Saturday afternoon. Don’t want to play baseball in the hood. If I stay home, I will have to cut the grass. Why can’t the lawn grow wild anyway? The solution is clear. Get a five spot from Dad, have him don his chauffeur hat, hop in the Hudson Jet and head to town for a mid row, mid section seat in the Warner Theater for a Saturday Afternoon Sci Fi triple feature. There was no bigger thrill in the world than being seated in a large dark room surrounded by like minded cronies with a bag of buttery popcorn on your lap. All of us were waiting for the projection man to roll the first flick of the day, “Them”. “Them” is a classic of the 50′s Sci Fi genre. Anybody who was a child in the fifties will know that we were taught to fear an inevitable nuclear attack by the dreaded Russian Commies. Who could ever forget the duck and cover maneuver? We rehearsed this goofy defensive procedure every month in grade school. You would simply hide under your little wooden desk and cover your head with your hands. I always crossed my fingers and hoped they would miss, praying all the time that those evil predators would target DC way before Westtown, PA. The fear of the bomb, which, in and of itself, is not paranoid, was the fodder for many Sci Fi films. The usual plot line would be an atomic bomb test gone wrong followed by the appearance of some giant mutant creature with a taste for human flesh. What a set up for real trepidation. The bomb, giant ants and a terrified little girl screaming, “Them, them”. The sound that the giant ants in “Them” made was early synthesizer magic. The film also had two very good actors in it so that it would not fall into cornball ham drama. These actors were James Whitmore and Edmund Gwenn, who was famous for playing Santa Claus in “Miracle on 34th Street”. This has all of the hokem that makes fifties fantasy flicks fun. It also is quite well made by most standards. The current generation of Science Fiction movies have universes that revolve around eye candy that is, most certainly, state of the art. In my era, this genre of movie relied on a very present fear because of our indoctrination. If our Saturday afternoon movies were not based around nuclear swollen insects and such, they were busy terrifying us with flying saucers and aliens. Aliens back then seemed quite possible. Just check out Mamie Van Doren. My favorites were always the large city-devouring monster variety. When it comes to Saturday afternoon joy, this short list of movies fits the bill just right: (1) Them – Giant ants and terror stricken children. (2) Tarantula – Most folks hate spiders, so tarantulas as tall as buildings evoke primal fear. (3) Gojira (Godzilla) – Actually, a very powerful political statement. Do the Japanese version without Raymond Burr. (4) The Incredible Shrinking Man – Radioactive mist gives the protagonist ultimate shrinkage. (5) The Giant Behemoth – Even the Brits have trouble with radioactive monsters. (6) The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms – Ray Harryhausen gets into the act. (7) The H Man – Another classic from the director of Godzilla (8) Mothra – Who could not love a giant moth? (9) Kiss Me Deadly – Not a Sci Fi. I had to mention a fave film noir with a nuclear ending (10) The Day The Earth Stood Still – No catastrophes. Aliens come to Earth to stop our violent nature and love of the Big One. A movie that resonates in any decade where wars rage and the A bomb reigns as the secret king of doomsday. Sit back on a rainy Saturday afternoon with some treats and a good companion to give one of these entertainments a viewing. They are coming for you and they are buffed up with radioactive isotopes.
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