Jack Arnold Archives

It Came from Outer Space (1953)

Rating: ★★★★

Jul 28, 2002Alien Body Snatchers

The very first alien body snatchers film. With Jack Arnold's eerily haunted landscapes and a memorably literate Ray Bradbury script, this is one of the classic SF films of the 1950s era

Director: Jack Arnold

Actors: Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, Charles Drake, Russell Johnson, …

Category: Science Fiction

28 July 200231 May 2026 by Roog

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Rating: ★★★★

Jan 5, 2000Prehistoric Monster

A classic 1950s monster movie where an expedition up the Amazon discovers a Gill Man. Here an average story is propelled into the memorable by Jack Arnold's moody direction. Two sequels followed.

Director: Jack Arnold

Actors: Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Nestor Paiva, …

Category: Science Fiction

5 January 200011 February 2026 by Roog

Revenge of the Creature (1955)

Rating: ★★★

Feb 23, 2001The Creature from the Black Lagoon Sequel

The first sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon where The Creature is brought back to civilisation. Director Jack Arnold again creates sympathy and pathos for the monster

Director: Jack Arnold

Actors: John Agar, Lori Nelson, John Bromfield, Nestor Paiva

Category: Science Fiction

23 February 200128 February 2025 by Roog

Tarantula (1955)

Rating: ★★★

May 31, 2001Giant Spider

Them! had created the 1950s fad for giant atomically enlarged insects. Here Jack Arnold, one of the most celebrated genre directors of the 1950s, makes a giant spider film and much better than most of the era's other giant bug films

Director: Jack Arnold

Actors: John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll, Nestor Paiva

Category: Science Fiction

31 May 200120 December 2025 by Roog

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

Rating: ★★★★★

Apr 17, 2003Miniaturised Man

One of the greatest of all 1950s SF films in which average man Grant Williams begins to shrink in size. A film that is as much an effects tour-de-force as it is an existential allegory about a man in an alien universe

Director: Jack Arnold

Actors: Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, William Schallert, Paul Langton

Category: Science Fiction

17 April 200320 June 2026 by Roog

Monster on the Campus (1958)

Rating: ★★

Mar 9, 2003Scientist Reverts to a Caveman

One of Jack Arnold's lesser films, a Jekyll and Hyde story where a scientist finds himself reveting to a caveman after scraping his hand on a prehistoric coelacanth

Director: Jack Arnold

Actors: Arthur Franz, Whit Bissell, Troy Donahue, Joanna Moore, …

Category: Science Fiction

9 March 200326 May 2023 by Roog

The Space Children (1958)

Rating: ★★★

May 24, 2009Alien Invasion

One of the less remembered films from Jack Arnold who directed a number of 1950s SF classics in which the children of rocket engineers are used by an alien force to sabotage a space launch. Not one of Arnold's greats but still a modestly effective work.

Director: Jack Arnold

Actors: Adam Williams, Sandy Descher, Jackie Coogan

Category: Science Fiction

24 May 200926 May 2023 by Roog

The Mouse That Roared (1959)

Rating: ★★

Feb 2, 1999The World's Smallest Country Invades the USA

Peter Sellers comedy where the smallest country in the world invades the USA and ends up accidentally winning

Director: Jack Arnold

Actors: Peter Sellers, Jean Seberg, David Kossoff, William Hartnell, …

Category: Fantasy

2 February 199927 May 2023 by Roog

Hello Down There (1969)

Rating: ★★

Aug 30, 2023Underwater Habitat Comedy

Director Jack Arnold was one of the great voices of 1950s SF cinema. Here he turns to making a none-too-funny comedy set in an underwater habitat. Featuring a teenage Richard Dreyfuss

Director: Jack Arnold

Actors: Tony Randall, Janet Leigh, Roddy McDowall, Richard Dreyfuss, …

Category: Science Fiction

30 August 202313 November 2025 by Roog