20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

Dir: NATHAN JURAN

Country: USA

20 Million Miles to Earth is an interesting if largely forgettable science-fiction film from the heyday of the genre in the 1950’s. However the film has one or two noteworthy aspects to it that separates it from other examples of the time. The first of these is an Italian setting. The film opens in a fishing village off the coast of Sicily. The calm heat of a Mediterranean afternoon is shattered when a rocket suddenly appears in the sky and crashes into the sea. The bewildered fisherman scatter like a shoal of fish, but fortunately a couple of brave fellows are on hand to investigate the possibility of survivors. We later discover that the rocket was returning from an expedition to Venus and the only survivor Colonel Robert Calder (William Hopper) is keen to get his hands on a cylinder brought back from the mysterious planet. Pretty soon the might of the US military led by Major General McIntosh (Thomas Browne Henry) has descended on the sleepy village. Urgency is the order of the day as the cylinder which contains the egg of a weird lizard like creature from Venus has found its way into the hands of the zoologist Dr. Leonardo (Frank Puglia) and his daughter Marisa (Joan Taylor). The creatures adaptation to the atmosphere is terrifying and unique as it starts to grow to massive proportions. Eventually the creature is caught and chained up in a zoo in Rome, but he soon escapes to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting Italian populace.

Like most science-fiction narratives of the 1950’s 20 Million Miles to Earth is concerned with consensus and cooperation. In these films an expert (normally of military or scientific background) must convince both the authorities and the wider community of (a) the existence of an invading force and (b) whether to use peaceful or aggressive means to handle the potential threat. In this particular film the existence of the Venusian monster is never in doubt, but the means to deal with it is. The local Sicilian authorities are the aggressors here as they can only see the harm such a creature can do. By contrast the other invading force (the American military) are in favour of a pacifist approach in order to study the creature. It is fairly clear that the screenplay by Robert Creighton Williams and Christopher Knopf is emphasising both the technological advancement of the US (the image of a space rocket contrasted with a peasant village) and the moral and philosophical superiority of the US (the search for a peaceful means to subjugate the beast). This is a hard proposition for an audience to stomach just twelve years after the US dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Furthermore only the American’s can understand both the technology and the creature. The Italian authorities in general are meekly acceptant of the US military and take on an increasingly subservient guise as the US takes over Rome zoo.

Although its refreshing to see the military and the scientists working in harmony (apart from the usual gender struggle that ends in predictable romance) they only do so because they have a common opponent in Italian aggression. What we have here is an example of trans-national consensus (one of the scientific specialists brought in to study the creature is Japanese) and the general message is that if trouble is in our midst we can rely on America to sort it out. The fact that the US is the cause of this bizarre series of events is soon forgotten as the creature starts to rampage around Rome landmarks. The creature itself is confused and bewildered by suddenly finding itself shot at, chained up and the size of an elephant. But by this point the US military’s pacifism has slipped quietly away in favour of gunfire and bombs. There is no question of them attempting to capture the creature a second time. It is ultimately harmless unless provoked and its treatment during the film (after all I’m sure it didn’t want to be stolen from its home planet) is unjust and harsh. It ultimately becomes a figure of sympathy as it climbs atop the coliseum and its death throes echo that other great sympathetic movie monster King Kong.



This is a film though in which visual effects are the most important thing. From the crash landed rocket which opens the film to the Venusian creature, this is a showcase for the stop motion animation work of Ray Harryhausen. A particular highlight being a fight between the creature and an elephant in the streets of Rome. When Harryhausen’s visual stamp is vacant from the screen action the film drags along and is quite simply boring. The characters never rise above stereotypes and the acting rarely rises above the level of catatonia. But the monochrome palette gives the film a certain grittiness and covers up any of the cracks in Harryhausen’s visual wizardry. By and large this is a bland science-fiction film with a confused and mixed message that is saved by the visual brilliance of Ray Harryhausen.

© Shaun Anderson 2010