Warner Archive’s collections have been great so far, but have mostly been actor-themed (such as Errol Flynn, Greta Garbo, and Gary Cooper). Now comes an interesting genre-themed package of four sci-fi movies from the 1950s. Featuring some historically significant and still fun to watch monster movies, the 50s Sci-Fi Collection Blu-ray winds up being a great value.
“A quartet of Sci-Fi thrillers from the 1950s make up this enticing collection! Allison Hayes is the big attraction in the original Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Ray Harryhausen’s amazing special effects bring forth The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, A frenzied invasion of giant ants are the protagonists in Them!, and astronauts returning from Mars get caught in a time-warp in World Without End,” says the official description.
The earliest movie in the collection is 1953’s The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Eugène Lourié’s monster movie is as influential as it comes, and features some incredible stop-motion animation by Ray Harryhausen. As you can tell when watching, Godzilla was largely inspired by it, and it’s really the start of the kaiju genre, which still goes strong to this day. 1954’s Them! is also a nuclear monster movie, this time featuring giant ants (and is also the primary inspiration for the kaiju movie Rodan). It’s a classic that is still referenced to this day, as recent mentions in Ant-Man and the Wasp and Lilo & Stitch show.
The movie I was least knowledgeable about in the 50s Sci-Fi Collection Blu-ray was 1956’s World Without End. Featuring solid performances from Hugh Marlowe and Rod Taylor, it’s an interesting time dilation story that shows a trip to Mars gone wrong. Other movies would do its story better, such as 1960’s The Time Machine (also starring Rod Taylor), but it’s still an interesting watch. Rounding out the collection is Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, directed by Nathan Hertz. This is getting a star-studded remake and is a beloved cult classic, so it’s definitely worth revisiting. Allison Hayes plays the titular heiress turned giantess, and it winds up being a fun watch for its entire runtime.
The bonus features included here aren’t as robust as most Warner Archive offerings, as neither Them! nor World Without End has any. Attack of the 50 Foot Woman has a commentary track, at least, while The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms has two featurettes, one of which is Harryhausen and author Ray Bradbury reminiscing together. Thankfully, all of the restorations are well done, so the classic movies’ stellar visual and audio quality make up for any lack of bonus features on the discs.
50s Sci-Fi Collection Blu-ray Review: Final Verdict
Warner Archive’s 50s Sci-Fi Collection has some all-time great monster movies at an affordable price. Whether you’ve seen them before or are looking to become a more well-rounded cinephile, this collection is an easy recommendation. Here’s to hoping we get more themed collections in this vein in the future.
Disclosure: ComingSoon received product from the distributor for its 50s Sci-Fi Collection Blu-ray review.
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