It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) – A Science Fiction Movie Review

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“It! The Terror from Beyond Space” (ITTFBS) is one of those marvelous science fiction movies that are so awful that they can be enjoyed entirely for the camp value.  It’s really hard to overstate how cheesy the movie is.  And unless you’re a connoisseur of B movie bit players you’ve never heard of the cast.  Now, you’ll probably recognize several of them from old tv shows of the time period like “Superman” and “The Twilight Zone” but none of them were movie stars.  But they do gamely soldier on with the plot and dialog, such as they are.  But when the set is a “space ship” that looks like one room in an industrial building and the “monster” is a guy in a rubber suit you can only do so much.

I won’t warn you about spoilers because you can’t spoil this movie.  The dopiness of the “science” defies any concern over spoiling the resolution of the dilemma.  It has something to do with the monster having very large lungs from living on Mars and therefore emptying the ship of air will kill the monster faster than if he had smaller lungs!  But none of that should be held against this movie.  If you watch this movie, you embrace the dopiness.

The plot is basically that the first manned mission to Mars is attacked by a monster that kills eight out of the nine astronauts.  A rescue mission is sent to bring back the survivor who is believed to have murdered his shipmates.  Of course, the monster stows away by walking into an unlocked entrance and then begins picking off the rescue crew.  Once the crew figures out that the survivor was telling the truth about the monster, he seems to become their leader and they combine forces to kill the really hokey looking monster.  They try guns, hand grenades, “gas bombs,” electricity and even radiation from their engine.  But no soap.  Finally, when the monster breaks through the last bulkhead protecting the handful of survivors, they empty the cabin air into space and the monster dies quite dramatically.

So, what makes this movie so special that I don’t pan it.  Maybe it’s the two women in the rescue crew.  They appear to be nurses who have been sent along to treat victims of the first Mars expedition.  They spend most of their scenes holding hands with various crew members and looking soulfully into their eyes while asking them whether the monster is going to eat them all or not.  And that’s another great thing about this movie.  The monster kills its victims by removing all oxygen and water from their bodies.  But since he likes to snack all day long, he drags them around while he’s feeding on them.  Then there’s the crew’s space suits.  They look like they’re made of wool.  And finally, there’s the view of space from the ship.  In addition to stars, there are what must be meteors flying by.  They look like a few Fourth of July sparklers tied together and pulled along on a string.

So, all in all this is a terrible sci-fi movie by any standard.  But for the connoisseur of this sub-genre, it’s a treat.  ITTFBS is highly recommended schlock.

19JUL2026 – Quote of the Day

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The universe is a thought of God. After this ideal thought-fabric passed out into reality, and the new-born world fulfilled the plan of its Creator—permit me to use this human simile—the first duty of all thinking beings has been to retrace the original design in this great reality; to find the principle in the mechanism, the unity in the compound, the law in the phenomenon, and to pass back from the structure to its primitive foundation. Accordingly to me there is only one appearance in nature—the thinking being. The great compound called the world is only remarkable to me because it is present to shadow forth symbolically the manifold expressions of that being. All in me and out of me is only the hieroglyph of a power which is like to me. The laws of nature are the cyphers which the thinking mind adds on to make itself understandable to intelligence—the alphabet by means of which all spirits communicate with the most perfect Spirit and with one another. Harmony, truth, order, beauty, excellence, give me joy, because they transport me into the active state of their author, of their possessor, because they betray the presence of a rational and feeling Being, and let me perceive my relationship with that Being.

Friedrich Schiller

Bring on the Razzle-Dazzle

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So last night Trump gave the speech and revealed that hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are on the voter rolls and the Chi-Coms were in charge of the data link for automated voting machines for millions of votes.  And that’s great.

But when does someone go to prison for it?

If it’s just a matter of saying it, what does that do?  I mean, I already know all this.  And the Democrats who ran all this stuff certainly know about it.  But if it’s just talk what does that do?  I guess he was trying to put pressure on the Republican Senate Leader to pass the Save America Act.  Okay, good!  But will it work?  Will Thune play ball?

Maybe I’ve just become a curmudgeon.  I don’t seem to have the enthusiasm I used to have for the Trump shuffle.  Sure, all of the razzle-dazzle probably gets some points with the general public and maybe it upsets the Left when their chicanery is showcased on the six o’clock news.  But I’m hoping for something a little more substantial.  For instance, I heard that the feds have something on Gavin Newsom’s wife’s business that’s making a lot of money off of the State of California.  Well, why not arrest the Newsoms and indict them for mopery and dopery?  Now that would be worthwhile and fun at the same time.  And in the same vein, what about the fraud going on in Minnesota?  Shouldn’t the FBI have Tim Walz about ready for indictment too?

Well, anyway, you can see where I’m going with all this.  This is Trump’s second term and he’s already fired all the hacks that were slowing him down in his first term and has his own people in place so I guess I expected him to get some revenge for the various railroading prosecutions they put him through over the last few years.

But maybe Trump knows best.  His 2024 election win must be in the top ten political miracles of the last hundred years.  So, I’m not going to jump on the “Trump is doomed” bandwagon.  It seems to me that he has already achieved an enormous amount just by opening the eyes of millions of conservative voters to the sad truth about the Republican establishment and its lack of interest in actually conserving anything.  Maybe he won’t have the chance to “make America great again” before 2029 but he at least started the fight and gave a lot of people hope for the future.  So, when he gives us the razzle-dazzle, I roll my eyes up and walk away from the tv.  But I’ll leave the gloom and doom to the pundits getting paid for it.

So, if the Democrats take the House and even the Senate, Trump will still be able to do his work by executive order and existing law.  Will he transform the United States into a conservative wonderland?  Absolutely not.  Will he be a positive force for good?  Absolutely.  Bring on the razzle-dazzle.

18JUL2026 – Quote of the Day

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There are three lessons I would write, —

Three words — as with a burning pen,

In tracings of eternal light

Upon the hearts of men.

Have Hope. Though clouds environ now,

And gladness hides her face in scorn,

Put thou the shadow from thy brow, —

No night but hath its morn.

Have Faith. Where’er thy bark is driven, —

The calm’s disport, the tempest’s mirth, —

Know this: God rules the hosts of heaven,

The habitants of earth.

Have Love. Not love alone for one,

But men, as man, thy brothers call;

And scatter, like the circling sun,

Thy charities on all.

Thus grave these lessons on thy soul, —

Hope, Faith, and Love, — and thou shalt find

Strength when life’s surges rudest roll,

Light when thou else wert blind.

Friedrich Schiller