1950s Monsters and Cold War Anxieties

The running theme of 1950s B movies is an often clearer and more evocative reflection of the anxieties of the era than what one might glean from a study of the mainstream media produced at the same time. Fifty years after the fact, it is easy for a modern audience with even the vaguest of ideas about the zeitgeist of the Western world’s experiences in the 1950s to identify concerns about infiltration and the side effects of scientific progress—particularly in relation to the use of nuclear energy—in these otherwise simplistic films about monsters and aliens from other planets. It must be emphasized, too, that it is not only American films of the period that can be analyzed along this vein, though the US was surely the most prolific when it came to churning out B-grade movies: British television and cinema produced works of science-fiction and horror comparable to American efforts, The Cosmic Monsters / The Strange World of Planet X (1958) being one example.

Indeed, Britain went on to introduce the cult television program “Doctor Who,” about the adventures of a time-traveling alien and his human companions, in 1963; the benevolent alien character of Mr. Smith in The Strange World of Planet X almost seems like a prototype for the character of the Doctor, who would appear on British television just five years after The Strange World of Planet X was made (and whose popularity has been more or less continuous since his introduction; the original series was canceled in 1989, however a made-for-tv movie was made in 1996 and the program was revived in 2005, with a fourth season currently in production). What The Strange World of Planet X and “Doctor Who” have in common is that the threat of invasion by the main alien character is minimal; the alien is instead benevolent, possessing greater knowledge of the universe than the humans he comes into contact with and coming from a world far different from, and even superior to, the Earth. Still, though Mr. Smith and the Doctor may both be more powerful or intelligent than humans, they themselves are not representative of any particular cultural anxieties over the invasion of British land or culture by Cold War era spies and communists or Nazi holdovers. On the contrary, Mr. Smith aids in combating the havoc that has been wreaked by scientific experimentation on Earth, while the Doctor is constantly doing battle with the true alien invaders, the most iconic example being that of the mechanized, homogeneous Daleks.

The Strange World of Planet X exemplifies a kind of shift in the monster movie, where “creatures now [appear] as a consequence not of individual madness or wickedness [as in Frankenstein], but as a result of tampering with the laws of nature by ‘the system’ …. the powers held by these new creatures threatened the whole of mankind. The ‘machine’ had taken over from human agency, hence the need for assistance from superior beings from beyond our world” (Shaw 127-28). Both Mr. Smith and the Doctor are characters that fill the role of the “superior being” who arrives to save Earth from its own missteps. The Strange World of Planet X, along with Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959), explores the dangers and consequences of irresponsible and unchecked scientific experimentation. (It is interesting to note that the hero of Attack of the Giant Leeches, though not an alien, is nevertheless an outsider to the insular Florida town that is under attack.) Both films feature creatures that have become overgrown due to human interference in their habitats. The growth of normally small leeches and insects can be read as a manifestation of cultural fears concerning nature gone out of control due to human error or an excess of scientific curiosity, particularly as it related to new and potentially devastating technologies like atomic energy.

The fear of scientists run amok and/or losing control was a pervasive one, as evidenced by these two films as well as the countless others made in the 1950s and beyond that feature overgrown animals as a plot point. Yet when discussing the B movies of this era, it is the theme of infiltration that is seen as the more reflective of Cold War era anxieties over the spread of communism and fears about the takeover of Western capitalist society. However films such as The Strange World of Planet X and Attack of the Giant Leeches, which center on the destructive power of science and nuclear energy, are also closely connected to fears of infiltration; in these films the fear is focused upon the scientists working with the development of atomic power who had, by the 1950s, “shifted from being the revered masters of ineffable knowledge… to the individuals who would be most likely to endanger the nation (and world generally) …. [as] the result either of academic naivety or, as the [real world] sequence of espionage scandals seemed to suggest, more likely by treachery” (Shaw 119). The concerns over the effects of science on culture, therefore, are not restricted to a fear of the destructive power of nuclear energy. Anxiety over the role of the scientist is also manifested in these films, particularly concern over scientists being incompetent or even deceitful, perhaps acting as an agent of communism.

Thus films that focus on scientists out of control or creatures created through scientific irresponsibility possess a direct link to films that can be analyzed as representative of the conventional Cold War invasion paranoia, such as Man Beast (1956) and Phantom From Space (1953). Darryl Jones writes of these movies: “Here, America and its values are constantly presented as under threat of invasion from enemies Without, or infiltration from Within” (154). In Man Beast we see that this threat is not one that is limited to Americans in America, as it also applies to English speakers in remote locations (or, as in The Strange World of Planet X, to English speakers who are not Americans). In this film, the threat comes from within when a member of the party that is traversing the Himalayas reveals himself to be not a human being at all, but actually part Yeti. His goal is to take the woman as a hostage in order to continue cross-breeding efforts which will produce more Yeti-human hybrids that can walk among humans virtually unnoticed parallels; this is a clear manifestation of fears of brainwashing and of duplication, the process of taking over by creating enough invaders to overpower those that are being invaded—similar to views of communism, the theory of which had to be vilified and silenced in order to stop its insidious spread.

Phantom From Space, on the other hand, demonstrates the fear of possible invasion from without when an alien crash lands on Earth, inadvertently terrorizing those he meets while also confounding the scientists who are trying to make sense of his progress. Phantom From Space is unusual, however, as the alien goes from being a threat from without to one from within, since when he removes his space suit and helmet he is invisible to the people of Earth and therefore able to move through them undetected. And yet, although this alien causes several deaths and the destruction of some property, he doesn’t do so maliciously; he is not an evil invader, but simply one who is confused by a world that is not his own. Similarly, the scientists, military officials, and policemen are not particularly destructive or even terribly incompetent, but rather have some unusually bad luck at trying to deal with a specter whom they can only see under ultraviolet light. So, while Phantom From Space contains an element that would seem to be indicative of the general Cold War invasion theme—the invisible man from another planet—it winds up moving in an atypical direction, suggesting that the “invasion” may actually be a misunderstanding compounded by a series of accidents, and that no one is truly at fault in the end, whether scientist or alien.

Today we view these films as cult for their cheap special effects, occasionally ludicrous plots, and mediocre acting. But they are also cult because they illuminate the values and anxieties of another time period, one that had problems and concerns not unlike those faced in the beginning of the 21^st century. After all, is it really such a coincidence that “Doctor Who” has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity within the past few years in Britain and overseas while dissatisfaction and fear over war in the Middle East has also grown steadily during the same time period? Our own film, television and other pop culture media is as influenced by current events as the B movies of the 1950s were. Perhaps this, too, is why these films have gained a cult audience half a century later: they retain some small measure of resonance and even relevance for perceptive modern day viewers.

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Works Cited

Jones, Darryl. Horror: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Shaw, Tony. British Cinema and the Cold War: The State, Propaganda and Consensus. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2001.