Directed by Joseph Newman and Jack Arnold / Screenplay by Franklin Coen and Edward G. O’Callaghan

A superior entry in the fifties cycle of ‘flying saucer’ features, This Island Earth is based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Raymond F. Jones, a regular contributor to the popular science fiction magazines like Galaxy and Astounding Stories that proliferated in postwar America, launching the careers of writers like Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. In some respects anticipating subsequent films as diverse as The Last Starfighter (1984) and Galaxy Quest (1999), the story involves undercover alien visitors from the planet Metaluna clandestinely recruiting the human race’s top atomic scientists, who they hope will be able to help them in creating the supplies of uranium they need to protect their own planet from the Zagons, with whom they are at war. Midway through the film, the action switches from Earth to outer space, as our human heroes are beamed aboard a flying saucer and whisked away to Metaluna, where the attack by Zagon spaceships is entering its final phase. Universal Pictures allocated a substantial budget to This Island Earth, which has the distinction of being one of the first science fiction features to be made in colour, and the special effects are among the most impressive of their day: the arrival on the planetary surface of Metaluna was shot on a gigantic model set 200 feet across, strafed by pyrotechnic Zagon bombardments as the flying saucer comes in to land. Most memorably of all, the final reel climaxes with the arrival of the bug-eyed, brain-headed Metaluna Mutant, one of the most instantly recognisable of all movie monsters. This Island Earth left its mark on a later generation of filmmakers: clips from the picture appear in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. (1982) and Joe Dante’s Explorers (1985).

Framed Dimensions: 330mm x 410mm

Acrylic on 300gsm Arches oil paper
Glazed, mounted and framed

Supplied with signed letter of authenticity from Barnaby.