This Island Earth [Blu-ray]

Director: Virgil W. Vogel, Joseph M. Newman, Joseph Newman Virgil W. Vogel

Overview

Based on Raymond F. Jones' novel, this sci-fi tale is about a pair of scientist who are abducted by aliens and taken to the planet Metaluna to help defend it against hostile invaders.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/09/2019
UPC:	0826663199222
Original Release:	1955
Rating:	NR
Source:	Shout Factory
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:26:00
Sales rank:	15,793

Special Features

New 4k Scan of the Original Film Elements; New The Original Perspecta Stereophonic Sound Restored by 3-D Film Archive; New Audio Commentary wiht author and Visual Effects artist Robert Skotak; New Audio Interview with Film Historian David Schecter; New Interview with Filmmaker Luigi Cozzi; Trailers from Hell - This Island Earth with Commentary by Filmmaker Joe Dante; "Two and a Half Years In the Making: The Extended Documentary" - The Making Of This Island Earth ; Theatrical Trailer; Still Galleries

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Rex Reason	Dr. Cal Meacham
Faith Domergue	Dr. Ruth Adams
Jeff Morrow	Exeter
Lance Fuller	Brack
Robert Nichols	Joe Wilson
Russell Johnson	Steve Carlson
Douglas Spencer	The Monitor of Metaluna
Richard Deacon	Spacecraft Pilot
Reg Parton	Mutant
Karl Ludwig Lindt	Dr. Adolph Engelborg
Robert B. Williams	Webb
Coleman Francis	Express Deliveryman
H.J. Salter	Composer

Technical Credits

Edward G. O'Callaghan

Virgil W. Vogel	Director
Joseph M. Newman	Director,Director
Edward G. O'Callaghan	Screenwriter
David Horsley	Special Effects
Leslie Carey	Sound/Sound Designer
Robert Pritchard	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

One of the most beloved sci-fi movies of the '50s (and deservedly so), This Island Earth spins a thoroughly satisfying tale from the usual atomic-age tropes (alien invaders! giant mutants!). Plot motivation derives from the frantic efforts of humanoid aliens from Metaluna to develop new sources of atomic energy to defend their imperiled planet. To this end, Earth's finest scientists are recruited by a Metalunan named Exeter (Jeff Morrow), who ultimately transports Drs. Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) and Rita Adams (Faith Domergue) to his dying world. The special effects sequences -- which include a dandy when Exeter's rocket ship is buffeted by meteors while en route to Metaluna -- are primitive when compared to today's computer-generated imagery, and the makeup designed for a half-human, half-insect mutant is positively laughable in comparison to today's sophisticated latex applications. Despite Joseph M. Newman's relatively sober direction of a script, faithfully adapted from Raymond Jones's famous pulp yarn, This Island Earth may come off to today's viewers as hopelessly cornball, and oft-reproduced scenes of the statuesque Domergue being menaced by the mutant have become part of camp iconography. But at the time of its theatrical release in 1954, this film was considered less sensational and more forward-looking than most of its contemporaries, and even today its sobriety and sincerity shine through. Highly entertaining.