Here's the big movie herald for Gorgo, "The Greatest Motion Picture Ever Produced!" "Picture of a million amazing thrills!" "Like Nothing You've Ever Seen Before!" This tabloid-sized herald was offered in 1 or 2 colors, blank or with the theater's info. See the pressbook here.
What's really terrifying in this issue of Shock: Chilling Tales of Horror and Suspense are the sizes of the word balloons. Now those are monstrous!
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Here's the Mexican lobby card for Invasores De Marte, one of the most frightening, for kids, of all the 1950s science fiction movies. Striking in its simplicity and the skillfully handled budget-art design, who can forget the images of people being swallowed by the sand accompanied by that unearthly sound, or those tall, gawky, fuzzy-clad aliens and their tentacled leader in the glass bowl? And you like ray guns? Well, that's a ray gun! Invaders from Mars is still a film–with its paranoia and mind-control themes even more relevant today–not to be missed.
I don't recall where I picked this up, but that's par for the course with a lot of stuff in my closet. Although in Spanish, you can see it contains the radio spots and other promotional information for Hammer's The Evil of Frankenstein. Of interest is the Universal Pictures Corp de Mexico in the top left corner.
One of those movies that's unforgettable for its rough edges as well as its influence. Dead people rising up, possessed by aliens intent on destroying the world. The shambling ghouls are said to have influenced George Romero. And the setpiece with people trapped in a military bunker, besieged by the walking dead, and their experimentation on one captured animated-dead individual to find a way to stop them all, is familiar to anyone who has seen Day of the Dead (1985).
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Here's another Mexican lobby card for Cat-Women of the Moon. For a variation, see this one. Funny how the women would always be glamorous in space, and the guys would be weighted down with bulky space suits. Go figure.
One of the best (and still impressive) science fiction movies of the 1950s with an atmospheric and stylish art direction, combined with an engaging alien score, and the friend every kid wanted after seeing this movie: Robby the Robot.
Some very thoughtful movies came out of the 1950s science fiction cycle. Some of the others involved sexy alien women with dominatrix attitudes and big ray guns, lusting after earth men. Or, we went to them instead as Earthian astronauts, lusting after exotic alien women (oddly, all dressing the same way in tight fitting clothes) on distant planets. Take your pick, it was still fun.
So? What did you think he did all year round? Ever since UPS and Amazon moved in on his home turf the poor stiff's gone to the birds. Not even the Bumble can cheer him up these days. On a more positive note, Halloween's still going strong for the Pumpkin King.
Well, not every science fiction movie has to be top heavy with meaning, you know? Here's the Mexican lobby card for Cat-Women of the Moon, "love starved moon maidens on the prowl." Meow!
An often overlooked science fiction movie, The Colossus of New York brings together themes we still struggle with, such as social responsibility, the misuse of great power for unethical reasons, and how much technology can influence a human being’s balance between rationality and irrationality, leading to dire consequences for others.
This Mexican lobby card for La Cabeza Malefica, The Thing That Couldn't Die, gives new meaning to the phrase "hold your head up high."