There are 2,486 parts to an Interocitor.
Dr. Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) is a scientist. How do you get a scientist to do what you want? Give him a tinker toy he’s never seen before. Once you have given the scientist some candy in the form of an interocitor it’s much easier to get him into your windowless van. In this case an unmanned airplane. Taking the bait Meacham is transported to an estate in Georgia where he is met by Dr. Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue). She introduces him to someone who calls himself Exeter (Jeff Morrow). Exeter is from another planet. He calls that planet Metaluna.
Now that you have your scientist where you want him what do you do with him? If you are from a dying planet and are in a war that has been going on for centuries you need to find a new home. Earth looks good. The easiest way to takeover a planet is quietly. Through science instead of violence. Using our own scientists against us. Believing something is fishy, Cal and Ruth try to escape. The plane they steal is caught in the tractor beam of a UFO and taken aboard. Cal and Ruth are then taken to Metaluna.
"This Island Earth" was released in 1955 and was directed by Joseph M. Newman. There are some decent special effects. Laser beams. The unmanned airplane that takes Dr. Meacham to the remote lab. The space ship and the planet Metaluna itself. And everybody on Metaluna is blue. Not to mention those ugly insect guards the Mu-tants. I’m sure there were a lot of kids who had nightmares about those guys. All in all the effects are quite good. Some people think the science in this movie is inaccurate. I think they made it up all together. That’s the best way to put fiction in your science fiction. Dream it up.
What I had a problem with is why the aliens needed earthlings in the first place. They supposedly have bigger brains. They already have interstellar flight. Superior weapons. What do they really need us for? Outside of Exeter (Jeff Morrow) the remaining aliens seem to think they are a superior race and earthlings should serve them.
It’s still a fun Sci-Fi movie with lots of cool gadgets and spectacular scenery. It’s a chance to suspend belief in real life for at least and hour and a half.
The flying saucer design was based on the famous photograph of an Unidentified Flying Object taken in 1950 by a farmer named Paul Trent. He took two photos before the object disappeared. It is known as The McMinnville Incident, because it happened in McMinnville, Oregon, The photographs Trent took have never been exposed as a hoax. They remain among the very best photos ever taken of a UFO.