20 Million Miles To Earth

U.S.A. / 1957 Directed by Nathan Juran Starring William Hopper Joan Taylor Thomas B. Henry B&W / 83 Minutes / Not Rated Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC) Columbia-TriStar Home Video

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2007 50th Anniversary Edition

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6     7   10 = Highest Rating

Thrilling Man vs. Monster action in glorious black and white!     In between his groundbreaking work on Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956) and the classic 7th Voyage Of Sinbad (1958), Ray Harryhausen also provided the stop-motion effects for 20 Million Miles To Earth, a sci-fi spin on the old King Kong/"fish out of water" story. It's pure B-movie hokum but Harryhausen's wonderfully articulated creature steals the show — the "Ymir", as the effects wizard dubbed it (the monster's never given a name in the actual film), far outshines the human actors onscreen.     The sunny calm of a rural Sicilian coastal village is shattered when a giant rocket drops from the clouds, plunging into the sea. Local fishermen reach the craft before it sinks, removing two injured crewmen to safety. These "visitors from the sky" aren't alien beings but actually members of a secret U.S. space mission to the planet Venus, launched months earlier. Rocketship XY21 was in the final stage of its return voyage when struck by a meteor and knocked off course. Of an initial crew of 17 only the mission's commander, air force officer Col. Bob Calder (The Deadly Mantis' William Hopper), and chief scientist, Dr. Sharman (Arthur Space), have survived. Soon only Calder is left. Afflicted with some strange Venusian disease, Sharman dies in the village clinic not long afterwards.     Alerted by the XY21's re-entry, the Pentagon quickly dispatches General McIntosh (Beginning Of The End's Thomas B. Henry) to take charge at the scene. He arrives to find Calder recovering from the crash under the care of Marisa (Joan Taylor), American med student and granddaughter of Dr. Leonardo, a prominent Italian zoologist. The general's relief that there's at least one survivor of the ill-fated expedition quickly gives way to concern over a certain specimen brought back from Venus aboard the XY21. Did it go down with the ship? Could it have drifted ashore somehow? McIntosh and Calder begin urgent inquiries among the fisherman to determine its fate. The Italian authorities aren't told exactly what they're looking for. The specimen in question did survive the crash, of course. One of the local kids stumbles upon a cylinder washed up on the beach. Opening it, the boy discovers a weird gelatinous mass inside — the stuff looks like a giant booger with something dark and fetus-like within. Hoping to earn some cash for his find he takes the thing to Dr. Leonardo (Frank Puglia). The zoologist is fascinated; all his experience can't tell him what it is. Fascination becomes astonishment when a small Venusian creature emerges from the jello-like cocoon. A sort of human-dinosaur hybrid with the torso of a man, the legs of a bipedal lizard, and a forked tail, the "Ymir" is born on a strange world millions of miles from its home.     As it stands only 8 or so inches tall, the creature doesn't seem in any way threatening. The doc puts it in a cage for the night, planning to drive to Messina next day and take the ferry to the mainland; his incredible discovery must be presented to the university in Rome as soon as possible. In the morning he's stunned to see that, overnight, the Ymir has grown to a height of four feet. Accompanied by Marisa, Leonardo heads out with the creature in tow. Before they can be reached by Calder and McIntosh, the Ymir breaks out of its cage and disappears into the countryside...     20 Million Miles To Earth succeeds as exciting science fiction despite wooden acting, pedestrian direction and a contrived script. (You'll want to slap the irritating kid from the fishing village every time he mentions "Texas".) This is entirely due to Harryhausen's creature, which is one of the more memorable rampaging beasties of 1950s Atomic Age cinema. Like the best of the giant monsters — King Kong and Godzilla — the Venusian Ymir evokes sympathy from the audience. When born it rubs its eyes just like a child waking up from a long nap. Mixed in with its bellicose roars are almost plaintive-sounding wails of what could be confusion and fear. As Calder informs us, "It's only hostile when provoked." Man does his damnedest to do just that, as the bewildered beast never threatens or attacks anyone until poked with a pitchfork (by a very dumb Italian farmer) or shot at with rifles and flame-throwers. Once the Ymir breaks loose from the Rome Zoo and kills an elephant — plus a few people — you just know he's doomed to share Kong's fate. But it's not his fault. The poor fella didn't ask to be brought here.

The latest entry in Columbia-TriStar's Ray Harryhausen Signature Collection, the colorfully packaged 20 Million Miles To Earth DVD boasts a fine-looking transfer. It's by no means perfect but for a film almost 50 years old I'm not complaining. Visual elements are sharp, with the various shades of black, white and gray quite well defined. Some sequences featuring the creature look grainier than the non-effects portions of the film but this has always been the case with Harryhausen's stop-motion epics... the "nature of the beast", if you will. The opportunity to view the flick in either full-screen (1:33.1) or letterbox (1:85.1) formats is a nice touch. As for audio quality, the mono track is quite crisp, free of any noticeable distortion or hiss. Sound effects comes off particularly well. Those who've already purchased earlier Columbia-Harryhausen DVD releases will be disappointed with the extras provided. The same documentary featured on a number of them, The Harryhausen Chronicles, is offered here. Narrated by Leonard Nimoy, it's a worthwhile retrospective of the effects maestro's career, but I've already seen it before — a couple of times. Ditto for the This Is Dynamation featurette, a short promo reel for 7th Voyage Of Sinbad. Two theatrical trailers are also included, for the main feature and The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver. (EC's 7 rating for the disc is conditional on not owning any of the other Harryhausen DVDs from Columbia-TriStar. Otherwise, it's a "6".) 7/05/02

UPDATE On July 31, 2007 Columbia is releasing a 2-disc "50th Anniversary Edition", which features both B&W and colorized versions of the film plus new special features (including an audio commentary with Ray Harryhausen, featurettes, and more).

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