20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957)
Article #296 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 1-5-2002
Posting date: 5-22-2002

A boy sells the ingredients of a cannister that was among the wreckage of a space expedition to Venus. This turns out to be a rapidly-growing Venusian that was brought back for scientific testing.

Though it isn’t a perfect movie by any means, I think this is Harryhausen’s best black-and-white SF effort; Nathan Juran keeps the story moving as usual, so the plot has fewer dead spots than other Harryhausen movies, and the monster is one of his most well-developed in terms of character. In fact, he’s the most sympathetic character in the whole story, as even the heros take too much part in tormenting the creature. I also love the work Harryhausen did on the elephant; so much so that it seems as real and life-like as the scenes where a real elephant is used in place of the animation; being able to pull off this trick is a real accomplishment.