Tag: Richard Carlson

  • Fly by Night

    Fly by Night

    Robert Siodmak shows his skill as a director in this early 1942 screwball comedy starring later SF star Richard Carlson and Oscar nominee Nancy Kelly, as they chase a Nazi superweapon, trying to prove Carlson’s innocense in a murder case. 7/10

  • Creature from the Black Lagoon

    Creature from the Black Lagoon

    Universal’s 1954 aquatic take on King Kong inspired an entire subgenre. Jack Arnold superbly directs this atmospheric story of an Amazon expedition in search of a prehistoric monster merman. But the clichéd script is the real missing link here. 7/10

  • Riders to the Stars

    Riders to the Stars

    Curt Siodmak, Ivan Tors and Richard Carlson foreshadow The Right Stuff in this 1953 space race film. Despite its bonkers central premise and a somewhat unsatisfactory latter part, the film charms with its mature and calm, scientific approach. 5/10

  • The Maze

    The Maze

    Veronica Hurst’s fiancé Richard Carlson becomes estranged as he takes possession of his ancestral Scottish castle, harbouring a dark secret. Atmospherically filmed in 3D in 1953, this fringe SF production is hampered by an oft-ridiculed climax. 6/10

  • It Came from Outer Space

    It Came from Outer Space

    Ray Bradbury’s story is poetically put on screen in this 1953 classic. Richard Carlson stars as a mediator between body-snatching aliens and gun-happy townsfolk. Intelligent, well-filmed and thoughtful, it may be too slow for some tastes. 8/10

  • The Magnetic Monster

    The Magnetic Monster

    Science goes horribly wrong when an unstable element threatens to sling the Earth out of orbit. SF legend Richard Carlson stars in this 1953 Curt Siodmak effort. Hokey and low budget, but it charms its way into being one of the best SF movies of the fifties. 7/10

  • The Day the Earth Stood Still

    The Day the Earth Stood Still

    The fate of the world hangs in the balance as the mysterious alien Klaatu arrives on a diplomatic mission to Earth with his deadly robot. Oscar winner Robert Wise’s “subversive” 1951 classic was a radical call for world peace in the midst of McCarthyist blacklistings. Possibly the best of the…

  • King Solomon’s Mines

    King Solomon’s Mines

    An Oscar nominee for best picture, MGM:s 1950 adaptation of H. Rider Haggard’s adventure novel dazzled audiences with its Technicolor images of African wildlife and exotic natives. However, the film more closely resembles a nature documentary than a work of narrative cinema. 3/10

  • Lights Out

    Lights Out

    The first anthology TV show to feature science fiction, Lights Out was adapted from a popular horror radio show in the US in 1949. Lights Out sports an impressive roster of actors and writers, but it struggles somewhat to transfer what was so great about the radio program to the…