1950's B-Movie Sci-Fi Tropes?

Sniper1154

Sniper1154

Well-known member
I've been trying to do some research for my next screenplay which will more or less be an homage to those cheesy B-movie sci-fi flicks I used to watch with my dad as a little kid. I was trying to gather some insight from DVXuser as well to see if I'm missing any conventions.

I know there's an emphasis on evil military, the uncanny and so forth, but I can't seem to formulate linearly something that is cohesive...if that makes sense?

Anyways, thanks all!
 
Evil government, inept and technologically overwhelmed milatary and one, lone scientist who must pair with average citizens to put down the threat.
 
Fifties films are not so big on the 'evil military' bit; in period genre films the military is consistently the good guys. Some 50s tropes:

Radiation makes things grow bigger. *Much* bigger. And if we're talking human beings, as an added bonus it tends to make them homicidal.

Monsters and aliens are most frequently first encountered at night, in a remote location (forest or desert) and usually by drunks, teenagers, or other people who will not be believed when they tear into town screaming about looming catastrophe.

Many aliens' preferred mode of attack is stealthy: either taking the form of human beings so as to blend in, or taking control of real people and making them do their bidding (metaphors for Communist fifth-columnists, anyone?)

There's always a scientist/teacher/professor who thinks that if the aliens are technologically sophisticated, "they must have advanced beyond war and violence." These characters usually learn the hard way how wrong they are. Frequently at the business end of a disintegrator beam.

Monsters' and aliens' preferred first victims are teenagers making out on back-country roads. In fact, hunting sex-hungry teens for the fun of it may be why aliens bother coming here, to begin with.

Frequently humanity brings the trouble upon itself, i.e. creating the monster via nuclear-weapons testing or attracting the aliens' attention via said testing, or radio/tv broadcasts.

...offa the top of my head, anyway.
 
Check out TCM on Thursdays this month. They're running some of these. Sad Max has it right. In some cases the monsters are mutated animals. When I was a kid, the scariest was Creature with the Atom Brain, which my friend and I rode the bus downtown to see. In this one, the criminals were people with brains replaced by atomic-powered receivers. A little like the Terminators - unkillable until the good guys found and destroyed the transmitter.
 
There's also the plucky lady doctor whom no one takes seriously but is instrumental in defeating the Big Bad. Usually then goes off and makes many babies with the hero. You could be one of them. Or, for some of you, the child of one of them.
 
as for later B-movies...

T&A. - Standard fare in those movies was a little (R-rated) skin. Shower scenes (or whatever worked to get the starlet all damp and clingy). Don't know if this element is suitable for your purposes or not.

There's always one Vietnam Veteran. He may not necessarily be emotionally scarred or even mention his service, but at the right moment it will turn out that his back bar rotates on a hidden pivot, revealing an arsenal fit to equip a company of Army Rangers.

Someone owns a slick, powerful American sports car, which for some reason is parked in a shed or barn, and for some reason is driven at high speed through the wall of that shed (or barn) at a dramatically suitable moment.

Somebody who's about to retire/celebrating their wife's delivery of a baby/won the lottery/showed a picture of their child gets the honor of participating in the first demonstration of the monster/villain's spectacularly effective killing power.
 
Spooky goings on are always accompanied by the sound of a Theremin...okay, that doesn't help you as a screenwriter.

The creature always has a predilection for the most attractive female in the vicinity.

Hey, this thread reminded me of a 50's sci fi send up called Invasion with Campbell Scott. I caught it on cable once and it amused me in a 'there's nothing better to watch' kind of way, with brief moments of inspired, oddball comedy. Since you're researching you might want to watch it.

http://www.flixster.com/movie/invasion
 
I wanted to again thank everyone who contributed. Your ideas/thoughts/observations have been a HUGE help in getting me going on this project.
 
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