20 Million Miles To Earth  (1957)

Columbia Tri-Star
Region : 2
Length : 79 mins
Format : 1.85:1 Enhanced
Black & White
Languages : English, German, Italian
Subtitles : 19 including Arabic, Hindi and Icelandic
Extras : The Harryhausen Chronicles, This is Dynamation, Trailer

Cast (in credits order)

William Hopper.... Col. Robert Calder
Joan Taylor.... Marisa Leonardo
Frank Puglia.... Dr. Leonardo
John Zaremba.... Dr. Judson Uhl
Thomas Browne Henry.... Major Gen. A.D. McIntosh
Tito Vuolo.... Charra Police Commissioner
Jan Arvan.... Contino, Italian Government
Arthur Space.... Dr. Sharman, XY21's Chief Scientist
Bart Braverman.... Pepe (as Bart Bradley)
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Sid Cassel.... Farmer (first victim) (uncredited)
Ray Harryhausen.... Rome Zoo Visitor (uncredited)
George Khoury.... Verrico, a fisherman (uncredited)
Rollin Moriyama.... Farmer (uncredited)
Don Orlando.... Mondello, a fisherman (uncredited)
George Pelling.... Maples, Reuters Reporter (uncredited)
Dale Van Sickel.... Major Stacy, McIntosh's Aide (uncredited)

Directed by…Nathan Juran

Writing credits…Charlotte Knight (story) (as Charlott Knight)
Christopher Knopf   Robert Creighton Williams (as Bob Williams)
Produced by…Charles H. Schneer
Original music by…George Antheil (uncredited)
Mischa Bakaleinikoff  Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (uncredited)
David Diamond
Cinematography by…Irving Lippman   Carlo Ventimiglia
Film Editing by…Edwin H. Bryant  (as Edwin Bryant)
Art Direction by…Cary Odell
Set Decoration by…Robert Priestley
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ottavio Oppo.... assistant director
Eddie Saeta.... assistant director
Sound…Lambert E. Day
Visual Effects by…Ray Harryhausen
Stunts…Dale Van Sickel
Mischa Bakaleinikoff.... conductor

   An American rocket ship crashes into the Med just off Sicily.  It's just returned from Venus.   Only two of the crew survive.  The small son of one of the fishermen that perform the rescue finds a container – the boy sells the container to a scientist who just happens to be on holiday nearby – the container has a larva egg thing inside. The Ymir, the creature from Venus, hatches and he grows and grows and grows. The creature is captured and gets taken to Rome and when he escapes, fights a zoo elephant and climbs to the top of the Coliseum. 

Lead actors William Hopper, who became famous as Paul Drake in ‘Perry Mason’ from 1957 - 1966, (Col. Robert Calder) his love interest Joan Taylor (Student Doctor Marisa Leonardo) and Frank Puglia (as her father Dr. Leonardo) obviously had a lot of fun making the film, and although they know the plot is risible there is none of the histrionics that characterise most of the ‘Creature Feature’ films of the 50’s and 60’s. They know that it is the monster that is the star of the film. In the long list of Ray Harryhausen's clay-animated creations, the Venusian Ymir is many fans’ favourite. Having been influenced by Willis O'Brien's work in King Kong (1933), Harryhausen put more than a little Kong into his Ymir. Here's another beast kidnapped from its natural home, brought back to ‘civilization’, caged, shot, and strapped down, after which it escapes, hunted by puny humans with big weapons, and makes a last stand on top of a famous towering landmark. The Ymir bears enough of Harryhausen's trademark realistic dynamism – from the fist time we see it as a tiny beast shielding its eyes as the light goes on the in caravan – so that one can't watch it getting poked, pitch forked, flame-throwered, electrode-zapped, and tank-blasted without feeling that it's too bad the poor thing can't take out all those humans with atomic breath.  Even in today's Lucas-ILM world, the spectacle created by Harryhausen's animation remains impressive.  A model with character – as opposed to CGI spacemen with none.

Highlight set-pieces include a moody scene in a darkened barn, the Ymir's de rigueur rampage through a city street, picking up bystanders and overturning cars, the fight with the elephant (which, according to imdb has been cut from most US TV version of the film because of its cruelty?!?), and the Coliseum finale.

Guided by director Nathan Juran, who knew where the priorities lay, everything else in these 79 minutes is just a thin string to hang the plentiful Ymir scenes on. 20 Million Miles to Earth wasn't by any means a significant boost in the development of genre movies (Forbidden Planet had been released a year earlier), though it did help push the evolution of Harryhausen's techniques and artistry. It was his final black-and-white film before deciding that he could make his monsters realistic in colour.

If you just think of 20 Million Miles to Earth as a demo reel showcasing ambitious visual effects that can still impress with their skill and ingenuity that’s probably how Lucas got his idea for Attack of the Clones.

As a DVD, this Columbia Tri-Star release adds to the "Ray Harryhausen Signature Collection" with a fine looking 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer.  This high-definition remaster falls short just of "pristine" — with some minor digital artifacting plus a forgivable smidge of grain, specks, and blemishes — but the image is quite clean and sharp (particularly in the close-ups) with commendable definition and greyscale levels. The audio is clean straight ahead Mono in Dolby Digital 2.0.

Unfortunately the chief supplement is, yet again, the hour-long 1997 documentary by Richard Shickel, narrated by Leonard Nimoy “The Ray Harryhausen Chronicles”.  And also another chance to see “This is Dynamation” (a exhibitor short to show off the special-effects technique). 

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review done summer 2002