The Golden Age of Hollywood produced some of the best films in every genre, but the science fiction from that era is particularly memorable. Going back to the beginning of cinema, sci-fi has played an important part in the history of movies. The genre allows filmmakers to express their creativity, and it pushes the boundaries of what’s possible.
The Golden Age of Hollywood is loosely defined as spanning between the late 1920s and the early 1960s, and began with the industrialization of film production and ended with the collapse of the original studio system. During that time, film exploded in popularity, and it blossomed into the first truly unique art form of the 20th century.
Science fiction also blossomed during that period, expanding from the pseudo-fantastical works of authors like Wells and Verne, to include more modern ideas. The filmmakers of the Golden Age used sci-fi as a backdrop to make biting social commentary, and even expressed real-life fears. The Atomic Age opened the door for sci-fi to become fascinating and scary in equal measure.
The best films from Hollywood’s Golden Age had a timeless quality, but they were also quite groundbreaking too. Everything was fresh and original during that period, and sci-fi filmmakers were blazing a new trail that is still being followed today. What’s most amazing about Golden Age sci-fi is that it is still just as enjoyable as it was back then.
Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956)
Alien invasion movies were all the rage in the 1950s, and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers could have easily gotten lost in the shuffle. It features a rather stock-standard plot about aliens coming to enslave humanity with their deadly ships, and the human storyline isn’t anything particularly special. However, it’s memorable because of its special effects.
Instead of opting for forced perspective illusions, special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen created the saucers using stop-motion. This allowed them to flow more naturally, and for the destruction of cities like Washington D.C. to look quite convincing. The details make the movie, and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers wasn’t just another generic B-movie.
The Time Machine (1960)
H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine was one of the most important novellas in science fiction history, and it helped kick off an entire subgenre. The 1960 movie adaptation incorporated the sweeping grandeur of Hollywood’s Golden Age, and it’s a sci-fi film wrapped in an adventure story. What’s more, it even has elements of horror which have terrified viewers for generations.
The Time Machine won the Academy Award for Best Effects.
The dystopian future is perhaps the movie’s most memorable moment, and the evil Morlocks deserve a place among cinema’s greatest villains. The Time Machine is ambitious and represents the financial largesse of the waning days of the Golden Age. Far from its drive-in contemporaries, The Time Machine was designed to be a blockbuster.
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
The horrors of radiation inspired tons of sci-fi films during the Golden Age, but few were as clever as The Incredible Shrinking Man. As the title suggests, the hero begins to decrease in size, which traps him in a world of gigantic dangers. Mundane household objects are brought to life in gargantuan size, and the movie’s effects are top-notch.
What’s most surprising about The Incredible Shrinking Man is its drama, and the film is quite sad. The hero’s plight is inescapable, and there is a generally dour tone throughout the first third. It then swiftly transforms into a one-of-a-kind adventure story, and is not without quite a bit of suspense.
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)
The Golden Age of Hollywood was also the pinnacle of Disney’s live-action movies, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is one of the studio’s crown jewels. In an era of increasingly modern sci-fi, the blockbuster adaptation went back to the early days of the genre with Jules Verne’s beloved novel.
Kirk Douglas stars and is joined by a cast of recognizable names like James Mason and Peter Lorre. The film has exquisite production design, and brings to life characters like Captain Nemo with an appropriately exaggerated air. It also captures Verne’s fantastical approach to sci-fi, and doesn’t try to modernize the author’s speculative approach to technology.
The Thing From Another World (1951)
Part monster movie and part sci-fi, The Thing from Another World is one of the scariest movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Though it would be made even scarier in a remake by John Carpenter, the original film is a suspenseful and claustrophobic thrill ride with great effects and a tightly-plotted script.
Unlike many sci-fi movies from the ’50s, The Thing from Another World isn’t slow and plodding, and has absolutely no filler. This is likely due to the screenwriting talents of Howard Hawks, who did uncredited work on the script. It would have a profound impact on many future filmmakers, and it influenced horror as much as it did science fiction.
War Of The Worlds (1953)
H.G. Wells’ original story is extremely important to science fiction literature, and it resulted in the quintessential alien invasion movie as well. The 1953 adaptation of War of the Worlds seems familiar because so many other films would borrow from its source material. However, it stands head and shoulders above the rest because it perfects those tropes.
Shot in vibrant color, War of the Worlds doesn’t have the flat look of its contemporaries. The Martian ships have a unique design that eschews the usual flying saucers, and director Byron Haskin subtly uses color to express meaning. Even the aliens themselves are one-of-a-kind treats, and War of the Worlds has everything that made the Golden Age so memorable.
I Married A Monster From Outer Space (1958)
I Married a Monster from Outer Space is easily the biggest sci-fi hidden gem of Hollywood’s Golden Age, and it deserves a place among the all-time greats. The body-swap story is rife with paranoia, and reflects fears about the Cold War. It has a female protagonist, something rare for the time, and is much deeper than what’s on the surface.
The movie makes subtle commentary about how women are treated in society, and there are also references to PTSD and other mental health issues. What looks like a run-of-the-mill sci-fi cheese-fest is actually a subversive story that shines a spotlight on some of the most burning issues of the late 1950s.
The Invisible Man (1933)
Released during the Universal Classic Monsters cycle, The Invisible Man is one of the most important sci-fi horror films ever. It has that timeless quality of Dracula or Frankenstein, but is also tinged with quite a bit of dark humor too. Claude Rains’ performance completes the picture, and it’s an endlessly entertaining film for something that’s 90 years old.
The invisibility effects were mind-boggling at the time, and are still quite impressive today. It would have been easy to cut corners, but director James Whale spared no expense, and it all came out on screen. Though the horror aspects took center stage, The Invisible Man is still a compelling sci-fi story that warns of the dangers of unfettered science.
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956)
There was a lot to worry about in the 1950s, and the Red Scare was at the forefront when Invasion of the Body Snatchers debuted. The unconventional alien invasion story isn’t about conquering saucers, but the slow replacement of humanity with duplicates. This makes it more of a horror film than a conventional sci-fi flick, but it’s still quite effective.
Paranoia permeates every scene, and it is surprisingly suspenseful for a film from the mid-1950s. It not only preys upon contemporary fears, but also on concepts like loss of community, which have a deep psychological impact on the viewer. It’s a classic from Hollywood’s Golden Age largely because it is so representative of that era and its fears.
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Though pulp stories like Flash Gordon had already begun the trend of the “space opera” years before, 1956’s Forbidden Planet is really where the genre hit the big screen for the first time. A loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the film is a mystery set upon a distant planet, and it melds hard sci-fi with touches of the fantastical.
Forbidden Planet‘s rich color photography shows off every exaggerated detail, and there is a whimsy to the costume and set design. It debuted the iconic Robbie the robot, and helped pave the way for future space operas like Star Wars. The Golden Age of Hollywood hit its peak in the mid 1950s, and so too did classic science fiction films.
