While all five of these classic science fiction films featuring effects work from industry legend Ray Harryhausen have been released on DVD separately from Columbia/Tri-Star over the last couple of years, this set entitled The Fantastic Films Of Ray Harryhausen – Legendary Science Fiction Series provides those of us who didn't grab these babies up the first time to obtain a nicely packaged boxed set that contains the five original releases and adds some fancy new slipcase packaging.

It Came From Beneath The Sea:

One of a few films that Harryhausen made for Columbia, It Came From Beneath The Sea is a fun romp through atomic monster land as only Harryhausen could do it.

Directed by Robert Gordon (no relation to the Rockabilly Boogie musician of the same name), our story opens with Pete Matthews (Kenneth Tobey of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and The Thing From Another World) and his crew aboard an atomic submarine that gets attacked while on patrol by an unseen creature of unknown origin. Once the sub escapes and returns to it's base, the engineers find an unusual gloopy substance stuck in the blade of the ship's propellers.

They navy and its team of scientists, lead by Dr. Leslie Joyce (Faith Domergue of This Island Earth), begin investigating but unfortunately for a crew aboard a cargo ship, it's too little too late and a giant octopus makes short work of them, then heads for San Francisco where it wreaks havoc on the good citizens and the military alike.

While it takes a little while to get started, the last half of the film is a lot of fun and the monster effects on display are undeniably cool as we're treated to such scenes as the giant octopus taking on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as well as a few skyscrapers around town.

While Harryhausen's effects are definitely the real star of the film, the performances from Kenneth Tobey as the tough-as-nails, chain smoking Navy man and Faith Domergue as the smart and sassy scientist are also both worth noting and better than the average 50s monster movie performances tend to be.

Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers:

Dr. Russell A. Marvin (Hugh Marlowe of World Without End) is the man in charge of the latest undertaking of the American government, The Skyhook Project. Essentially, what this is, is a group of satellites that are going to orbit around the Earth and open up the channels of communication. Oddly enough, one by one, these satellites are destroyed once they've been up there only a short time.

Soon after the satellites are destroyed, Russell and his wife Carol (Joan Taylor who also appears in this set in 20 Million Miles To Earth) have a close encounter while driving along a country road when a flying saucer approaches them. To make matters worse, they soon receive a strange message from the vehicles inhabitants, which they hand over to the military who are unable to decipher.

When the aliens do finally land on Earth at the headquarters of the Skyhook Project, the army automatically assumes that they're intentions are hostile and the launch an attack against them. The aliens aren't happy about this and they launch a devastating counter attack and make known their intentions – to take over the Earth by whatever means are necessary!

Directed by the prolific Fred Sears, this film is a legitimate classic of the genre and Earth Vs The Flying Saucers holds up incredibly well for a movie of its age. Harryhausen's effects are here demonstrated on a very grand scale and the final battle scenes will always hold a special place in the hearts of many a science fiction fan. The film is also quite an influential one, and it's mark can be seen on many contemporary genre films, Mars Attacks! being a primary example. Though the scares that might have worked for audiences at the time of the film's initial release have been muted by later movies, the sense of fun and nostalgia that the move contains still makes it an incredibly entertaining and well made alien invasion film – and Harryhausen's effects work have made it one of the most recognizable.

20 Million Miles To Earth:

Nathan Juran (who helmed The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad) directs this film, a personal favorite, that begins with a mysterious spaceship that crash lands in the ocean near a small village in Sicily. It seems that there was a secret American expedition to Venus and that this was their ship that crashed – and when it did it freed a small jar containing a little green globby thing inside, which washed up on the shore only to be found by one of the local boys.

Not sure what to do with his new discovery, the boy takes the jar to the local scientist, Dr. Leonardo (Frank Puglia, who played a lot of dastardly Arabian types in his career). They open the jar, and out pops a cute little green alien that looks like a dinosaur. It seems friendly enough, but soon the atmosphere on Earth takes its toll by expediating the creature's growth at a rate much, much faster than it should occur.

One night the creature escapes from the scientist's care and it begins exploring the countryside. When cornered in a farmhouse he's forced to kill a dog in self defense and people find out and assume it's a hostile being. Of course, the military is called in to kill the monster before it does more damage to the local populace, and by this point it has grown to much larger proportion. Eventually the creature, named the Ymir, heads towards Rome where it can do some real damage, the inevitable showdown occurs…

Harryhausen's effects on this film are quite literally fantastic. The Ymir, a creature comprised completely of effects work, has more personality and life to him than the majority of big name Hollywood stars working these days and despite the fact that the script is a little corny, it's very easy to let yourself get into the movie and actually feel for the poor misunderstood monster.

Performances are standard fifties sci-fi movie material – no better and certainly no worse than what you'll see in other genre movies of the era. Juran's direction does a great job of showcasing Harryhausen's effects work which are the true star of the film, and Ray himself even has a small cameo in the film, during the scene that takes place in the zoo where the Ymir kills the elephant (a scene that was omitted from a few television broadcasts).

Jules Verne's Mysterious Island:

Very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Jules Verne, Mysterious Island is set in 1865 where a rag tag group of Union soldiers make a daring escape from the Confederate prison camp in which they're being held by way of a hot air balloon.

