Friday 22 April 2016

Classic Sci-Fi Film Ladies: Part 3 (1956 – 1957)


I thought it was about time to introduce you to some more of the wonderful female actors who we have had the pleasure to meet on screen between 1956 and 1957 in the following science fiction films that have been featured in this blog;

Forbidden Planet (1956)


Anne Francis



Anne Francis played Altaira, daughter of Dr Morbius both of whom are the sole survivors of an expedition to the distant planet Altair IV. She declares her love for Adams, the captain of the starship C-57D who has come to investigate what happened to the expedition.



It Conquered the World (1956)



Beverly Garland



Beverly Garland played the part of a scientist's wife who bravely battles an alien invader.



Sally Fraser




Sally Fraser played the wife of Peter Graves’ character and becomes possessed by the alien invader


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)


Dana Wynter




Dana Wynter played the part of Elizabeth Driscoll and Carolyn Jones played Theodora 'Teddy' Belicec in a film depicting an extra-terrestrial invasion that begins in the fictional California town of Santa Mira. Alien plant spores have fallen from space and grow into large seed pods, each one capable of reproducing a duplicate replacement copy of each human.







Carolyn Jones



Jean Willes played Nurse Sally Withers


Rodan (1956)


Giant prehistoric insects attack a village and soon after, something traveling faster than the speed of sound is seen flying in the sky. It is Rodan, a giant flying prehistoric creature that has come to life, spreading terror and destruction throughout Japan.






Yumi Shirakawa played Kiyo, Shigeru's lover in her first starring role, alongside Kenji Sahara



Satellite in the Sky (1956)




Lois Maxwell, the future "Miss Moneypenny" of James Bond films plays the character, Kim in a film about Great Britain’s launch of the world's first orbital vehicle which contains a super-bomb and a lot of complications for the crew and a certain stowaway.



The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956)





Patricia Medina as Sarita in the Weird West movie about an American cowboy living in Mexico who discovers his missing cattle are being preyed upon by an Allosaurus. Guy Madison as character, Jimmy Ryan develops an interest in fellow rancher Enrique Rios’ fiancee, Sarita.



The Gamma People (1956)


Eva Bartok




Two newsmen accidentally wind up in a fictitious Eastern bloc country whose dictator, Boronski is performing experiments using gamma rays with a view to creating geniuses but has succeeded in creating sub humans. Eva Bartok as Paula Wendt, works in the castle lab with Boronski and helps the American newsmen as she wants to rescue her brother, Hugo, from Boronski's power.



The Mole People (1956)


A group of archaeologists discovers the remnants of a mutant five-millennia-old Sumerian civilization living beneath a glacier atop a mountain in Mesopotamia.





Cynthia Patrick plays the role of the "marked one," Adad, a Sumerian woman who "was born with the mark of darkness."



World Without End (1956)


Astronauts attempting to return from a voyage to Mars are caught in a time warp only to find themselves caught in a post-Apocalyptic 26th-century Earth populated by mutants and a community of humans.





Nancy Gates plays the character, Garnet







Lisa Montell played the part of Deena


Warning from Space (1956)


Aliens take the form of human beings so that they can warn mankind that earth is on a collision course with another planet.




Toyomi Karita plays Hikari Aozora, lead singer at the Metropolitan Theatre dance hall & Ginko



X: The Unknown (1956)


During British Army radiation drills at a remote Scottish base, a subterranean, radioactive entity emerges, leaves two soldiers severely radiation-burned and then vanishes. A crack in the earth is also discovered. The entity re-emerges and seems to be able to absorb radiation, allowing it to grow in size.





Marianne Brauns played Zena, the Nurse



Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)



A team of scientists study the effects of radiation fallout on a tropical island. They are forced to fight for their lives when the island begins to break apart and fall off into the ocean and giant crabs begin to attack the humans.







Pamela Duncan plays the part of Martha Hunter


20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)


An American spaceship crash-lands off the coast of Sicily. Its crew has brought back a gelatinous mass that eventually hatches and evolves into a strange bi-pedal alien creature which rapidly increases in size.





Joan Taylor (who also co-starred in Earth vs the Flying Saucers) plays Marisa, the American granddaughter of a zoologist in Italy. She, together with returned astronaut Calder and the American and Italian military try to find a way to stop the creature before it continues on a path of destruction and grows too big to stop.



Beginning of the End (1957)


An experiment involving radioactivity has unintended consequences, resulting in the transformation of grasshoppers into gigantic ravenous monsters.





Peggie Castle (who appeared in Invasion USA) plays newspaper photojournalist, Audrey Aimes who with agricultural scientist played by Peter Graves try to find a way to halt the rampaging gigantic mutant locusts.



Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)


Teen lovers making plans to elope, find themselves in a situation in which they must save the earth from the invasion of diminutive aliens who land their spaceship in the local woods near Lover’s Point. In the process, they are not only not believed but find themselves implicated in another person’s murder.






Gloria Castillo as Joan Hayden, one of the teen lovers and whose father is the City Attorney.



Kronos (1957)


Scientists investigate what at first appears to be a meteorite that crashes into the ocean. A few days later, a giant machine emerges out of the ocean. It is an energy accumulator and is the creation of an alien race that is trying to drain off energy from earth.




Barbara Lawrence played photographer Vera Hunter and girlfriend of Dr Leslie Gaskell, played by Jeff Morrow



The Night the World Exploded (1957)


Newly discovered Element 112, explodes with the force of an atom bomb when exposed to the air. As it makes up a sizeable percentage of the Earth's crust, it can threaten our planet’s existence especially since our mining and other activities is causing it to become active.





Kathryn Grant plays Laura Hutchinson who is Dr David Conway lab assistant and she assists him in his endeavours to avert global disaster. Conway has developed a device to predict earthquakes.


Revisit Classic Sci-Fi Film Ladies: Parts 1 & 2:


http://scififilmfiesta.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/classic-sci-fi-ladies.html

http://scififilmfiesta.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/classic-sci-fi-film-ladies-part-2-1954.html




Keep an eye out for Classic Sci-Fi Film Ladies: Part 4 at a later date! 






  ©Chris Christopoulos 2016

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