Zontar of Venus: Sci Fi

Monday, September 29, 2025

Zontar Top Shelf Classics 1950s Sci Fi films part 1

Zontar Top Shelf Classics are the best of their kind. Not a tiresome numbered best of list, but an acknowledgment of quality that lifts it above the grey sea of mediocrity. It is not a fixed document as The Editors and their Master from Venus are a fickle lot, reassessing and rethinking the vast interconnected flows of Earth HuMan culture.

The Thing from Another World (1951) By far the best version with the hand of Howard Hawks showing with overlapping dialogue and striking cinematography.

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953) Hans Conried shines in the best adaptation of Seuss.

Invaders from Mars (1953) William Cameron Menzies' masterpiece of childhood paranoid nightmares with incredible imagery.

Robot Monster (1953) One of the great Bad-Films.

Godzilla (a.k.a Gojira)(1954) The original Japanese movie is a moving anti-nuke statement. Zontar Magazine released the first subtitled home video of this back in the VHS days.

Them! (1954) The first and best of the big bug flicks.

This Island Earth (1955) Technicolor and widescreen its like a 1950s Sci Fi short story come to life. Interocitors and the destruction of an alien world are but a few of the delights.