Cardboard Science: When man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world

THEM!

1954

Directed by Gordon Douglas

Written by George Worthing Yates, Ted Sherdeman, and Russell Hughes

Spoilers: moderate

Cardboard Science: You're a lovely girl, but lovely girls just don't run around worrying about non-existent sea monsters

MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR

1954

Directed by Wyott Ordung

Written by Roger Corman and Bill Danch

Spoilers: moderate

Until I find who did this, my heart will have no feelings and no mercy

THE BLAZING SUN

aka Sira Fi al-Wadi (Struggle In the Valley); aka The Blazing Sky

1954

Directed by Youssef Chahine

Written by Ali El Zorkani and Helmy Halim

Spoilers: moderate

I love you, let us be friends

ATHENA

1954

Directed by Richard Thorpe

Written by Leo Pogostin, Charles Walters, Esther Williams, William Ludwig, and Leonard Spigelgass

Spoiler alert: moderate

G-d Week: For he who was a slave when he was called is the Lord's freedman, while he who was free when he was called is Christ's slave.

DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS

1954

Directed by Delmer Daves

Written by Philip Dunne

Spoiler alert: moderate

I dinna like it

BRIGADOON

1954

Directed by Vincente Minnelli

Written by Alan Jay Lerner (based on the play by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe)

Spoiler alert: moderate verging on high, I guess

Walt Disney, part XVIII: That's right! It's a measure of length!

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA

So let's see what happens when you take the travelogue, the anti-imperial themes, and the breathless enthusiasm for made-up science out of Jules Verne's anti-imperialist science-fiction travelogue.  Is it still good?  Surprisingly, very slightly yes, but not much.

1954

Directed by Richard Fleischer

Written by Earl Felton (based on the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Cardboard Science: I married Colonel Kurtz!

THE NAKED JUNGLE

A throwback even for 1954, this romantic creature-feature does the romance better than just about any "proper" sci-fi film, and does its creatures fair justice, too.

1954

Directed by Byron Haskin

Written by Philip Yordan, Ranald MacDougall, and Ben Maddow (based on the story "Leiningen Versus the Ants" by Carl Stephenson)

With Charlton Heston (Christopher Leiningen), Eleanor Parker (Joanna Leiningen), Abraham Sofaer (Incacha), William Conrad (The Commissioner), and John Dierkes (Gruber)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Cardboard Science: The horror... the Universal Horror...

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Errand boys for museum directors sent to collect a fossil go upriver in search of the discovery of the century, and they find it.  Then it tries to molest the errand girl that's also come along, because—well, because it is, after all, Universal Horror, so he's got to, whether this makes sense or not.  But you don't need me to tell you that everything else Creature offers ranges from the good to the legitimately great.

1954
Directed by Jack Arnold
Written by Arthur Ross, Harry Essex, Maurice Zimm, and William Alland
Black Lagoon West: Richard Carlson (Dr. David Reed), Julie Adams (Kay Lawrence), Richard Denning (Mark Williams), Nestor Paiva (Capt. Lucas), Whit Bissell (Dr. Edwin Thompson), and Ben Chapman (The Gill-Man)
Black Lagoon East: Stanley Crew (Dr. David Reed), Ginger Stanley (Kay Lawrence), Jack Bentz (Mark Williams), and Ricou Browning (The Gill-Man)

Spoiler alert: severe

(Both this review and the previous in this series are indebted to historian Tom Weaver, whose film commentaries are a treasure trove of meticulous and firsthand research.)

Carboard Science: Not what you'd describe as "a righteous hack"

The Cardboard Science series intends to be a catalog of the science fiction of the past, today.  Science errors will be mocked.  20th century mores will be challenged.  Glories will be recorded.  Films will be, as usual, reviewed.

GOG

A bone-dry parade of fake-ass science with neither interest nor a terrible amount of incident—let alone what the marketing fraudulently claimed—but at least it hates foreigners.

1954
Directed by Herbert L. Strock
Written by Tom Taggart, Ivan Tors, and Richard G. Taylor
With Richard Egan (Dr. David Sheppard), Constance Dowling (Ms. Joanna Merritt), and Hebert Marshall, John Wengraf, Phillip van Zandt, and Valerie Vernon as a largely undifferentiated scientific mass

Spoiler alert: severe