50's B-Movies

B-movies were movies produced on low budgets to act as the lesser half of a double feature. These films often offered exploitative, recyclable material that could be copied time and again with only slight alterations. The science fiction B-movies carried with them certain themes such as fear of communism and cold war paranoia. In this essay these themes will be analysed to determine what they say about American society.

A great deal of science fiction films during the 50s could be said to be an allegory for fear and paranoia surrounding communism. During the 1950s many Americans believed that Soviets were infiltrating positions of government and other areas of society, Senator McCarthy started what is known as the McCarthy witch-hunts rounding up people suspected of communist activity for various (mainly stupid) reasons. 

I will start by discussing the ways films of the period react negatively to the communists. Through monsters, disease, mind control or doppelgängers these films found ways to focus on the threat of communism and how humanity responds to this threat either positively or negatively. Movies like Them! (Douglas, 1954) and Attack of the Crab Monsters (Corman, 1957) express fear of a nuclear war between the USA and the Soviet Union. In both films nuclear bomb tests result in the creation of giant mutated creatures (ants and crabs respectively) which a small group or community have to defeat. These mutant creatures are in many ways stand ins for the Soviet Union and the fear of invasion leading to destruction of American values. 

Movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel, 1956) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (Wood, 1959) discuss communists through the idea of invasion by cold calculating aliens. These films portray Americans as free to express their emotions and ideas whereas the pseudo-communists are incapable of individual thought or feelings. Booker (2006) points out how the replacements with their lack of emotion and individuality ‘directly echo the era’s most prevalent stereotypes about communists’. As argued by Hendershot (2003) ‘many Cold War horror/sf films used the metaphor of dehumanisation to convey evidence of the Soviet threat’. People believed that communists were infiltrating the country converting people to their beliefs in an attempt to invade the USA. In Invasion of the Body Snatchers people are replaced by emotionless beings with no individuality whereas in Plan 9 people are turned into zombies both as metaphors for communists taking away the freedom Americans possess. 

Red Planet Mars (Homer, 1952) is an interesting film to discuss in terms of communism in that unlike the previously mentioned films it directly portrays communists as the enemy. In the film American scientists discover a way to communicate to aliens on Mars who offer futuristic technology and state that they know God, which leads to a religious revival and world peace across the world. This is later revealed to be a hoax perpetrated by the Nazis and the Soviet Union in some attempt to take over the world. The Americans defeat their enemy when they discover the hoax but choose to continue to let the world believe in the Martians so that world peace would continue. Another film that directly references the Soviet Union is The 27th Day (Asher, 1957) in which 5 people from different countries including America and Russia are abducted by aliens looking for a new home world. The aliens claim to want to wipe out human life and take over but are unable to kill intelligence life; so they give the 5 abductees capsules which can destroy all life on the planet hoping they’ll destroy each other. When they’re returned to Earth the Soviets threaten to use the capsules to destroy the USA if they don’t become communists but American scientists find a way to reprogram their capsules to wipe out ‘every known enemy of human freedom’ destroying all the Soviets and protecting their own individuality. The aliens return and reveal the whole thing to be a test which they passed allowing the aliens to live in peace and harmony with their new alien friends. These two films directly state that communism is an affront to world peace and anti-religion making the Soviets seem like the enemy in all characteristics. The negative portrayal of communism focuses on stripping them of any humanity to make them seem like the absolute enemy to the American way of life. This allows society to be united in their hatred of the enemy and to come together to defeat them, suggesting solidarity in the face of a threat.

Some films during this period were more positive in their portrayal of communists either suggesting they weren’t cold, emotionless beings or containing metaphors for the absurdity of the McCarthy witch-hunts. These films expose divisions in American society and suggest different approaches people can take to intruders. Booker (2006) argues that Invasion of the Body Snatchers could be seen as a satire of the Red Scare:

‘By this reading, the film suggests that the notion of communists secretly taking over aspects of American life is about as likely as tiny pods blowing in from outer space, then growing into large pods that grow replicas of human beings, which they do away with and replace’

This suggests that the ridiculous plot is used to highlight the Red Scare’s ridiculousness. However, the films ending in which the title character frantically screams first at cars then at the audience that ‘they’re here already! You’re next!’ suggests that the film is representing the Red Scare as a real threat as opposed to Booker’s view that its a total satire.

