Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties (21st Century Edition)
by Bill Warren (Introduced by Howard Waldrop)
McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers (2010)
A thoroughly remarkable tome. At once an invaluable, nay, exhaustive resource and a fun, nostalgic read, replete with reproductions of movie posters and plenty of stills from the literally hundreds of (mostly terrible) science fiction films released during the 1950s.
They’re all here, from the semi-classic–“Forbidden Planet” and “The Thing”–to the outright dreadful–“Mesa Of Lost Women”, “Voodoo Island”, “Robot Monster”, “Invasion of the Animal People”, (etc. etc.). Each film, regardless of its merit (or lack thereof), receives a full summary, including production notes and credits. There are many delicious details, amusing anecdotes from some of the people involved. Bill Warren knows his stuff and I doff my hat to him for compiling an authoritative, entertaining and dense (nearly 1,000 pages, including the Index) book that aficionados of science fiction and cult movies will absolutely treasure.
The retail price is a tad steep but Keep Watching the Skies would be a welcome addition to any cineaste’s collection, the kind of volume that makes geeks swoon in ecstasy when they find it under the tree Christmas morning.
Highest recommendation.
Essential reading.
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Cinema Arete 