THIS ISLAND EARTH (1955)

THIS ISLAND EARTH is a 1955 American science fiction film produced by William Alland, directed by Joseph M. Newman and Jack Arnold, and starring Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue and Rex Reason. It is based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Raymond F. Jones. The film, distributed by Universal-International, was released in 1955 on a double feature with Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.

Upon initial release, the film was praised by critics, who cited the special effects, well-written script, and the eye-popping Technicolor as being its major assets. In 1996, it was edited down and lampooned in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, a film adaption of the popular film-riffing television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The 1952 novel by Jones was originally serialized in the science fiction magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories as three related novelettes: "The Alien Machine" (June 1949), "The Shroud of Secrecy" (December 1949), and "The Greater Conflict" (February 1950). Jones had taken the novel title from a line in Robert Graves' poem "Darien" ("It is a poet’s privilege and fate/To fall enamoured of the one Muse/Who variously haunts this island earth").

Plot
Physicist and leading atomic scientist Dr. Cal Meacham is flying to his laboratory in a loaned Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star. Just before landing, the jet's engine fails, but he is saved from crashing by a mysterious green glow that surrounds his aircraft.

Back at his laboratory, Meacham discovers that an unusual substitute for the electronic condensers that he had ordered has been delivered from a mysterious source. Intrigued that the condensers appear to be made from an unknown and almost indestructible material, he later orders instructions and parts to build a complex device called an "interocitor". Neither Meacham nor his assistant, Joe Wilson, have heard of such a device, but they immediately begin its construction. When they finish, a mysterious man named Exeter appears on the interocitor's screen and informs Meacham that he has passed a test. His ability to build the interocitor demonstrates that he is gifted enough to be part of Exeter's special research project. Exeter triggers a beam which causes the interocitor to self-destruct.

Despite his reservations, Meacham remains intrigued and is picked up at the fog-shrouded airport by an unmanned, computer-controlled Douglas DC-3 aircraft with no windows. Landing in a remote area of Georgia, he finds an international group of top atomic scientists already present, including an old flame, Dr. Ruth Adams. Cal is confused by Ruth's failure to recognize him and becomes suspicious of Exeter and his assistant Brack. Believing that they are not being monitored, Adams and a third scientist, Steve Carlson, share their suspicions with Meacham.

Meacham and Adams flee with Carlson, but their car is attacked and Carlson is killed. When they take off in a Stinson 108 single engine aircraft, Meacham and Adams watch as the research facility and all its inhabitants are incinerated. Their aircraft is then drawn up by a bright green beam into a flying saucer. Exeter explains that he and his men are from the planet Metaluna and are locked in a war with the Zagons. They defend against Zagon attacks with a planetary energy field, but are running out of uranium to keep it operational. They have enlisted humans in an effort to transmute lead into uranium, but time has now run out. Exeter takes both Earthers back to his world, sealing them in conditioning tubes to normalize the pressure differences between the planets.

They land safely on Metaluna, but the planet is under bombardment by Zagon spaceships guiding flaming meteors as weapons against them. The defensive "ionization layer" is failing, and the battle is entering its final stage. Metaluna's leader, the Monitor, reveals that the Metalunans intend to flee to Earth. He insists that Meacham and Adams be subjected to a Thought Transference Chamber to subjugate their free will. He further indicates this will be the fate of the rest of humanity after Metalunan relocation. Exeter believes that this is immoral and misguided.

Before the couple can be sent into the device, Exeter helps them escape. Exeter is badly injured by a mutant guard while he, Cal, and Ruth flee from Metaluna in the saucer. The planet's ionization layer becomes totally ineffective as they leave. Under the constant Zagon bombardment, Metaluna begins heating up and turns into a lifeless "radioactive sun". The mutant guard has also boarded the saucer and attacks Ruth, but dies as a result of the pressure barrier differences on the way back to Earth.

As they enter the Earth's atmosphere, Exeter sends Cal and Ruth away in their Stinson aircraft, declining to join them. Exeter is dying and the ship's energy is nearly depleted. The saucer flies out over the ocean, rapidly accelerates until it is enclosed in a fireball, and crashes into the water where it explodes.

Cast
Jeff Morrow as Exeter
Faith Domergue as Dr. Ruth Adams
Rex Reason as Dr. Cal Meacham
Lance Fuller as Brack
Russell Johnson as Dr. Steve Carlson
Douglas Spencer as The Monitor
Robert Nichols as Joe Wilson
Karl L. Lindt as Dr. Adolph Engelborg
Orangey as Neutron the cat (uncredited)
Production

Theatre advertisement from 1955
Principal photography for This Island Earth took place from January 30 to March 22, 1954. Location work took place at Mt. Wilson, California. Most of the Metaluna sequence was directed by Jack Arnold; the front office was apparently dissatisfied with the footage Newman shot and had it redone by Arnold, who unlike Newman had several sci-fiction films to his credit.

Most of the sound effects, the ship, the interocitor, etc. are simply recordings of radio teletype transmissions picked up on a short-wave radio played at various speeds. In a magazine article, the special effects department admitted that the "mutant" costume originally had legs that matched the upper body, but they had so much trouble making the legs look and work properly that they were forced by studio deadline to simply have the mutant wear a pair of trousers. Universal-International's film posters show the mutant as it was supposed to appear.

This title was one of the very few "flat widescreen" titles to be printed direct-to-matrix by Technicolor. This specially ordered 35-millimeter printing process was intended to maintain the highest possible print quality, as well as to protect the film negative. Another Universal film that was also given the direct-to-matrix treatment was Written on the Wind.