It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958)

It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) is notable for its similarities to the later Alien (1979).  It also bore a significant resemblance to an AE Van Vogt short story, first published in Astounding Science Fiction, to the extent that Van Vogt successfully took legal action against the producers  for payment for the uncredited use of his material.  He reportedly got a second payment, twenty years later, from the producers of Alien because of their film's resemblance to It! and, by extension, his story.  Both films concern a spaceship crew menaced by an predatory alien interloper which kill them, one by one.  In both films the creature hides the bodies in the ventilation system.  Moreover, both movies feature a multi-gender crew.  Obviously, It! is far less gory with far less sophisticated effects work, reflecting its era and budget.  The interior design of the ship, however, is surprisingly good and far more convincing than those seen in most contemporary low budget science fiction films.

The monster itself, while in common with other such films of the time, is a man in a suit, it is again, surprisingly well designed and menacingly portrayed.  Sensibly, it isn't seen in full until the latter stages of the film, previously being seen in glimpses and shadow.  Veteran B-movie director Edward L Chan makes the most of the claustrophobic and shadowed sets to build up a decent head of suspense and tension, resulting in what is easily one the best of his many, many films.  The film's main plot twist is that the ship is returning to earth the only survivor of the previous Mars mission, who is accused of killing his colleagues (who were, of course, killed by the monster, but nobody believes him), which gives the conflict between him and the creature a personal edge.  Heading up a cast of B-movie faces is the ever dependable Marshall Thompson, (who, for people of my age will forever be synonymous with the sixties TV series Daktari!), who, in the late fifties headed up a number of low budget science fiction movies, battling everything from blood sucking aliens to murderous disembodied brains.  He was still appearing in low budget monster movies in the late seventies.  Running less than seventy minutes, It! The Terror From Beyond Space is a briskly paced, very focused piece of low budget action hold the attention throughout its running time.