’ 1958 proto-slasher is clunky and occasionally hilarious, but Jerome Bixby’s tight script builds up some real tension, and gets a few points for originality. 6/10.
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The Man Who Turned to Stone
Mad scientists run a women’s prison and kill the inmates in order to prolong their own lives in Columbia’s 1957 genre mashup. Bernard Gordon’s script has interesting ideas, but falls back on dated horror tropes. 5/10.
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Them!
James Arness and Edmund Gwenn chase giant ants in this atmospheric 1954 SF horror thriller. The original giant bug film, considered by many to be the best. Good direction, solid acting and a smart script that taps into the era’s atomic fears. 8/10
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The Man They Could Not Hang
Boris Karloff shines as the lone star in his first of five mad scientist films for Columbia Pictures’ B-movie unit in 1939. Made on a shoestring budget, this medical sci-fi turned old dark house revenge thriller is entertaining but predictable. 5/10
Scifist. 