I like my science with a weird hum

Published July 20, 2008 Here’s a test. What do the following titles have in common? “This Island Earth,” “The Thing from Another World,” “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “World without End,” “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “Forbidden Planet,” “The War of the Worlds” and “Them.” Knowing they are science- fiction movies won’t get you many points; after all, the titles themselves are dead giveaways. But identifying them as all having been made in one decade — the 1950s — wins you the grand prize: a free showing of any of them (the next time they come on late-night television). I have to confess that one of my guilty pleasures is sci-fi movies of that particular vintage. It started when I’d visit my grandparents’ home in Livingston when I was a kid and my sister and my cousins and I would walk... [read full story]