It Came from Outer Space

A fireball streaks across the Arizona desert sky and crashes near a small town, and the writer and amateur astronomer who watches it happen is convinced the object is not a meteor but a spacecraft carrying something alive. When he reports what he found at TMDB, the sheriff and the townspeople dismiss him, and he becomes a local target of ridicule. Soon afterwards, residents begin behaving in ways that alarm their neighbours, and a crowd determined to investigate heads for the wreckage, with the writer arguing for a peaceful response.

Universal Pictures released the film in June 1953. Jack Arnold directed it, working from a screenplay by Harry Essex, with William Alland producing. It was the first of the director's films listed here, ahead of Creature from the Black Lagoon, Tarantula and The Incredible Shrinking Man, among others. Richard Carlson plays the astronomer and Barbara Rush plays the schoolteacher who stands by him; Charles Drake is the sheriff, with Joe Sawyer and Russell Johnson also in the credited cast of twenty-one.

The film runs eighty minutes and took about two million dollars at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds 6.5 out of 10 from roughly thirteen thousand votes, and on TMDB 6.3 out of 10 from a much smaller number of votes, while a critics' rating of 6.9 out of 10 from thirty-one reviews places it somewhat above both audience scores.