I love old sci fi movies.

My favorities are from the 1950s and many of them border on camp (or sail right over the border), but a surprising number of them are really effective films.

The 1950s was the era of the Beat Generation, the Cold War, and lingering existential angst over WWII. Sartre was being read as a contemporary author. Black and white cinematography was the perfect medium for the twin themes of alienation and xenophobia that hovered over the American populace like an out of frame mushroom cloud.

The post-war American dream of perfect safety in the suburbs was never secure, even when it first took hold. From the start it had a sterile, hollow ring to it. A queasy, surreal quality always permeated that lifestyle and those aspirations, and nothing reflected those murky cultural undercurrents and diffuse anxieties like that decade's B-movies about alien invasions.

The original 1956 black and white version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is for my money still the best of the lot, CGI effects be damned; and as much as I loved Keanu Reeves in black leather pants (The Matrix--OMG) I can't honestly say he added anything to the remake of the original version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, first released in 1951.

Michael Rennie will always be Klaatu for me, even if he can't run up walls and fire a semi-automatic weapon with one hand while leaping through the air in a full-length trench.

For the sake of brevity (and so I can actually complete this Hub Challenge--maybe) I won't do a full "Top Ten" list here. I can't narrow it down to ten favorites anyway, and I sure don't want to have to rank them.

Let's just say, the following 1950s sci fi flicks are all ones I've personally seen more than once, and think you should see them too. How about right now?

I'll make the popcorn.

• The War of the Worlds [1953] This is the cinematic original starring Gene Barry and Les Tremayne, with special effects by pre-CGI genius George Pal. I still haven't seen a version that comes anywhere close to being as good as this one. Unlike many of the sci fi flicks of the 1950s, this one was made in Technicolor, and it's perfect.
  
• Them! [1954] You know what happens when you test them thar nuke-kew-lar weapons out in the desert? Ya gits yer giant ants, that's what! James Whitmore, James Arness, and Edmund Gwenn battle giant mutated ants that are on a formic acid killing spree. Great stuff.
• It Came From Outer Space [1953] Yeah, and it said it just needed an oil change and some new tires, wink, wink... but then the humans it recruited for the mechanical repairs come back, um... different. Originally released in 3-D this one has stars some of the first cinematic bug-eyed aliens, which begs the question, "Which came first, the bug-eyed movie aliens? Or the repressed memory alien abduction of Ray Bradbury?"
• When Worlds Collide [1951] Another amazing George Pal early special effects masterpiece, this disaster flick won an academy award the year it was released. When the rogue star Bellarus passes within miles of Earth causing widespread destruction, two scientists find themselves in a race against time to convince a small contingent of Earthlings to build a spaceship and travel to the planet Zyra. No, Zyra is not a gated community, but it is hard to get there.
• Earth vs. The Flying Saucers [1956] Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor battle more bug-eyed aliens that buzz Washington and want our wimmin. Great visual effects by monstermaker and animatronic genius Ray Harryhausen make this one a must see. Weirdly mirrors an actual mass sighting of UFOs over DC that occurred a decade earlier.
  
• This Island Earth [1955] The planet of Metaluna is beautiful this time of year...Doh! No it's not! More bug-eyed aliens who want out wimmin torment college sweethearts-turned-nuclear-physicists in this campy classic featuring Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason, and Faith Domergue. Check out how much the alien at the end resembles the Communion critters.
  
• The Blob [1958] Steve McQueen and Anita Corseaut battle a gelantinous creature that hitches a ride to Earth aboard a meteor and develops quite the attitude within minutes of arriving. Foreigners. Geesh. When they're not taking yer job, they're eating your face off.
  
• Invaders from Mars [1953] Made the year I was born (so it has to be good!) this Cameron Menzie film tells the story of a boy who sees a flying saucer crash and can't get anyone to believe him until townsfolk start acting weird...A 1986 remake of this movie starring Karen Black and Timothy Bottoms isn't half bad.

You know, this is such a pathetically partial list, it really is. But I do have a hundred hubs to finish in 30 days, so maybe it's for the best that I have so many more of these I need to include. I mean, I could pump out ten more hubs on these puppies easy, which tells you a little something about the quality of my intellect and the emotional maturity behind my obsessions.

Hey, I never said I was Gore Freakin' Vidal.

Anyway, I have to go now.

Popcorn's done.