Universal Studios had achieved great success in the 1930s and 1940s with a string of hits featuring their characters Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman and The Invisible Man. The last of the stable of classic characters they would create was the Creature From The Black Lagoon. The Gill-Man (as he was also known) was a prehistoric throwback living in a remote part of the Amazon. When a scientific expedition invades his territory, the creature goes on the attack. He falls for the groups female member and attempts to keep her for himself. The audiences sympathies lie with the monster at times and make this a cut above the average monster movie. It would lead to 2 sequels; Revenge Of The Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).

My Personal Views - "Of all of Universal's monsters, the Creature has always been my favorite. And The Creature From The Black Lagoon has been a favorite movie of mine since I saw it as a kid. Dracula and the Wolfman scared me but the Creature was the coolest monster of them all. I wasn't scared by him. I was awed by him."

Godzilla, King Of The Monsters was Japan's answer to The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms as well as an indirect look at the devastation of the atomic bomb. Godzilla, a mysterious creature, rises from the depths of the ocean to wreak havoc on Tokyo. Like the A bombs that created him (he was a dinosaur mutated and awakened by nuclear radiation) he swept across the city completely unstoppable. As all military options fail, it falls to a lone scientist to stop the monster. Creating a weapon called an "oxygen destroyer" the scientist gives his life in order to deliver the weapon to the monster. But not before hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or wounded. This film takes a serious tone and delivers solidly. Later sequels would become progressively more childish until Godzilla 1985, which attempted to take the monster back to his roots as a force of nature that wrecks everything in its path.

My Personal Views - "I am a Godzilla nut through and through. I have seen every Godzilla film made except the last 2 (only available in Japan as I write this). While the movies did get goofier throughout the late sixties and seventies, I remained a fan. Guys in rubber suits knocking down model cities. What kid wouldn't love to do that? Hell, what adult wouldn't?"

Them! was the first and best of the "big bug" movies of the fifties. It holds up extremely well today. A lone girl wandering in the desert is found by two policemen. She is in a state of shock and is unable to tell them what happened. But as more attacks occur, it becomes evident that something monstrous exists out in the New Mexico desert that could soon overrun the world. As the characters discover that ants have been mutated by radiation from atomic testing (a common theme in monster movies) into giants that threaten to breed vast numbers if the colony queens can't be found. James Arness as an FBI agent teams up with policeman James Whitmore, scientist Edmund Gwenn and his daughter Joan Weldon to combat the insects.

My Personal Views - "A superior film in many ways. This is my favorite "big bug" movie. It's the first classic sci-fi film from the fifties I ever owned and I have seen it at least 2 dozen times."

This was the second filmed version of Verne's novel but by far the best. James Mason plays Captain Nemo, builder of the submarine Nautilus. Kirk Douglas, Paul Lukas and Peter Lorre round out the cast as survivors of a ship Nemo sinks. He takes them on board and proceeds with his plan to destroy all of mankind's warships. As Douglas and the others make their escape plans, they are taken on a long journey under the sea. After one of cinema's most spectacular achievements, a battle between the crew of the Nautilus and a giant squid the authorities catchup to Nemo and he is wounded. Choosing to go down with his ship, He destroys the Nautilus as the others escape. This is not only a classic sci-fi adventure, it's one of Disney's best live action movies.

My Personal Views - "The first time I saw this movie was on a double bill with In Search Of The Castaways. I can't remember much of that film but 20,000 Leagues became another favorite film. While I liked Herbert Lom in Mysterious Island and Michael Caine in the TV remake, nobody comes close to James Mason as Nemo."

More of a children's film, Tobor The Great tells the story of a robot built by an inventor. The robot can respond to telepathic impulses and he befriends the inventor's grandson, Gadge. The inventor is captured by Communist spies and Tobor must come to his rescue. In the end, Tobor is sent off to space.

My Personal Views - "Another movie I've never seen but would like to. I have looked for it for years but it seems to be out of bounds for video."

Target Earth takes place in a deserted city where the few people still around are menaced by not-very-menacing robots. Richard Denning, so much better in The Creature From The Black Lagoon, is the hero who rounds up the survivors as they try to find the robot's weakness.

My Personal Views - "I found this movie in a bargain bin at a video store in Florida a few years back. I had never seen it and was curious. While the cheese factor is high, it's not nearly as bad as it's been made out to be. I've seen worse. Much worse. I'm glad I got it."