20 Million Miles to Earth (1957): The head, the tail, the whole damn thing.

(&)

The Setup

So there I was, minding my own business over at Amazon, when a particular little book flies into my cart and orders itself without my having done a thing to encourage it.

It's true the book had been on my Wish List for quite a long time.... Maybe it got to feeling ignored, even a bit panicky, wondering if it  ever would trade that cold, dark Amazon warehouse for my own tender embrace. Could be the novel felt like it had to take matters into its own hands... or pages. You know what I mean.

Of course I was shocked at its behavior: that's just not the way you win friends and influence people. (You say hello, strike up a conversation, maybe see if there are mutual interests. You don't just hurl yourself unannounced into someone's online shopping cart.)

But in the end, the pleading look that wee tome gave me, I couldn't turn it away.

And THAT, my friends, is a somewhat true story.

Well then, what book am I talking about? I'll bet, having seen the post's title as well as that poster up top, you could make an educated guess that I'm talking about a novelization of the 1957 film 20 Million Miles to Earth. (And you'd be right!) Of course one doesn't talk about a film's novelization without also giving the film a little attention, so buckle in, we're gonna be here a minute....

The (Original) Novelization

1957's Amazing Stories original

Now, if you're saying you never even knew there was a novelization of this particular film, until a year or two ago I'd've been right there with you. I didn't know the book existed until after discovering BearManor Media, where horizons were gleefully broadened on this and many another subject. (Seriously, the place is a treasure trove of film, TV and radio-themed books.)

But this novelization first saw light before BearManor was ever a twinkle in anyone's eye--it was Amazing Stories first (and only) foray into standalone novel-length fiction. This was in 1957 (same year as the movie's release), and it was written by a fellow named Henry Slesar. I didn't recognize his name off hand, but apparently the guy was quite prolific, putting out a ton of dark fantasy, detective fiction, science fiction, mysteries and thrillers in various formats--novels, short fiction, TV and radio scripts, even a stage play--over a 40 year timespan. (Go, Henry!)

Now, take a look at that cover, will you? This 1957 edition looks cool as a pool (hip as a chip), and I'd warmly welcome a copy onto my bookshelf for its hep artwork alone. However. A copy of said original currently runs north of a hundred bucks, and that's a bit steep when I have no idea if what lies behind the cover is anywhere near as cool as the cover itself. Which brings us back to BearManor Media, with its much less expensive (ten to fifteen bucks as I write this) reprint edition of the novelization.

The Reprint

2013's BearManor Media reprint

So it seems not too long ago a fellow named Philip J. Riley put a considerable amount of time and effort into getting several out-of-print horror film novelizations put back into print and available through BearManor--including the one for 20 Million Miles to Earth. He called his project "Philip J. Riley's Nightmare Series," and while I was hoping to give you a list of all the novelizations included, figuring that bit out wound up being harder than I'd thought and so... I gave up. (There you have it--an ugly truth laid bare.)

Turns out neither BearManor or Amazon (or anywhere else I could find) have an out and out list of what titles comprised the series, and since Riley wrote and edited a lot of other classic horror-themed books as well, I got all bogged down searching through synopses and cover blurbs trying to figure out which books were actually novelizations/part of the series and which weren't. So no list. I did send out an email or two that will hopefully net me some info on the subject.

Of course I couldn't speak to Mr. Riley himself, as he has left the mortal vale, but assuming I hear back from any of the folks I did reach out to, I'll update with a list at that point.

UPDATE: I heard back from author Richard Eksted, who contributed to the first few books in the Nightmare Series. He says the following is a definitive list of books included:

• THE BRIDES OF DRACULA by Dean Owen - Book #1
• REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN by Jimmy Sangster - Book #2
• THE RAVEN by Eunice Sudak - Book #3
• THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM by Lee Sheridan - Book #4
• REPTILICUS by Dean Owen - Book #5
• 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH by Henry Slesar - Book #6

So there you go. Although, now that I think, I recall seeing one for Gorgo on Amazon as well. And now that I double think, I'm pretty sure there was one for Dr. Cyclops, too. So maybe Mr. Eksted's list isn't definitive after all....

At any rate, it's a reprint copy of 20 Million..., and not an original, which had (as noted way up top there) stowed away in my shopping cart. Not nearly as cool a cover as that 1957 original had, but it has some nice extras inside to compensate.

