The 1950s, as the webmaster of Filmbobbery can tell you, were the golden age of science fiction cinema.  This Island Earth is an interesting effort from Universal that mixes some real cinematic strengths with glaring weakness that keep it below the top tier of films from the era.  The plot centers on a nuclear scientist (Rex Reason) who is recruited to join a mysterious international effort to increase the commercial efficiency of nuclear power (or something like that).  It turns out that aliens from another galaxy are behind the effort because their planet is losing a war to rival, comet-wielding aliens and need more power.  The scientist and his lovely colleague (Faith Domergue) venture to the planet with the lead alien Exeter (Jeff Morrow), only to find that the war is ending and all is essentially lost.  They are menaced by a mutant insect a few times before improbably returning to Earth.

The film’s special effects and photography stand out as exceptional.  Even today, many of the scenes of the characters returning to Earth or moving into the space ship are exciting.  The film was shot in Technicolor and the colors do truly pop.  However, the plot fails to develop the interesting scientific ideas that it introduces in favor of a simple space travel tale.  The acting is generally awful and further undermines whatever efforts were made to turn this into a top-flight production.  Domergue’s luscious physical presence nearly overwhelms the rest of the scenery at times and she remains one of the primary reasons to recommend the film; it is easy to see why Howard Hughes took an interest in her.  I find it shocking that the Mystery Science Theater 3000 folks chose this to lampoon in their feature film debut as it really is much better than their usual fare.  I would recommend it to those who want to dig deeper into 1950s science fiction and Faith Domergue enthusiasts, who, but for her obscurity, would number in the thousands.  I fear that others will either ridicule the film or yawn with indifference, which is too bad because it is close to being worthwhile.  ✰ ✰ ½.

MJM  10-15-2011