When a storm blows up, the balloon and its passengers are knocked off course and they end up flying across the ocean and landing on a small island in a remote section of the South Pacific. As it would come to pass, to high class English women have also been shipwrecked on this very same island, and soon the two groups pair up and setup a camp of sorts so that they can at least have some basic shelter to live in.

The new citizens of the island soon learn that they are not alone – the island is home to all manner of bizarre mutated creatures most of whom are huge in size. A giant crab, some massive birds, a flurry of giant bumblebees and a few different gigantic reptiles are all calling this place their own and they make life difficult for the humans. To add insult to injury, a group of pirates come ashore to find themselves some fresh water and when they learn of the groups existence, they open fire on them using the cannons aboard their ship.

Proving that not all their luck is bad, Captain Nemo shows up on the scene and sinks the pirate ship and saves our eclectic group of survivors. It turns out he's living inside a cave and has been since his submarine, The Nautilus, conked out on him. Nemo does have some bad news though – it seems that the volcano which makes up a good portion of the mass of the island is going to explode soon, and they're going to have to figure out a way to get out of there before it happens and everyone is whisked away in a flood of lava.

Directed by Cy Endfield (of Zulu fame) and made up of a cast consisting of Michael Craig (The Vault Of Horror), Joan Greenwood (1978's The Hound Of The Baskervilles), and Herbert Lom (The Dead Zone, Ten Little Indians) the movie moves along at a nice quick pace and throws in all manner of challenges for the crew to deal with, whether they make sense or not. Everything happens in an extremely random manner, even by science fiction movie standards, and some of the ideas seem to have been put together quite haphazardly. While this may sound like a slam, it's quite the opposite. The sheer craziness of the film is what makes it work, and once again it provides a very nice showcase for Harryhausen's great giant creature effects work, highlight by the giant crab attack on the island.

H. G. Wells' First Men In The Moon:

This semi-prophetic film was made just five years before American astronauts set foot on the moon's surface. Based on H. G. Wells' 1899 novel, the film begins with a celebration as the entire world is excited about the fact that a spaceship full of a crew of international astronauts has successfully landed on the moon. The world's cheers soon turn to jeers though, when the astronauts find a Union Jack planted on the moon's surface. This British flag and an accompanying official looking document state that the moon is owned by England in the name of Queen Victoria and that it is in fact an English colony. Not only are the crew upset about the fact that the moon is already claimed, but they're even more upset about the fact that they were beat to the punch.

Once things settle down back on Earth, an government sanctioned investigation is launched to find the whereabouts of the British crew that accomplished the true first moon landing. An old man named Arnold Bedford (Edward Judd of The Day The Earth Caught Fire) is found to be the last survivor and he tells the team his story. It seems that in 1899 he and his girlfriend, Katherine Callender (Martha Hyer of Abbott And Costello Go To Mars), were introduced to Doctor Joseph Cavor (Lionel Jeffries of Hammer's Revenge Of Frankenstein). Cavor at the time had invented a substance he named Cavorite which is a strange a adhesive that when applied allows any substance to defy the laws of gravity.

Soon Cavor creates a round spaceship that can literally take them to the moon and back. Cavor and Arnold head up into space with Katherine stowing away to join the fun, and the three fly up to the moon where they meet up with a discover some bee-like inhabitants who aren't too happy to see them arrive at all.

As is the norm with the films in this set, the highlight of the movie isn't the performances or storyline (though both are fine and Lionel Jeffries is great as the scientist) but the effects work and props. The Victorian era space ship looks fantastic Direction by Nathan Juran (of 20 Million Miles To Earth) is solid and the camerawork, this is the only 2.35.1 widescreen film in the set, make great us of the lunar settings and colorful backdrops designed for the movie.

Video:

The films are presented as follows:

It Came From Beneath The Sea is presented in its original black and white 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation and looks top notch. There is a little bit of grain and the odd speck of print damage here and there but otherwise this is a very nice transfer with dead on contrast levels and a very strong, clean image from start to finish.

Earth Vs The Flying Saucers is also presented in its original black and white fullframe presentation and while it isn't quite as sharp looking as the first film, it still fares quite well. Contrast levels are nice and accurate and the blacks stay rich and deep during its running time. The only problem is that there is just a little bit more print damage here than on the other two black and white films in this five movie set.

20 Million Miles To Earth gives viewers the option of watching the film in its original fullframe aspect ratio of in a matted 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation. Both look quite nice and while the widescreen presentation is missing a little information, most of the picture information is retained and widescreen owners might want to give this option a try. Thankfully though the fullframe version is maintained for purists. Image quality is nice and sharp with only minimal print damage and some slight edge enhancement present.

Mysterious Island was meant to be displayed fullframe but is matted to 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen. While this wouldn't be a problem if the fullframe option had been included as it was on the 20 Million Miles To Earth DVD, sadly we only get the widescreen version on this DVD release, and it is cropped. The print could look a little bit cleaner as there is a bit more dirt and debris evident here than there is on the other films in the set, but even with that in mind it still fares reasonably well. The colors look quite good and there aren't any mpeg compression problems on the disc, edge enhancement is only minor even in the more obvious instances where it occurs.

First Men In The Moon is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35.1 and it is enhanced for anamorphic viewing. The colors look great on this release and thankfully it is free of all but the most minute instances of print damage. There's a pleasantly surprising level of detail and clarity on display here and other than the minor specks that appear, this movie comes out looking great on DVD.