[Darkwolf377]

Planet of the Vampires is a neat little Mario Bava flick with a couple of hot babes in leather space suits (!) and a really eerie tone.

It's a bit of a stretch to say it was the inspiration for Alien, though. There are one or two similar shots. It! The Terror from Beyond Space was the predecessor to Alien in several significant ways.

[Darkwolf377]

Angry Red Planet is one I picked up last month, and it was as weak as I recalled BUT there is one moment which has never left me—when a guy gets absorbed by a giant Jell-O mold. Yikes! That one creeped me out as a kid.

[DemforBush]

I saw Journey to the Seventh Planet when I was a little kid visiting my aunt in Indianapolis. It was on some late night movie show called “Sammy Terry” with this ghoul guy doing shtick inbetween segments of the movies. Fun stuff.

Planet of the Vampires was pretty cool, and you’re right: it *definitely* was a huge influence on Alien:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUXlc8lLEzY

Some others from that era I enjoy are

The Green Slime:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g79_ljVC5Wk

Robinson Crusoe on Mars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLaHJvF59Fg&feature=PlayList&p=06639747D61FC953&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=6

The original War of the Worlds (no link, sorry);

and The Incredible Shrinking Man (not really a monster movie, but I liked the battle with the house spider)

[ktw]

Don’t forget 1956 Forbiden Planet, Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen. With Robbie the Robot!!

[calex59]

One of my favorite, besides Creature from the Black Lagoon and others, from the 50s Sci-Fi is “Forbidden Planet”. It has great special effects, they solve the problem of how to make the monster look real by having it be invisible, they have Robbie the Robot in it, Leslie Nielsen(as a very young actor)and, best of all, a young and gorgeous Ann Francis. I like to watch the other ones mentioned on here also including the original “The Thing”...

[Snurple]

[Always Independent]

I saw it at the saturday matinee as a kid. Fun back then.

[kittykat77]

Does anybody remember The Crawling Eye and X the Unknown? Those two left me sleepless for days....

[Snurple]

Anything from Hammer films used to scare the sheet out of me as a kid.

[Always Independent]

The Crawling Eye with Forest Tucker. The Brits made some good ones too! The Giant Behemoth. One om my favs!

[wolficatZ]

[wolficatZ]

 

Your Obamapod is waiting for you. You are getting very sleepy..must..sleep.

[ReneeLynn]

Just watched ‘Them!’ this past weekend. Fun. Fun.

[RandallFlagg]

I don’t remember the name of it, but there was a sci-fi movie back then with the radiation of a comet causing a black sludge to come and wreck things, eat people, etc. It wasn’t the one with the military guys discovering it in a crack in the earth. It was something else.

Anyone?

OH! One scene showed a scientist being swollowed by the thing, then a skull popped back out.

[Rummyfan]

This one scared the heck out of me when I was little.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Some really cool B movies were the Jason and the Argonauts Ray Harryhausen movies.

[60Gunner]

Ping to self for later reading...

[Proud_texan]

Unmentioned so far is "Invaders From Mars" (the original of course) which is always at the top of my list. As far as I know the first of the "body exchanger" genre predating "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". "Invaders" has held up well for me, still enjoy it from time to time. The scene of the drill (or whatever) slowly approaching the back of the neck still does it for me.

Also bearing mention is the original "The Fly".

And already mentioned "The Thing". Another one I still enjoy.

[Smokin' Joe]

The creature from the Black Lagoon (in 3-D!) has always been a favorite of mine, The Return of the Creature was good, too (one of my granddaughter's favorites).

The Crawling Hand...The Blob... so many.

[50sDad]

There was a great one where a mystery creature has broken out of the north polar ice cap and is circling the earth, leaving destruction in it’s wake. Seventy minutes of really good suspense and tension, and then you see the thing and it looks like a 98 cent dime store kids puppet. A good lesson in cinema...good writing is scarier than bad FX.