How about we take a look?

The Reading of the Reprint

Being a longtime fan of stop motion animation master Ray Harryhausen (pictured at left, alongside his Ymir puppet), I'd already seen the film version of 20 Million... a time or two, though not in a few years. I was of course down for a re-watch, but once the novelization arrived I decided to give it a go before I revisited the film. (As one knows, one does not read a film novelization without also watching its source film within a reasonable time-frame, be it before or afterwards. This is a Law, and I am a Law Abider.)

Anyway, the reprint starts out with an intro by Randall Larson, which contains quite a bit of cool information, including interview excerpts from Slesar on his experience writing the novelization. (Slesar went on [and on] about the screenplay not offering him much to work with and that he wasn't particularly proud of his finished product.) Along with groovy intro, there are a fair number of lobby card, promo still and film poster reproductions to be had, as well as the original edition's interior illustrations (which are extremely cool).

On the down side, this book looks to have been either superficially proofread or not proofread at all. I mean there are tons of typos--enough to be seriously distracting as you read--and I'm assuming story text was scanned from a 1957 original using OCR and then just... left as-is. (Granted, I write/edit/proofread for a living, and I may be more sensitive to this kind of thing than some, but oy vey this book was rife with typos.)

Intros and illustrations aside, I have to agree with Mr. Slesar and say the novelization itself is none too impressive. And you know, Slesar was so well regarded as an author, it makes me want to read some of his other stuff, 'cause this thing couldn't have been his best work. He did gallantly try to shore things up along his way, expanding out a few side plots not in the movie--personal and political problems for the various characters to deal with, etc. And while usually those bits are the things in a film novelization that really get me going, it was falling flat for me here. It was honestly a bit tough to slog through.

Which I'm quite confident is not a reflection on Slesar's talent or lack. The guy had an impressive track record, and I've read enough novelizations where the same author went from amazing to what-the-hell (cough Hank Searls Jaws 2 → Jaws: The Revenge cough) to know the screenplay someone's given to work with can make or break their end result. And that's gotta be what happened here. So yeah, definitely want to give some of Slesar's other novels and short fiction a go, just to broaden my perspective.

The Illustrations

Oh, right. I'd mentioned the novelization's illustrations: Being originally published in pulp/digest format, this book included some sweet interior artwork. We know the original had sweet cover art (by Luigi Garonzi, I discovered), but check out these interior illustrations (artist unknown [to me]) the book had as well. I couldn't find a complete set of these illustrations on the Web, so I snapped photos directly from my reprint (hence the curvature on most of the images).

Okay, after the buildup maybe this first one is a bit underwhelming: weird looking
Ymir and all. Still.

Gronk! If anybody knows who drew these, back in the day, let me know....

Yeah, that caption doesn't match the artwork. The beast would've been coming
out of shock after the electrical equipment shorted out, and no one was calmly
standing around at that point....

...as we see here.

Yeah, so I'm placing these images in the order they're presented in the reprint
copy--can't say if the 1957 edition also used this order--but in the reprint it's out
of sequence with the story: The Ymir didn't find himself atop the Colosseum till
the very end. (Shrug.)

Nuff said.

The ignominious end of a glorious beast....

Nice, huh? Feel free to click through any of those for a larger image.

The Film

By the way, I keep calling this beast the Ymir, and nowhere in the film or novelization is that title actually used--it's always just "beast," "creature," etc. Word has it that Harryhausen had named his creation Ymir after the mythological Norse giant, and the film's original working title was The Giant Ymir, but apparently he got last-minute-worried audiences could confuse "Ymir" with the Arabic title "Emir" and had references to it removed. Too bad. I like the name and could just see a little scene in-film where the scientist dude muses on what to call it and settles on "Ymir."

At any rate, with novelization underwhelmingly finished (took me awhile to get through, even if it is a tiny tome), I finally sat down for a re-watch of the film. My take away from that?

Well, um... the movie wasn't actually as amazing as I'd remembered, either. Now this genuinely surprised me. I mean, I'd seen the film at least twice before and recalled just loving it. But a bit of reflection had me realizing my previous watchings were very Harryhausen-centric (if that wasn't a term before, it is now). I think with previous viewings I'd been so focused on his amazing creature effects, I hadn't really noticed the film in its entirety. And the film in its entirety is chock-full of awkward dialogue and wooden performances.

