20 Million Miles to Earth
by Nathan Juran, Richard Schickel
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Actor: Frank Puglia, Joan Taylor, John Zaremba, Thomas Browne Henry, William HopperDirector: Nathan Juran, Richard Schickel
Brand: HOPPER,WILLIAM
Writer: Richard Schickel
Producer: Anna Sofroniou
Producer: Charles H. Schneer
Writer: Charlotte Knight
Writer: Christopher Knopf
Writer: Robert Creighton Williams
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 82 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-06-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of 20 Million Miles to Earth
DVD Review: "I've had nightmares in my time, but I've never dreamed of anything like this."
Summary: 4 Stars
From Columbia Pictures and the Ray Harryhausen Signature Collection comes the science fiction thriller 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) aka The Beast from Space aka The Giant Ymir, which would be special effects pioneer Harryhausen's last black an white feature. Directed by Nathan Juran (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad), the film stars William Hopper (The Bad Seed, The Deadly Mantis), son of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and Joan Taylor (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers). Also appearing is Frank Puglia (The Black Orchid), John Zaremba (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers), Tito Vuolo (Dragstrip Girl), and Thomas Browne Henry (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers).
As the film begins we're off the coast of a dinky, little fishing village in Italy, one that's startled by the arrival of a strange ship from the sky. The rather large and odd craft crashes into the Mediterranean (there's a ginormous hole in the side of the ship), and eventually two men are rescued from its interior by some plucky, stereotypical Italian characters before sinking into the ocean. Turns out one of the men is Colonel Robert `Bob' Calder (Hopper), a United States air force pilot, and he's just returned from a trip to...Venus! Anyway, after the crash, a young boy finds a cylinder from the ship on the beach, and he proceeds to sell its contents to a traveling zoologist named Dr. Leonardo (Puglia), whose granddaughter, named Marisa (Taylor), just happens to be a medical student and is called upon to aid the two survivors (the one who isn't Calder soon passes away from a severe case of space acne). Anyway, turns out the cylinder contained an alien life form, one that soon grows into a miniature Kraken, the kind similar to the one from the film Clash of the Titans (1981). Dr. Leonardo is amazed at `his' discovery, but guess what? The creature grows at an extraordinary rate, and soon escapes, terrorizing livestock across the Italian countryside. Calder and some military types give chase, but the alien beast, who is now the size of a man, is quite wily and manages to elude capture. The beast is eventually caught and taken to the zoo in Rome for study, that is until a mishap allows it to escape and go on an insane rampage through the streets of Rome (but not before fighting an elephant...woo hoo!), it's size now approximately about 50 feet tall (seems exposure to our atmosphere has some to do with the creature's rapid growth). Calder calls in for firepower, and the Italian army makes the scene, all leading up to a final confrontation at Rome's famous Coliseum, which seems somewhat appropriate...
I'll tell you straight up the story here isn't all that hot, and the writing, in terms of the dialogue, is generally pretty ridiculous, but the special effects are top notch, and features some of Harryhausen's best work, in my opinion. The great thing is the creature appears quite early in the film, and then continues to be present throughout, all the way up until the end, in varying sizes. As far as the actual characters go, they're all fairly standard, including Hopper's manly, sometimes misogynistic hero type and Taylor's comely female who eventually catches the eye of the hero. The latter was somewhat interesting at first as she seemed to buck the trend in sci-fi films of the time in that she seemed a strong willed, opinionated, female character, one who was studying to be a doctor (not a nurse), but soon enough she gets all chummy with the hero, as it seems few could resist his sheer, unadulterated manliness. I suppose it matters little as her character really had no real purpose in the film other than to provide for a female presence. There are some really, unintentionally funny bits throughout, probably the best occurring when Calder and some locals chase the creature down early on into a barn. Calder, who apparently had some experience with the creature back on its home planet, tells the others it won't attack unless provoked. After doing so Calder then proceeds to jab the man-sized beast with a pole, trying to force it into a wooden cart (I guess jabbing at it with a pointy, wooden stick isn't considered provoking). Now realize only a short time prior the creature had escaped from Dr. Leonardo, who had been keeping it in an iron-barred cage, which it tore apart easily, so trying to capture it in a wooden cage seemed pointless. Another really funny part comes after the capture of the creature and the military decides to hold a press conference and spills the beans to the world. During the conference, after being told of the semi-successful mission to Venus, one ace reporter comes forth idiotically with the following..."Venus? The planet Venus?" Another part that sticks out in my mind...near the end, as the creature, who's quite large now, is rampaging through Rome, Calder's following it in a car, apparently trying to keep tabs on it. For some reason, at one point, he rams it with his car...now I was unsure the purpose of this action, but it seemed to me not such a hot idea to angry up the rather large beast by plowing into it with an automobile (hey, let's see how ticked off we can get it). But seriously, the main reason to see this film is for the effects work, which mainly consists of stop motion animation. I did develop some sympathy for the beast, given the fact it was a hapless victim of circumstances beyond its control, but not so much that I minded the army trying to blast the hell of it. The special effects work is exquisite here, and while it may appear hokey by today's standards, know that at the time, this was state of the art stuff, and no one did it better than Harryhausen, who influenced so many of the effects artists working in the industry today (you ask any of them of their influences, and they invariably mention a Harryhausen film). It should also be known that the type of animation present here took months to achieve, requiring patience and eye towards detail few other than Harryhausen possessed.
The picture, available in both widescreen anamorphic (1.85:1) and fullscreen (1.33:1), looks decent for the most part, although there is some graininess present at times, and the Dolby Digital mono audio comes through well enough. As far as extras there's the usual featurettes `This is Dynamation' and The Harryhausen Chronicles, both of which appear on any number of other Harryhausen DVD releases. Also included are subtitles in English and French, and a trailer for this film along with in for The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960).
Cookieman108
By the way, if you're interested in picking up this feature, I might recommend looking into purchasing a DVD set entitled The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen - Legendary Science Fiction Series as it contains the following It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), Earth vs. the Flying Saucer (1956), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), Mysterious Island (1961), and H.G. Wells' First Men in the Moon (1964), all at a price considerable less than buying the features separately.
Description of 20 Million Miles to Earth
A spaceship returns to earth from Venus, bringing a sample of the local life form to study. The animal escapes, and is pursued by the locals and the military.Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: NR
Release Date: 27-MAY-2003
Media Type: DVD
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