1950s
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The Gamma People (1956) WikiData IMDb TMDB
The Gamma People
director: John Gilling actor: Paul Douglas / Eva Bartok …
other title: Les Secrets du Docteur Boronski / Les Secrets du Dr Boronski …
An American reporter smells a story when he is stranded in an Iron Curtain country where the local dictator is using gamma rays to transform children into mutated henchmen.
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Fiend Without a Face (1958) WikiData IMDb TMDB Skybridge
Fiend Without a Face
director: Arthur Crabtree actor: Marshall Thompson / Kynaston Reeves …
other title: Ungeheuer ohne Gesicht / Monstres invisibles …
An American airbase in Canada provokes resentment from the nearby residents after fallout from nuclear experiments at the base are blamed for a recent spate of disappearances. A captain from the airbase is assigned to investigate, and begins to suspect that an elderly British scientist who lives near the base and conducts research in the field of mind over matter knows more than he is letting on..
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The Giant Behemoth (1959) WikiData IMDb TMDB
Behemoth, the Sea Monster
director: Eugène Lourié / Douglas Hickox actor: Gene Evans / André Morell …
other title: Il drago degli abissi / Das Ungeheuer von Loch Ness …
Marine atomic tests cause changes in the ocean's ecosystem resulting in dangerous blobs of radiation and the resurrection of a dormant dinosaur which threatens London.
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Seven Days to Noon (1950) WikiData IMDb TMDB
Seven Days to Noon
director: John Boulting / Roy Boulting actor: Barry Jones / André Morell …
other title: Minaccia atomica / Ultimatum …
When Professor Willingdon becomes wary of the nuclear weapons he is helping build, he steals a warhead and threatens to detonate it in London in seven days unless the government begins nuclear disarmament. As Willingdon goes into hiding, Detective Folland of Scotland Yard sets out to find him. Willingdon's daughter Ann also joins the cause, hoping she can talk sense into her father before he causes a catastrophe.
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Lost Continent (1951) WikiData IMDb TMDB
Lost Continent
director: Sam Newfield actor: Cesar Romero / John Hoyt …
other title: Il continente scomparso / Jules Verne - Die Reise zur geheimnisvollen Insel …
When an experimental atomic rocket crashes somewhere off-radar, its three developing scientists are joined by three Air Force men in tracking it down to a small Pacific island, where it apparently has landed on the plateau of the island's steep-walled, taboo mountain...
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Quatermass 2 (1957) WikiData IMDb TMDB Skybridge
Quatermass 2
director: Val Guest actor: Brian Donlevy / John Longden …
other title: I vampiri dello spazio / Usina de Monstros …
In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
7.6 (12 ratings) director: Don Siegel actor: Kevin McCarthy / Dana Wynter …
other title: L'invasione degli ultracorpi / De stjålne kroppe …
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
Aug. 31, 2026 watched
I much prefer the 1978 version but this still had its moments of tension.

Watched in the #ReMonsterdon watch party on Mastodon.
SciFi Horror HorrorSciFi WatchParty 1950s
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The Great War (1959) WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
La grande guerra
director: Mario Monicelli actor: Vittorio Gassman / Alberto Sordi …
other title: La grande guerra / Man nannte es den großen Krieg …
Italy, 1916. Oreste Jacovacci and Giovanni Busacca are called, as all the Italian youths, to serve the army in the WWI. They both try in every way to avoid serving the army.
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Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
ゴジラの逆襲
director: Motoyoshi Oda actor: Hiroshi Koizumi / Setsuko Wakayama …
other title: Godzilla - Il Re Dei Mostri / Godzilla kehrt zurück …
Two fishing scout pilots make a horrifying discovery when they encounter a second Godzilla alongside a new monster named Anguirus. Without the weapon that killed the original, authorities attempt to lure Godzilla away from the mainland. But Anguirus soon arrives and the two monsters make their way towards Osaka as Japan braces for tragedy.
Aug. 3, 2026 watched
Lacked a lot of the emotional power of the 1st film, and sagged in the middle. Also had some kaiju fight scenes *sped up* (instead of slowed down). But nice to see somewhere other than Tokyo get smashed! Hopefully the franchise picks up again when Honda Ishirō resumes directing.

