Monster Movie of the Week: 20 Million Miles to Earth

"Out-of-Space?" So, it's mad because it doesn't have enough closet space?

20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957)

Director: Nathan Juran

Genre: Monster on the loose

THE MOVIE:

Back in the day, moviemakers could get away with silly science fiction premises like “In the year 1974, man has colonized the sun….” The premise of the classic 20 Million Miles to Earth is that a manned expedition to the surface of Venus crash lands in the Mediterranean and looses a Venusian monster on Rome. In reality the surface of Venus is hot enough to melt lead. Oh well, ignorance was bliss, or at least the fodder for fun movies like this one.

In the year 1957 man has secretly landed on Venus. The ship crashes to earth with only one human survivor. A canister containing a specimen of Venusian life looses itself from the ship and washes on to the Italian shore. A young boy finds it and sells it to a local zoologist. The little beast feeds off of sulfur and grows to enormous size. The zoologist attempts to take it to Rome but the beast escapes and goes on a mini rampage before it is recaptured. The creature again escapes and goes on a larger rampage in Rome, battling an elephant in the process.

This is another one of the movies worked on by the brilliant special effects master Ray Harrryhousen, the undisputed master of stop motion creature effects, having studied under the great King Kong special effects artist Willis O’Brian. His work on 20 Million Miles to Earth is among his best. It is also a great example of the monster-on-the-loose subgenre of movies which featured monsters running amok in urban settings, a favorite theme of the Harryhousen movies.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The monster is known as the Ymir, although this term is never used in the movie. He grows to a height of about 25ft and is a bipedal reptile with a human like torso and a long tail. His face resembles that of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, or, much later, the Cloverfield monster. Like the earlier Harryhousen film, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, this film is shot in glorious black and white and the lighting is again used here to give the Ymir a wonderful three-dimensionality and texture. Harryhousen animates the creature with great personality and realism, such as the scene early on when the miniature version of the Ymir is first exposed to light and covers its eyes in a way that is almost cute. Ultimately, this is a sympathetic creature that has been displaced from its own home and thrown into our world by human beings. There are some other nice allusions to King Kong throughout the movie, such as the building top climax, here taking place at the ruins of the Coliseum instead of the Empire State Building.

MONSTERS FEATURED

Only the Ymir.

Grandpa?

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The monster rampaging through Rome with the Imperial Ruins as a backdrop.

Now in groovy vision!

DVD AVAILABILITY

The original version of the movie has long been available and includes a nice Harryhousen retrospective and a few other features.

Recently a special edition came available featuring a new colorized version of the movie supervised by Harryhousen himself (apparently they wanted to shoot in color but did not have the budget) as well as the original black and white version.

THE TRAILER:

SEE ALSO:

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) King Kong (1933)