Who doesn't love a 'panic in the streets' scene? As a kid watching sci-fi movies, it was the part I always loved the most, the moment I eagerly waited for after seeing The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms on television for the first time. Hordes of everyday mugs, interrupted in their boring lives by the massive creature rising from the docks or alien saucers obliterating buildings above them... that was the money shot for this little wide-eyed scamp.

Not all of the films in this book deliver those screaming crowds, though they all include that all-important element of mounting hysteria, that escalation from minor disturbance to all-out alerts to the helpless authorities. To be truthful, these are the leftovers, the films that didn't fit into the other three categories in this series, which are: Flying Saucer Films of the 1950s; Giant Bug Movies of the 1950s; and Space Travel in 1950s Cinema. But what tasty leftovers they are. This volume features some of the very best of 1950s sci-fi in all its mad glory: for me personally, Revenge of the Creature, It Came from Beneath the Sea, The Giant Claw, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Twenty Million Miles to Earth, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and The Hideous Sun Demon are among some of my most loved and returned to films of the period.

Also included are The Neanderthal Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Amazing Colossal Man, The Blob, Monster on the Campus, The Werewolf, Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman, War of the Colossal Beast, Behemoth the Sea Monster, and Invisible Invaders. Put all four volumes together, and you have a pretty good guide to the glories of 1950s sci-fi. So don't hang around here... We've got dinosaurs, giants, blobs, cavemen, extraterrestrial lizards and buzzards, an octopus, the Gill man, pod people, werewolves, zombies, and a sun demon waiting for you in these pages, so grab those running shoes and head for the hills... They're coming...!!

Jon Abbott has been writing about film and television professionally for nearly forty years. He has contributed to most of the major sci-fi magazines in that time, and is the author of numerous books on popular culture, including the highly regarded Cool TV series. He has been publisahed by McFarland and is currently writing for Infinity magazine. Click on my name in blue to see my other titles.