Watched in the #ReMonsterdon watch party on Mastodon.
Monster ReMonsterdon Japan Godzilla WatchParty
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Shadows (1960)
Shadows
director: John Cassavetes actor: Ben Carruthers / Lelia Goldoni …
other title: Ombre / Sombras …
The relationship between Lelia, a light-skinned black woman, and Tony, a white man is put in jeopardy when Tony meets Lelia’s darker-skinned jazz singer brother, Hugh, and discovers that her racial heritage is not what he thought it was.
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The Mysterians (1957) WikiData IMDb TMDB
地球防衛軍
director: Ishirō Honda actor: Kenji Sahara / Yumi Shirakawa …
other title: I misteriani / Os Bárbaros Invadem a Terra …
In Japan, scientifically advanced invaders from the war-destroyed planet Mysteroid cause an entire village to vanish, then send a giant robot out to storm the city by night, after which they request a small patch of land on Earth and the right to marry earthling women, claiming to be pacifists. Mankind must decide whether to capitulate or to resist.
July 27, 2026 watched
Some impressive footage but long stretches of not much happening, and missed opportunities to explore some of the ideas: e.g. would we sacrifice others to save ourselves?

Watched in the #ReMonsterdon watch party on Mastodon
1950s ReMonsterdon Japan Alien HondaIshiro
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Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954) WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
宮本武蔵
director: Hiroshi Inagaki actor: Toshirō Mifune / Rentaro Mikuni …
other title: Miyamoto Musashi / Samurai I: The Legend of Musashi …
Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.
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Zero Hour! (1957) WikiData IMDb TMDB Skybridge
Zero Hour!
director: Hall Bartlett actor: Dana Andrews / Linda Darnell …
other title: Ora zero / 714 antwortet nicht …
In 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WW2 fighter pilot to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.
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Earth vs. the Spider (1958) WikiData IMDb TMDB
Earth vs. the Spider
director: Bert I. Gordon actor: Ed Kemmer / June Kenney …
other title: La vendetta del ragno nero / Die Rache der schwarzen Spinne …
Teenagers from a small town and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider, living in a cave nearby and getting hungry.
July 6, 2026 watched
For what it is, it wasn't too bad!

I watched it *before* the #Monsterdon watch party because of the World Cup match.
Kaiju BertIGordon 1950s USA Spider
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Aventurera (1950) WikiData IMDb TMDB
Aventurera
director: Alberto Gout actor: Ninón Sevilla / Tito Junco …
other title: Maison de rendez-vous / L'Aventurière …
Left alone after her mother runs off with another man and her father kills himself, Elena attempts to make a new life for herself in a new city. Believing he's a friend, Elena goes to dinner with "Pretty Boy" Lucio, but he drugs her champagne and sells her to Rosaura, who runs a brothel out of her nightclub. Elena becomes a sensation as a dancer, but all the while she nurtures plans of revenge against those who have conspired against her.
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Journey to Italy (1954)
Viaggio in Italia
director: Roberto Rossellini actor: Ingrid Bergman / George Sanders …
other title: Viaggio in Italia / Rejsen til Italien …
Married for eight years with no children, Brits Katherine and Alex Joyce are driving to Italy, their ultimate destination just outside of Naples to sell the villa they have just inherited from his uncle, the villa where they will be staying during their time there. On the drive, they come to the realization that this trip marks the first time that they have truly been alone together, and as such don't really know one another in the true sense.
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Illusion Travels by Streetcar (1954) WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
La ilusión viaja en tranvía
director: Luis Buñuel actor: Lilia Prado / Carlos Navarro …
other title: L'illusione viaggia in tranvai / Die Illusion fährt mit der Straßenbahn …
Confronted with the unfortunate news that their favorite Streetcar, no. 133, is going to be decommissioned, two Municipal Transit workers get drunk and decide to "take 'er for one last spin," as it were. Unfortunately, the "one last spin" ends up being an all-night and all-day scramble to stay out of trouble, as they are confronted with situation after sometimes bizarre situation that prevents them from returning the "borrowed" Streetcar!