20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

My Review

“20 Million Miles to Earth” is a science fiction story about a U. S. manned space ship returning from Venus that crash lands near Sicily. It contains an egg that hatches, with the creature growing rapidly into a reptilian-like monster that terrorizes Italy. Director Nathan Juran (“Hellcats of the Navy” 1957) put together this project with surprisingly good production values, especially the special effects by Ray Harryhausen, an expert in stop-motion animation.

Harryhausen also contributed to the story and script, penned by Bob Williams, Christopher Knopf, and Charlotte Knight. The stars include William Hopper (son of Hedda Hopper, whose most famous part was Paul Drake of CBS’s “Perry Mason” 1957-1966) and Joan Taylor (wife of Leonard Freeman, creator of CBS’s “Hawaii 5-0” 1968-1980), as well as Frank Puglia, John Zaremba, Thomas Brown Henry, Tito Vuolo, Jan Arvan, Bart Braverman, and Arthur Space.

The marvelous cinematography, much of it filmed in and around Rome, Italy, was well-handled by Irving Lippman and Carlo Ventimiglia. “20 Million Miles to Earth” was modestly successful in theatrical release for Morningside Productions and Columbia Pictures.