20 Million Miles to Earth

A showcase for the stop-motion talents of Ray Harryhausen (still alive this year of 2013, at age 92!), whose name appears quite early in the credits. It was made in Italy, because Ray had never been there, wanted to go, and had the studio foot the bill. Good for you, Ray!

I guess the 20 million miles in the title refers to the distance to Venus. (Venus, at its closest approach to Earth, is 26 million miles away, but never mind.) A truly huge spaceship crashes into the sea just off a small Sicilian fishing village. Two fishermen and a truly annoying little boy row out to it and the men rescue two of the crew. Later, the annoying little boy finds a capsule washed ashore with some sort of egg in it. He takes the egg to a handy zoologist who happens to be living in a trailer in the neighborhood with his lovely daughter who is “almost a doctor,” needing a year of medical school to attach the M.D. That night the slimy egg hatches a humanoid dragon thing about a foot high. The next day it is four feet high, though it has eaten nothing. While the spaceship captain (William Hopper, son of Hedda and soon to be well-known as Paul Drake, Perry Mason’s personal private detective), the Italian authorities, and the Pentagon search for the capsule, they set out for Rome. But the still growing creature is now man-sized and breaks out of its cage. It’s finally captured, taken to Rome, where of course it keeps growing and breaks out. It has an epic battle with an elephant (Harryhausen can be seen feeding the pachyderm in one scene), and ends up atop the Coliseum. You won’t be surprised to learn that they have to kill the poor beast. He really wasn’t aggressive, you had to provoke him to get him angry. But such is life, eh? At least in 1950s giant monster movies.