​Restoration breathes new life into 3-D sci-fi classic

By Christopher P. Jacobs

christopher.jacobs@email.und.edu

Continuing in the vein of Halloween-appropriate horror/sci-fi/fantasy films for October is a new Blu-ray released last week and at an unexpected bargain price of only $8 - $10 (currently available only from Best Buy in the U.S.).

“It Came From Outer Space” (1953) has long been considered one of the major science-fiction films of the 1950s, largely due to its thoughtful story by Ray Bradbury, polished direction by Jack Arnold, and effective production by William Alland. However, it has not been possible to see it in its original format with polarized three-dimensional projection and dynamic three-channel stereophonic sound in six decades, except for rare festival or archival showings.

A brief 3-D reissue in the 1970s used the inferior red/blue glasses anaglyph system with mono sound. The DVD released in 2002 was standard 2-D, although it did include a Dolby Digital 3.0 soundtrack remixed and rebalanced for playback on a typical stereo TV set.

For the new Blu-ray, on the other hand, the 3-D Film Archive not only remastered the picture with digital cleanup and careful realignment of the right-left images for the current 3-D Blu-ray format, but also restored the original 3-track magnetically-recorded stereo audio mix, using the lossless DTS-MA format. The result is a vivid sense of depth to the 3-D image, and a wide dynamic range of loud and soft with extremely directional Left-Center-Right stereo separation of the sound that rivals modern theatrical stereo movies (just not employing the surround channels).

The movie itself is a good example of 1950s sci-fi from a major studio, in this case Universal Pictures, whose 1931 releases of “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” set off moviegoers’ long love affair with horror films. After World War II, the horror genre morphed into science-fiction stories of the atomic age, usually focusing on alien invasions from another world and/or monsters from either another planet or created by atomic radiation. Both formulas capitalized on post-war fears of foreign invasion or the danger of nuclear power.

“It Came From Outer Space” has an alien spaceship crashing (loudly) into the Arizona desert, witnessed by amateur astronomer John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his fiancée Ellen (Barbara Rush). At first they believe it’s a meteor, but when Putnam investigates the crash site he sees a half-buried spherical ship that seems to have some sort of life inside. Unfortunately a rockslide covers the ship and everyone he tries to tell his story to thinks he’s pulling a hoax or just plain crazy. Then townspeople start to disappear and/or act very strangely.

Putnam learns that the aliens are able to assume the shape of humans, and they assure him they mean no harm. They are simply replacing local citizens temporarily in order to move about unnoticed while they attempt to repair their ship so they can leave earth as quickly as possible.

Once the townspeople finally realize what’s happening, they naturally start to panic and immediately want to destroy the aliens. Much of the film’s conflict is Putnam’s attempt to intermediate with the aliens and hold off the violent mob of townspeople.

The filmmakers’ original plan was to keep the aliens off-screen and reveal them only through their human shape, reactions by humans, and shots from their point-of-view. After production wrapped, however, the studio insisted they construct a hideous-looking monster they could exploit, and the director reluctantly added several shots showing the creature. This detracts somewhat from the serious main theme of Bradbury’s story and makes it more like a typical B-grade monster movie.

However, plenty still remains of Bradbury’s strong (and still all-too-timely) statement against xenophobia, as well as several of his poetic monologues. And the film’s aggressively effective use of 3-D image compositions and high-fidelity stereo sound add immensely to its enjoyment (and rewatchability).

Picture quality on Universal’s Blu-ray is very good, transferred in HD at its originally intended aspect ratio of 1.37:1, with the original intermission card intact at the halfway point. A brief break was necessary in the 1950s for theatres to change reels because their two projectors were running simultaneously with the left and right-eye prints in synchronization through polarized filters. Today’s digital 3-D system displays the right and left images sequentially, with electronic glasses switching alternate lenses on and off to allow each eye to see the proper image. The disc can be played on a standard Blu-ray player and TV set in 2-D without glasses.

There are still some faint scratches visible on occasion and a slightly grainy image possibly due to scanning right/left prints rather than the camera negatives. This is more obvious when watching it using the 2-D option, and is less noticeable in the 3-D presentation.

The audio is mostly outstanding but needs a decent stereo sound system for full appreciation of the high-low frequency range and loud-soft dynamic range. Sometimes the dialogue in the center channel has a boxy, studio sound (perhaps due to post-dubbing) although off-screen dialogue coming from the left or right usually sounds quite clear. In general the dialogue is at a very low volume compared to the music and sound effects, which of course intensifies the stereo dynamics of the orchestra score and things like crashes, rockslides, helicopter sounds, etc.

Bonus features include the same fast-paced and informative Tom Weaver commentary from the 2002 DVD, as well as its half-hour documentary on Universal sci-fi films (in standard-definition), plus the original trailer now in hi-def, watchable in either 2D or 3D.

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE on Blu-ray -- Movie: B+ / Video: A- / 3D: A+ / Audio: A- / Extras: B