And the wooden performances part is especially bummersome, since I'm a big fan of William Hopper from his time on the old Perry Mason TV show. I haven't seen Hopper in a ton of things other than Perry Mason, and I'd just assumed he would be shining as Col. Calder in this film the way he does there. Nope. And it had to be the script, etc. holding him back: His character in Perry Mason was surprisingly varied, and playing him clearly called for some versatility from Hopper. I'm just saying the man was a competent actor, and you might not see it in 20 million Miles....

Anyway, here are some notes I jotted to myself as the picture progressed. Probably won't make a lot of sense unless you're quite familiar with the film (and if you're not, give it a watch--warts or not, this movie is worth multiple viewings just for the creature effects, and my notes will make sense as a bonus)....

• Hey, in that long shot the boat hook is already in the kid's hand, then in the subsequent close up the dude tells him to get the boat hook out. Hmm.
• The inside of that space ship has cinder block walls....
• But the tilted camera to mimic the ship's angle is a nice touch.
• Even though they loaded two men in, I am convinced there are no additional people in that boat as they row away.
• I'm not caring much for this actress. Not sure I've seen her in anything else to know if, like Hopper, the script/direction were limiting her performance here....
• Let's see... 1 USD = 625 Lit. in 1949, rate maintained till early 1970s... that means that half million lire the kid gets in reward money equaled about 800 bucks in 1957. Adjusted for inflation, that's a little over 7,000 USD today. Not a bad haul for an eleven year old kid. (My brain just tends to go down rabbit holes like this.... No help for it.)
• Ooh, that life-size Ymir hand and arm in the cage escape scene was nice.
• Okay, in the barn, those chickens we're obviously being thrown onto the set from off-camera.
• Wait, that beast just broke out of a heavy duty metal cage, but you guys think that old wooden farm cart is gonna hold it?
• Oh man. That stop motion Ymir/farmer fight, with live action Hopper worked in, is AMAZING.
• Hey, does that live action elephant have fake tusks? (I'm guessing, after a little research, probably not.)
• Whoa. That live action elephant looks really big next to it's trainer. What's going on, there? (Turns out, since he planned to use a real elephant for some footage, Harryhausen asked for one that was 15 feet tall, but the tallest they could find was eight feet. So to make the elephant look bigger, they got a 4' 6" actor to play the zookeeper.)
• How tall was the Ymir at this point? Let's see, elephant's about the Ymir's height.... Largest recorded Asian elephant was twelve feet high, so I'm going with the Ymir at twelve feet as well. Although if Harryhausen wanted a 15 foot elephant, was he assuming his Ymir was 15 feet as well?
• Huh. I notice the novelization had the Ymir explicitly killing the farm dog, elephant and at least one pedestrian, but the movie makes a point of showing post-battle movement and/or breath in all its victims. I guess the film wanted to garner a bit of sympathy for the beast?
• Oh. Except for the military. Lot's of Ymir-Military-Killing onscreen. Hollywood military is always fair game as creature bait.
• Totally unrelated... recently saw An American in Paris on the big screen and noticed an uncredited Noel Neill in a couple of scenes. Joan Taylor in this movie reminds me of her just a bit. In look and style, not acting.

Yep. Those were my movie thoughts. Well, not ALL of them: Per usual, I got a little preoccupied with creature size while watching the film, and got to wondering just how tall the steadily growing Ymir was in its various scenes. Which led to the following....

 The Ymir

Imagine my horror at doing an internet search, assuming I'd find a plethora of information on the Ymir's various sizes throughout the film, only to find NO SUCH THING exists. All my search got me was a series of terrifyingly general estimatations: "fifteen feet," "twenty feet," "ten to twenty feet," "thirty five feet," "the size of a small building," etc. Nothing solid at all. No way I'm letting that status quo continue.

Check out the following images with my quick, dirty and loose height calculations underneath (this is me taking screenshots from the film and mucking about with my on-screen ruler and half-assed math):

Okay, just eyeballing this one, I'm putting that newly (evening) hatched Ymir at 12-18 inches high. Why? Because he's a bit taller than Actor Guy's head is long, and the average male head (says the internet) is about 14 inches crown to chin.

