In the post World War II era from 1945 to 1965, the United Kingdom produced some of the world’s best jet fighter aircraft (Gloster Meteor), nuclear bombers (AVRO Vulcan), music (the Beatles), and science fiction movies. Here are my top 10 favorite British science fiction films of the 1950s.

---

1. Quatermass 2 (1957) – Known as “Enemy from Space” in the United States. Small blob-like parasitic aliens invade Earth and take over the control of their human hosts. The aliens’ base of operations is a large industrial complex. Dr. Quatermass uncovers the plot and stops the aliens.

---

2. The Trollenberg Terror (1958) – Known as “The Crawling Eye” in the United States. A mysterious fog envelops a mountain in the Swiss Alps. People start disappearing. It’s an invasion by aliens that look like giant eyeballs with tentacles. A surprisingly good movie in my opinion.

---

3. Fiend Without a Face (1958) – Unexplained deaths occur at an experimental military radar base in Canada. The culprits are creatures that have been generated by the thoughts of a scientist, aided by atomic power. Eventually the creatures become visible and look like brains that creep along by using their attached spinal column.

---

4. The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) – Known as “The Creeping Unknown” in the United States. Three men travel into space. The spacecraft returns returns with only one man on board. He quickly mutates into a blob-like organism that gets larger and larger. Dr. Quatermass electrocutes the organism and Earth is saved.

---

5. X the Unknown (1956) – Mysterious radioactivity appears in Scotland. Dr. Royston speculates that prehistoric life forms have existed underground for eons and they feed on radioactive energy. A creature emerges. It’s a glowing blob-like monster. It’s eventually stopped by a device of some sort.

---

6. The Giant Behemoth (1959) – Basically a British version of “Godzilla” (1954/1956) which was basically a Japanese version of “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” (1953). Fishermen report a sea monster. Paleontologist Dr. Sampson identifies the creature as a Paleosaurus, an aquatic dinosaur that can emit electric pulses, like a gigantic electric eel. The monster is killed by well-placed torpedo from a submarine.

---

7. First Man into Space (1959) – Lt. Dan Prescott pilots the Y-13 rocket-plane into space. He passes through a cosmic cloud of some sort. Prescott crash lands in New Mexico but mutates into a crust-covered monster that goes on a killing spree. He is eventually captured but dies. (This movies was a joint UK – US production but it qualifies as a UK film in my mind).

---

8. Spaceways (1953) – This is really a murder mystery set in a space program scenario. Dr. Stephen Mitchell heads a project to launch a satellite into space. Mitchell is accused of murdering his unfaithful wife and her lover Dr. Crenshaw. It turns out Crenshaw is a spy and isn’t dead and has framed Mitchell.

---

9. Satellite in the Sky (1956) – Scientists in Great Britain create the Stardust, the first manned spaceship to orbit the Earth. The mission is really a United States effort to test an experimental nuclear “Tritonium Bomb”. The bomb malfunctions and the crew has to disarm it. The movie features actress Lois Maxwell who later played Miss Moneypenny in the early James Bond series movies.

---

10. Devil Girl from Mars (1954) – Yes, this is a bad movie but there’s a certain charm about it that makes it quite watchable for me. A female alien crash lands in Scotland. Her mission is to kidnap men and bring them back to Mars to replace the weak and declining Martian male population. She does not succeed.

---

---

Semi-Honorable Mention – Some movies that are interesting but definitely not in my top 10.

---

Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1956) – Women living on a moon of Jupiter seek husbands.

---

Four Sided Triangle (1953) – Two scientists love a woman so they clone her.

---

The Gamma People (1956) – An evil scientist applies gamma rays to villagers to make them his slaves.

---

The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959) – Set in the 1890s, a man has immortality via parathyroid gland transplants.

---

Stranger from Venus (1954) – A man from Venus who is strange.

---

Timeslip aka The Atomic Man (1955) – Atomic research spies.

---