Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, The 21st Century Edition
Grade 6 Up—This long-overdue revision of the magisterial original (volume one, 1982; volume two, 1986) offers lengthy, richly informative, and extensively revised essays on hundreds of films, packing the entries into one hefty volume and rearranging them from chronological to a more accessible alphabetical order. Film scholar Warren opens with perceptive reflections on the history, common motifs, and enduring appeal of the era's science-fiction movies, then in an unfailingly lively style goes on to examine releases from the renownedThe Day the Earth Stood StillandThe Manchurian Candidateto the likes ofTeenagers from Outer SpaceandAttack of the Crab Monsters. While limiting his purview to feature films (not serials) with at least perfunctory scientific content released theatrically in the U.S. from 1950 to 1962, Warren includes within extensive back matter a long list of excluded films from the period, with explanations as to why they were left out. Other extras include a release-date index, a list of announced-but-never-made titles, and a huge multimedia resource list. Enhanced by hundreds of black-and-white stills, plus two arresting sections of posters in color, this opinionated but clear-eyed and authoritative labor of love will not only draw scuttling hordes of researchers but also turn even casual browsers into rabid fans. It is a significant addition to any pop-culture collection, even those including such broader but far shallower guides as C. J. Henderson'sEncyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies(Facts On File, 2001) or Phil Hardy'sThe Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction(Overlook, 1995).—John Peters, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.