Whoa! Next morning, maybe eight hours later, my (continued) eyeballing has Ymir at maybe three times the height he was the night before. Say, three to three and a half feet? At any rate, Ymir head to toe is the same height as Actor Guy head to knee in this image. Actor Guy was 66" tall (the internet tells me). Take away 24 inches (the average length of a male's leg, knee to toe, the internet also tells me) and that gives us 42 inches, or a 3.5 foot Ymir. See? Half-assed math....

Okay, now it's that evening (another 8 or 10 hours later?), Ymir has escaped his cage and we've got William hopper at six foot three, but his knees are slightly bent. Ymir is not quite as tall as Hopper as it stands straight across from him, so I'm going with, say, five and a half feet for Ymir. Growing like a weed!

On-Screen Ruler time! Next day, it's a fight to the finish and Flame Thrower Man is 1.75 inches in the image, and lets say that equals his actual height of 6 feet (all men are six feet tall in the movies). If 1.75 inches equals 6 feet, .29 inches equals 1 foot. Ymir is 3 inches high in the image, 3 divided by .29 makes him (about) 10.4 feet tall.

Alrighty. A few (?) days later, Ymir is recaptured and down for the count. Zoo Scientist is 2.4 inches in the image, which equals 6 feet in reel life. That gives us .4 inches equaling 1 foot, Ymir is 6 inches head to toe, giving a reel life Ymir height of 6 divided by .4 equaling 15 feet. Big!

Circumstantial evidence: Just after busting free, Ymir is ready to fight an elephant! Harryhausen wanted a fifteen foot live action elephant (fat chance) so we can assume his stop motion elephant was scaled to be fifteen feet high. Here they are together and sure enough, the two beasts are about the same height. (Wasn't this an amazing stop motion sequence in-film?)

More on-screen ruler math: Ymir is still on the rampage minutes later, six foot tall Lamp Man is 3 inches here, so .5 inches is 1 foot, making Ymir (towering at 8.3 inches) 16.6 feet tall.

Okay, Ymir disappears into the river for several hours and then reappears here, still growing. Definitely bigger here than he was with Lamppost Man.... Check out the two details pulled from this image below.

Barely Seen 6 foot Soldier is 1.3 inches tall, which translates
to one foot equaling .216 inches.

Ymir is 6.4 inches here. 6.4 divided by .216 equals
29.6 tall. Yowza!

And things go a little nuts, size-wise, here at the end as Ymir prepares to meet his demise atop the Colosseum. See that car back there next to the Colosseum? We're calling it five feet high at the roof line. It's half an inch high in the image, which means .5 inches equals five feet, or 1 inch equals 10 feet....

Now here's our scaly friend standing next to the Colosseum. His head is about even with the bottom of that railing there. Ground to that railing is 3.75 inches in the image, which translates to 37.5 feet (1 inch equaling 10 feet). So that gives us a 35 to 40 foot high Ymir right there! GrrrAnimals!!!

And this concludes our demonstration. My math is highly suspect and I do not stand by it except in fair weather. At least we now have something on the internet with reasonable size estimates....

Braaaiiiins!

Brain Counts? Ooh, that's a tough one. The novelization featured a barely readable story and plenty of typos to boot. That's circling One Brain territory right there, but its extras were cool and of course it gets points just for existing at all.... The original edition would score higher as it accesses Vintage Points, but I didn't get the original. Hmm... I'm saying the BearManor edition specifically is gonna land with...

TWO NOT QUITE ORIGINAL BRAINS

The movie? I was surprised at how little of it held my interest when stop motion creatures weren't on screen. As a film, sans creature effects, this would also be circling One, maybe Two Brain territory.... But the creature effects are Five Brain material and worth regular revisits on their own, so for the film I'm going with...

FOUR TINY VENUSIAN PUPPET BRAINS

Quint-style

And there you have it: 20 Million Miles to Earth--the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.

You know, I kept refering to the Ymir as a "he" throughout this post, but who knows? The film and novelization never say one way or the other. Could be a "she." Could be something else entirely; it is Venusian you know. Heck, the Norse giant Harryhausen took its name from was hermaphroditic....

Till next time.