Tag: Douglas Spencer
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This Island Earth
With a more adult angle than most fifties SF movies, Universal’s 1955 big-budget splash dazzles both with wonderful visuals and clever ideas. That the screenplay mismanages these ideas prevents its inclusion with the bona fide classics. 7/10
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Monkey Business
Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe shine in this nutty 1952 screwball comedy where a nutty professor’s chimp invents a rejuvenation serum, with hilarious results. Howard Hawks’ direction overcomes the thin script. 7/10
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The Thing from Another World
Often overshadowed by it’s remake, Howard Hawks’ 1951 adaptation of John W. Campbell’s novella is still a stellar picture. This ensemble piece was the movie that finally blew the door open for science fiction in Hollywood, and has inspired a generation of filmmakers. 9/10
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It Happens Every Spring
A university professor invents a wood-repelling baseball and decides to become a star pitcher in order to get enough money to marry one of his students. Ray Milland stars in this predictable 1949 major studio comedy which offers more feelgood than belly laughs. 4/10
Scifist. 