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20
MILLION MILES TO EARTH: 1957
Following
It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955) and Earth Vs. The
Flying Saucers (1956), the next installment from Charles
Schneer and the mighty Ray Harryhausen employed the services
of director Nathan Juran. Juran also directed this film's leading
man, William Hopper, in Universal's The Deadly Mantis
(1957).
Harryhausen
again provides the backbone of the feature with his state-of-the-art
special effects. The story follows the brief and painfully unhappy
life of the Ymir, a creature from the planet Venus. |
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An
enormous rocket plummets through the atmosphere, and awestruck
Sicilian fisherman witness its crash into the Mediterranian Sea.
One small boat bravely rows over to seek survivors, and board
the craft through a gaping hole ripped in the spaceship's metallic
hull. |
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Though
the rocket is nose down, everything is right-side-up when they
get inside to pull two men from the wreckage, just as the ship
begins sinking to its watery grave. Col. Calder (Hopper) wakes
fully clothed in a hospital bed, next to his dying comrade. His
physician is Joan Taylor. |
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Meanwhile,
Pepe, a Sicilian boy, discovers a cylinder washed up on the shore
with markings that indicate it came from the giant American rocket.
He sells this prize to Doctor Leonardo, a scientist visiting
from Rome, for 200 Lire. Its contents hatch from a gelatinous
"egg" before his very eyes as the 12 inch Ymir. |
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Leonardo
cages the animal, and overnight it grows to the size of a small
man. General MacIntosh and Dr. Yule collect Col. Calder and task
him with finding the creature he ferried home in its embryonic
state. The Ymir breaks out to roam the countryside. It
finds a barn, and while feeding on grain, is attacked by a dog. |
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When
the farmer reports the problem, Calder and crew arrive to capture
the beast. As Calder tries to prod the Ymir into a cage,
the farmer employs pitchfork diplomacy, and stabs the Ymir
in the back! It angrily chomps on the farmer and escapes. Later,
it is shocked senseless under an electrified net, and apprehended. |
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Held
at a Rome zoo for study, the Venusian is immobilized by 1800
volts of constant current. Earth's atmosphere continues to make
it grow at a phenomenal rate. It's now far larger than the Ymirs
our Calder encountered on Venus. When an accident dampens the
shock treatment, the monster is freed and tears through the wall. |
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It
rampages through the zoo, nearly meeting its match when an elephant
feels obliged to establish who is boss. The battle is fierce,
but the pachyderm is left bloodied and beaten. The now gigantic
Ymir rages through Rome. The armed forces are called out
to destroy the creature as it wanders the streets, roaring and
smashing all in its path! |
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Bullets
do little good because the creature has a de-centralized metabolism
with few vital organs to disable. It wreaks havoc upon Roman
monuments, continuing in the established Harryhausen style, much
as San Francisco, New York, and Washington D.C. met with his
stop-motion wrath. Casualties are high. |
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By
now, the utterly confused monster is riddled with holes, mad
as hell, and he's not gonna take it anymore! The Ymir
thrashes down the alleyways until it reaches the famed Colluseum,
where it finds an abundace of hiding places. Col. Calder's forces
surround the ancient structure with firepower. |
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The
specimen turned unwelcome visitor is chased higher and higher
until it is cornered atop the decayed monument. From inside the
arena, Col. Calder gives his former passenger a bazooka blast
to the gut, and a fatal wound is finally delivered. The "evil"
Ymir shrieks in agony. |
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Though
born on Earth and mutated by its atmosphere, clueless as to its
own origin or fate, and having known only fear and pain, the
survival instinct of the Ymir is strong enough that it
still clings to life. It tries to hang on until catching tank
rounds in the back, then falls to its death. |
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Maybe
the collapse of certain historic ruins were hastened, but at
least that dangerously ugly herbivorous alien from Venus is dead.
THE
END
It
should have known better than to come here. |
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Nathan
Juran directed the Harryhausen masterpiece The 7th Voyage
of Sinbad (1958), but as Nathan Hertz also directed Roger
Corman's Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1957), as well as
The Brain From Planet Arous (1958) with John Agar. General
MacIntosh was also the father figure in ...Planet Arous,
and Dr. Yule played the scientist with the cane in Earth Vs.
The Flying Saucers (1956). |
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