Fifties: Alien Invasions and Creature Features

In chronological order

Wells, Paul. “The Invisible Man: Shrinking Masculinity in the 1950s Science Fcition B- Movie.” You Tarzan: Maculinity, Movies and Men. Ed. Pat Kirkham and Janet Thumim. NY: St. Martin’s 1993, pp. 181-99.

Roberts,Garyn G. “ Revelation, Humanity, and a Warning: Four Motifs of 1950s Science Fiction Invasion Films. 130-42 IN Loukide -Paul (ed.); Fuller Linda (ed.). Plot Conventions in American Popular Film. Bowling Green, OH : Popular, 1991.

Shapiro, Benjamin. “Universal Truths: Cultural Myths and Generic Adaptation in 1950s Science Fiction Films.” The Journal of Popular Film and Television 19. 3 (Fall 1990): 103+.

Lucanio, Patrick. Them or Us: Archetypal Interpretations of Fifties Alien Invasion Films. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987.

Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties. Vol 1, 1982; Vol. 2 1986; rpt. MacFarland & Co., 1997.

Biskind, Peter. Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Movies. NY: Pantheon, 1983.
Chapter 3, “Pods and Blobs” has sections on several classic fifties SF movies: Them!. The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and It Came from Outer Space

Saleh, Dennis. Science Fiction Gold: Film Classics of the ‘50's. New York: McGraw Hill, 1979.

Menville, Douglas. A Historical and Critical Survey of the Science-Fiction Film. NY: Arno Press, 1975.
Stops at 1958 as the last year when a significant SF film was made. (!!)

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Websites on Fifties Science Fiction Films

WWW SF FIlm Guide: Fifties List

The Astounding B Monster Site

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Articles on The Thing from Another Planet (1951)

Landon, Brooks. “The Thing in All Its Guises: Reconsidering a Science Fiction Classic” Chapter 2 of The Aesthetics of Ambivalence: Rethinking the Science Fiction Film in the Age of Electronic (Re)production. Westport , CT: Greenwood Press, 1993, pp. 27-44.

White,-Eric. “ The Erotics of Becoming: Xenogenesis and The Thing.” Science-Fiction-Studies, 20:3 (61)(1993 Nov), 394-408.

Turner, George. “The Thing: 19501's Prize Fight.” American Cinematorgrapher 72 (January 1991): 35-42.

Sloan,-De-Villo. “ The Self and Self-less in Campbell's Who Goes There? and Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Extrapolation 29:2 ( 1988 Summer), 179-188.

Biskin, Peter. “The Russians Are Coming, Aren’t They? Them!, The Thing, and the Extremists from Beyond the Center.” In Seeing is Believing: How Hollywood Taught US to Stop Worrying and Love the Movies. NY: Pantheon, 1983, pp. 123-36.

Saleh, Dennis. Entry on The Thing in Science Fiction Gold: Film Classics of the ‘50's. New York: McGraw Hill, 1979.

Tarratt, Margaret. “Monsters from the Id.” Films and Filmaking December 1970; January 1971. <38>

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Web Links on The Thing

Internet Data Base Links on The Thing

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Articles on Them!

Lucanio, Patrick. Them or Us: Archetypal Interpretations of Fifties Alien Invasion Films. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987. See especially, Chapter II: "Myths and Motifs of the Monster Movie," 21-53.

Biskin, Peter. “The Russians Are Coming, Aren’t They? Them!, The Thing, and the Extremists from Beyond the Center.” In Seeing is Believing: How Hollywood Taught US to Stop Worrying and Love the Movies. NY: Pantheon, 1983, pp. 123-36.

Warren, Bill. Entry on Them! in Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties. Vol 1, 1982; Vol. 2 1986; rpt. MacFarland & Co., 1997.

Saleh, Dennis. Entry on Them! in Science Fiction Gold: Film Classics of the ‘50's. New York: McGraw Hill, 1979.

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Web Links on Them!

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Articles on The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Hendershot,-Cyndy. "Vampire and Replicant: The One-Sex Body in a Two-Sex World." Science-Fiction-Studies, 1995 Nov, 22:3, 373-98.
About Dracula and Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Hoberman,-J. "Paranoia and the Pods."Sight and Sound, 1994 May, 4:5, 28-31.

Pederson,-Ellen-M.; Steffen-Fluhr,-Nancy (rejoinder. ) "Altering Invasion of the Body Snatchers" Science-Fiction-Studies, 1985 Mar., 12:1 (35), 105-110.

Lavrey, "Departure of the Body Snatchers, or, The Confessions of a Carbon Chauvanist."Hudson Review 39 (Summer 1986): 383-404.

Steffen-Fluhr,-Nancy . "Women and the Inner Game of Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Science-Fiction-Studies 11:2 (33) 1984 July, 139-153.

Biskin, Peter. "The Mind Managers: Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the Paranoid Style in American Movies." In Seeing is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the Movies. NY: Pantheon, 1983, pp. 137-44.

Johnson, Glen-M. "'We'd Fight~.~.~.~We Had To': The Body Snatchers as Novel and Film."Journal of Popular Culture, 1979, 13, 5-14.

LeGacy, Arthur. "Invasion of the Body Snatchers: A Metaphor for the Fifties." Literature/Film Quarterly 6.3 (1978): 285-91.

Baker, Rob. "Invasion of the Pinkos." Soho Weekly News Aug 18. 1977: 48.<

Kaminsky, Stuart.Don Siegel: Director. NY: Curtis, 1974

Gregory, Charles T. "The Pod Society Versus the Rugged Individualists." The Journal of Popular Film 1 (Winter 1972): 3-14.

Kaminsky, Stuart. "Don Siegel on Invasion of the Body Snatchers."Cinefantastique 2 (1972/73): <17>

Braucourt, Guy. Interview with Don Siegel." 1970; rpt. inFocus on the Science Fiction Film, ed. William Johnson. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1974.

Laura, Ernesto. "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." 1957; inFocus on the Science Fiction Film, ed. William Johnson. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1974.

Samuels, Stuart. "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." 1956; inAmerican History/ American Film, ed. John E. O'Connor and Martin A. Jackson. 1979: 204-17.

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Web Links on The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

A Case for Insomnia by George Turner from American Cinematographer

"Mapping Post-War Anxieties onto Space: Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Invaders from Mars by Michael Hardin

Internet Movie database on Invasion of the Body Snatchers

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