Some films suggest society can’t be trusted and that you have to work alone to get results. In It Came from Outer Space (Arnold, 1955) no one believes the protagonist John when he claims to have seen aliens because one mans word isn’t enough. This mirrors parts of the Red Scare in that people who claimed to be in league with communists weren’t believed. When the aliens begin to land the authorities react with violence; choosing the shoot first and ask questions later approach but the aliens mean no harm they are simply attempting to repair their ship so they can leave. This suggests that society shouldn’t simply attack what it doesn’t understand as it intends to do with the Soviet Union. The ending of the film carries the message that one day men can co-exist with aliens if their ideological differences are put aside which can also be used in relation to all of Earth co-existing with one another.  Another film that argues for World peace over violence is The Day The Earth Stood Still (Wise, 1951) in which a messenger comes to Earth to warn people to ‘live in peace, or pursue your present cause and face obliteration’ and is shot as soon as he steps out of his ship, critiquing American’s violent stance. When compared with The Thing from Another World (Nyby, 1951) in which a scientist tries to be sympathetic to a violent creature that ends up killing many of his team while the army attempt to destroy it. In The Thing From Another World the army are right to attack the violent thing whereas they are wrong to feel threatened by the peaceful Klaatu in The Day The Earth Stood Still. The scientist in The Thing from Another World and Helen in The Day The Earth Stood Still are allegories for Americans sympathising with communists with their differing levels of success showing the differences between positive and negative portrayals of communism. 

Another important theme found in the 1950s B-movies is a fear of a nuclear war. With the invention of the atomic bomb during World World 2 and its use on Hiroshima, Americans feared a nuclear war that could wipe out the human race. The main film used in reference to this is generally The Day The Earth Stood Still due to the alien Klaatu’s message of doom which states that if Earth uses atomic weapons it will bring about our destruction. As argued by Errigo (2003):

‘although its basis comes from the imaginative story Farewell To The Master, by Harry Bates, published in Astounding Science-Fiction in 1940, The Day The Earth Stood Still is quite a differently developed, cautionary fable assuming the guise of pulp science-fiction’

suggesting that The Day The Earth Stood Still is more a warning about nuclear war than anything else. Another film warning of nuclear war is The Day The World Ended (Corman, 1955) in which a scientist who has prepared for nuclear war protects his daughter and best friend in a bomb shelter with enough provisions to last the three of them until the radiation levels go down. Things are complicated when two other survivors wish to enter their shelter threatening their food supply. The two other survivors want more food for themselves and the local community is represented by terrifying mutants out in the wasteland, making this film a bit of a subversion of the general science fiction B-movie concept of a community rising up against a common threat. Plan 9 From Outer Space’s fairly nonsensical plot appears to revolve around the idea of aliens coming to Earth to destroy it before we develop weaponry that could wipe out the universe, an extreme version of cold war paranoia. This is a theme still commonly used today with the apocalypse sub-genre containing many films where society is wiped out by nuclear war.

In conclusion, the main themes used in 1950’s science fiction B-movies revolve around the fears people had at the time, whether of communist revolution or nuclear annihilation. This trend can be seen to continue today with science fiction films revolving around fear of artificial intelligence overthrowing mankind and the now ever-present fear of nuclear war. Not all films produced during the period were so negative about the future, one such example would be Forbidden Planet (Wilcox, 1952) which presents a distant future where mankind has colonised the galaxy. As argued by Smith (2003):

‘while other science-fiction films of the era rode the Cold War paranoia prevelant at the time, Forbidden Planet established a future for America that many people at the time doubted it would have. A voice-over informs us that, “By 2200 AD, they had reached the other planets of our solar system. Almost at once followed the discovery of hyperdrive... And so, at last, mankind began the conquest and colonisation of deep space’

This is one of the very few exceptions that presents a positive future for humanity during this period as opposed to the dark, grim future often presented in other films of the period; the main theme of the era is that mankind doesn’t have long left and in one way or another the end will come soon.

Bibliography

• Booker (2006). Alternate Americas: Science Fiction and American Culture. Connecticut, United States: Praeger Publishers.
• Errigo (2003). Empire and the Independent present The Most Influential Sci-fi films of all time. (Empire and The Independent, May, 2003)
• Hendershot (2003). Anti-communism and popular culture in mid-century America. North Carolina, America: McFarland and Co Inc.
• Mitchell (2007). Science fiction films and American society in the fifties [online] http://bobmitchellinthe21stcentury.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/science-fiction-films-and-american-society-in-the-fifties-chapter-two-science-fiction-films-and-the-political-climate/ (Accessed on 17 April 2010)
• Smith (2003). Empire and the Independent present The Most Influential Sci-fi films of all time. (Empire and The Independent, May, 2003)

Filmography 

• The 27th Day (1957, William Asher, United States, 75 mins)
• Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957, Roger Corman, United States, 62 mins) 
• The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951, Robert Wise, United States, 89 mins)
• The Day The World Ended (1955, Roger Corman, United States, 79 mins)
• Forbidden Planet (1952, Fred Wilcox, United States, 94 mins)
• It Came from Outer Space (1953, Jack Arnold, United States, 81 mins)
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel, United States, 80 mins) 
• Them! (1954, Gordon Douglas, United States, 94 mins) 
• The Thing from Another World (1951, Christian Nyby, United States, 87 mins)
• Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959, Edward Wood, United States, 79 mins) 
• Red Planet Mars (1952, Harry Homer, United States, 87 mins)